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The Calgary Flames, like 29 other teams, released their protection list this morning and, as expected, they went with the 7-3-1 plan.
Up front, the Flames protected Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Michael Frolik, Micheal Ferland, Mikael Backlund and Curtis Lazar.
On defense, they protected the big three of Dougie Hamilton, Mark Giordano, and T.J. Brodie.
In goal, they protected the recently acquired Mike Smith.
Headlining the 21-player list of unprotected players are Troy Brouwer, Alex Chiasson (RFA), Matt Stajan, Lance Bouma, Freddie Hamilton, Hunter Shinkaruk, Brett Kulak (RFA), Michael Stone (UFA), Kris Versteeg (UFA), and Brian Elliott (UFA).
Leading up to the expansion draft, the Golden Knights are able to negotiate with exposed pending free agents (either restricted or unrestricted).
If they reach an agreement with, say, Michael Stone, he would count as a selection in the draft and the Flames wouldn't lose another player.
Based on the lack of talent the Flames exposed -- Kulak is the only player who would really catch my interest -- I think signing a free agent like Stone or Versteeg is a very realistic possibility for the Golden Knights (Elliott is good but Vegas has a plethora of goalies to choose from).
Should that be the case, losing Stone is definitely preferable to Versteeg, however, I don't think the Flames would or should lose sleep about losing either player.
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Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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