NHL expansion drafts weren’t the rarity back in the day that they are now. When the Vegas Golden Knights select a player from each of the league’s 30 teams, they’ll be the first to fill a roster in this way since 2000, when the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets did so.
But even before then, it was easy to recall the last time an expansion draft occurred. In 1999, the Atlanta Thrashers (now the Winnipeg Jets) saw their team filled via expansion draft. The year before, the Nashville Predators went through the same process. In 1993, the Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim underwent the same process.