A couple of the gurus within our great hockey network of blogs were hypothesizing what it might be like if the NHL held an expansion draft. Who would current teams protect? Who would be drafted? What would the lineups be like after the draft and would those two new teams be competitve at all?
Of course, you need to have actual expansion teams in order to have a parallel draft, so it was decided to run the whole way with this. Choose expansion cities, give the teams a name, protect players, and then hold the draft.
This thing took off a bit faster than I expected and the expansion cities have already been selected, (Winnipeg and Quebec City), but the voting is now open for the team names. If the concept interests you, go to SB Nation Hockey for more information.
Toward the middle of the week, we at Canes Country will be discussing which players the Carolina Hurricanes will be protecting.
After the jump, check out the "league's protection rules".
*Ground rules on protected lists:*
- Teams can protect either "1 goalie, 5 defensemen and 9 forwards" OR "2
goalies, 3 defensemen and 7 forwards."
- If you go the two goalie route, at least one goalie left unprotected must
have played in at least 10 games last season OR 25 games in the last two
seasons combined. One game = at least 31 minutes.
- Each team must leave unprotected at least one defenseman who appeared in
40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
- Each team must leave unprotected at least two forwards who appeared in 40
games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
- Players who have played in 49 or fewer games are automatically exempt and
do not need to be protected.
*
Ground rules on drafting:*
- Each expansion team selects 30 players. A total of 60 players will be
selected.
- The first 26 picks are to be used on three goaltenders, eight defensemen
and thirteen forwards.
- The final four picks can be used to pick a player at any position.
- Only one goalie or one defenseman can be selected from each existing team.
- Team must be compliant with the salary cap.
Share your ideas here if you want to participate and we will submit Carolina's "protected list" to the league on Thursday.