Tampa Bay Lightning

The Bolts' Blueprint for Expansion Draft
May 20, 2017, 3:48 PM ET [2 Comments]
John Gove
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It is hard to argue that there is something more exciting going on in the world of hockey this summer than the NHL Expansion Draft. Whether you agree or not that the league should be expanding to 31 teams next season, you cannot deny the intrigue and uncertainty that comes with the expansion draft and the preparation that goes into it.

Of course, the Vegas Golden Knights are tasked with creating an NHL roster that will hopefully be able to hold their own against the other 30 teams in the league. However, they are not the only organization that needs to make big decisions. Every other franchise has to decide who on their roster they are going to protect and who are they going to leave vulnerable.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, similar to other teams without four "protection worthy defensemen", will most likely elect to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender.

The Bolts are required to protect their players with no movement clauses, which include Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Ryan Callahan. Of course Tampa Bay would be protecting Stamkos and Hedman no matter what but it would be nice if they could expose Callahan and that brutal contract. I find it unlikely that Vegas would be interested in Callahan even if he was exposed. The word appealing does not come to mind when we think of things like being an injury risk and having a heavy cap hit.

The other obvious forwards the Lightning will make sure can't be touched by Vegas are Nikita Kucherov, Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat. Yes, Drouin, Johnson, and Palat are all set to become RFA's this summer. However, Steve Yzerman will either want to re-sign these gentlemen or at least get something in return for their departure through a trade.

I think that the seventh forward the Lightning will decide to protect will be Vladislav Namestnikov. The former first-round pick still brings a bunch of potential to the table and should be a valuable asset to this team for some time. Although I don't think Vegas will bite, exposing Alex Killorn and his mind-boggling contract is the right move to make. Tampa Bay would love to get him off of their books but I don't see the Golden Knights wanting to bring him in.

Anton Stralman is the other obvious blueliner to protect but the third defenseman is kind of up in the air. When it's all said and done, I think that Yzerman will decide to protect Slater Koekkoek and expose the likes of Jason Garrison, Braydon Coburn, Jake Dotchin, Luke Witkowski, and Andrej Sustr. Ideally, the Bolts would love to see either Garrison or Coburn get drafted but I find the chances of that happening to be highly unlikely.

Then, the Lightning will obviously decide to hold on to their number one netminder heading into next season, Andrei Vasilevskiy. This will leave 24-year-old Kristers Gudlevskis exposed.

Some teams could receive a nasty blow to the chest when the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft is all said and done. Personally, I do not think the Lightning will be one of those organizations. They will be in a position to expose some players they'd like to see go while protecting most of the key pieces to this current roster.