Leaving (for) Las Vegas Series: Expansion Draft Rules

I don’t know about you, but I’ve pretty much had it with the rumors that this player will be taken in the expansion draft or that player will be the one going. At NoVa Caps, we are familiarizing ourselves with the rules of the draft and will be offering up, in a series of reports, our opinion on who will and won’t be protected as the draft nears.

First things first, we know there are rules for the draft. The NHL has spelled those out. Clubs can choose to protect 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie OR 8 skaters (forwards and defensemen) and 1 goalie.

Additionally, players with “No Movement” clauses at the time of the draft must be protected and will count against the numbers spelled out above. First and second year pros as well as unsigned draft choices do NOT count against those numbers.

Then there is list of exposure requirements, which further complicate matters.

1 defenseman who is under contract for next season and has played at least 40 games this season or 70 between 2015-2017.
2 forwards meeting that same criteria as the defenseman.
1 goalie who is under contract for 2017-2018 or will be a restricted free agent this season. The goalie must have received his qualifying offer prior to being placed on the list though.
Players with potential career-ending injuries or who have missed more than the past 60 games consecutively may not be used to satisfy these exposure requirements unless approved by the NHL.

Confused yet? Then there are the requirements on Las Vegas’s end. They will select one player from each team. They must select 14 forwards, 9 defensemen, and 3 goalies. 20 of those players must be under current contract for the 2017-2018 season. Their salary cap must be between 60-100% of the prior season’s upper limit.

The lists will be submitted on June 17 and will be made public. Until that time, fans can head over to CapFriendly and play around on their Expansion Draft Tool. We’ll have new articles coming, by position, on who will and who won’t be protected.

By Julie Beidler

Follow @juliebeidler