On Protected Lists and the Expansion Draft …
Pierre LeBrun: “A reminder: some of the players you will see exposed today may already be protected in another fashion by a side deal with Vegas.”
Pierre LeBrun: “Another reminder: teams are going to see the lists today and then call Vegas to say: Can you draft that guy for us and we’ll give you this … So Vegas can balance what another team is willing to pay for another team’s unprotected player vs. what that team will pay not to lose him … No matter how you slice it, it’s good to be GM GM over the next few days”
Pierre LeBrun: It’s the Golden Knights plan to make trades over the next few days and then announce the trades on Wednesday.
Harvey Fialkov: Have a feeling that the Florida Panthers have made a side deal with Vegas so that they keep Johnathan Marchessault. He’s their best pure goal scorer.
Pierre LeBrun: The Ducks left both Sami Vatanen and Josh Manson unprotected but the belief is they already have a deal in place with Vegas.
Pierre LeBrun: The Predators protected Calle Jarnkrok and exposed James Neal. Predators GM David Poile will try and work out a trade with Vegas.
Arthur Staple: The Islanders left Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome and Calvin de Haan unprotected, which indicates that they have a deal in place with Vegas to stay way from those players.
Andy Graziano: Islanders protected shows there definitely has to be something already in place. Protecting Adam Pelech over Calvin de Haan is marginally curious.
Darren Dreger: Interesting that the Islanders protected five defensemen and three forwards. Source saying that they will send Vegas a first round pick to not select their main unprotected forwards.
Elliotte Friedman: Belief is that the Islanders have a trade in place with Vegas.
Aaron Portzline: The Blue Jackets list is a mere formality as they likely have a deal in place with Vegas. They did protect Ryan Murray over Jack Johnson.