Latest Expansion Draft Talk
With the official rules now in place, the Penguins’ brass have just begun in the last week to 10 days examining the expansion draft much closer.
The Penguins learned in mid-November by the NHL the following players have to be automatically protected:
Sidney Crosby
Evgeni Malkin
Marc-Andre Fleury
Phil Kessel
Kris Letang
Based off the structure of their roster, when the time for the expansion draft comes, the Penguins seem to certain to take the Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender option than the Eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender option.
Projecting who the Penguins will protect is kind of pointless in December because the Penguins could still shake up this roster a bit between now and the trade deadline and obviously have the goaltender situation to sort out between now and June.
However, my sense of the situation that if the draft were today, this is the 10 skaters the Penguins would protect and in order of how they’re valued.
Forwards
Sidney Crosby
Evgeni Malkin
Phil Kessel
Patric Hornqvist
Conor Sheary
Bryan Rust
Carl Hagelin
Defensemen:
Kris Letang
Olli Maatta
Brian Dumoulin
Goaltender
Matt Murray
The personnel on the blueline might be the Penguins weakness, but the team believes there’s a strong chance they could lose a quality defender. Under this scenario, Ian Cole, Justin Schultz (RFA), Trevor Daley (UFA), Derrick Pouliot would all be exposed.
The looming expansion draft is also impacting extension talks for players who might or might not be protected as agents have concerns for clients signing extensions now, not getting protected and getting selected in the expansion draft.
That’s been a topic of discussion between Penguins d[hide]efenseman Trevor Daley and his agent Rich Curran in recent weeks, per sources.
The Penguins are open to an extension as is Daley, but Curran is smart enough to know there’s no guarantee Daley would be protected. At Daley’s age and raising a family, he has no interest in playing for Vegas.
Agents and players have to weigh that scenario now. From Daley’s standpoint, the best move might be to just wait till the summer, though, a decision not to sign an extension hasn’t been made.
Justin Schultz also becomes an interesting case in the coming months.
Although he was a UFA last summer because the Penguins didn’t tender him, he doesn’t turn 27 till July 6, meaning he’s an RFA this summer and a lock to be tendered at $1.4 million.
Schultz is eligible to sign an extension on January 1, 2017.
Schultz is starting to become a strong fit as a No. 3 defenseman. Penguins assistant Jacques Martin see’s some No. 2 pairing ability down the road still in Schultz. Others, though, disagree and believe his ceiling is right where how the Penguins are deploying him right now.
Regardless, he’s a player that will surely interest Vegas to some degree. Vegas GM George McPhee wants a fast quick team with puck movers on the backend.
Schultz is repped by Wade Arnott of Newport Sports. They almost always recommend their clients to not sign extensions in season.
Schultz, though, loves it in Pittsburgh but like Daley there would be risk to sign an extension now and potentially be left unprotected in June’s draft. [/hide]
DePaoli types like Jung Ho drives.
So I’m really bored waiting for someone who is an hour late, so I decided to do a goalie comparison for their last 7 games. Murray has made 176 saves on 192 shots for an average of 25.1 saves per game on 27.4 shots per game, which is good for a .917sv%. Fleury has made 234 saves on 258 shots for an average of 33.4 saves per game on 36.9 shots per game, which is good for a .907sv%. I thought it was interesting that while Murray has posted slightly better numbers, it been on a much lighter work load… Read more »
when is the writer going to realize there is no apostrophe in “sees”?
Seriously? D writes about as coherent as Sam does, understanding how to properly spell sees is the least of his concerns.
This site is full of Trolls, hacks and frauds. Soon DK will ban every member from this site going there and polluting his site
You’re right. You should leave.
He’s a special kind of stupid.
I love how people use the “doesn’t want to raise a young family in Vegas” rationale like the only options for the players would be to live in a casino on the strip. There are a ton of great places to live and raise a family in Nevada and California without ever having to get near Vegas. He’ll they could move their family to Malibu and only be 4hrs away.
Ya but then there is all the whores lol
you probably want to live in vegas so you can bang more AIDS infested hookers
I lived there for a short period of time and yes the whore are top notch.
I’m going to shine up my Dek hockey shoes and see if I make the golden knights.
the NHL doesn’t need more teams. they need less. here comes 22 more AHLers into the NHL next year.
Yep. God forbid more young players like Sprong & Geuntzel make it into the NHL. Without 5 AHL players the Pens never win the Cup last season but I wouldn’t expect you to understand since you were advocating blowing it up in March.
Ahem. April.
About the same time you were advocating a Crosby trade, no stanch?
Well again, I don’t advocate things that don’t have a chance of ever happening. It’s a waste of time. So, no. Now be a doll and go scrub down the shittter.
It’s cute how you run to yoda’s defense though. I’m sure he appreciates it.
Just putting you in your place capt. low self esteem.
The next time you manage to do that will be your first. Low self esteem? I love my life, maloni. You’d love it too.
You love your life what life the fact that you sleep in a library and on this site 24/7 waiting people comment something so you ca try to put then down.
#typicalFatDepressedAmerican
Yes Sam. A library. I sleep in a library. You’re so bad at this.
Every fucken opportunity too… Its like they are glued… ones dick to the others tonsils lol
Hey shitt stain Same can be said about you with npl, zerofool and gaydogg
when do you find the time to type such nonsense when you are scouring the internet to thumbs down everything?
I run to their defense? I mean, they’re all capable intelligent people. Why would they need my help? When talking to you? To yoda? Please. They’re just fine.
Liar.
you are dumb. if you add a team a minor leaguer has to come up and replace the guy you lost on your roster. it will make the league weaker.
Yoda this Vegas expansion team will be the strongest expansion team. It won’t be noting like the Ottawa senators .vegas is looking to win the cup in the next 6 years that’s how good and compatible team will be