After months of speculation, the big day finally arrived yesterday. The NHL released the protected lists for all 30 teams, setting the stage for the Vegas Golden Knights to make their picks and fill out their first roster on Wednesday.
It was the culmination of a long process for the league’s teams, with several having to make tough choices to get their list just right. And it capped off weeks of debate and discussion between fans over which players would make the cut and which would end up being exposed.
Those sorts of debates are always fun. So today, let’s stay in the expansion spirit by coming up with 30 more protected lists. But this time, we’re thinking a little bigger. We’re looking for each team’s all-time protected list, based on every player who’s ever suited up for the team.
Why yes, I did have some time on my hands over the weekend, thanks for asking. As always, we need some arbitrary rules before we get started, so let’s go with these:
• Every team can protect players from its all-time roster based on the rules from this year’s expansion draft, i.e. one goaltender and either seven forwards and three defencemen or eight skaters from any position. As with this year, players with less than two years of pro experience are exempt.
• In the case of players who played for multiple franchises, the team they played the most regular-season games for will get first crack.
• We’re counting a franchise’s entire history, meaning the Avalanche also get the Nordiques, the Hurricanes get the Whalers, etc. The original Jets are paired with the Coyotes while the modern version gets the Thrashers.
• We’re basing this on what a player did with that team, not what they may have accomplished elsewhere. For players who are still active, we’re also looking ahead to what they may do in the future.
• Given the crossover in eras, we don’t care about contracts.
Once we have all 30 protected lists, we’ll… well, we won’t really do anything with them. It’s not like the Golden Knights are looking to draft many guys from the 1940s, and George McPhee probably has his hands full over the next few days. This is mainly an excuse to argue, debate and call me an idiot in the comment section. That seems like as noble a purpose as any, so let’s get started.
Anaheim Ducks
The blue line isn’t as easy as you might think, since the two best defencemen in team history – Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger – will both show up on other rosters.
Forwards: Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Steve Ruchin, Andy McDonald, Sammy Pahlson
Defencemen: Oleg Tverdovsky, Francois Beauchemin, Cam Fowler
Goalie: J.S. Giguere
Toughest omissions: Ruslan Salei is the franchise leader in games played by a defenceman, but doesn’t make the cut here.
Arizona Coyotes (and original Winnipeg Jets)
There was some thought to going with eight skaters here to squeeze in Keith Yandle, but that would have cost us some old-school Jets.
Forwards: Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Shane Doan, Keith Tkachuk, Doug Smail, Laurie Boschman, Paul MacLean
Defencemen: Randy Carlyle, Teppo Numminen, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Goalie: Mike Smith
Toughest omissions: Goalie is a tough call, as it will be for most teams. We went with Smith over Bob Essensa and Nikolai Khabibulin, since he’s a Coyote for life. (Checks weekend headlines.) Oh.
Boston Bruins
As you’d probably expect, the Original Six teams will feature some of the toughest calls on our list. That’s especially true for the Bruins, who have to go with the eight-skater option thanks to a defensive corps that may be the best position group in league history.
Forwards: Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, Rick Middleton, Cam Neely
Defencemen: Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, Eddie Shore, Brad Park
Goalie: Frank Brimsek
Toughest omissions: Using four spots on defencemen costs us forwards like Wayne Cashman, Terry O’Reilly, Ken Hodge and Patrice Bergeron. But the toughest omission might be yet another blueliner, as they miss out on keeping Zdeno Chara.
As always, a great read. Love your site. My heart bleeds for Reggie Leech.
ReplyDeleteWerenski is unavailable.
ReplyDeleteAs a Rangers fan, Step can stay on off the list, but maybe McD in the last D spot. Agreed on Hank for the goalie spot - he came pretty damn close to the Cup at least.
ReplyDeleteSo we have a protected all time list, now where's the all time expansion draft article? One player from each all time team that wasn't protected. See how good the "all time" Golden Knights stack up to the worst all time team (e.g. based on the protected lists above).
Love your articles. Maybe sneak us a new "secret transcript" article on your main site. The Matt Cooke suspension hearing transcript is still to this day the best thing I have read about hockey, ever. I know that kind of satire is probably unbecoming of where you are today, but my god... so good.
I tried posting this on Sportsnet comments and got "content disabled". Guess they didn't like me talking about your previous work? Sportsnet really blows, tbh. The autoplay video/audio is obnoxious.