Looking ahead

NHL’s GMs starting to think about next expansion draft with Seattle looming

Kevin Cheveldayoff isn’t expecting NHL general managers to completely rewrite the script when the next expansion draft rolls around.

He does, however, believe some tweaks are in order with it seeming more and more likely Seattle will become the league’s 32nd franchise in the not-toodistant future.

“Everyone’s going to probably look at it differently,” the Winnipeg Jets GM said at last week’s meetings in Florida. “It will probably have a lot to do with where you are in your own organization and own team.”

When the Vegas Golden Knights started to build their roster at last June’s expansion draft - a process where a new team gets to pluck unprotected players from the league’s existing clubs - it was the first such exercise in the NHL since 2000 when the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets became its 29th and 30th franchises.

GMs in that era actually had to cope with expansion drafts three straight years (the Nashville Predators in 1998 and the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999 were the other two) and would have had a handle on the process by the end.

The rules changed drastically to allow Vegas to ice a competitive team right away in a nontraditional hockey market after paying US$500 million to join, with established clubs facing the reality of losing more talented players than in expansion drafts past.

GMs were only allowed to protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goalie or eight skaters and one goalie this time around. Players with nomovement clauses had to be on that list unless they agreed to waive, while first- and secondyear professionals, as well as unsigned draft picks, were exempt.

All other players were up for grabs, with each team guaranteed to lose a member of its roster.

One of the stories of the NHL this season after clinching a playoff spot Monday, the Golden Knights benefited greatly from the system by playing GMs off of each other in side deals to gather as many draft picks and as much talent as possible.

“(Vegas) did a great job of taking advantage of the rules and maximizing assets,” New Jersey GM Ray Shero said.

Seattle as the NHL’s next franchise, possibly as early as early 2020, appears to be a slam dunk. A deep-pocketed potential ownership group led by billionaire David Bonderman and filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer submitted an expansion application to the league in February.

And that means GMs of the league’s other clubs will have to again begin mapping out which players to protect and how to minimize losses.

“We try to look what’s been done in the past and what to try and learn from it, but at the time of all of our decisions, including Vegas’s decisions, we make the decision based on the information we have,” Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman said. “We’ll be able to look at it next time around.

“Would we do anything different? I don’t know, but first of all it will depend on what we’re trying to accomplish.”