Expansion Draft.

[BurntToast]

The Expansion Draft will be one of the hot topics of the year. It can have a major effect on this years offseason. In the past some teams sent picks and prospect to teams to keep top players.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-teams-receiving-information-potential-expansion-draft/

Based on the rumored guidelines: Who would you keep/who would you put up.. (NTC/NMC clauses count towards the players you can protect. Unless they waive their rights. 7 forwards and 3 D.

Click to read more...

 

[Bleedred]

The D is easy

Larsson, Greene, Severson, all protected.

Henrique, Palmieri, Zajac, Boucher, on forward. Add Smith-Pelly in there if he has a good season this year. Same goes for hopefully a new acquisition or two on forward.

I'm assuming guys like Zacha and Blandisi don't count, since they're on ELC's? Or is that not true? I'm not exactly sure what the rules are.

Of course we keep Cory in goal too.

They can have at Merrill, Moore, whoever else on D. And they can also have at our entire bottom 6 from last year, if they should be so lucky to even come back this season. I'm guessing that even the expansion team would pass on pretty much ALL of those forwards though. We can send Cammalleri too. Would like to keep him, okay if we lose him too, as opposed to others.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I wouldn't protect Zajac.

His contract is ugly and he will very shortly be the team's 3rd line center. It might even by this season if Zacha makes the team.

 

[Bleedred]

I wouldn't protect Zajac

Unless we have a replacement to him (which we won't in just a year from now) it wouldn't be wise to not protect him.

If there's another expansion team 2 years down the road after that, it might be worth leaving him unprotected then.

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah they don't currently have seven forwards worth protecting so there's no point to leaving Zajac unprotected. It's not as if they're gonna need the cap space in the immediate future and I'm not dumping a guy who's still a useful player cause we might need the cap space three or four years from now. It's the same thing with Cammalleri, unless he has another season of >40 games played.

 

[Smitty426]

I wouldn't protect Zajac.

His contract is ugly and he will very shortly be the team's 3rd line center. It might even by this season if Zacha makes the team.

I agree. Im hoping they trade this year for a guy like Cody eakin in Dal. He's a third line C, would make me miss Zajac less come expansion time.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Still amazes me to this day how underrated Zajac is because we force him into a "1st line" center role and he doesn't put up 60 points a year. You aaaaaabsolutely protect him.

 

[dzubrus8]

Agreed. General Fanager actually has a tool that allows you to pick for each team and then allows you to select Las Vegas' roster. Link is here: http://www.generalfanager.com/teams/expansion if you wanna try it out.

According to them, Boucher and Blandisi both would be available if left unprotected, but Zacha wouldn't. Clowe also needs to protected due to his NMC.

So my seven are: Clowe, Henrique, Palmieri, Cam, Zajac, Blandisi, Boucher. I risk losing DSP. On defense I put up Greene, Sevs, Lars and risk losing Merrill.

Also, one interesting thing that we could see is Shero signing free agents to two-year deals in order to include their salaries in the expansion draft.

The old rules say the Devils would have to expose up to 25% of their payroll which is likely to be about $16 million. They will certainly need one bloated contract to get them there.

At goalie, the Devils are obviously going to protect Schneider, but that leaves Wedgewood and Kinkaid in the dust. Perhaps Shero hides Wedge in the season so Las Vegas doesn't sniff out his potential. I doubt that's who Las Vegas would end up taking from us with Merrill, DSP, some decent free agent available, but it is worrisome.

 

[Dafp]

How many picks does LV get? I know they can only take 1 player max per team but does that mean they get 30 picks?

Where are they likely to fit into the entry draft order next year?

Also as I read it, we have to risk 2 forwards and 1 D even if we have enough protected spots to protect some of them right?

 

[Smitty426]

Still amazes me to this day how underrated Zajac is because we force him into a "1st line" center role and he doesn't put up 60 points a year. You aaaaaabsolutely protect him.

Your not wrong with that
And he does basically keep opposin players off the board which in my book is as good as goals
But I think now with Shero and Co in full control you might see them willing to change
I think it all depends on how Palmieri does this year, if he is tearing it up on Zajac wing he stays

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I wouldn't protect Zajac.

His contract is ugly and he will very shortly be the team's 3rd line center. It might even by this season if Zacha makes the team.

we don't even have enough forwards to protect as is and you want to not protect the only real true center we have on the roster? makes sense.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Agreed. General Fanager actually has a tool that allows you to pick for each team and then allows you to select Las Vegas' roster. Link is here: http://www.generalfanager.com/teams/expansion if you wanna try it out.

According to them, Boucher and Blandisi both would be available if left unprotected, but Zacha wouldn't. Clowe also needs to protected due to his NMC.

So my seven are: Clowe, Henrique, Palmieri, Cam, Zajac, Blandisi, Boucher. I risk losing DSP. On defense I put up Greene, Sevs, Lars and risk losing Merrill.

Also, one interesting thing that we could see is Shero signing free agents to two-year deals in order to include their salaries in the expansion draft.

The old rules say the Devils would have to expose up to 25% of their payroll which is likely to be about $16 million. They will certainly need one bloated contract to get them there.

At goalie, the Devils are obviously going to protect Schneider, but that leaves Wedgewood and Kinkaid in the dust. Perhaps Shero hides Wedge in the season so Las Vegas doesn't sniff out his potential. I doubt that's who Las Vegas would end up taking from us with Merrill, DSP, some decent free agent available, but it is worrisome.

I'm still not sure I understand why Blandisi has to be protected

he would be a 2nd year pro next season

 

[HughJazz3dg]

If we had some more forwards possibly worth protecting, I wouldn't protect Zajac. Just because strategically, I feel like his contract would scare people away from drafting him. I wouldn't want him to go, I just would feel safe that he'd be back.

But, we don't have a lot of quality forwards, so protecting him is for the best.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

his contract would only have 4 years on it after next season

that isn't that crazy...

 

[HughJazz3dg]

His contract ends when he's what, 36? 37? When a guy has inconsistent offensive seasons, I can't see people willing to take him on at 5.75 for 4 years. Especially if there's no reason to believe that he's going to get better.

 

[Devil X]

Don't you have to expose forwards and Dman with up to 40 games played in the NHL this coming season or 70 in the last 2?

Right now the only players that match that is the guys that we have protected. Now im sure we might sign some guys. But it would have to be for 2 years because in order for them to count they need to have a contract for the 2017-2018 season.

Kinda sucks because you can be stuck with dead weight for an extra season if LV doesnt take them.

Also no question in my mind that Clowe will waive his no movement so he wont be taking a spot on the protected list.

 

[FooteBahl]

Don't you have to expose forwards and Dman with up to 40 games played in the NHL this coming season or 70 in the last 2?

Right now the only players that match that is the guys that we have protected. Now im sure we might sign some guys. But it would have to be for 2 years because in order for them to count they need to have a contract for the 2017-2018 season.

Kinda sucks because you can be stuck with dead weight for an extra season if LV doesnt take them.

Also no question in my mind that Clowe will waive his no movement so he wont be taking a spot on the protected list.

Yes we need to expose 2 forwards and 1 defenseman with 40 games played next season or 75 in previous two i think.

 

[Ripshot 43]

His contract ends when he's what, 36? 37? When a guy has inconsistent offensive seasons, I can't see people willing to take him on at 5.75 for 4 years. Especially if there's no reason to believe that he's going to get better.

And they will probably be a team that is no where near the max cap let alone too far from the floor. They will be able to afford some veterans on "larger" deals.

 

[Bleedred]

Also no question in my mind that Clowe will waive his no movement so he wont be taking a spot on the protected list.

Yeah I think people are really worrying about Clowe for no reason.

It's not like he's gonna have to uproot his family and move to Las Vegas, so he really has no reason to force us to protect him. Not that they'd take him anyway.

 

[OmNomNom]

so much zajac hate, offensively he's a blackhole, but remember what our team was like when he was injured this past season?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Don't you have to expose forwards and Dman with up to 40 games played in the NHL this coming season or 70 in the last 2?

Right now the only players that match that is the guys that we have protected. Now im sure we might sign some guys. But it would have to be for 2 years because in order for them to count they need to have a contract for the 2017-2018 season.

Kinda sucks because you can be stuck with dead weight for an extra season if LV doesnt take them.

Also no question in my mind that Clowe will waive his no movement so he wont be taking a spot on the protected list.

Give JJ a two year deal and play him on the 4th line. Do the same with Kalinin and there you go.

 

[Devil X]

Give JJ a two year deal and play him on the 4th line. Do the same with Kalinin and there you go.

Im not sure how the pro status works with a guy like Kalinin. It is only his second NHL or AHL pro season this season. He might be exempt because he is a "second year pro".

 

[Billdo]

And they will probably be a team that is no where near the max cap let alone too far from the floor. They will be able to afford some veterans on "larger" deals.

Not for nothing but guys on larger contracts would be protected for the most part I bet.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Im not sure how the pro status works with a guy like Kalinin. It is only his second NHL or AHL pro season this season. He might be exempt because he is a "second year pro".

Hmmm you might be right. Bring Stemp back for 2 years or absolute worst case, Gio.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Not for nothing but guys on larger contracts would be protected for the most part I bet.

Well the valuable ones. Someone like Dustin Brown will surely be exposed as LA is begging someone to take that contract off their hands. Clarkson is another off the top of my head.

Doubt Vegas does them any favors.