I was reading Friedman's 30 Thoughts article this week, and he covered some important things about the potential upcoming expansion draft, which may be June 2017.
So based on this, it really clarifies the Joffrey Lupul situation. If he's "at odds" with the team and they don't want him around (speculation on my part), then why hasn't he been bought out? Or traded. He's got some value, if it really came down to it, a team could take him in a cap dump deal. They managed to find a way to unload Phaneuf, Kessel, and Clarkson. Lupul's deal is not as bad as those were.
So reading thought #20, the reason finally became clear. He's need as part of the "Expansion Draft Floor".
Teams need to expose 25% of their cap expenditures. We're not loaded with NMCs, so it shouldn't be an issue there, but our high-dollar-earners are keepers (except for Lupul).
We have a LOT of ELC players and RFAs, so getting $18M won't be easy. That's where Lupul comes in. He can be exposed in the expansion draft to drive up the total cap we expose, and ensure we aren't forced to expose someone we don't want to, like Rielly or Gardiner.
Additionally, I think we're going to see Lamoriello be somewhat active in the UFA market, targeting players that will allow the Leafs to further rack up the cap hit to hit the 25% mark. Or maybe they'll target more cap dump players with more interest in the actual cap dump than anything else.
Anyways, some food for thought.
