[Alberta_Beef]

Okay some digging paid off. I found an old HF thread asking about the expansion rules from nearly a decade ago.

We already knew this:

26 of the 28 teams existing in the league at the time of the draft were each allowed to protect either one goaltender, five defensemen, and nine forwards or two goaltenders, three defensemen, and seven forwards. The Atlanta Thrashers and Nashville Predators had their entire rosters protected, as they were the two newest franchises in the league, only being in existence for one and two years respectively.

I found that 1st and 2nd year pros (AHL and NHL experience) were ineligible to be taken in the expansion draft. So guys like Monahan, Reinhart, Knight... etc would be exempt. An example given was Colin White who at the time had just 21 NHL games but had spent 2+ years in the AHL prior to his call-up was eligible to be picked so the Devils had to protect him.

But back then there were no ELCs, so there are some grey areas. Joni Ortio for example is in year 3 of his ELC, but is only in his 2nd pro season. Another is Baertschi, he played a handful of games as an emergency recall but his ELC never kicked it so he is only in year 2 of 3 in his ELC, but has played in 3 different pro seasons. For the purposes of defining gray areas I have deemed Joni Ortio eligible and Baertschi ineligible based on the ELCs as I believe this is the criteria the NHL would now use.

So I have 2 lists.

Those eligible for an expansion draft (based on the rules used from 1998-2000):
My picks who I would protect are in bold

• Backlund, Mikael - Eligible
• Bouma, Lance - Eligible
• Breen, Christopher - Eligible
• Brodie, T.J. - Eligible
• Butler, Chris - Eligible
• Byron, Paul - Eligible
• Cammalleri, Mike - Eligible
• Colborne, Joe - Eligible
• Cundari, Mark - Eligible
• Eddy, David - Eligible
• Galiardi, T.J. - Eligible
• Giordano, Mark - Eligible
• Glencross, Curtis - Eligible
• Hudler, Jiri - Eligible
• Jones, Blair - Eligible
• Jones, David - Eligible
• MacDermid, Lane - Eligible
• MacDonald, Joey - Eligible
• Martin, James - Eligible
• McGrattan, Brian - Eligible
• O'Brien, Shane - Eligible
• Ortio, Joni - Eligible
• Ramo, Karri - Eligible
• Roy, Olivier - Eligible
• Russell, Kris - Eligible
• Smid, Ladislav - Eligible
• Smith, Derek - Eligible
• Stajan, Matt - Eligible
• Stempniak, Lee - Eligible
• Street, Ben - Eligible
• Westgarth, Kevin - Eligible
• Wideman, Dennis - Eligible

And those ineligible using those same rules:

• Baertschi, Sven - Ineligible
• Berra, Reto - Ineligible
• Billins, Chad - Ineligible
• Elson, Turner - Ineligible
• Ferland, Michael - Ineligible
• Granlund, Markus - Ineligible
• Hanowski, Ben - Ineligible
• Jooris, Josh - Ineligible
• Kanzig, Keegan - Ineligible
• Klimchuk, Morgan - Ineligible
• Knight, Corban - Ineligible
• Monahan, Sean - Ineligible
• Poirier, Emile - Ineligible
• Ramage, John - Ineligible
• Reinhart, Max - Ineligible
• Sieloff, Patrick - Ineligible
• Wotherspoon, Tyler - Ineligible