The NHL expansion draft is rapidly approaching! This will be the means by which the Vegas Golden Knights acquire players for their inaugural NHL season in 2017-18. In preparation, I will be posting a series of posts to explore the rules of the draft, and how the Winnipeg Jets might approach it. The series will include:
- Exploring the rules of the NHL expansion draft and how they apply to the Winnipeg Jets
- 7/3/1 or 8/1 for the Winnipeg Jets?
- The Defense: would Toby Enstrom waive his No-move clause?
- The Forwards: will the Jets try to cash in on Mathieu Perreault’s peak value by trading him prior to the expansion draft?
- Veteran goaltender: exploring the impact of acquiring one before the expansion draft
- My projected Winnipeg Jets expansion draft protected list.
In this post, I will consider the issues that impact upon the Winnipeg Jets decision to protect either:
- 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goalie; or
- 4 defensemen, 4 forwards and 1 goalie
In order to take a closer look, I have included an adapted version of the table of Jets players eligible for the expansion draft from my last post. This time, I have divided eligible players into the following two groups: those whom the Jets would realistically consider protecting, and those whom they would not, either because they are easily replaceable, or they would not be particularly sought after.
Winnipeg Jets Players Eligible for the Expansion Draft
*Red font denotes players who must be protected due to No Move clause
On the surface, things seem simple enough: we have a list of 13 candidates, and the Jets can protect between 9 and 11, depending on the composition of the list. Further, the 7/3/1 option will allow them to protect two extra players, so it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? In goal, it certainly is, with only one realistic option to protect, but as we move out from the crease it becomes more complicated, due to some of the other rules I discussed in my previous post. Specifically, since both Toby Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien have No Move clauses, in the 7/3/1 option, the Jets would have to leave Tyler Myers unprotected (since it goes without saying that Jacob Trouba will be protected). In addition, the Jets can’t simply protect their 7 favourite forwards out of the 8 I identified as being potentially worthy of protecting. Due to games played requirements, one of Perreault, Lowry or Armia will have to be exposed even if the Jets protect 7 forwards.
Many fans have suggested that some of these issues could be solved by convincing Enstrom to waive his No Move clause. I’ll consider that possibility when I take a closer look at the Defence.
Could a timely trade of a forward help the situation, perhaps by capitalizing on a high point in value of Mathieu Perreault? I’ll look at that when I review the Forward group.