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The Vancouver Canucks will most likely lose a player to Las Vegas on Wednesday who otherwise had a spot in their opening night lineup.

But this National Hockey League expansion draft isn’t all bad.

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If necessity is the mother of invention, the expansion draft was one of the fathers of the Canucks’ rebuild.

Because if not for the Vegas Golden Knights, it seems Jannik Hansen would likely still be a Canuck and Vancouver would have missed out on one of their most valuable deals when it comes to the rebuild.

“Yeah,” Vancouver GM Jim Benning said when asked if Hansen would still be on the roster if not for Vegas.

“If there was no expansion draft, there wouldn’t have been the urgency to move him. He’s been a good player for us through the years.”

That would mean no Nikolay Goldobin, a blossoming fan favourite who is a decade younger than Hansen and has the potential to be a playmaking sniper from the wing for years to come — if the coaching staff can live with some of his defensive deficiencies.