While the Anaheim Ducks are set for a rebuild and don’t have a ton of high-end talent on the roster, they could actually have some issues hanging onto all of their quality young players in the Expansion Draft.
It’s pretty up in the air as to who will be protected or even which format the Ducks could use but in this article, I’ll try to predict what the Ducks’ protection list could look like.
In net, the Ducks will protect John Gibson, leaving Anthony Stolarz exposed. On defense though, Anaheim could have some issues. They’ll almost certainly protect Hampus Lindhom, Cam Fowler and Josh Manson but this would leave Haydn Fleury exposed, along with other young defensemen in Josh Mahura and Jacob Larsson.
Ideally the Ducks should try their best to move a defender before the expansion draft, in order to have room to protect Fleury. They could also use a 4-4-1 protection format rather than a 7-3-1 format, but we’ll get to that a little later.
Up front, the Ducks will have decisions to make. Rickard Rakell will be protected, even though he’s likely to be dealt later, then Troy Terry should be a lock as well. After that, the Ducks would likely hope to protect all of their recent first-round picks, in Max Jones, Isac Lundestrom and Sam Steel.
This would leave two more spots available, with several players who could be protected. We can assume the Ducks wouldn’t protect Derek Grant or Nicolas Deslauriers and after going through waivers earlier in the season, Adam Henrique is unlikely to receive protection either.
This would leave two spots to go to a combination of Danton Heinen, Sonny Milano, Jakob Silfverberg or Alexander Volkov. Based on him missing almost the entire year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sonny Milano exposed as his health could be a bit of a concern, but there are also reasons to leave Heinen, Silfverberg or Volkov unprotected. Heinen is now 26 years old and after the Ducks reportedly nearly traded him in this season, it seems as though he may not factor into the team’s plans. Silfverberg, on the other hand, will be 31 years old on an overpriced contract with term remaining and it’s highly unlikely Seattle would select him. Then with Volkov, he got off to a hot start after being acquired by the Ducks but it’s a pretty small sample size and he’s already almost 24 years old. I’ll take a guess and say it would be Heinen and Volkov protected but really, the last two forward spots would be up in the air with a 7-3-1 format.
So this would be the projection for the 7-3-1 format:
Forwards (7): Rickard Rakell, Troy Terry, Sam Steel, Isac Lundestrom, Max Jones, Danton Heinen, Alexander Volkov
Defense (3): Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler, Josh Manson
Goalie (1): John Gibson
But with so many forwards that realistically don’t need to be protected, it could make more sense for the Ducks to use the 4-4-1 format to have a spot for Haydn Fleury. It would essentially come down to whether the Ducks would prefer to potentially lose Fleury or one of the recent first-round picks and while it’s somewhat up in the air, the Ducks would likely prefer to protect Fleury. The team would then need to decide between exposing either Jones, Lundestrom or Steel and we can probably bet that it would be Jones exposed, of those three forwards.
This would leave the Ducks with the following protection list instead:
Forwards (4): Rickard Rakell, Troy Terry, Sam Steel, Isac Lundestrom
That said, it would still be ideal if the Ducks could make some trades before the expansion draft. If Rakell or Manson were moved, the Ducks would have room for Jones or Mahura.
Personally, I think losing Mahura could come back to bite the Ducks and if Anaheim did go with a 4-4-1 format, I honestly wouldn’t mind them protecting Josh Mahura over Sam Steel, though that’s probably a very unpopular opinion. Mahura has a small sample size of NHL work but is likely to be a pretty productive defender and could continue to round out his game, while Steel’s development has plateaued to an extent and he’s starting to get lost in the group of young forwards trying to make an impact. That said, it’s highly unlikely the Ducks would choose to protect five defenders and again, it’s not going to be a popular opinion.
So unless the Ducks make some trades before the expansion draft, I think we'll see something along the lines of one of these two projections, though I do think the Ducks should opt to go for the 4-4-1 format.
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