How will expansion draft affect Jets?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2016 (3488 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the NHL is going to expand for 2017-18, we’ll know by the draft in June.

In case one or two expansion teams are approved — and none remains a possibility the way some folks are talking — the league decided this week’s general managers’ meetings in Florida were a good place to start a conversation about some of the preparations that go with expansion, namely an expansion draft.

The parameters of such an exercise have been contemplated and now floated to the GMs but word this week is some of these ideas are less than carved in stone.

Many things are to be decided, including definitions of experience and contracts.

In addition, the league and the players association have scheduled meetings to discuss how they will potentially deal with players who have no-move clauses in their contracts. In other words, does the clause remain in effect or not?

Presumably, the same meetings will also address players with no-trade clauses.

There’s also talk that current teams would have to expose a certain amount of salary to the expansion draft — the number being floated was 25 per cent of the previous year’s payroll. And the expansion teams would be required to select players equalling a certain dollar figure so as to meet the league’s salary-cap-range requirements.

The only thing that seemed certain from the information made public this week was if there’s a one-team expansion, each NHL team would lose one player maximum.

If there’s a two-team expansion, then it would be two players selected from each existing team and no more.

So with all of that as a preamble and knowing Winnipeg Jets’ fans are a curious lot, we’ve embarked on a purely speculative exercise in trying to project what a Jets’ expansion-draft protected list might look like if one were needed in June, 2017.

Here’s what you need to know about this list as it’s made up:

❚ certain young players (with only one or two years of pro experience, any level) are exempt from selection. Nikolaj Ehlers, Eric Comrie and Andrew Copp fit in this category;

❚ this list is assembled with the assumption Toby Enstrom’s no-move clause leaves him out of the process, but that could easily change;

❚ The idea has been raised that teams may protect eight skaters and one goalie, but we’ve presented a list with the other option, seven forwards, three defenceman and one goalie;

❚ In order to make the projected requirement of salary exposure, the simple choice could be to expose the UFAs of summer 2017, Ondrej Pavelec, Drew Stafford, Mathieu Perreault, Chris Thorburn. Doing so would put the Jets most of the way towards meeting that requirement.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca