Speculation: Players Traded to Avoid Expansion Draft Exposure

[Curufinwe]

Youre right. Morin will still be exempt as he will still be considered a 2 year Pro.

We can protect Hagg, unless we extend Del Zotto.

They don't have to protect Morin or Hagg.

http://www.generalfanager.com/teams/expansion

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-teams-receiving-information-potential-expansion-draft/

Players with two years of professional experience or less will be exempt from the process. Determining who that covers is based on the definition included in the collective bargaining agreement – meaning that 10 games played in the NHL at age 18 or 19 counts as a season, as does any American Hockey League or NHL season for players older than that.

 

[Moosetache]

The Jets could be forced to trade one of their D - either Trouba or Myers - to get the most value out of the expansion draft rules (7F 3D 1G), but I personally don't think that there's a depth player on the Jets that is worth protecting more than the top 4 D the Jets currently have. Here are the expansion eligible players on the Jets that qualify for the expansion draft:

Mark Scheifele
Bryan Little
Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault
Alexander Burmistrov
Shawn Matthias
Marko Dano
Andrew Copp
Joel Armia
Adam Lowry

Toby Enstrom
Dustin Byfuglien
Tyler Myers
Jacob Trouba
Ben Chiarot

Michael Hutchinson
Connor Hellebuyck

There are others in the farm system (Kosmachuk, Lipon, Howden, Kichton, Melchiori, Olsen), but the likelihood of LV taking those over an NHL roster player is pretty unlikely. Out of all of those, if the Jets do trade a D to enable them to protect 7F and 3D, I predict that they go with this:

Scheifele
Little
Wheeler
Perreault
Dano/Armia (pretty interchangeable at this point, so will come down to who Chevy values more)
Lowry
Copp

Byfuglien
Enstrom
Trouba/Myers (whoever isn't traded)

Hellebuyck

That's if they value their depth pieces more than the extra D protection. Personally, there isn't a depth option on the Jets that is worth protecting, nor is it remotely difficult to replace the player you lost in the expansion draft.

4F/4D/1G

Scheifele
Little
Wheeler
Perreault

Buff
Enstrom
Myers
Trouba

Hellebuyck

That leaves Matthias, Burmistrov, Copp, Lowry, Dano, and Armia exposed. Matthias was signed expressly for the expansion draft (either to entice LV to take him or to help fulfill the draft rules). Those are good players to expose, but nothing worth losing sleep over if they are exposed and one of them is claimed. Still, for a cap conscious team like the Jets, the idea of losing assets for nothing is a heavy concern, which is why they could very well trade a D to make it easier for them to protect more forwards.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for the Jets.



The NHL isn't dumb; they'll see right through that and assess a penalty to a team that tries to play cute with that.

Couldn't Buff just be labeled a F for the sake of this? He has obviously played both in the past....throw him up at forward for a few games this season and handle it that way.

NHL may see through that as well, but its worth a shot in order to keep that top 4 d.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Couldn't Buff just be labeled a F for the sake of this? He has obviously played both in the past....throw him up at forward for a few games this season and handle it that way.

NHL may see through that as well, but its worth a shot in order to keep that top 4 d.

Byfuglien has played at least 70 games as a forward. Should count IMO.

 

[Spectra]

I absolutely hope guys like Burns and Buff can be labeled as whatever the team choses. Having a versatile player who can play multiple positions should be rewarded, not punished.

 

[Jeti]

​

Jets will trade Myers if they want to protect 3 more forwards. But they aren't forced to.

I think it's ridiculous that teams can protect so many forwards and so few defensemen. Skaters are skaters. Let teams choose the mix. This unfairly and arbitrarily punishes some teams more than others.

I'd love to see the Jets thumb their noses at the league by playing Buff as a forward for a few games and protecting him with a forward spot.

 

[Troy McClure]

​

I think it's ridiculous that teams can protect so many forwards and so few defensemen. Skaters are skaters. Let teams choose the mix. This unfairly and arbitrarily punishes some teams more than others.

I'd love to see the Jets thumb their noses at the league by playing Buff as a forward for a few games and protecting him with a forward spot.

It's not arbitrary. It's intentional. Teams with deeper forward groups will lose a forward in the expansion draft. Teams with deeper bluelines will lose a defenseman in the expansion draft. It's designed that way on purpose. When the dust settles, almost every team will have lost a quality (but not great) player. That's what these rules were designed to do.

 

[PatrikOverAuston]

Uhm, did we all just forget that teams do in fact have the option of eight skaters versus 7/3/1?

 

[Shady Machine]

Fleury has to be traded so the Pens don't have to expose Murray. The other possibility is Pouliot if Pens go 3D 7F or one of Hags/Hornqvist if they go 8 skaters.

 

[PensBeerGeek]

The Devils do.

Well played.

Most of the names listed in this thread have been defensemen, so it feels like there aren't too many teams with the room for them (though if you do, you're as lucky as you can be given how awful your D must be).

We have a lot fewer slots for protection than we do for protection-worthy #4D...quite the buyer's market.

 

[paulmm3]

The most interesting thing for me around the league in regards to the expansion draft is what Minnesota will do with their defensemen. Suter, Brodin, Spurgeon, Dumba, and Scandella are all good players. I see a trade coming.

 

[57special]

The most interesting thing for me around the league in regards to the expansion draft is what Minnesota will do with their defensemen. Suter, Brodin, Spurgeon, Dumba, and Scandella are all good players. I see a trade coming.

I thought so too, but with the acquisition of Staal I am less certain. It could be that the Wild are simply accepting that one of their top 4D(excepting Suter/NMC) are going to be gone. You would think that they would've moved at least one Dman this summer, MAYBE another at the TDL, if Reilly, Olofsson, or Folin showed acceptable progress.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Jets will trade Myers if they want to protect 3 more forwards. But they aren't forced to.

Myers might be a good guy to just leave unprotected in hopes that Vegas takes him over some of the other guys on the Jets. I say this as a guy who isn't a huge Myers fan though, so...

 

[ManofSteel55]

I thought so too, but with the acquisition of Staal I am less certain. It could be that the Wild are simply accepting that one of their top 4D(excepting Suter/NMC) are going to be gone. You would think that they would've moved at least one Dman this summer, MAYBE another at the TDL, if Reilly, Olofsson, or Folin showed acceptable progress.

Wouldn't surprise me either if they just protect Suter, Spurgeon and Dumba and hope accept that either Brodin or Scandella are going to be gone. Unless one of those two has a huge season this year that is.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Byfuglien has played at least 70 games as a forward. Should count IMO.

I think it should be based off of the most current season. So if the Jets wanted to start Byfuglien at forward for over 50% of the games this season, by all means list him as a forward and protect him. If not, he should be a defenseman for this draft. It's not like they are going to lose him. It simply ensures that a more balanced team is iced by the new Vegas team.

 

[Spectra]

I thought so too, but with the acquisition of Staal I am less certain. It could be that the Wild are simply accepting that one of their top 4D(excepting Suter/NMC) are going to be gone. You would think that they would've moved at least one Dman this summer, MAYBE another at the TDL, if Reilly, Olofsson, or Folin showed acceptable progress.

I could still see them trading Spurgeon to EDM for RNH/Eberle +, makes too much sense for both teams as an outsider.

 

[PatrikOverAuston]

I could still see them trading Spurgeon to EDM for RNH/Eberle +, makes too much sense for both teams as an outsider.

Makes a ton of sense, but the Wild fans who have chimed in on such threads over the last bit would seemingly rather lose one of their five D to expansion than trade any of them for some semblance of fair value.

 

[Spectra]

Makes a ton of sense, but the Wild fans who have chimed in on such threads over the last bit would seemingly rather lose one of their five D to expansion than trade any of them for some semblance of fair value.

Hey, as a Hawks fan I'm not complaining if they don't want to improve their team. I will say for the record that I think they will be utterly disappointed if they think signing Staal to provide offence will be all they need to be more competitive...

 

[Whileee]

The Jets could be forced to trade one of their D - either Trouba or Myers - to get the most value out of the expansion draft rules (7F 3D 1G), but I personally don't think that there's a depth player on the Jets that is worth protecting more than the top 4 D the Jets currently have. Here are the expansion eligible players on the Jets that qualify for the expansion draft:

Mark Scheifele
Bryan Little
Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault
Alexander Burmistrov
Shawn Matthias
Marko Dano
Andrew Copp
Joel Armia
Adam Lowry

Toby Enstrom
Dustin Byfuglien
Tyler Myers
Jacob Trouba
Ben Chiarot

Michael Hutchinson
Connor Hellebuyck

There are others in the farm system (Kosmachuk, Lipon, Howden, Kichton, Melchiori, Olsen), but the likelihood of LV taking those over an NHL roster player is pretty unlikely. Out of all of those, if the Jets do trade a D to enable them to protect 7F and 3D, I predict that they go with this:

Scheifele
Little
Wheeler
Perreault
Dano/Armia (pretty interchangeable at this point, so will come down to who Chevy values more)
Lowry
Copp

Byfuglien
Enstrom
Trouba/Myers (whoever isn't traded)

Hellebuyck

That's if they value their depth pieces more than the extra D protection. Personally, there isn't a depth option on the Jets that is worth protecting, nor is it remotely difficult to replace the player you lost in the expansion draft.

4F/4D/1G

Scheifele
Little
Wheeler
Perreault

Buff
Enstrom
Myers
Trouba

Hellebuyck

That leaves Matthias, Burmistrov, Copp, Lowry, Dano, and Armia exposed. Matthias was signed expressly for the expansion draft (either to entice LV to take him or to help fulfill the draft rules). Those are good players to expose, but nothing worth losing sleep over if they are exposed and one of them is claimed. Still, for a cap conscious team like the Jets, the idea of losing assets for nothing is a heavy concern, which is why they could very well trade a D to make it easier for them to protect more forwards.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for the Jets.



The NHL isn't dumb; they'll see right through that and assess a penalty to a team that tries to play cute with that.

Good summary. I think the Jets might end up protecting 4 D unless they can persuade Enstrom to drop his NMC. I think they'll plan to keep Buff, Trouba and Myers. They would have to give up one of Dano, Armia, Lowry and Copp, which would sting but isn't too much of a hit considering their depth of young forwards in the system.

 

[Spectra]

Good summary. I think the Jets might end up protecting 4 D unless they can persuade Enstrom to drop his NMC. I think they'll plan to keep Buff, Trouba and Myers. They would have to give up one of Dano, Armia, Lowry and Copp, which would sting but isn't too much of a hit considering their depth of young forwards in the system.

I will also go on record and say that Vegas will claim Lowry if he's exposed. We'll see in a year.

 

[PatrikOverAuston]

Hey, as a Hawks fan I'm not complaining if they don't want to improve their team. I will say for the record that I think they will be utterly disappointed if they think signing Staal to provide offence will be all they need to be more competitive...

They seemingly have Staal penciled in as 2C, and I have to agree. That's a plan destined to fail.

 

[sal00]

I wonder if some players would hold out on extending their contracts so they won't be eligible for the draft and then resign with their team on July 1st.

 

[Spectra]

I wonder if some players would hold out on extending their contracts so they won't be eligible for the draft and then resign with their team on July 1st.

I'm positive teams will sit down with UFA's they want to keep and come to a gentleman's agreeement to sign new long term deals after the expansion draft. I see no problem with it either, it's not against any kind of "spirit" that people like to bring up from time to time.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Emelin for the Habs has a MNTC (he lists 10 teams he can't be traded to). Do the habs have to protect him if he chooses to put Las Vegas as a no trade team? Disaster if this is true. Then we expose Beaulieu or do we go with protecting 4 Dam and only 4 forwards?

Article below says we don't have to protect Emelin but I'm not sure if this is the case? Anyone know any details on this?

http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2...diens-plekanec-hudon-who-should-protect-rules

 

[Mubiki]

Some teams D will end up being inadvertently exempt just based on numbers.

Reading through expansion draft related threads made me realize that a majority of fans are worried about losing a top 4 or potential top 4 D man. Vegas still has to ice a team. If most of the worries were founded, Vegas would be icing 4 centers, 12 RHD, and a goalie.

 

[Mubiki]

Makes a ton of sense, but the Wild fans who have chimed in on such threads over the last bit would seemingly rather lose one of their five D to expansion than trade any of them for some semblance of fair value.

Lol, no. It doesn't make any sense at all. If we trade a D man, then we HAVE to protect 4, and we'll lose a forward anyway.

Regardless of scenario, the Wild are looking at losing a defenseman, either by trade or draft. So if the trade isn't a good trade sans expansion, then it's not very a good trade with expansion being considered.

So if we are looking at a VERY likely be scenario of losing a top 4 defenseman, then why wouldn't we protect the greatest number of assets? Unless, we get a trade that sees us winning in value, there is ZERO reason to trade a defenseman, because it's just going to force us to protect 4 to avoid losing a second one.

So tell me. What trade is available, that Wild fans haven't already thought of, that has us coming out on top value wise?

By exposing Brodin and Scandella, we are basically forcing Vegas to take a player from our single greatest organizational strength, which is LHD.