I think there's a decent chance Zetterberg would be picked so I think he should be protected. Reason being that teams will be protecting their stars, so the expansion team will be composed primarily of castaways/supporting players. Now Zetterberg may not be a star anymore, but he still and likely always will carry that prestige with him. So while the expansion team may not have prime Zetterberg, they WILL have the actual Henrik Zetterberg, Stanley Cup Champion and Conn Smythe winner, pulling on a #40 jersey for their new team.
Not saying it's guaranteed, just that I can see an expansion team thinking in that way. I'm not nearly as convinced of Zetterberg's safety from an expansion draft as some here.
I get annoyed with Ericsson/Abby/whoever contracts because I think the 'Wings lifer' arrangement is being thrown out there far too casually in recent years, but Zetterberg should without a doubt be one of those lifers. Even if his contract is less palatable in his later years. I mean, I just shake my head at those who are salivating at the prospect of shedding Z's contract just because he's slowed down. As if his past and current contributions don't measure up to the relatively minor inconvenience of his contract currently. His cap hit may be 6M, but that's not 6M of dead cap space. He's easily a 4.5M player today, he still thinks the game at an elite level, so we're only overpaying by 1.5M or so. And after all he's done, you're ready to just cast him off for 1.5M? Fairweather much?
