Speculation: Expansion Draft?

[MrJoshua]

So, with the NHL announcing that it will begin formally looking at expansion, that means it's possible there's an expansion draft coming. I imagine it wouldn't be until next summer since they'd have to move awfully fast to get a couple of new teams in place before next season, but just for fun, who would you protect and who do you think might be gone after an expansion draft?

I believe the following can be protected:

1 goalie
5 defensemen
9 forwards

or

2 goalies
3 defensemen
7 forwards

Also, I think rookie and sophomore players are exempt? So, for example, I believe Forsberg would automatically be protected under current rules. Jones, however, has just completed his sophomore season so he'd be exposed unless added to the protected list.

I think I'd go with:

Rinne (obviously)

Weber, Josi, Ekholm, Ellis, and Jones (I think this is also pretty obvious)

Then for the nine forwards:
Ribeiro (assuming he's back)
Fisher
Wilson
Smith
Neal
Jarnkrok
Gaustad

...I'm not really sure I'd add anyone else. Bourque? If Forsberg and Fiala are already protected due to rookie status, anyway. If they would be exposed otherwise I'd have them on the list. I think Beck is also exempt due to status, no? That's basically the whole team lol.

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[jwhouk]

I think this is a few years away, personally.

 

[MrJoshua]

I think this is a few years away, personally.

Quite probably. I just thought it would be something interesting to talk about over the summer. We won't have any hockey to watch for months yet.

 

[Drake744]

More than anything else I'm more interested in whether or not we'll be in the East post-expansion. Especially if Seattle or Vegas gets a team.

 

[MrJoshua]

More than anything else I'm more interested in whether or not we'll be in the East post-expansion. Especially if Seattle or Vegas gets a team.

I don't see how that's possible unless Florida moves to Seattle or something. The East is full.

Furthermore, I'm not sure I'd really like Nashville being in the East. Back when Atlanta had a team it would have been neat to have a divisional rival that close, but they're gone so what's the point? You'd be crossing a time zone every time you played a road game. At least in the Central you have Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, and I believe Winnipeg all in the same time zone. Why mess with that?

 

[Soundgarden]

I believe Bettman said that there could possibly be uneven conferences after this and that it won't matter too much.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Screw it 6 team expansion!

 

[PredsV82]

Daly was quoted as saying the earliest and expansion team would play would be 2017-18

so any possible expansion draft would be two years from now.