San Jose Sharks

The Sharks have options when choosing who to protect in NHL Expansion Draft
May 9, 2017, 1:25 AM ET [1 Comments]
Steve Palumbo
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The Las Vegas Golden Knights begin play in 2017-18 and before they ever take the ice they must fill up a roster that currently consists of a handful of KHL defectors. That all changes on June 20th when Vegas will select one player off of each team’s roster to assemble a team of their own at the NHL expansion draft.

The entire expansion draft process is unique and exciting and for somebody currently on the San Jose Sharks roster it will spell the end of their time in the Bay Area and a new beginning on the newest Pacific Division rival.

General manager Doug Wilson and the rest of his staff have decisions to make before the draft - so many decisions.

If you're still wondering how this whole draft process works - let me fill you in.

Per the NHL -
each of the league's current 30 teams must submit a protected List by 5 p.m. (ET) on June 17. Vegas must submit its Expansion Draft Selections by 5 p.m. (ET) on June 20. The announcement of the who the Golden Knights selected in the expansion draft will be released June 21.


Each team can protect their players in one of two ways:

A. They can choose to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie

Or

B. Protect eight skaters — regardless of position — and one goalie.

Each of the two scenarios has its advantages and Wilson has to decide which works best for his team. The Sharks have a bit of an advantage already because both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are unrestricted free agents and by league rules can't be drafted by Vegas.

Also, Players with two years or less of NHL or AHL experience are safe from the dastardly claws of the Vegas draft machine. That means skaters like Joonas Donskoi, Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc are safe. 

This unique wrinkle gives the Sharks some flexibility with their protected list.

San Jose has a few no-brainers to protect like Logan Couture, Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Martin Jones. However, that right there is a list of five skaters and goalie.

Who to protect next becomes tricky.

If the Sharks go with option A, protecting seven skaters and three defenseman, they can hold onto some of their talented younger forwards but run the risk of losing a top four defenseman like Paul Martin or Justin Braun. I'd be more inclined to see Martin leave than Braun. That's just me.

With option B, protecting eight skaters would allow San Jose to keep their top end defenders in place but would expose the Chris Tierney and Mirco Mueller's of the world. Losing Mueller would sting because he's highly regarded within the organization.

Other Sharks that could be exposed are Mikkel Boedker, Brendon Dillon, Joel Ward, Barclay Goodrow, David Schlemko, Jannik Hansen and Dylan DeMelo.

Wilson and the Sharks must choose wisely to minimize the effect of the lost player. Luckily they still have the option of bringing back Thornton and Marleau to help fill the void.

or lose both plus a Tierney or Mueller. Hmmmm...Let's not think about that.

However they choose - the Sharks will lose a very good hockey player to a rival and that's never fun.

Regardless, the birth of an NHL franchise is a very interesting process and the expansion draft makes the Vegas Knights seems that much more real. If anything, the Pacific Division just got a bit more exciting for the upcoming 2017-18 season - not that it needed anymore excitement.

Any thoughts? Which option would you choose if you were Doug Wilson? Which player lost would hurt San Jose the most? Have at it.