We have certainly reached the dog days of summer. As the temperature continues to rise in New York, news surrounding the Islanders continues to drop. As of right now, Islander related news is status quo with much of the league, meaning their isn’t much to talk about.
With that being said one topic continues to bombard my social media timeline. The 2017 expansion draft. I keep getting questions about who the Isles should protect and who should be traded and all i can say is this. Can we play the 16/17 regular season first?
We can speculate all we want but until this season plays out, their is no sense in getting into a tizzy about which Islander player could be selected by the new Las Vegas franchise. So lets do this. I fully appreciate all the questions about this topic so I will present who I would protect if the draft was occurring today. After that let the season run its course and we can revisit it perhaps at the all-star break.
I will add one caveat before I include my list of the Islanders protected players. Just because a player is left exposed doesn’t mean that are not safe. What do I mean? For many this will be your first time watching an expansion draft. Over the course of many expansion drafts their are always back room dealings. General Managers talk ahead of time and make side deals. If Vegas did agreed to not take an unprotected player from the Isles, New York will make a trade that fills a need for Vegas. This happens at every draft. This is why you can’t freak out if a player is left exposed because on many occasions most of these players are unofficially protected.
With that being said here is my list of who I would protect on the Isles TODAY. I’m also taking the route of protecting four defenseman. I would protect whichever goalie is still on the roster not named Thomas Greiss. Thomas will be a free agent and a UFA will not be drafted by Vegas. If the Isles choose to bring him back they can announce the deal after the expansion draft. Therefore I would protect which ever goalie is still on the roster. If for some reason the Isles still carried three goalies, then I would protect J.F. Berube. If Vegas wanted to take Jaroslav Halak’s contract then go for it.
This is where we reach the tricky part of the roster. In my opinion the Isles should protect 4 dmen and those 4 would be Travis Hamonic, Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy and Ryan Pulock. This would lead Calvin de Haan and Thomas Hickey exposed. Once again, I’m just doing this as of right now and a lot can change over the course of a season.
This would lead four forwards to protect. I would protect John Tavares, Andrew Ladd for starters. I would then protect two of Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Casey Cizikas and Ryan Strome. My opinion of who to protect will probably change throughout the year but as of today I would protect Casey Cizikas and Brock Nelson. That would leave Strome and Lee exposed.
I am now done talking about the expansion draft until the all-star break of this upcoming season. We will all have a better gauge then and this murky water of an impending draft will clear up. I would love to see what you come up with and feel free to post your list in the comments page. There really is no right or wrong answers here. It is the middle of July and so much will change over the course of 11 months but lets have some fun with this and then find something else to worry about when it pertains to the Isles. I’m sure it won’t be hard to find that new anxiety.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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