Who Should New Jersey Devils Protect In Seattle Expansion Draft?

The National Hockey League prepares to expand to 32 teams in time for the 2021-22 season after announcing a new team on Tuesday. That will be the second time in a decade that they will have an expansion draft to expand this great league.

The team will be located in Seattle, Washington and become the 25th team located in the U.S. They will be a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. As a result, the Arizona Coyotes will join the Central Division and the league will officially be a league with four divisions of eight teams.

So, how does this impact our New Jersey Devils? It is a lot more difficult than the Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Draft in 2017. The Devils were in a bit of a different position at that time than they are now. Even though this season isn’t going according to plan so far, they are in a much better position organizationally now then they were back then, which makes it harder. The Devils will likely lose a good player this time around.

In 2017, the Devils lost John Merril to Vegas. He wasn’t much of an impact player for them en route to a berth in the Stanley Cup Final. The Devils are one of few teams that didn’t really contribute to their success. This is because they did not really have an impact player available to them. They went the route of protecting eight skaters and a goalie instead of seven forwards, three defenseman and a goalie.

They protected Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique, Andy Greene, Damon Severson, Mirco Mueller, John Moore and Cory Schneider. The rookies on their entry level deals were exempt from expansion and therefore did not need to be protected.

Seattle paid a large sum to be granted their franchise, so they will have the same exact rules of expansion that the Vegas Golden Knights. The Devils will have a very different roster following the 2019-20 season, so it is pretty much impossible to predict who will and will not be protected.

It all depends on a few things like trades, big free agent signings, and whether or not Taylor Hall ultimately re-signs. If Taylor re-signs with New Jersey Devils, he will be protected as he is the face of the franchise and will likely have a no move clause.

The men who were rookies in 2017-18 will not be exempt this time around. Devils star Nico Hischier is the only piece that is almost guaranteed to be protected out of that group. You would think that if Jesper Bratt and Will Butcher are still with the club and hadn’t been traded by that point, that they would also be on the protected list.

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It is hopeful that Pavel Zacha really takes the next step and earns a spot on the protected list, this would mean that three years from now that he is a true part of the Devils core and is an impact player.

Kyle Palmieri should be with the team at that point, unless they really bottom out and eventually trade him. If he is with the team, he will be protected as he is currently part of the core and makes an impact almost every single game. He is one of the great goal scorers in the NHL, so if the Devils are competing at this time and he is still with the team, he will absolutely be protected.

The rest of the roster is hard to pinpoint because there could be trades, there could be a big free agent signing, as the Devils have some good money coming off the books as well as already existing cap space. I would however say that I believe they will go the seven forwards, three defenseman and one goalie route this time around.

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There is a good chance the Devils will lose a pretty good player this time around, but we have to hope that it is because the team has a lot of depth and can’t protect everyone. This is an exciting time yet again for everyone who loves the beautiful game of hockey. Seattle, welcome to the greatest league in the world.

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