(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The news was leaked out earlier in the day on Wednesday, but became official at the NHL Awards. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is going to Vegas.
The Flyers had exposed several players, but it was expected that either Michal Neuvirth or Michael Raffl would be the selected party. But in a bit of a surprise, it was Bellemare that was selected by Vegas from the Flyers.
Craig Custance was the first to report the news earlier on Wednesday afternoon.
Sounds like it's Pierre-Edouard Bellemare headed to Vegas from Philly.
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) June 21, 2017
Bellemare just completed his third season in the NHL with the Flyers. He scored four goals and added four assists for eight points in all 82 games in the 2016-17 season. He had 14 points — seven goals and seven assists — in 74 games in 2015-16 and 12 points in 81 games in 2014-15, his rookie season.
Bellemare was also named an alternate captain for the Flyers with the departure of Mark Streit at the trade deadline in March.
The Flyers had protected seven forwards from the Expansion Draft process: Claude Giroux, Valtteri Filppula, Jake Voracek. Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton. Bellemare was expected to hold a fourth-line role, so a forward spot opens up as a result. The Flyers will be able to retain unprotected forwards Matt Read, Dale Weise and Raffl as a result of Bellemare's selection.
Bellemare had signed a new two-year, $2.9 million contract on March 1.
The rest of the Vegas roster was also announced and is as follows. Each player's former team is in parenthesis.
- G Calvin Pickard (Colorado Avalanche)
- G J.F. Berube (New York Islanders) – Vegas also acquires F Mikhail Grabovski, D Jake Bischoff, the Islanders 2017 1st Round pick and 2019 2nd Round pick
- G Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins) – Vegas also acquires Pittsburgh's 2020 2nd Round pick
- D Luca Sbisa (Vancouver Canucks)
- D Jon Merrill (New Jersey Devils)
- D Brayden McNabb (Los Angeles Kings)
- D Jason Garrison (Tampa Bay Lightning) – Vegas also acquires F Nikita Gusev, Tampa's 2017 2nd Round pick and 2018 4th Round pick
- D Deryk Engelland (Calgary Flames)
- D Colin Miller (Boston Bruins)
- D Marc Methot (Ottawa Senators)
- D David Schlemko (San Jose Sharks)
- D Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton Oilers)
- D Alexei Emelin (Montreal Canadiens)
- D Clayton Stoner (Anaheim Ducks) – Vegas also acquires D Shea Theodore
- D Trevor van Riemsdyk (Chicago Blackhawks)
- D Nate Schmidt (Washington Capitals)
- F Teemu Pulkkinen (Arizona Coyotes)
- F William Carrier (Buffalo Sabres) – Vegas also acquires Buffalo's 2017 6th Round pick
- F Tomas Nosek (Detroit Red Wings)
- F Cody Eakin (Dallas Stars)
- F Jonathan Marchessault (Florida Panthers) – Vegas also acquires F Reilly Smith and Florida's 2018 4th Round pick
- F Connor Brickley (Carolina Hurricanes) – Vegas also acquires Carolina's 2017 5th Round pick
- F Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets) – Vegas also acquires Winnipeg's 2017 1st Round pick and 2019 3rd Round pick
- F Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Philadelphia Flyers)
- F James Neal (Nashville Predators)
- F Brendan Leipsic (Toronto Maple Leafs)
- F David Perron (St. Louis Blues)
- F Oscar Lindberg (New York Rangers)
- F Erik Haula (Minnesota Wild) – Vegas also acquires F Alex Tuch
- F William Karlsson (Columbus Blue Jackets) – Vegas also acquires F David Clarkson, Columbus' 2017 1st Round pick and 2019 2nd Round pick, Columbus also trades their 2017 1st Round pick to Winnipeg
