Hey all, since I'm only moderately interested in the remaining hockey playoffs, I figure I would start looking at the next big thing after the Stanley Cup...the expansion draft. Teams have been preparing for this for over a calendar year now, and it looks like most teams have a pretty good idea of who they're going to protect.
There are a LOT of free agents this year due to the draft, so I made sure that the player I drafted had a contract for next season, or under RFA status. Using CapFriendly's draft tool, I made protected lists for each team with my likely inadequate knowledge of each team's roster, but I did my best. They rule out all the players that are exempt from the draft for you. The tool forces you to pick one player from each team, and a minimum of 3 goalies, 9 defensemen, and 14 forwards. Obviously there are a few more than that if you pick 30 players, which makes me think that there will be a couple of trades as a result of the draft.
I focused on younger good players where available, and key veterans who are good both ways to maintain some stability. Drafting players from some teams was extremely difficult (Vancouver, Dallas, and New Jersey specifically). There was just nobody really all the good available on those teams.
Here's the list of teams with the player I drafted from each team:
Anaheim-Sami Vatanen
Arizona-Luke Schenn
Boston-Adam McQuaid
Buffalo-Matt Moulson
Calgary-Troy Brouwer
Carolina-Lee Stempniak
Chicago-Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Colorado-Calvin Pickard
Columbus-Matt Calvert
Dallas-Curtis McKenzie
Detroit-Jimmy Howard
Edmonton-Mark Letestu
Florida-Mark Pysyk
L.A.-Nick Shore
Minnesota-Jonas Brodin
Montreal-Torrey Mitchell
Nashville-Colin Wilson
New Jersey-Jon Merrill
NYI-Calvin De Haan
NYR-Michael Grabner
Ottawa-Zack Smith
Philadelphia-Matt Read
Pittsburgh-Ian Cole
San Jose-Jannik Hansen
St. Louis-Dmitrij Jaskin
Tampa Bay-Vladislav Namestnikov
Toronto-Kerby Rychel
Vancouver-Luca Sbisa
Washington-Philip Grubauer
Winnipeg-Joel Armia
The team is cap compliant with about $8 million to spare. That means they could feasibly add a couple of free agents to the forward group should they feel so inclined. Judging by the defense you see below, I'd be shocked to see Engelland get signed in Vegas. His best bet would be getting re-signed by the Flames.
Here's my best guess for the lines:
Moulson-Namestnikov-Grabner
Wilson-Smith-Hansen
Read-Letestu-Stempniak
Calvert-Mitchell-Brouwer
Shore/Jaskin
De Haan-Vatanen
Brodin-Van Riemsdyk
Cole-Pysyk/Schenn/McQuaid (whoever you want)
Howard-Pickard
Minors: Armia, Rychel, McKenzie, Sbisa, Merrill, Schenn, Grubauer
I think the defense is above average, and the goaltending is solid, but not amazing. The forwards have great depth, but horrible top end talent.
Thoughts? Who would you have picked from each roster instead? Where does this team rank in the NHL? Does it have a chance to make the playoffs?
Argh....I was about to publish it and my browser crashed, so I can't provide the link to it any longer.
Edit: Ok, I re-did it all. Here's the link.
https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/56823