In the interest of killing time in the waning off-season, the SB Nation NHL community is putting together a mock expansion draft. Voting has already taken place at the main NHL site, and Winnipeg and Quebec City have been chosen the winners despite my best efforts to vote a new NHL franchise for Houston of Kansas City in an effort to reduce hypothetical Dallas Stars travel. Oh well.

Visit the main page for the mock draft exercise here.

The next step in the process is for each team to submit a protected list.

Here are the rules:

• Teams can protect either 1 goalie, 5 defensemen and 9 forwards OR 2 goalies, 3 defensemen and 7 forwards.
• If you protect two goalies, at least one goalie left unprotected must have played in at least 10 games last season OR 25 games in the last two seasons combined. One game = at least 31 minutes.
• Each team must leave unprotected at least one defenseman who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
• Each team must leave unprotected at least two forwards who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
• Players who have not played 50 NHL games are automatically exempt.

That leaves us with pretty few choices where the Stars are concerned. None of the kids on the farm (I don't think) have played 50 NHL games and thus are protected.

We're going the 1 Goalie, 9 forward route, obviously.

The forward list of 9 writes itself: Brenden Morrow, James Neal, Jamie Benn, Loui Eriksson, Brad Richards, Mike Ribeiro, Steve Ott, Tom Wandell, and.... and... uhhh...

That's where we need a little help, so vote below for the forward that you would protect from the expansion draft. If anyone wants to place a wager on Brunnstrom winning, email me about some great odds I'm offering.

The Defense: Robidas, Grossman, Fistric are shoe ins. We figure we'll protect Skrastins just because. Some say Daley, and others say Niskanen. Protecting Niskanen is an option because he seemingly has the most potential, where as Trevor Daley has had that said about him too many times now, and his salary might be a little high for services rendered.

So also discuss Niskanen vs Daley, and go ahead and assume that "neither" is not an option.

***All of this is assuming that Niskanen and Neal get re-signed, and that Jere Lehtinen retires. ***

This is a topic that may not be of great interest to you, but I know we have a good number of bloggers, and aspiring blogger readers so this may have some value to you, plus it wholly and entirely consumed "the community" yesterday and has inspired us all to say a word or two. If the blogger vs MSM debate is a dead horse you'd rather not beat, or if you never cared in the first place, I invite you to skip it and leave your thoughts on a great Nick Grossman contract in the thread below.

None of this is specific to the Dallas Stars, who have been very kind to us in the past and we look forward to continuing that relationship in the future.

Yesterday Puck Daddy had a series of posts related to an internal discussion going on in the NHL regarding bloggers and access to teams. There was a conference call on Monday that saw teams such as the New York Rangers voice concerns about bloggers being allowed access to visiting team locker rooms. The logic there is that if the Rangers would (in theory) not credential a blogger in their own building to talk to their team, why should some other blogger in Washington (just an example) be allowed to talk to their team?

The second, and more concerning post dealt with the aftermath of that phone call and a leaked internal email proposing a set of guidelines for credentialing "web-based media." You can see that email here.

What's concerning here is that such broad, sweeping generalizations/guidelines threaten to take the subjectivity and common sense out of the process and shut the door on the more deserving with an emphatic and blind "We don't credential bloggers, end of story. Goodbye."

The argument always seems to be (and the leaked email supports this) that if a writer is not employed full time to produce "web-based media", his/her content is somehow instantly undesirable and not relevant to a PR staffs' ultimate goal of growing the teams' brand and having the team talked about.

A credential is a trade, as I understand it. Like any other trade, there are two sides, each presumably possessing something the other would like. In the case of pro-sports teams and media, it's pretty straight forward. The team wants to be covered and talked about. The reporter wants the access to cover them...

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More photos » Jim McIsaac - Getty Images

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On Tuesday we here at DBD will have a feature in which we chat with John Fischer (whom if you recall we've also had as a guest on Defending Big D Live) and the fine people over at In Lou We Trust to ask them where they are going for summer vacation .. what is it like to have an Oompa-Loompa for a GM .. five questions related to the New Jersey Devils and what we can expect to see from the Devils this coming season.

Long time followers of this blog may recall we did something like this last year with PensBurgh when we asked them questions and they asked us some questions right back.  In hindsight, I meant well when I said couldn't see the Stars missing the playoffs for a second time in a row.

Anyhoo, that brings me to all of you fine DBD readers...  We'd like you all to come up with a question or two that we can take to John and Co.  Not because we're lazy (well ok, maybe partly that..) but because this is a chance to get to know a team that we don't know much of other than that they ripped our hearts out in 2000 and somehow convinced Doug Armstrrong that Randy McKay was worth trading for.

So fire away in the comments section and we'll hopefully be able to take one or two of the best questions and use 'em!

Join us tonight at 7:00pm CST for a new episode of Defending Big D live, your only source for live Stars talk on the internet. Tonight you'll have  Brandon Worley, Art Middleton, Brad Gardner, Pat Iversen, Brandon Bibb.

The DBD crew puts down the suntan lotion and baseball gloves for a moment to talk some hockey in August! We'll take a look at the pending Texas Rangers sale and how it affects the Stars, the departures of Modano and Turco, the arrivals of Raycroft and Burrish and whether or not GM Joe criticism from fans is justified.

Phone calls are always welcome, and you can reach the show at (347) 857-1323.

That chat room will be open here closer to show time.

The show page is here at Blog Talk Radio. We look forward to seeing you in the chat room. If you miss the show you can download it later, or subscribe to us on iTunes. 

Before I begin, first I wanna say thanks for all the feedback and comments last week!  As I mentioned last week, when it comes to sports, people see to love lists - this series was really only the result of seeing four or five episodes of NFL Network's "Top 10" program when the thought hit me: "Hey we should do something like this..."  - So enjoy, and of course if you have any ideas for future top five lists feel free to suggest some in the comments or hit me up on Twitter!

Pretty much every team in the NHL has that one really hated rival.  Back when the North Stars played in Minnesota, you could pretty much list off in the old Norris division as hated rivals - especially the Blackhawks and Blues.  But ever since the Stars moved to Dallas, and then moved from one division to another, it can be argued that the Stars really don't have that one arch-nemesis type rival so many other NHL teams have.

So who are the Stars biggest rivals right now at the moment?  Well...

#5 Most Hated: Los Angeles Kings

This one has seemingly only really picked up intensity after the lockout of 2005.  Of course everyone remembers the crazy opening night game of the 05-06 season when the Stars came back from four goals down in the third period to win the game - a game that helped serve notice to the entire league that multiple goal leads were not completely safe any more like they had been - but since that game, the M.O. of these two teams when they get together seems to be "expect the unexpected and know that the game isn't really over until it's over."

The rest of the list, numbers four to one follow the jump...

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While we wait anxiously this summer for more tidbits as tantalizing as Fabian Brunnstrom's arbitration hearing, I thought I might take a look at the transformation of the Stars sweater over the years.

My all time favorite happens to be the North Stars sweater. Excellent color balance. Classic "N" logo.

Immediately following the team's move to Dallas (1995-1998), I believe was the second-worst look. Pretty dull, in my opinion.

An improvement came thereafter, with the "Star" design. By improvement, I'm not necessarily referring to the star itself, but the color combination.

Then there's the God-awful "Mooterus" third sweater. Where the red came from, I have no clue. In fairness to the designer, at least it showed some out-of-the-box thinking. The best place for it, however, was in a box.

I'm one of the people who thinks the current sweater is a tad on the dull side. I like black and always have, but simple lettering doesn't do it for me, and a little infusion of green would be nice to see. Also, the rings in the elbow area just don't do it for me. The current road whites aren't too bad. At least the logo is present.

My suggestion: Go round. By that I mean, a round logo pattern. Look at the St. Louis and Minnesota examples. Clean, classy look. The round logo simply rocks.

With a change in ownership on the horizon, do you believe the current look will change?

We're going to take a bit of a holiday break here at Defending Big D. We wish everyone a fun and safe holiday weekend, and hope there's plenty of BBQ to go around.

In an effort to foster a little community between Dallas-area SB Nation sites (Lone Star Ball, Mavs Money Ball, Blogging the Boys, etc..) SB Nation is sponsoring a get together of sorts next Thursday at Frankie's in Dallas.

We had our first Defending Big D watching party at Frankie's in Lewisville, and it was a great place to watch a game, so I suspect the Dallas location will be every bit as good.

*There is an RSVP page they would like you to use here, should you decide to come or not.

And here is the release about the event:

Hey Sports Fans!

Still thinking about that last game?  Already looking forward to next year's draft?  Can't believe your team just did that -- again? Well, we've got just what you need: the inaugural SB Nation Dallas Meet-up! 

Please join your friends from SB Nation and your fellow Dallas sports fans for an evening of good company, great sports conversation and free stuff. 

Thursday, June 10th, 2010
5:00 - 8:00 PM
Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill (Uptown location)
3227 McKinney, Dallas, TX 75204

Food and drink specials, giveaways and great raffle prizes!

And there will at least be a Rangers game to watch that night, starting at 7:05pm.