The expansion draft is upon us. After an entire season of build-up, the process by which the Vegas Golden Knights will be built has finally begun.
Teams were given two ways to structure their protection lists — the list of players Vegas is not allowed to take from a team. They could protect 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and a goaltender or 8 skaters, with any combination of defense and forwards the team chooses, and a goaltender.
The strength of the Dallas Stars is in their forward corps, so it comes as no surprise that Dallas went the 7 F / 3 D / 1 G route when putting their protection list together. Here’s the full list of protected Stars players:
Jamie Benn (F)
Tyler Seguin (F)
Jason Spezza (F)
Radek Faksa (F)
Brett Ritchie (F)
Antoine Roussel (F)
Valeri Nichushkin (F)
John Klingberg (D)
Esa Lindell (D)
Stephen Johns (D)
Ben Bishop (G)
Among the “not surprising” picks on this list are Jason Spezza (had to be protected due to no-movement clause), Jamie Benn (LOL like they’d ever leave him unprotected), Tyler Seguin (samesies), John Klingberg (you don’t leave your #1 offensive defenseman unprotected), and Ben Bishop (the shiny new goaltender they just acquired).
Radek Faksa, Brett Ritchie, and Valeri Nichushkin being protected is also not that surprising. Faksa is one of the best two-way forwards on the team and is still very young and you’re not going to allow Nichushkin’s rights to be snapped up for nothing — he has too much future potential. Ritchie is one of the few power forwards the Stars have on the team, and a great net-front presence.
Among Stars fans, the debate has raged whether the last protection slot would be used on the more expensive Cody Eakin, who had an abysmal offensive year last season, or Antoine Roussel, the scrappy utility player that’s a fan favorite.
It seems that the Stars chose to protect Roussel. Cody Eakin is available for the picking for Vegas. It’s not surprising to be honest. Roussel is a good two-way forward, and a feel good story to boot (having worked his way up as an undrafted player). He gives his all every shift, and it’s nice seeing him be valued for that.
Eakin is young and capable at the NHL level, but it seems as though with the awesome play of Faksa and a stable of young centers in Texas, he fell down the depth chart in Dallas. Paying a fourth line center $3.85 million for several more years isn’t the best cap management strategy, so leaving Eakin exposed may give the Stars a chance to get out from under that contract. Vegas would get a reasonably priced second line center, a valuable thing to have in the NHL these days.
On defense, the protection of Esa Lindell along with Klingberg was also all but a given. Lindell is only 23 and played tough minutes last season as a rookie. That left the Stars with one protection slot and several options of who to use it on. Protecting Stephen Johns was never a lock, but it seems that the Stars are valuing the potential Johns has.
That means veteran Dan Hamhuis and Jamie Oleksiak, he of 6’ 7” frame, are left available for Vegas to choose if they decide to take defense out of Dallas.
And, of course, exposing Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi is a no-brainer for Dallas. They are probably praying that Vegas takes a goaltender off the books for them. It feels unlikely they will, unless the Stars make a side deal with Vegas as an incentive to pick one of them in the expansion draft.
Now the Vegas Golden Knights have several days to make their picks of players left exposed.
Expansion draft picks by the Golden Knights will be announced in reverse order of last season’s standings. In other words, they’ll start with the league-worst Colorado Avalanche and work their way down to the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The player Vegas selects from the Stars will be the 7th selection when they announce the expansion draft during the NHL Awards ceremony this Wednesday.