Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Draft Strategy: Metropolitan Division
By Trin Potratz
CAROLINA HURRICANES
The Hurricanes have not been able to go full rebuild, so their impact players are at risk for expansion, but the club shouldn’t have to worry about losing a really good player in expansion.
The Hurricanes don’t have many defensemen to worry about protecting, so they will go with a 7-3-1 format. Up front Jordan Staal is protected by his NMC, and Jeff Skinner and Victor Rask are surefire to be protected. Elias Lindholm and Teuvo Teravainen are you and productive enough to warrant protection as well leaving two spots. The Canes will likely protect prospect Phil Di Giuseppe and will need to decide between Lee Stempniak, Joakim Norstrom, Andrej Nestrasil and Brock McGinn for the final forward to be protected. I have the canes protecting Brock McGinn.
On defense, the Canes have most of their starting defensemen on the exemption list with Brett Pesce, Noah Hanifin and Jaccob Slavin not needing to be protected. All-Star Justin Faulk is the obvious selection, and Trevor Carrick is a prospect that deserves to be considered. The final spot will come down to Ryan Murphy or Klas Dahlbeck. While both players have struggled, Murphy’s draft pedigree gets him protected. The Canes will have to either sign Matt Tennyson or Klas Dahlbeck to an extension to meet exposure requirements, or play Tennyson for six regular season games.
In goal, Cam Ward is worth more to the franchise than Eddie Lack, so he gets protected.
PROTECTED: Jordan Staal, Jeff Skinner, Victor Rask, Elias Lindholm, Teuvo Teravainen, Phil Di Giuseppe, Brock McGinn, Justin Faulk, Ryan Murphy, Trevor Carrick, Cam Ward
NOTABLE EXPOSED: Lee Stempniak, Andrej Nestrasil, Joakim Nordstrom, Brendan Woods, Klas Dahlbeck, Eddie Lack, Daniel Altshuller