The Oilers In An Expansion Draft – Part 2

Last week, I looked at the impact that an expansion draft would have on the current Edmonton Oiler roster. Now, it was a fun exercise, but it was also more fantasy than anything. An expansion draft is likely coming, but it won’t happen for another year or two.

Let’s go on the conservative side and say that the NHL doesn’t grant franchises to Quebec City and Las Vegas until the start of the 2017-2018 season. That would mean two more seasons of play in the NHL, two more years of potential movement for the Oilers and other teams.

As you can imagine, Edmonton’s roster will likely be vastly different in two seasons. As a refresher, you can read up on the rules from the 2000 NHL expansion draft here. This is the format that I used in my exercise.

Subtractions:

Certain players will see their contracts expire before another expansion draft, and most of those players likely will not be re-signed. For the sake of argument, I’ve assumed that Andrew Ference, Nikita Nikitin, Eric Gryba, Lauri Korpikoski, Teddy Purcell, Matt Hendricks, Luke Gazdic and Rob Klinkhammer have all been let go.

Ference will likely retire at the end of his current deal, while Edmonton will probably gladly walk away from Nikitin at the end of the upcoming season. Klinkhammer, Gazdic, Hendricks and Gryba are all replaceable role-players, while I assume a prospect will jump up and take the spots of Lauri Korpikoski and Teddy Purcell.

The 2017-18 Edmonton Oilers:

This is obviously a very, very premature list. There will likely be NHL additions, possibly big ones, but we just can’t predict that. So, I’ve assumed that Edmonton will only grow internally during the next two seasons, I’m replacing departing players with players currently in the system.

Again, the odds that this is actually the team in two years are VERY small, but this is all for fun, so we have some leeway. I assume NHL players will be added via both trade and free agency within the next two years.

Taylor Hall – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Nail Yakupov (re-signed)

Anton Slepyshev – Leon Draisaitl (re-signed) – Anton Lander (re-signed)

Tyler Pitlick (re-signed) – Mark Letestu – Iiro Pakarinen (re-signed)

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Oscar Klefbom (re-signed) – Justin Schultz (re-signed)

Griffin Reinhart(re-signed) – Jordan Oesterle (re-signed)

Brandon Davidson (re-signed)

Cam Talbot (re-signed)

Laurent Brossoit (re-signed)

Option A:

In this option, Edmonton keeps one goalie, five defenders and nine forwards. Remember, players on entry level deals are automatically protected and do not count, so Edmonton would already have Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse and Anton Slepyshev protected, that’s a big damn deal.

Goalie: Cam Talbot (Tough, tough pick, but I’m assuming he works out. I’d go with the proven guy at the time)

Defenders: Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom, Griffin Reinhart, Justin Schultz, Jordan Oesterle

Forwards: Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov, Leon Draisaitl, Anton Lander, Iiro Pakarinen, Mark Letestu

With Nurse already protected, Edmonton ends up retaining all six of their top defenders, Brandon Davidson would be the only casualty. Up front, thanks to Slepyshev and McDavid being on ELC’s, Edmonton would get to keep their top eleven forwards, losing only Tyler Pitlick and both extra forwards (say, Mitch Moroz and Kale Kessy)

Option B:

This is a very rare one, and I can’t see many NHL teams using it, but if both Brossoit and Talbot are playing good hockey, Edmonton might be tempted. Here, you can protect two goalies, but can only keep three defenders and seven forwards.

Goalies: Cam Talbot and Laurent Brossoit

Defenders: Oscar Klefbom, Griffin Reinhart, Andrej Sekera (Nurse on ELC)

Forwards: Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Leon Draisaitl, Benoit Pouliot, Anton Lander (McDavid, Slepyshev on ELC)

Final Verdict:

Edmonton catches a big break if Slepyshev makes the roster, because that would be two skilled players automatically kept off the board. They also luck out with Darnell Nurse being kept off, because that’s potentially an impact defender off the board and in Edmonton’s pocket.

Obviously, the summer of 2017 is a long ways off, but this is still a fun little thing to do in the dog days of August. One thing is evident from this, Edmonton wouldn’t risk losing much in this case, only role players and replaceable veterans.