One of the more delicate tasks that NHL general managers will have to handle in the days leading up to the Expansion Draft is to ask veterans to waive their no movement clause so that the club can expose them and protect young players who would be vulnerable to being claimed by Vegas GM George McPhee on June 21.

Anaheim likely will ask defenseman Kevin Bieksa to do that with a year left on his deal, since the Ducks have to shelter Cam Fowler, Sami Vatanen, Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson. Ottawa may ask the same of Dion Phaneuf, since including him in the three protected defensemen would result in exposing Marc Methot or Cody Ceci.

The question is what other teams will go down that road and make side deals with McPhee to get Vegas to pass on key contributors.

Will Stan Bowman ask 38-year-old Marian Hossa or 32-year-old Brent Seabrook to waive their NMC to shelter youngsters Ryan Hartman or Trevor van Riemsdyk? Could Florida ask Roberto Luongo to let them protect James Reimer, knowing that Vegas unlikely will claim the oft-injured goalie?

Or how about Minnesota, who are eight deep in forwards and five deep in defensemen, does that mean a buyout will be coming for Jason Pominville or that Chuck Fletcher will ask Mikko Koivu to waive his NMC?

Machinations such as this are what will make the next few weeks extremely interesting in the hockey world.

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