NHL Expansion Draft - Pittsburgh Penguins

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	30	NMC – Evgeni Malkin	$9,500,000	UFA – 2022	X
C	29	NMC – Sidney Crosby	$8,700,000	UFA – 2025	X
RW	29	NMC – Phil Kessel	$6,800,000	UFA – 2022	X
RW	30	Patric Hornqvist	$4,250,000	UFA – 2018	X
LW	28	Carl Hagelin	$4,000,000	UFA – 2018	X
LW	37	Chris Kunitz	$3,850,000	UFA – 2017	X
C	28	Nick Bonino	$1,900,000	UFA – 2017	X
C	40	Matt Cullen	$1,000,000	UFA – 2017	X
C	23	Oskar Sundqvist	$700,833	RFA – 2017	30GR
RW	24	Josh Archibald	$659,167	RFA – 2017	26GR
RW	24	Bryan Rust	$640,000	RFA – 2018	X
LW	24	Scott Wilson	$625,000	RFA – 2018	X
RW	25	Tom Kuhnhackl	$625,000	RFA – 2018	X
C	23	Jean-Sebastian Dea	$593,333	RFA – 2017	39GR
LW	26	Garrett Wilson	$575,000	UFA – 2017	35GR
C	31	Kevin Porter	$575,000	UFA – 2017	27GR
LW	29	Tom Sestito	$575,000	UFA – 2017	27GR

Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Cap Hit	Expiration	40/70
D	29	NMC – Kris Letang	$7,250,000	UFA – 2022	X
D	22	Olli Maatta	$4,083,333	UFA – 2022	X
D	33	Trevor Daley	$3,300,000	UFA – 2017	X
D	28	Ian Cole	$2,100,000	UFA – 2018	X
D	39	Mark Streit	$1,761,375	UFA – 2017	X
D	36	Ron Hainsey	$1,416,667	UFA – 2017	X
D	26	Justin Schultz	$1,400,000	RFA – 2017	X
D	23	Derrick Pouliot	$863,333	RFA – 2017	29GR
D	25	Brian Dumoulin	$800,000	RFA – 2017	X
D	24	Frank Corrado	$600,000	RFA – 2017	27GR
D	26	Chad Ruhwedel	$575,000	UFA – 2017	X
D	27	Cameron Gaunce	$575,000	UFA – 2017	28GR
D	26	David Warsofsky	$575,000	UFA – 2017	33GR
D	26	Tim Erixon	$575,000	RFA – 2017	40GR
D	23	Stuart Percy	$575,000	RFA – 2017	40GR

Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Cap Hit	Expiration
G	32	NMC Waived – Marc-Andre Fleury	$5,750,000	UFA – 2019
G	22	Matt Murray	$3,750,000	RFA - 2020

Exempt List

• INJ - RW Pascal Dupuis
• C Thomas DiPauli
• C Jake Guentzel
• C Teddy Blueger
• RW Daniel Sprong
• C Dominik Simon
• LW Conor Sheary
• C Carter Rowney
• C Zach Aston-Reese
• D Ethan Prow
• D Lukas Bengtsson
• D Jeff Taylor
• G Sean Maguire
• G Tristan Jarry

Explanation of my Protection List

• The Penguins have way more than ten skaters that they would like to protect and will want to protect the maximum, so they will protect seven forwards and three defensemen.  They have three forwards with NMCs in Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, and Phil Kessel.  They will also protect Patric Hornqvist.  I think that they will protect their trio of young forwards Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson, and Tom Kuhnhackl who they would all like to protect but only have to spots.  On defense, Kris Letang has a NMC so he takes up one of the protect spots at the position and Olli Maatta and Ian Cole get the other two spots since they're the only other two under contract.  At the goaltender position, now that Marc-Andre Fleury has waived his NMC, the Penguins will be protecting Matt Murray.
• At the forward spot, only Carl Hagelin is left unprotected and with term left.  The Penguins will have to re-sign a forward in order to meet exposure requirements.  On defense, they have no players left to be exposed so the team will once again have to re-sign a defenseman to expose. In net, Matt Murray is currently the only other goaltender left to be exposed.
• Now that Fleury has waived his NMC and he wasn't moved before the trade/waiver freeze, it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will be taken by Vegas.

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