June 17 is a day hockey fans and fantasy hockey geeks will be looking forward to.
The NHL will have its first expansion draft this summer since 2000 when Columbus and Minnesota entered the league. The Vegas Golden Knights will begin to assemble their roster between June 17 and 5:00 P.M. ET June 20. The league will then make an announcement of their selections the following day at a public event at T-Mobile Arena.
The league announced today that the list of protected and available players all 30 teams have to submit to the league will be made available.
UPDATE: Protected & Available Lists for Expansion Draft will be made public simultaneously with their distribution to the Clubs. Date TBD.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 29, 2017
What this means is that every player will know if they are protected or exposed. It will also mean that hockey fans and wannabe fantasy GM’s could assemble their own theoretical roster at the same time as Vegas GM George McPhee, who still doesn’t have a head coach.
Here are some notable things to remember regarding the expansion draft, as published by the NHL last summer:
- Teams get to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender or Eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender.
- Players who have No Movement Clauses at the time of the expansion draft must be protected and count towards player limits.
- All first- and second-year professionals, as well as all unsigned draft choices, will be exempt from selection (and will not be counted toward their club’s applicable protection limits).
- The Golden Knights must select 30 players (One from each team) consisting of the following position requirements: 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders.
- The Golden Knights must select a minimum of 20 players who are under contract for the 2017-18 season. They also cannot buyout any players they select until the 2018 off-season.
- The Golden Knights must select players with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season’s upper limit for the salary cap
As for the NHL Entry Draft, they will have the same odds in the first round as the third-worse team once the regular season is completed. No matter the result of the lottery, they will select no-worse than sixth. They will select third in subsequent rounds (subject to trades and transactions).
