NHL Expansion Draft - Carolina Hurricanes

Expansion Draft Rules

All information from NHL.com

Protected Lists

• Clubs can protect one of two options:
• Seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender
• Eight skaters and one goaltender
• All players with No-Movement clauses in their contract have to be protected unless they waive their clauses
• All first- and second-year pro players will be exempt from selections and don't have to be protected

Player Exposure Requirements

• Clubs must meet minimum requirements for exposure in the Expansion Draft:
• One defenseman who is under contract in 2017-18 and played in 40 or more games in 2016-17 or played in 70 or more games in two prior seasons.
• Two forwards who meet the same requirements as above
• One goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18.

Vegas Requirements

• Must select one player from each existing club for a total of 30 players
• Must select at least 14 forwards, 9 defensemen, and 3 goaltenders
• Must have a minimum 20 players under contract for the 2017-18 season
• Must reach the salary cap floor and cannot exceed the cap ceiling
• May not buy out any players selected in the Expansion Draft before the first summer following their first full season

Protection List

• NMC= No Movement Clause
• NTC= No Trade Clause
• Red = Who I would protect

Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Cap Hit	Expiration	40/70
C	28	NMC – Jordan Staal	$6,000,000	UFA – 2023	X
LW	24	Jeff Skinner	$5,725,000	UFA – 2019	X
C	24	Victor Rask	$4,000,000	UFA – 2022	X
LW	31	Bryan Bickell	$4,000,000	UFA – 2017	33GR
C	22	Elias Lindholm	$2,700,000	RFA – 2018	X
RW	34	Lee Stempniak	$2,500,000	UFA – 2018	X
LW	25	Joakim Nordstrom	$1,275,000	RFA – 2018	X
C	34	Jay McClement	$1,200,000	UFA – 2017	X
C	26	Andrej Nestrasil	$912,500	RFA – 2017	X
C	22	Teuvo Teravainen	$894,167	RFA – 2017	X
LW	23	Phillip Di Giuseppe	$817,500	RFA – 2017	X
LW	23	Brock McGinn	$811,667	RFA – 2017	X
LW	22	Erik Karlsson	$661,667	RFA – 2017	40GR
C	24	Patrick Brown	$650,000	UFA – 2017	26GR
C	28	Andrew Miller	$650,000	UFA – 2017	40GR
C	25	Connor Brickley	$650,000	UFA – 2017	40GR
LW	24	Brendan Woods	$650,000	UFA – 2017	40GR
RW	26	Danny Kristo	$575,000	UFA – 2017	40GR

Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Cap Hit	Expiration	40/70
D	25	Justin Faulk	$4,833,333	UFA – 2020	X
D	23	Ryan Murphy	$787,500	RFA – 2018	8GR
D	25	Klas Dahlbeck	$750,000	RFA – 2017	X
D	22	Trevor Carrick	$675,000	RFA – 2017	40GR
D	26	Matt Tennyson	$675,000	UFA – 2017	X
D	25	Dennis Robertson	$650,000	UFA – 2017	40GR
D	25	Philip Samuelsson	$600,000	UFA – 2017	40GR

Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Cap Hit	Expiration
G	28	Scott Darling	$4,150,000	UFA - 2021
G	33	Cam Ward	$3,300,000	UFA – 2018
G	29	Eddie Lack	$2,750,000	UFA – 2018
G	22	Daniel Altshuller	$728,333	RFA – 2017
G	35	Michael Leighton	$700,000	UFA – 2017

Exempt List

• RW Julien Gauthier
• LW Sebastian Aho
• C Andrew Poturalski
• C Aleksi Saarela
• LW Valentin Zykov
• C Nicolas Roy
• C Clark Bishop
• C Lucas Wallmark
• LW Sergey Tolchinsky
• C Derek Ryan
• C Janne Kuokkanen
• D Jake Bean
• D Noah Hanifin
• D Haydn Fleury
• D Brett Pesce
• D Roland McKeown
• D Jaccob Slavin
• D Josh Wesley
• D Tyler Ganly
• D Jake Chelios
• G Alex Nedeljkovic
• G Callum Booth

Explanation of my Projected List

• Jordan Staal is the only Hurricane with a no-move clause, so he must be protected, although he would be even without NMC.  I think there are certainly more than four forwards that the Hurricanes need to protect and so they will probably go with seven forwards and three defensemen.  Other forwards they will probably protect are Jeff Skinner, Victor Rask, Elias Lindholm, and Joakim Nordstrom, all players with term left on their contracts.  I think that they will also protect Phillip Di Giuseppe and Teuvo Teravainen, both of whom are RFAs but are young and important pieces to Carolina's future.  On defense, Justin Faulk and Ryan Murphy are easy picks for the team to protect and I think that of their remaining young eligible defensemen, they will pick Klas Dahlbeck.  They will need to re-sign one of their free agent defensemen to a contract for next season so they can fulfill the exposure requirement.  In net, the Hurricanes will certainly protect Scott Darling, whom they acquired from Chicago early in the offseason.
• The Hurricanes will allow Lee Stempniak to be exposed as their only forward with term left on his contract.  They will also let several young RFAs to be selected by Vegas if they so choose. Vegas could draft a really good and young defensemen from Carolina if they so choose to since Trevor Carrick and Matt Tennyson will probably both be exposed. 
• Carolina is lucky that the Expansion Draft is this year and now following the 2017-18 season because they aren't required to protect a majority of their young players including Sebastian Aho, Noah Hanifin, Brett Pesce, or Jaccob Slavin.  Instead, the Hurricanes are going to be just fine after the Expansion Draft and will be able to get away with giving up a depth defenseman or an aging forward such as Lee Stempniak.

*All cap and salary information come from CapFriendly.com*