After months of guessing, the 30 NHL teams have finally released their protected lists for the NHL expansion draft that’s coming up on June 21st.  Who did the Oilers protect? Who could be landing in Las Vegas? I have the answers. 

With the Golden Knights set to pick a player from every team in the league, there were countless mock drafts and articles written about who teams would protect and what kind of roster activity would happen leading up to the Draft. Now that the lists are out, taking swings at who does or doesn’t make the cut will give hockey fans plenty more rope to speculate on who will get taken by Vegas and what their team might look like* come Wednesday.

The Oilers went with the 7-3-1 strategy that was almost expected considering the shelves are stocked with forwards as compared to what’s happening on the backend where some of the important pieces are exempt. Frankly, the Oilers are lucky that players like McDavid, Nurse, Caggiula, Benning, Slepyshev, and Puljujarvi are exempt from this draft because that found money allowed them to keep a sizeable portion of their depth chart away from Vegas’ grubby little hands. My point is that this round of expansion came at a solid time for the Oilers and we should be thankful for that. Got it? Of course you do.

Who will feel the relief of protection? Who will feel the crippling sense of rejection by their NHL clubs?

My friends, the official list:

Now that you’ve seen the official list, I want to know what you think about who made the cut and who was worth the gamble of being left exposed. Do you think there’s anyone they missed? Is there someone that got protected that shouldn’t have been? Is there any chance on Gord’s green earth that Benoit Pouliot gets taken? Say your piece, Nation.