Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
If I remember correctly from the last expansion draft, pending UFAs were exempt from protection, and for teams to add them to their protected lists it required a new contract.
This is what happened with Engelland; because he signed as a UFA with VGK, he then counted as their selection from the Flames. I could totally see the exact same thing happening with Derek Ryan, and I would also be reluctant for the Flames to extend him prior to the expansion draft because of what it would likely cost.
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I don't think there was any special exemption. It just wouldn't make any sense to protect a player who could sign with any team he wants less than 2 weeks after the expansion draft. I doubt anyone would have tried to stop a team that wanted to waste one of their protection slots on a pending UFA.
In fact, thinking back, until the Smith trade, it looked like the Flames protected goalie was likely to be a pending UFA... and it appears that Arizona actually did protect Chad Johnson as their goalie in the Vegas draft.
In most situations, it wouldn't make sense for an expansion team to take a pending UFA in the expansion draft, but Vegas taking Engelland was a very special case. As Vegas residents, the team wanted Engelland and his wife to be available as resources to the new players on the team, to offer advice on where to live and where to send their kids for school and things like that. They also wanted them to reassure the new players and their families that there's more to living in Vegas than just what you see on the Strip.
In order to have him and his wife available to do all that, he had to officially be a member of the team.
I don't think Seattle will have the same issues to deal with. Also, a player who's from Spokane isn't going to have any special insight into living in Seattle. That would be like expecting someone who was born and raised in Lethbridge to be an expert on living in Calgary.