That leaves an eligible pool of reliable NHL veterans at all three positions (forward, defense, goalie), any number of younger players with the Kraken hockey operations staff poised to determine their individual upsides, plus what most league observers consider players with bigger contracts likely not worth the value for the length of their contracts.
NHL general managers must choose between one of these two combinations for constructing their franchise protected lists:
Some fans might examine these two combinations and conclude, easy, the 7-3-1 sequence adds up to 11 players. That's two more players than what the 8-1 combo represents.
But some teams are likely to choose the eight skaters option because they want to protect four or more defensemen. One example: Tampa Bay just won two straight Stanley Cups with Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Eric Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev all putting up big minutes and making big plays on both ends of the ice.
Hedman, the 2020 playoffs MVP, has a no-move clause in his contract and must be protected-and isn't going to be exposed in anyone's most vivid imagination. Cernak has size, physical style of play and a right-handed shot, all qualities Tampa Bay needs to three-peat.
McDonagh was on a lot of mock expansion draft boards as a potential pick during the regular season, mostly because of his salary cap hit of $6.75 million average annual value through the 2025-26. But his clutch play in the postseason, especially passing and getting the puck out of the defensive zone, turned heads at age 32.
Scouts like McDonagh even if his output declines into the mid-30s ("if he declines by 20 or 30 percent, he's still better than 80 percent of the guys in this league right now," told The Athletic's Joe Smith). For what it's worth, his TBL teammates love him too.
Sergachev, 23, played strong in the playoffs and made Montreal regret trading the former first-round pick during the just-completed Stanley Cup Final. He's got No. 1 defenseman written all over his play, though he will have to wait several years to overtake Hedman.
In case you are wondering-and aren't we all?-that leaves a flurry of forwards available to the Kraken, plus promising defenseman Cal Foote, 23, who was picked 14th overall by Tampa Bay in the 2017 Entry Draft.
When Vegas received the protected lists in 2017 ahead of the Expansion Draft, 23 teams took the 7-3-1 route, including the Washington Capitals, who went on to win the 2018 Stanley Cup that subsequent season. St. Louis, the 2019 Cup champ went 7-3-1 too.
Six teams chose to protect four forwards and four defensemen (Arizona, Florida, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Jersey and Pittsburgh).
One team, the New York Islanders, protected five defensemen and just three forwards. Three of those defensemen, Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech and Nick Leddy, all averaged 23-plus minutes to lead the 2021 postseason Isles, 1-2-3, in time on ice. The Islanders made it to the semifinal round for the second year in a row and took Tampa Bay to seven games, losing 1-0 on a shorthanded goal.
The defense-loaded 8-1 combo worked largely because the Islanders persuaded Vegas to pass on a number of unprotected forwards who were top performers this postseason, including Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson, Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas.
The incentive was sending a 2017 first-round draft pick (No. 15 overall) and 2019 second rounder to Vegas with an agreement to pick goalie Jean-Francois Berube, who never played for the NYI and signed a free-agent deal a few days after the draft when his contract expired.
