There is news out of the GM meetings in Florida today that the NHL may inform the teams prior to this coming Draft regarding expansion. Essentially whether or not we have one or two new teams coming and how the expansion draft will be handled. Each team would lose 1 or 2 players in an expansion draft and they would be allowed to protect certain players to keep them for sure...
The question that looks like it is still being worked out is whether or not players with No Trade/No Movement clauses are going to be allowed to be exposed. The NHL so far is saying teams will be allowed to expose anyone to the expansion draft, but the NHLPA is not so certain about this answer and players who have signed these sorts of contracts did so with the understanding that they would be able to decide where they play.
How this issue is ultimately resolved could have a major impact in the expansion draft.
I have heard several scenarios, from all players being exposed to NTC/NMC players being exempt (which allows teams to basically protect more players) to teams being required to put players with NTC/NMC on their protected lists unless the player agrees otherwise...
One thing I know, we haven't yet heard the end of this discussion...
We will discuss all this and more on today's HockeyBuzzCast live at 1pm