In three days, the Vegas Golden Knights will unveil their initial roster. Today, they (finally) have a clear idea of what their options are.
NHL clubs submitted their final “protected lists” to Central Registry and the NHLPA yesterday, and this morning, the league made all teams’ lists available to the public. The Blue Jackets, armed with a few no-movement clauses (which mean automatic protection) and good young players, have protected the majority of their core.
Here’s the 7-3-1 list that Jarmo Kekalainen submitted:
FORWARDS
Nick Foligno – NMC
Brandon Dubinsky – NMC
Scott Hartnell – NMC
Alexander Wennberg
Cam Atkinson
Boone Jenner
Brandon Saad
DEFENSEMEN
Seth Jones
David Savard
Ryan Murray
GOALTENDER
Sergei Bobrovsky – NMC
A reminder: David Clarkson is considered exempt from the expansion draft because of a career-threatening injury.
That leaves names like Josh Anderson, Joonas Korpisalo, William Karlsson, Matt Calvert and Jack Johnson available to Golden Knights GM George McPhee; while it’s entirely possible that some of the Blue Jackets’ exposed players have been protected in another side deal, those trades will not be announced until after Vegas’ selections are unveiled on Wednesday night.
All first and second-year professionals – i.e. Zach Werenski and Oliver Bjorkstrand – are exempt from the expansion and not included on the list.
The Golden Knights will select 30 total players from these lists: 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. No fewer than 20 of those players must be under contract for the 2017-18 season and the selected players’ contracts must total between 60-100% of the prior season's upper limit for the salary cap.
Today is also the first time that teams will see other protected lists; TSN's Pierre LeBrun made a good point about what today's "reveal" could mean for subsequent trade chatter around the league:
Another reminder: teams are going to see the lists today and then call Vegas to say: Can you draft that guy for us and we'll give you this..
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 18, 2017
