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
Today I will focus on Detroit, Edmonton, Florida, Los Angeles, and Minnesota
Detroit
So many long term contracts to middle nine forwards that extend into their mid-thirties. Fortunately none of them have a no movement clause and because of that I'm just going to leave them exposed. Detroit is an easy 7F/3D team because they have one of the most underwhelming defense corps. in all of hockey.
Forwards: Frans Nielsen (NMC), Henrik Zetterberg, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Anthony Mantha, Teemu Pulkkinen, Andreas Athanasiou
Defense: Brendan Smith, Danny Dekeyser, Xavier Ouellet
Goalies: Petr Mrazek
Available to Las Vegas: Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Mike Green, Niklas Kronwall, Darren Helm, Tomas Jurco
Ken Holland has done himself a disservice with the contracts to Abdelkader, Helm, and even Nielsen to a lesser extent. That is about 13M tied up for at least the next five years on players who are going to be in their thirties. That doesn't even include the 6M that Zetterberg will make for the next five years as well. Detroit used to be the gold standard but they are more pewter these days.
On defense I'm just going to expose all the 30+ players. Kronwall is wildly overrated now that his decline is in full swing and Ericsson drowns on the possession front. I don't like the Danny Dekeyser contract but it doesn't mean he is a bad player. Xavier Oulette is Detroit's most ready defense prospect so I will hang on to that under the assumption he can't be worse than some of the more expensive options on the roster. Jimmy Howard is the odd man out in net and makes for a pricey 5.3M backup goalie.
Hopefully Las Vegas takes one of the bad contracts here. Detroit needs saving from themselves.
Edmonton
All of the obvious candidates can be protected. It basically boils down to who you want that seventh forward to be. The issue here is that they will more than likely be exposing Griffin Reinhart.
Forwards: Milan Lucic (NMC), Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov, Patrick Marroon
Defense: Andrej Sekera (NMC), Adam Larsson, Oscar Klefbom
Goalie: Cam Talbot (NMC)
Available to Las Vegas: Griffin Reinhart,
Reinhart is exposed but that is the nature of this beast. I put more value on Pouliot and Yakupov staying protecting the former first round pick that hasn't quite progressed as some thought he would.
Florida
The Panthers are similar to Edmonton. They have a solid grouping of six forwards and three obvious defense candidates. All of their best prospects do not need to be protected yet.
Forwards: Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Jussi Jokinen, Nick Bjugstad, Vincent Trocheck, Reilly Smith, Jonathan Marchessault
Defense: Keith Yandle (NMC), Aaron Eklad, Jason Demers
Goalie: James Reimer
Available to Las Vegas: Roberto Luongo, Mark Pysyk
The goaltending situation was an interesting one. Roberto Luongo is still a good goalie. However, he is going to be 37 heading into next season with another six years left on his deal. That seems unnecessary to protect when James Reimer has provided competent goaltending under the radar for years.
Mark Pysyk wasn't worth going the 4F/4D route but he is an underrated player and has a positive impact on possession. He will be a guy for Las Vegas to look into.
Los Angeles
I had to ask around about the Los Angeles Kings. The general concenses was to ignore some of those middle nine forwards and take a chance with some of the younger forwards trying to earn their way up. The defense and goaltender situation was pretty straightforward. The Kings aren't going to be losing any game breakers here.
Forwards: Anze Kopitar (NMC), Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, Marian Gaborik, Tanner Pearson, Nick Shore, Nick Dowd
Defense: Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, Brayden McNabb
Goalie: Jonathan Quick
Available to Las Vegas: Dustin Brown, Kyle Clifford, Trevor Lewis, Dwight King, Alec Martinez
If Las Vegas selected Dustin Brown that would be a god send but it isn't likely. It is looking like a blah middle nine forward is all the Kings will be losing here.
Minnesota
Holy cow this team was impossible to peg. They are definitely going to lose a player they don't want to lose regardless of which setup I use here. If I go the seven forward route they are going to lose Scandella. If I go the 4 defense route they will have Coyle and Granlund exposed. Pick your poison. The NMC's to Jason Pominville and Mikko Koivu is what is creating the crunch.
Ultimately I think I'm going with the 4F/4D approach. I think Minnesota would benefit from keeping all of those defensemen around. Eventually Ryan Suter won't be able to play half the game and those contracts are very reasonable all things considered.
Here is a look at the four defensemen I am protecting. Stats are 2013-16.
Here is the corp. of Minnesota's defense moving forward. Matt Dumba is only 22 and should only improve on what he has shown so far. That should compensate for what Suter eventually loses.
Forwards: Mikko Koivu (NMC), Jason Pominville (NMC), Zach Parise (NMC), Nino Niederreiter
Defense: Ryan Suter (NMC), Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba, Marco Scandella
Goalie: Devan Dubnyk
Available to Las Vegas: Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin
The team can only lose one of Granlund and Coyle. It isn't ideal but at the end of the day I elected to keep the Minnesota's top four defensemen together as a unit for years to come. There are plenty of valid arguments for going the 7F and 3D approach to keep Granlund and Coyle around. As I said above Minnesota is going to lose a good player based on their current roster setup no matter what you do here. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.
Next up are Montreal, Nashville, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and the New Jersey Devils.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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