*This is a previously released blog from Sunday, but due to the Ehrhoff breaking news that came almost 30 mins after it has been re-posted for today. The old one has been deleted. Sorry for any mix up*
The NHL Expansion progress has moved into
what is called "Phase III" with Quebec City and Las Vegas.. A phase which involves reviewing business plans and revenue projections. With both cities building or expanding fantastic new stadiums, the biggest hurdles seem clear. At this point it is all but certain that the NHL will be returning to the great city of Quebec, which formerly hosted the iconic Quebec Nordiques from 1979 to 1995 before the team relocated to Colorado due to financial struggles and the then weak Canadian dollar. The NHL will also be endeavouring into Las Vegas, becoming the first of the big four leagues in North America to do so. (No,
XFL doesn't count, sorry folks)
It has been 15 years since we have seen an expansion in the NHL, and we will likely wait until at least 2017-18 to see any of the new additions actually join the league. It seems like yesterday that both the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets were added to the league, but with the NHL at the highest point of interest, success, and revenue it has ever seen, the time is right.
So how are expansion teams formed?
Back in 2000 the rules were simple. Every NHL team was allowed to protect one goaltender, five defensemen, and nine forwards or two goaltenders, three defensemen, and seven forwards. (The only exemption in 2000 were the Nashville Predators and the Atlanta Thrashers given that they entered the league in the last two years.)
The rest of the players that are not protected go into a pool and each new expansion team is allowed to select from them. As you would expect, not a lot of competitive teams are formed out of the expansion draft due to many teams trying to shed highly paid, yet, below production level players and/or players deemed replaceable.
That does, however, leave some interesting names up for debate on the protected/unprotected status.
For some teams an expansion draft can almost be a blessing in disguise, as they are able to shed salary of highly paid players without consequence if they are selected. Players like Scott Pellerin, Steve Heinze, Dallas Drake and Lyle Odelein were largely considered journeyman players of average quality who were paid just enough to be expendable while not being a huge blow to the teams giving them up. So as you can imagine, the rosters of both Minnesota and Columbus were filled with more players of a similar ilk when it was completed. No players on entry-level deals were allowed to be selected. Also, from the wikipedia entry on the 2000 NHL expansion draft:
At least one defenceman left unprotected by each team had to have appeared in at least 40 games in the 1999–2000 season or 70 games in the 1998–99 season and 1999–2000 seasons combined. At least two forwards left unprotected by each team had to have met the same requirements.
In 2000 the Kings lost Steve McKenna and Sean O'Donnell to the expansion draft, while Pavel Rosa and Craig Johnson were unprotected but not selected.
In a 2017 version of this, who would the Kings protect? Who would ultimately fall into the pool of unprotected? Unlike 2000, there are a lot of teams in cap trouble that may give up some quality players in order to shed salary. Thus, the expansion teams may not be as bad as previous instances.
For the Kings, the protection seems quite simple.
One Goaltender: Jonathan Quick
In that amount of time the Kings will probably have Patrik Bartosak around the NHL as a backup, so he may ultimately be unprotected.
Five Defensemen: Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, Brayden McNabb, Alec Martinez, (Unknown commodity)
Hard to project into 2017 offseason, but Matt Greene will be up for contract in 2017-18 and also close to 35 years old. I doubt the Kings use an exemption on the aging vet who would be coming up on free agency. The final spot would probably go to an unknown commodity of either a young player or player acquired via trade in the near future.
Nine Forwards: Anze Kopitar, Marian Gaborik, Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, Milan Lucic (If he remains a King at that time), Tanner Pearson, Trevor Lewis, Dwight King, Nick Shore
Clifford and Nolan, while good players at their role, would almost certainly be left off for players like Shore or King. Likely exemptions due to Entry level deals would come in the form of Adrian Kempe and Valentin Zykov.
A notable young player who may be on the block is Jordan Weal. Weal is not on an ELC, and will be competing in the NHL for the next two seasons where he very well could accumulate the necessary games to not be exempt. Same could be said for Derek Forbort.
So the Kings list of available players
could potentially look like this: Dustin Brown, Jordan Nolan, Kyle Clifford, Matt Greene, Jamie McBain (If he remains a King), Jordan Weal, Derek Forbort (Both would have to remain with the team and meet the minimum game caveat), Andy Andreoff, and basically whatever backup goalie the Kings hold at the time be it Bartosak or a rental ala Enroth.
This is, obviously, a projection and a theoretical group that will exist when the expansion draft takes place. Perhaps the Kings deal several players before this, and the list changes entirely. So with that in mind, take this with a grain of salt.
Some interesting decisions overall will have to be made, ala opting for the older and heavier contracts of Gaborik in order to stay competitive. Nick Shore and Dwight King ahead of Clifford or Nolan also is interesting, but when viewing the upside and overall role of each player it makes sense. Most of the players left on the cutting room floor for an expansion draft are players like Clifford, Nolan, Weal, or Greene. The cap hit of Brown would make him a victim UNLESS he picks up his production back to the 50-60 point levels we saw a few years back. It would be hard to cut such a player with so many ties to the team and community. He very well may be protected due to these reasons anyways.
Who would you protect? Who would you leave out to be selected?
Follow me on twitter for news and notes about the Kings and the NHL
Also be sure to like HockeyBuzz on facebook!
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»
