Expansion Draft: Who Will the Detroit Red Wings Protect?

The next three weeks are going to be very busy for Detroit Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman and his management team.  They have been carefully examining the Red Wings roster preparing for the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft that will take place Wednesday July 21st at 8 p.m. ET.  This draft will be followed by the NHL Entry Draft scheduled for July 23-24.  On July 28th, the start of free agency will begin at noon ET.

As a staff, we are going to try to predict the players that Detroit will protect and leave unprotected.  We are also going to explain why we think Steve Yzerman is going to protect this group of players.  We are also going to identify, with rationale, what players will be left unprotected.  Finally, we will try to predict which Detroit Red Wings player will be selected by Seattle.

Expansion Draft Rules for Seattle

The same rules will apply to Seattle that were used to provide players to the Vegas Golden Knights.  The Kraken will select one player from each team team, excluding Vegas.  They must select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders.

Clubs have two options for protecting players.  They can protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender.  They could also decide to protect eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender.

The general consensus among staff is that Detroit will protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender.