Vegas Golden Knights: Mock Draft and Roster Projection
Carolina Hurricanes:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Eddie Lack
Protected Players:
Jordan Staal (NMC), Jeff Skinner, Victor Rask, Elias Lindholm, Joakim Nordstrom, Teuvo Teravainen, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Justin Faulk, Ryan Murphy, Klas Dahlbeck, Cam Ward.
Best Exposed Players:
Lee Stempniak, Jay McClement, Andrej Nestrasil, Brock McGinn, Matt Tennyson, Eddie Lack, Connor Brickley.
Like Calgary, Carolina’s main guys are now safe with a 7-3-1 plan. And what’s even better is the fact that the guys left exposed aren’t that hot of commodities. The only player(s) that put up any sort of risk are Eddie Lack or Connor Brickley, but the Canes can always be saved with a pick.
Chicago Blackhawks:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Tomas Jurco
Protected Players:
Patrick Kane (NMC), Jonathan Toews (NMC), Marian Hossa (NMC), Artem Anisimov (NMC), Marcus Kruger, Richard Panik, Ryan Hartman, Brent Seabrook (NMC), Duncan Keith (NCM), Niklas Hjalmarsson (NMC), Corey Crawford (NMC).
Best Exposed Players:
Tomas Jurco, Michael Latta, Dennis Rasmussen, Johnny Oduya, Brian Campbell, Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Viktor Svedberg, Scott Darling.
With Chicago having so many players with NMC’s and not having a lot of defense to protect, they are safe with a 7-3-1 plan. This way they can keep their main three d-men and go fill the voids via free agency.
Colorado Avalanche:
Protection Plan: 4-4-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Carl Soderberg
Protected Players:
Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikhail Grigorenko, Erik Johnson (NMC), Tyson Barrie, Eric Gelinas, Nikita Zadorov, Semyon Varlamov.
Best Exposed Players:
Carl Soderberg, Blake Comeau, Rocco Grimaldi, Matthew Nieto, Sven Adrighetto, Francois Beauchemin (NMC Waived), Duncan Siemens, Patrick Wiercioch, Mark Barberio, Calvin Pickard.
Colorado has quite a few players that in my opinion would be on the way out anyways, so with four important d-men in need of protection, this leaves the team using a 4-4-1 plan. And in this mock I had them waving Beauchemin’s NMC in order to protect Nikita Zadorov.
Columbus Blue Jackets:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Sam Gagner
Protected Players:
Brandon Saad, Brandon Dubinsky (NMC), Nick Foligno (NMC), Cam Atkinson, Boone Jenner, William Karlsson, Alexander Wennberg, Seth Jones, Jack Johnson, David Savard, Sergei Bobrovsky.
Best Exposed Players:
Scott Hartnell (NMC Waived), Matt Calvert, Lauri Korpikoski, Josh Anderson, Daniel Zaar, Sam Gagner, Lukas Sedlak, Ryan Murray, Kyle Quincey, Scott Harrington, Oscar Dansk, Joonas Korpisalo, Anton Forsberg.
Columbus had a lot of success this year with their youth, now the problem is they have a lot of talent exposed no matter what plan is done. But with a 7-3-1 plan, they can atleast keep every offensive piece that helped them along with three solid d-men. Now the tricky part is who to save with draft picks, Matt Calvert, Josh Anderson, Lukas Sedlak, Sam Gagner, Ryan Murray, Joonas Korpisalo or Anton Forsberg?
Dallas Stars:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Greg Pateryn
Protected Players:
Jason Spezza (NMC), Patrick Sharp, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn (NMC), Cody Eakin, Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa, John Klingberg, Jamie Oleksiak, Esa Lindell, Kari Lehtonen.
Best Exposed Players:
Ales Hemsky, Antoine Roussel, Jiri Hudler, Curtis McKenzie, Dan Hamhuis, Greg Pateryn, Stephen Johns, Antti Niemi, Mark McNeill, Valeri Nichushkin.
The great thing for the Stars is the fact they don’t have a lot left to protect in terms of forwards after I have covered their top players. Now Roussel, McKenzie, Johns, McNeill, and Nichushkin are some solid players. So now it comes down to who would be the best to protect, and with three d-men only being protected, they could use a pick to protect Johns.