Over the following week or so I am going to try and create protection lists for each NHL team based on what we know about the upcoming expansion draft. I am going to go alphabetically and hammer out a handful of teams per blog.
At the end of this I will attempt to draft the Las Vegas expansion team based on the players who are unprotected from this series of blogs.
I will be using General Fanager's expansion tool in order to be as accurate as possible with my selections. You can find that tool here . It is an incredibly clean interface and makes this process very easy to execute.
I am going to select protected players based on the current roster and will not assume future trades IE: Pittsburgh moving Marc-Andre Fleury to protect Matt Murray or Anaheim trading Fowler to free up an extra protection slot. I don't have a crystal ball so I will just use what is in front of me right now. Doing it this way is also a good way to see what teams have some work ahead of them in advance of the expansion draft.
You can find part one of this series that focused on Anaheim, Arizona, Boston, Buffalo, and Calgary here
You can find part two of this series that focused on Carolina, Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, and Dallas here
You can find part three of this series that focused on Detroit, Edmonton, Florida, Los Angeles and Minnesota here
You can find part four of this series that focused on Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers here
You can find part five of this series that focused on Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose and St. Louis here
You can find part six of this series that focused on Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, and Winnipeg here
In part one of drafting Las Vegas I selected players from Anaheim, Arizona, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, and Dallas. You can find that
here
In part two of drafting Las Vegas I selected players from Detroit, Edmonton, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers. You can find that
here
Here are the players that were selected from those teams:
Forwards: Kyle Clifford, Michael Grabner, Mikhail Grigorenko, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Hartman, Boone Jenner, Brock Nelson, Tomas Plekanec, Rickard Rakell, Lee Stempniak Colin Wilson
Defense: Josh Gorges, Mike Green, Dan Hamhuis, Jyrki Jokipakka, Ben Lovejoy, Mark Pysyk, Griffin Reinhart, Luke Schenn
Goalie: Malcolm Subban
Here are the last ten selections of the expansion draft:
Ottawa
Cody Ceci - Here is a player who has shown no ability to drive play at the NHL level, but he has shown the ability to drive some offensive numbers. Think of him as like a younger version of Trevor Daley. There is value in a player like this as long as you don't lean on them and promote them to a role they can't handle.
Available to Las Vegas: Zack Smith, Matt Puempel, Cody Ceci, Andrew Hammond, Clarke MacArthur*
Philadelphia
Michael Raffl - These are the kind of forwards that are available to Las Vegas. While he may not see that 21 goal mark again in his career he is consistent on the possession front. I gave thought to Dale Weiss but he is signed for four more years and I don't trust that his offensive numbers would be consistent enough to overcome his below average relative possession numbers. I also gave some thought to TJ Brennan who is an offensively minded defenseman who has slipped through the cracks and never really given a legit shot at the NHL. Ultimately I figured I had enough tweener defensemen so the risk reward wasn't really worth it. Michael Raffl it is.
Available to Las Vegas: Michael Neuvirth, Matt Read, Michael Raffl, Dale Weiss, TJ Brennan
Pittsburgh
Matt Murray - Probably the easiest selection of my draft.
As it stands right now Las Vegas will be gifted a cost controlled number one goalie. Now Matt Murray isn't a sure thing because no goalie is (it took years of Lundqvist doing his thing to be granted that status), but all signs point to Murray being a number one guy. He is cost controlled, he won a Stanley Cup as a starter, he's young. Sorry Pittsburgh.
Available to Las Vegas: Matt Murray, Derrick Pouliot, Eric Fehr, Tom Kuhnhackl, Justin Schultz, Ian Cole
San Jose
Joe Thornton - This is my swing for the fences. Joe Thornton is a pending UFA. The only thing I gain from drafting him is that I will get to talk to him for a few extra days. Why "waste" a pick on a UFA? I feel like Thornton checks off some boxes that may make him open to moving on if given proper "motivation". Thornton is getting up there in age and he finally got the Sharks into the Stanley Cup Final. He hasn't exactly been treated with the respect he deserves by Doug Wilson. Despite being a Hall of Fame talent who produces every year he has been subject to trade rumors and was even stripped of his captaincy. Joe Thornton would be a perfect initial face of the franchise while Las Vegas tries to bridge that to a younger player. Giving Thornton three years and 12M per season would at least get him to listen? I felt strongly enough about making a run at Thornton that I adjusted some of my other picks in the draft and bypassed some RFA's to stay within the parameters about needing 20 players with a 2017-18 contract. Let's be honest, bypassing some of the other available players here won't make a damn bit of difference for Las Vegas. If the sales pitch doesn't work, oh well.
Available to Las Vegas: Matt Nieto, Brenden Dillon, David Schlemko
St. Louis
Carter Hutton - This is the worst selection of my draft. This ties into the prior selection. I was going to take Paajarvi but he was an RFA and I needed to cut an RFA off my team to take a run at Joe Thornton. I could have taken Gunnarsson but why pay ~3M for maybe bottom pairing play. This is a wasted pick. It is what it is.
Available to Las Vegas: Magnus Paajarvi, Carl Gunnarsson
Tampa Bay
Alex Killorn - The Tampa Bay Lightning are being punished for putting together an extremely good roster. They are also being punished for giving Ryan Callahan and Valtteri Filppula a NMC. The punishment is a solid winger that Las Vegas will not pass on. Killorn would be one of the better forwards that Las Vegas lands through this exercise.
Available to Las Vegas: Alex Killorn, Vladislav Namestnikov, Cedric Paquette, Braydon Coburn, Jason Garrison, Andrej Sustr, Nikita Nesterov
Toronto
Tyler Bozak - The Maple Leafs have done a really nice job with their rebuild. They have a ton of promising young prospects and eventually they will need a place to play. Tyler Bozak isn't a bad player. He was just a player that was thrown into a role that wasn't appropriate for him. He isn't a number one center. He makes for a decent third liner and his 4.2M cap hit is a non issue for Las Vegas.
Available to Las Vegas: Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak, Peter Holland, Martin Marincin
Vancouver
Markus Granlund - Another underwhelming selection, but at least this one won't cost 4M per year.
This was another selection based on the 2017-18 contract status. Emerson Etem is an RFA and if I had an extra slot for that kind of player I would have taken him. Derek Dorsett is a non starter and I'm not taking Brandon Sutter's contract when I have the better version of him with Bozak at a similar cost. Markus Granlund is still relatively young and perhaps he improves. If he doesn't no big deal. At the very least Mikael (my potential #2 center) can hang out with his brother every day.
Available to Las Vegas: Brandon Sutter, Derek Dorsett, Markus Granlund, Emerson Etem
Washington
Philipp Grubauer - There is a trend with the goaltenders I have selected in this draft (sans Hutton). They are young, cost controlled, and have potential. I'm not going to saddle this franchise with overpaying for goaltending right off the bat. Grubauer will come cheap and his career (40 GP) EVSV% is .925. I am certainly not helping the Capitals with their Brooks Orpik problem and I don't need another bottom six forward. Between Matt Murray, Philipp Grubauer, and Malcolm Subban I'll find a starting goaltender and it will be a boon on the salary cap. Having cheap goaltending is a cheat code in the hard cap era.
Available to Las Vegas: Tom Wilson Jay Beagle, Brooks Orpik, Philipp Grubauer
Winnipeg
Marko Dano - With the final selection in the Las Vegas expansion draft I will taking promising prospect Marko Dano. Dano started off with the Columbus Blue Jackets and had a remarkable run of play to start his career with a 2.69(!) 5v5 points per 60 in his first 35 NHL games. He was used as a trade chip for Columbus to land Brandon Saad. Chicago then used him to acquire Andrew Ladd as a rental. In Las Vegas he should be given every opportunity to succeed considering the lack of difference making forwards on this roster.
Available to Las Vegas: Alexander Burmistrov, Marko Dano Shawn Matthias, Michael Hutchinson
So that concludes this draft series. I did my best to go through all 30 teams and make their protection list for them based on the current rosters. I then tried to give Las Vegas the best team for both the short term and the long term with the players available. This task was only made possible by the great expansion tool that General Fanager made available. Here is Las Vegas' final roster
I'm not concerned about the amount of centers here. Some can play wing. I was focused on drafting the best overall talent I could.
Create your own team
here.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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