The Vancouver Canucks will have some interesting decisions to make on who to protect in the expansion draft coming up. Will they go seven forwards, three defenseman, and one goaltender or will they go eight skaters (forwards/defenseman) and one goaltender. They will have some tough choices for some of their spots but let’s take a look at their forward decisions first and then I’ll go through the rest of their decisions.
Forward Decisions
Vancouver will have to protect their three forwards who have no movement clauses and those would be the Sedin twins and Loui Eriksson who was just signed last year to a six year contract. He had just 11 goals and 24 points this year in 65 games and is signed for five more years with six million per season.
Following those players, Bo Horvat should easily be protected by Vancouver as he had 20 goals this past season and is one of their best young forwards on the team. He’s only going to get better for them as he enters his peak years.
For the other forwards, they’ll likely have to protect Brandon Sutter as he’s another above-average player that they have and he’s signed to a five year contract. He’s one of their top two centers as well and despite struggling this past season, he’ll likely be better next season.
Following Sutter, they have Sven Baertschi who they’ll want to protect as he had 18 goals this past year. His 35 points were a career high for him so it’d be wise to protect him as he has a chance to be a 20 goal scorer next year.
Lastly, they’ll want to protect Markus Grandlund as he also had a coming out party for Vancouver this year with 19 goals. His previous career high was eight when he was with Calgary and he also set a career high in points with 32.
Defense Decisions
Vancouver won’t have any automatic protections as none of their defenseman have NMC’s, but they’ll definitely protect Alexander Edler as he plays top minutes for them. He had six goals and 21 points this past season. He’s getting a bit older but they wouldn’t want to lose their best defenseman for nothing.
For the other 2 defensive spots, it’s really hard to say who they’re going to protect since it could be any of them. I think one of them will go to Erik Gudbrandson as the Canucks will want to give him another season as he only played 30 games this past year. He was only a 47.6% possession player in 30 games but he needs to play a full season too.
The last spot is a toss up between Chris Tanev and Luca Sbisa and it shouldn’t be that hard of a decision for the Canucks. That being said, Jim Benning tends to make some interesting decisions and I think they’re going to protect Luca Sbisa. Sbisa is a possession nightmare as his underlying numbers are terrible. He was a 45.7% possession player this past season and before that he was 43.4%.
There’s also a report that Chris Tanev could be moved before his modified no-trade clause kicks in on July 1st and that the Dallas Stars are potentially interested. It wouldn’t surprise anyone though if they went the other way around and exposed Sbisa and kept Tanev.
Goaltender Decision
This one is fairly simple as it’s unlikely that the Cancuks are going to sign Ryan Miller back. They’ll opt to protect Jacob Markstrom as he was the backup to Miller during the season.
Predicted Players and their cap hits
Forwards
Daniel Sedin – $7M through 2018
Henrik Sedin – $7M through 2018
Loui Eriksson – $6M through 2023
Bo Horvat – RFA
Brandon Sutter – $4.375M through 2022
Sven Baertschi – $1.850M through 2018
Markus Granlund – $900,000 through 2018
Defenseman
Alexander Edler – $5M through 2020
Erik Gudbrandson – RFA
Luca Sbisa – $3.6M through 2018
* idea that Tanev will be traded
Goaltender
Jacob Markstrom – $3.66M through 2021
Top two options on who they would most likely lose
Vancouver could potentially lose Jayson Megna as he’s likely not being protected by them and would be exposed for Vegas. He did only put up four goals this season though so Vegas wouldn’t be getting a big coup in Megna. The other option they could lose is Derek Dorsett who the Canucks wouldn’t mind since $2.650M cap hit would come off. I would think between the two though, that Megna is the more likely player to get chosen since Vegas may not value Dorsett that much. ** On premise that Tanev is moved before the expansion draft **
If Vancouver were to make a trade that could alter their protected list
I think the Canucks are hoping that they can move Chris Tanev as I stated above since his modified no-trade clause kicks in July 1st. There isn’t much smoke out there for other players but you never know when Jim Benning will strike as he’s very unpredictable.
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