The Detroit Red Wings have finally gotten their wish, and they will now be in an Eastern division. This will cut down a bit on travel to Western cities like Vancouver and Los Angeles. They will face the entirety of the former Northeast Division, as well as Tampa Bay and Florida. While not the strongest division, the competition for playoff spots will be tight, and Original Six rivalries can be renewed.
Following the previous models of expansion drafts, most recently in June of 2000 when Minnesota and Columbus got the chance to pick a rag tag group of players from a list that their NHL counterparts had chosen not to protect. When Geoff Sanderson is the best of that bunch, you know that there's not a lot to choose from. Which is not meant to be a slight to Sanderson, who put in 355 NHL goals and was more than capable of contributing to his team, but is meant to show that there were no superstars available for the choosing.
The reason for that was that each team was allowed to select players they would protect from being chosen. They had the option of protecting 1 goalie, 5 defenders and 9 forwards, or they could protect 2 goalies but that would mean they could only protect 3 defenders and 7 forwards. There were also stipulations on ensuring that some players with experience were left open to be chosen, such as a defender per team that had played 40 NHL games the previous season, or 70 in the previous 2. There is yet another stipulation protecting first or second year players.Only one player is to be chosen from any team.
Some of these teams have great depth, which would make it difficult for those teams to protect all of those players and allow for a Seattle team to make some good acquisitions.
BOSTON BRUINS
One easy choice in net means that the Bruins and their 2nd highest payroll in the NHL can protect most of their big name players.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Tuukka Rask | G Chad Johnson |
| D Zdeno Chara | D Adam McQuaid |
| D Johnny Boychuk | F Jordan Caron |
| D Torey Krug | F Marc Savard |
| D Dennis Seidenberg | F Shawn Thornton |
| D Matt Bartkowski | F Carl Soderberg |
| F Milan Lucic | |
| F Patrice Bergeron | |
| F David Krejci | |
| F Jarome Iginla | |
| F Brad Marchand | |
| F Loui Eriksson | |
| F Chris Kelly | |
| F Gregory Campbell | |
| F Daniel Paille |
BUFFALO SABRES
Unfortunately for Seattle, you have to pick a player from the Sabres, and there will be slim pickings after their players are protected. Maybe they like Jhonas Enroth? Or maybe Buffalo realizes that the Ehrhoff contract is absurd.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Ryan Miller | G Jhonas Enroth |
| D Tyler Myers | D Henrik Tallinder |
| D Christian Ehrhoff | D Chad Ruhwedel |
| D Jamie McBain | F John Scott |
| D Mike Weber | F Patrick Kaleta |
| D Alexander Sulzer | |
| F Thomas Vanek | |
| F Ville Leino | |
| F Cody Hodgson | |
| F Drew Stafford | |
| F Steve Ott | |
| F Tyler Ennis | |
| F Kevin Porter | |
| F Brian Flynn | |
| F Marcus Foligno |
DETROIT RED WINGS
Clearly the Red Wings know things others don’t. How else do you explain 22 straight (and counting) trips to the playoffs. They finally move to the East this year after grumbling about being in the West for a few years now, despite continued success.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Jimmy Howard | G Jonas Gustavsson |
| D Niklas Kronwall | D Kyle Quincey |
| D Jonathan Ericsson | D Brian Lashoff |
| D Jakub Kindl | F Mikael Samuelsson |
| D Danny DeKeyser | F Todd Bertuzzi |
| D Brendan Smith | F Jordin Tootoo |
| F Pavel Datsyuk | F Patrick Eaves |
| F Henrik Zetterberg | F Cory Emmerton |
| F Daniel Alfredsson | |
| F Stephen Weiss | |
| F Johan Franzen | |
| F Darren Helm | |
| F Justin Abdelkader | |
| F Drew Miller | |
| F Tomas Tatar |
FLORIDA PANTHERS
Wow…..this is not a good looking team. Especially on defence. But rules are rules, and Seattle has to pick a player from the Panthers.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Scott Clemmensen | G Jacob Markstrom |
| D Brian Campbell | D Ed Jovanovski |
| D Erik Gudbranson | D Mike Mottau |
| D Dmitry Kulikov | F Bobby Butler |
| D Mike Weaver | |
| D Matt Gilroy | |
| F Tomas Fleischmann | |
| F Kris Versteeg | |
| F Sean Bergenheim | |
| F Scottie Upshall | |
| F Scott Gomez | |
| F Joey Crabb | |
| F Marcel Goc | |
| F Shawn Matthias | |
| F Tomas Kopecky |
MONTREAL CANADIENS
After winning their division last year the Canadiens put on an awful performance in the playoffs and lost in 5 games to the Sens. They will be hoping the combination of Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk a year older, and the arrival of Briere will be enough to get past that rough exit.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Carey Price | G Peter Budaj |
| D Andrei Markov | D Raphael Diaz |
| D Josh Gorges | D Francis Bouillon |
| D P.K. Subban | D Davis Drewiske |
| D Jarred Tinordi | F George Parros |
| D Alexei Emelin | F Ryan White |
| F Tomas Plekanec | |
| F Brian Gionta | |
| F Max Pacioretty | |
| F Danny Briere | |
| F David Desharnais | |
| F Rene Bourque | |
| F Travis Moen | |
| F Lars Eller | |
| F Brandon Prust |
OTTAWA SENATORS
I just could not bring myself to let either Anderson or Lehner go for free, so I doubt GM Bryan Murray could either. This means that the Senators could only protect 3 defenders and 7 forwards, which leaves a name or two available.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Craig Anderson | D Marc Methot |
| G Robin Lehner | D Patrick Wiercioch |
| D Erik Karlsson | D Joe Corvo |
| D Chris Phillips | D Eric Gryba |
| D Jared Cowen | F Clarke MacArthur |
| F Jason Spezza | F Chris Neil |
| F Kyle Turris | F Matt Kassian |
| F Milan Michalek | F Jim O`Brien |
| F Erik Condra | F Colin Greening |
| F Bobby Ryan | |
| F Zack Smith | |
| F Cory Conacher | |
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Flipped back and forth on which goalie to protect, as the Lightning have a couple of big netminders on the roster competing for the starting job.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Anders Lindback | G Ben Bishop |
| D Matt Carle | D Keith Aulie |
| D Victor Hedman | D Radko Gudas |
| D Eric Brewer | F Pierre-Cedric Labrie |
| D Mattias Ohlund | F Tom Pyatt |
| D Sami Salo | |
| F Steven Stamkos | |
| F Martin St. Louis | |
| F Dana Tyrell | |
| F Valtteri Filppula | |
| F Ryan Malone | |
| F Teddy Purcell | |
| F Nate Thompson | |
| F B.J. Crombeen | |
| F Alexander Killorn |
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
The move to bring in Bernier gives the Maple Leafs a two-headed dragon in net that must be protected.
| Protected | Unprotected |
| G Jonathan Bernier | D John-Michael Liles |
| G James Reimer | D Mark Fraser |
| D Dion Phaneuf | D Paul Ranger |
| D Cody Franson | D Korbinian Holzer |
| D Carl Gunnarsson | F Leo Komarov |
| F Phil Kessel | F Dave Bolland |
| F Joffrey Lupul | F Jay McClement |
| F James van Riemsdyk | F Colton Orr |
| F Tyler Bozak | F Frazer McLaren |
| F David Clarkson | F Joe Colborne |
| F Nazem Kadri | F Trevor Smith |
| F Nikolai Kulemin | |
Like what you see? Disagree completely? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
