The Flyers and the 2021 Expansion Draft: All You Need To Know

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With the 2021 NHL off-season now upon us one major factor that will play a part in the future of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team is the 2021 NHL expansion draft. The expansion draft is approaching at a rapid pace as it is taking place on July 21^st and there are a variety of challenges Flyers General Manager Chuck Fletcher will be faced with as the event looms ahead.

Expansion Draft Rules

In terms of the rules of the draft the newest team entering the league the Seattle Kraken will select one player from 30 of the 31 teams in the NHL aside from the most recent expansion team the Vegas Golden Knights who are exempt from this expansion draft. All 30 teams eligible to have a player selected in the draft must expose at least two forwards, one defenseman and one goalie who fall under the criteria listed below:

• Seattle must take a player from each NHL franchise
• Every participating team will have one player chosen
• All skaters exposed have to be under contract for the upcoming 2021-2022 season.
• All exposed skaters must have appeared in 27 games during the 2020-21 season or 54 games total over the last two seasons.
• The exposed goalie must be signed to a contract for 2021-22 or needs to be a restricted free-agent (RFA) at the end of this current season who has received a qualifying offer
• If a player has a NMC (no movement clause) within their contract they must be protected by their team unless this NMC is waived by the player.
•  Players in the first and second years of their entry level contract are not eligible for selection.
• Each team participating has the option to protect either seven forwards, three defenseman and a goalie or eight skaters and a goalie.
• All 30 teams having a player selected by Seattle must submit their protected roster lists by Saturday, July 17^th and the lists will be announced on the 18^th.

The Flyers Who Are Expansion Draft Eligible and Exempt

Eligible Forwards: Sean Couturier, James van Riemsdyk, Jakub Voracek, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton, German Rubtsov, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Connor Bunnaman, David Kase, Carsen Twarynski, Andy Andreoff, Pascal Laberge

Eligible Defenseman: Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Justin Braun, Ryan Ellis, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg, Samuel Morin, Nate Prosser, Chris Bigras, Derrick Pouliot, Tyler Wotherspoon

Eligible Goalies: Carter Hart, Felix Sandstrom, Brian Elliott, Alex Lyon

Another group of Flyers players are currently exempt from the expansion draft as they have only played two professional seasons of hockey or less. These players include: Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, Tanner Lacyzinski, Cam York, Tyson Foerster, and Zayde Wisdom.

Who Did the Flyers Protect and Expose, and Who Will Seattle Select? 

In regards to the Flyers and their off-season strategy, who they protected and exposed for this upcoming expansion draft provides an interesting outlook for general manager Fletcher and his staff in relation to the remainder of the summer.

First off there is a short list of Flyers players who must be protected. The most notable player of this group includes the Flyers longest tenured captain in history Claude Giroux because of his NMC. Joining Giroux on this list is center Kevin Hayes as he also has an NMC in his contract. Due to the Flyers depth with their forwards the team opted to go the route of protecting 7 forwards, 3 defenseman and 1 goaltender. Here’s the list of Flyers players who Fletcher protected in the upcoming expansion draft and why the team decided to go this route:

Forwards: Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton, Nicolas Aube-Kubel

The forwards above were protected by the Flyers because if any of them were left unprotected it would not be hard to imagine Seattle selecting any one of them. Additionally leaving players like Voracek, van Riemsdyk, and Gostisbehere who have large cap hits unprotected almost ensures that the Flyers will be getting some money off of their salary cap through the expansion draft. Aside from Giroux and Hayes who must be protected, it’s a no-brainer the team protected Couturier as he is the best player on the team. Konecny falls into that category too as a 24 year old forward who is one of the team’s best goal scorers with a combined 59 goals the last 3 seasons. He’s also on a manageable contract, and if he was not protected the Flyers would certainly lose him for nothing. Next up is a group of three players in Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton and Nicolas Aube-Kubel who are all fairly young, cost controlled and could all contribute in roles deeper down the lineup next season. Players like this should be kept and protected in order to ensure the team continues to have roster flexibility over the next few seasons and beyond. They also would not be hard players to move if things don’t pan out with them in regards to their fit on the team in the upcoming season. Due to this the Flyers protecting Lindblom, Laughton and Aube-Kubel was definitely the smart thing to do .

Defenseman: Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Ryan Ellis

On the defensive side of things the Flyers protecting Ivan Provorov was the most obvious choice as he is currently the Flyers best defenseman and logs the most minutes on the team. Next up Travis Sanheim despite having a 2020-2021 season where he clearly regressed is another defenseman who was also protected. Giving up on a player with as much upside as Sanheim as a result of one poor season would not be wise asset management by the Flyers. Not to mention the other options on defense the Flyers could have protected instead of the young defenseman simply aren’t that good and have nowhere near the potential of Sanheim thus enforcing the reasoning behind the Flyers protecting Sanheim. To round out the list of defenseman the Flyers have protected is newly acquired defenseman Ryan Ellis. It was essentially a forgone conclusion that Ellis would be protected in the upcoming expansion draft as the Flyers would not leave a top pairing defenseman they just acquired exposed for Seattle to select. The Flyers have been lacking a true bonafide top pairing defenseman to slot next to Ivan Provorov and with Ellis being acquired they finally have that issue resolved. It would have truly been shocking if Ellis was not protected by the Flyers, and his value to this blueline in the upcoming season shows exactly why he was indeed protected.

Goalie: Carter Hart

Lastly, and possibly the easiest protection slot for the Flyers to fill in this expansion draft was the goalie position. There is absolutely no doubt or discourse here surrounding the Flyers in regards to them protecting Hart. Even though he had a poor season in 2020-2021, Hart was showing signs of being the Carter Hart of the 2019-2020 season the few games before his season ending injury. Simply put the Flyers were not going to expose Carter Hart after one bad season especially when he has the potential to become one of the best goalies in hockey which he arguably was in 2019-2020.  

That sums up all the players the Flyers are protecting in this upcoming expansion draft. Listed below is the following players who will ultimately be exposed to selection by Seattle:

Jakub Voracek, James van Riemsdyk, German Rubtsov, Connor Bunnaman, David Kase, Carsen Twarynski, Andy Andreoff, Pascal Laberge, Justin Braun, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg, Samuel Morin, Nate Prosser, Chris Bigras, Derrick Pouliot, Tyler Wotherspoon, Felix Sandstrom, Brian Elliott, Alex Lyon.

Out of the players above the two I believe that may be selected by the Kraken are Jakub Voracek or James van Riemsdyk. Both players are far and away the best available on the Flyers list of players they have exposed for selection. They are still productive players and led the team in scoring this past season with 43 points each. Only furthering the notion that they are still valuable assets in this league as they can put up points. Locker room intangibles are also present with Voracek and JVR as they are veteran players who have a lot of experience in this league. To an expansion team like Seattle who will most likely have a younger roster selecting an established veteran like JVR or Voracek would be an asset in the locker room from a player mentorship perspective. The question mark surrounding if either of these two players will be selected by Seattle is the fact that JVR’s cap hit is currently 7 million dollars while Jake Voracek’s is 8.25 million dollars. Evidently, both players may not be worth that kind of money at this point in their careers however Seattle does need to add on salary to their roster to meet the cap floor. As a result of this either Voracek or JVR may potentially be the perfect fit for Seattle as they are still point producers in this league, have a myriad of experiences that would be valuable in the Seattle locker room, and would be assets in terms of reaching the cap floor.

Potential Side Deals

It had been confirmed by multiple sources around the NHL and Chuck Fletcher himself that Jakub Voracek would be left unprotected in this upcoming expansion draft. This past weekend teams protection lists were revealed once again confirming the fact that Voracek will be left unprotected by the Flyers. With the way the Jakub Voracek saga seems to be unfolding so far this summer it appears the Flyers are going to be a motivated team to move Voracek and his cap hit. This will ensure Fletcher has the roster flexibility to make some other significant changes to the team after the expansion draft. Unfortunately though the Flyers may have to provide some incentive to Seattle to select Voracek in the form of a side deal. There’s no telling what that may be however one can assume it can’t be more than a 1^st round pick or a B to A level prospect. Clearly, this price would be a steep one to pay in order for the Flyers to rid themselves of Voracek’s cap hit but if the Flyers want to make any other significant adds this off-season it is essentially something that has to be done. Without Voracek’s or JVR’s cap hit off the books, making any other noteworthy move this off-season becomes almost impossible. Another possibility of a side deal brought up by GM Fletcher himself on Crossing Broad’s Snow The Goalie podcast is the opportunity for Seattle to acquire a player from another NHL team and potentially act as a facilitator in trading that player to the Flyers or even trading a player they’ve selected in the expansion draft to the Flyers as well. Overall this upcoming expansion draft brings on the potential for an array of moves and interesting side deals to occur so it should be an exciting day in relation to the Flyers and the NHL in general. Only time will tell how Fletcher and his staff choose to approach the expansion draft in the form of side deals and how it affects the other parts of the Flyers off-season including the draft and free agency.