The proposed expansion draft protection list for the New Jersey Devils is just wrong

The NHL is going down the path of expansion once again. Of the four major sports leagues, nobody has as aggressively approached expansion as Gary Bettman and the league on ice. It’s been that way for a while. 

The Original Six era ended in 1967. The NHL added 12 more teams by 1974 and then had a league of 21 teams by 1979 after it took over the WHA. That year, they added the Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Quebec Nordiques, also adding stars like Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. 

Recently, the NHL added the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken, two teams that have had very different results. And that expansion is not stopping there. Reports state that the NHL is considering moves to Houston, Austin, Arizona, and Atlanta. Hopefully, the third time is the charm in Atlanta. 

As part of those discussions, multiple journalists at The Athletic took a stab at pitching the protection list for all of the 32 teams in the league. 

As a reminder, the Devils used the “eight players” protection in 2017 (so they could protect Mirco Mueller at the time), and ended up losing Jon Merrill as a result. In 2021, they chose the option to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie, protecting names like Janne Kuokkanen, Miles Wood, and Pavel Zacha. 

Despite having more talent today, The Athletic thought the Devils would choose to protect eight players instead of seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie. That decision is insane, frankly. 

Their choices were the following: Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier at forward, Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, Johnny Kovacevic, and Seamus Casey on defense, and Nico Daws in net. 

The Athletic’s expansion draft choices for the Devils make no sense

This leaves an insane amount of talent available for a hypothetical Houston team. It also protects two defensemen who aren’t even tops on the team. Casey is coming off an injury-riddled campaign and Kovacevic is on a terrible contract that was signed by the previous regime. Kovacevic has a no-trade clause that stops him from being moved, but he doesn’t have a no-move clause, so he can be exposed in an expansion draft.

In The Athletic’s draft, the Houston team takes Dougie Hamilton. That makes sense. Despite his bloated salary, he’s still one of the better offensive defensemen in the league. He would give them a legit player on the right side to start their franchise, and they don’t care too much about the money right now. 

Meanwhile, that team would have had their choice of Arseny Gritsyuk, Connor Brown, Jonas Siegenthaler, Dawson Mercer, and Jake Allen. Those are some INCREDIBLE choices for an expansion draft. 

In reality, the Devils should protect the team like this:

Forwards:
Jesper Bratt
Jack Hughes
Nico Hischier
Dawson Mercer
Arseny Gritsyuk
Timo Meier
Cody Glass (assuming he re-signs)

Defensemen:
Luke Hughes
Brett Pesce
Dougie Hamilton

Goalie:
Jake Allen

Losing Gritsyuk on his current deal in an expansion draft would be nuts. Cody Glass is playing a very important role, and Dawson Mercer still has a ton of trade value to lose for nothing. Maybe the Devils trade Mercer before the draft so they can protect Brown.

Even with this draft model, the Devils are losing a good defenseman. Even if they lost Casey in the draft, it's not the end of the world. It would be immensely better than losing Hamilton for nothing.

That thinking seems to go back to people believing the Devils would have to retain significant salary or attach a draft pick to get a Hamilton deal done. That's not the case. Hamilton just has a no-trade clause and has been strategic with where he's willing to go.

The Devils are going to lose players in future expansion drafts. They are building this team right, and Sunny Mehta should only help that cause. However, they have to make good decisions in these drafts, and choosing to only protect eight players over 10 would be a fool's errand.

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