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Originally Posted by PeteMoss
This is unclear as well.
It seems like the some guys became UFAs after recent expansion drafts. Columbus picked Dallas Drake in the Expansion draft which was in June 2000 and then he signed with St.Louis on July 1, 2000. They also took Mathieu Scheinder and he signed LA that summer.
I suppose it would give the expansion team a shot to sign a free agent prior to the rest of the league could (similar to those UFA trades that sometimes happen - believe the Flames did this with Wideman and Bouwmeester).
If that's the case - the would make Wideman a much harder guy to trade. If the Flames had to protect him they'd pretty much have to go the eight skater route instead of losing one of their big 3.
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Part of the reason that happened back in the last expansion is you used to get draft picks for lost UFAs. It's was why you'd see a bunch of big names dealth June 30th just to sign with their old team on July 1st.
Expansion teams were expected to be terrible for 5+ years off the bat so extra picks were an asset.