Does Zadina need to be protected if his contract slides this year? Unsure of how that works.
I also think you sit down with Nielsen and tell him he won't be picked and that he would be hurting the team by not waiving.
Could be. I think Yzerman negotiates easily some mutual agreement with Holland and Nielsen on this case.
Protected (7+3+1)
1. Larkin
2. Mantha
3. Rasmussen
4. Zadina
5. Athanasiou
6. Bertuzzi
7. Svechnikov
----------------
Safe:
- Joe Veleno + other 2018 draftees at juniors/Europe/college
- 2019 draftees
- 2020 draftees
Left exposed:
- Nielsen (37 years old)
- Abdelkader (34 years old)
- Jacob de la Rose
- Christoffer Ehn
- Givani Smith
- Dominic Turgeon
- David Pope
- Axel Holmström
- Dylan Sadowy
Protected from Defence:
1. Cholowski
2. Hronek
3. DeKeyser
----------
Safe:
- McIsaac
- Lindström
- Regula etc. current prospects
Left exposed:
- All UFAs without a contract (Ericsson, Kronwall, Daley, Green, Jensen)
- Saarijärvi, Sulak, Hicketts
Protected goalie
- Howard or
some current starter then
No clue who would be our goalies be at summer of 2021. Bernier is UFA etc. Howard could be retired.
***
My prediction is that we could lose probably Givani Smith, Ehn or de la Rose level of 4th line guy.
Just like we lost Nosek to Vegas. Nothing overly important.