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Tampa Bay Lightning expansion draft protected list offered only one surprise

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By Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
June 18, 2017


Now the anticipation builds.

All 30 NHL teams have submitted their list of players they have protected for the expansion draft. Vegas general manager George McPhee and his staff have the opportunity to pour over the list of available players and go about the task of wheeling, dealing and assembling an initial 30-man roster from the available players.

Let the scrutiny, exasperated moments, shocked responses and numerous mock drafts (including one I’ll participate in with The Scrum Sports guys) begin before it’s all revealed Wednesday night during the NHL Awards show on NBCSN.

Click below to see Tampa Bay’s list of protected players.

Tampa Bay elected to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender:

Forwards: Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov, Alex Killorn and Ryan Callahan.

Defense: Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Braydon Coburn

Goaltender: Andrei Vasilevskiy

That leaves the following unprotected and available for selection Vegas. This list includes players who are on Tampa Bay’s reserve list as well as all pending unrestricted and restricted free agents. Vegas has the opportunity during an exclusive window to negotiate deals with all the available free agents on a team’s unprotected list; if Vegas does sign one of the pending restricted or unrestricted free agents, it will count as the one player a team will lose to Vegas.

And remember, Tampa Bay will lose one of these players:

Forwards: Carter Ashton, Michael Bournival, J.T. Brown, Cory Coacher, Erik Condra, Gabriel Dumont, Stefan Fournier, Byuron Froese, Yanni Gourde, Mike Halmo, Herni Ikonen, Pierre-Luc Letoruneau-Leblond, Tye McGinn, Gregg McKegg, Cedric Paquette, Tanner Richard, Joel Vermin

Defense: Dylan Blujus, Jake Dotchin, Jason Garrison, Slater Koekkoek, Jonathan Racine, Andrej Sustr, Matt Taormina, Luke Witkowski

Goaltenders: Peter Budaj, Kristers Gudlevskis, Jaroslav Janus, Mike McKenna.

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