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Who Should My Team Protect In The Expansion Draft: Part 4

August 9, 2016, 1:42 PM ET [47 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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


Today we will be looking at Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and the New York Rangers. I found the Predators and the Islanders to have the most precarious situations based on their current rosters.

Let's start things off with Montreal.

Montreal

This team had a horrific 2015-16 season after Carey Price went down and the followed it up with an even worse offseason. Carey Price may be back in net, but I don't see this team as a true contender for the Stanley Cup in 2016-17. With that in mind I am putting my focus on the future with my protection selections for the Canadiens.

Forwards: Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, Andrew Shaw, Daniel Carr, Charles Hudon, Sven Andrighetto

Defense: Jeff Petry (NMC), Shea Weber, Nathan Beaulieu

Goalie: Carey Price

Available to Las Vegas: Tomas Plekanec, Alexei Emelin, David Desharnais, Mark Barberio

Why no Tomas Plekanec? As I said above I would rather take the chance on some of those prospects panning out than save one more year of Plekanec. He's a good player. He will likely be taken by the Las Vegas team, but he is 34 and by the time the team turns it around he won't be as productive.

Nashville

This is a lot like the Minnesota situation. You have a great top four defense corp. and just like I did with Minnesota I will again be keeping it in tact. In this case Nashville has even better contracts in place for guys like Ellis and Ekholm than Minnesota does with their guys. As a result Nashville is going to lose a good forward. I could only protect one of the following three players: Colin Wilson, Craig Smith, or Viktor Arvidsson. Ultimately it became a competition between Wilson and Smith.



Both players are the same age and both are on very reasonable contracts. Craig Smith costs a little bit more (4.25M vs 3.93M) but he is signed for an extra year which makes it more appealing. Smith has slightly better underlying numbers so Craig Smith it is.

Forwards: Filip Forsberg, James Neal, Ryan Johansen, Craig Smith

Defense: PK Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm

Goalie: Pekka Rinne (NMC)

Available to Las Vegas: Colin Wilson, Viktor Arvidsson

Again, I really value that top four defense corp. this team has. PK Subban makes a truckload of money at 9M, but the other three players don't eclipse the 4M mark. That is incredible value and all of those players are signed for multiple years. If they can somehow get out of that Rinne contract they would have a ton of money to play around with to fortify the forward ranks. I feel as though I can justify keeping those four players at the expense of Colin Wilson. Kevin Fiala's emergence also has the potential to lessen the blow of losing a player like Wilson.

New Jersey Devils

This team is still rebuilding and it appears as though the expansion draft will not be damaging to them. I don't see any impact players being plucked by Las Vegas.

Forwards: Taylor Hall, Adam Henrique, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, Mike Cammalleri, Reid Boucher, Joseph Blandisi

Defense: Andy Greene, Damon Severson, John Moore

Goalie: Cory Schneider

Available to Las Vegas: Beau Bennett, Ben Lovejoy

New Jersey is in a pretty good spot all things considered.

New York Islanders

The Devils may be in a good spot but the Islanders are definitely not. They are going to lose a good player based on how their roster is currently constructed. I will again use the four defense approach. I think it is harder to find quality defensemen in this league and that drives a lot of my 4F/4D choices. As a result the Islanders are at risk of losing a decent NHL forward. They are also at risk of losing a decent defense prospect as well even with the protection of four defensemen.

Forwards: John Tavares (NMC), Andrew Ladd (NMC), Ryan Strome, Anders Lee

Defense: Johnny Boychuk (NMC), Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan

Goalie: Jaro Halak

Available to Las Vegas: Brock Nelson, Ryan Pulock, Shane Prince, Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolay Kulemin

The last defense spot came down to Calvin de Haan or Ryan Pulock. My last forward spot came down to Anders Lee or Brock Nelson. You can see that Las Vegas has a lot of options to choose from here. The Islanders have one of the more difficult situations to maneuver regarding the expansion draft.

New York Rangers

Picking the Rangers was a lot easier than the Islanders. They have seven fairly obvious forwards to protect which made the 7F/3D decision easy to make. The Dan Girardi no movement clause is going to leave a better player exposed.

Forwards: Derek Stepan (NMC), Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello, J.T. Miller, Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes

Defense: Marc Staal (NMC), Dan Girardi (NMC), Ryan McDonagh

Goalie: Henrik Lundqvist

Available to Las Vegas: Dylan McIlrath, Jesper Fast, Michael Grabner, Kevin Klein

Exposing Dylan McIlrath as a result of Dan Girardi's inexplicable no movement clause isn't ideal but I suppose it could have been a lot worse. I couldn't justify the 4F/4D approach with the Rangers. I value that forward grouping more than keeping McIlrath protected.

Next up will be Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, and St. Louis

Thanks for reading!
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