Who Will The Flyers Protect At The Expansion Draft?

Photo Credit: Zack Hill

The Seattle Kraken has officially become the National Hockey League’s 32nd franchise with their final expansion payment to the League being paid. The other 30 teams (Vegas Golden Knights are exempt from selection) are now faced with preparing for their second Expansion Draft in the last four years and speculation on who will be protected is running rampant league wide. Coming off of a disappointing season that saw them miss the playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers will have interesting decisions to make about which of their players will be left exposed.

The Expansion Draft allows teams to protect players in two different formats: Seven Forwards, Three Defensemen, and One Goalie or Eight players of any position and one goalie. If a player has less than two years of NHL experience, they are exempt from being selected. In the 2017 Expansion Draft, the Flyers opted to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie; they will most likely repeat this format for the upcoming draft as well.

Looking at the Flyer’s roster there are three players who will be protected automatically: Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, Carter Hart. In the case of Giroux and Hayes, both players have full No Movement Clauses in their contracts. As two of the more veteran players on the team, the chances of them waving their clauses to join an expansion team are unrealistic. Giroux has reaffirmed in the off-season that he is a Flyer and wants to restore the franchise to his winning ways. Hayes has already played West Coast Hockey as a Winnipeg Jet, and moved back East as soon as he hit free agency. The Flyers have stated that they are committed to Hart as a franchise goaltender and there is not another goalie on the roster nearly as talented as he is to protect. Hart was showing an upswing in confidence before a knee injury ended his season.

With these players already protected the Flyers can protect five more forwards and three defensemen. The team can look to shed an expensive contract and attempt to make a splash in free agency by leaving veteran players exposed. The Flyers will expose some talented players that will leave big skates to fill. Luckily because of their entry level contracts, Wade Allison, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee are exempt from possibly being selected.

Looking at the forward group, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny are virtually guaranteed to be protected. Both are young, talented players who factor heavily into the future of the organization. Konecny is on a long-term team friendly contract and Couturier is coming off a year where he ranked high in Selke voting despite missing games due to injury. Two other forwards who have recently signed extensions with the Flyers are Scott Laughton and Oskar Lindblom. Lindblom, the reigning Masterson Trophy winner has earned a full non-Covid year to work back to the level he was playing at before his courageous fight with Ewings’ Sarcoma. Laughton provides depth in both 5-on-5 and penalty kill, he signed a team friendly extension and all indicators would point to him being protected because of his new contract. With these four being protected, that leaves one remaining spot and a few interesting names. Nolan Patrick is a restricted free agent who has been the subject of many rumors about wanting a trade, Nicolas Aube-Kubel is a fourth line grinder who had problems with penalties, and two high priced but talented forwards in Jake Voracek and James van Riemsdyk are fighting for the last spot. If Patrick is indeed set on leaving Philadelphia, he may be left exposed in favor of protecting a player like Aube-Kubel who was an analytics darling the previous season. The Flyers may opt to protect Patrick to angle the Kraken into taking one of their higher priced wingers in Voracek or van Riemsdyk.

The Flyers will have to leave a talented defenseman exposed in this draft and all signs would point to it being Shayne Gostisbehere. Ghost has been benched and even waived in his recent tenure with the team. While he came back to be one of the higher performing defenseman in the last stretch of the season, the team would have to risk a younger player to protect him. With three open spots it would be likely that the Flyers protect Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Philippe Myers. Provorov is a workhorse that the team relies on heavily. Sanheim and Myers are young players who bring size to the blue line. With prospects like Egor Zemula and Cam York cracking the roster, they can potentially make up the whole that would be left behind if Ghost were to be selected.

The Kraken will most likely be looking at Jake Voracek, James van Riemsdyk, or Shayne Gostisbehere. One of these players being selected will clear between $4.5 million and $8.25 million dollars in cap space for the Flyers. This flexibility would go a long way in making a move for a top defensive player to pair with Provorov or a high scoring winger to pair with Sean Couturier. All three are excellent veteran players who would bring immediate leadership into the Kraken locker room. Newly hired head coach Dave Hakstol is familiar with all three of these players during his tenure in Philadelphia, and his input will be invaluable for the Kraken’s selection. It would not be surprising to see either Jake or JVR wearing an “A” on their sweater if they were the Kraken selection. It will then be up to Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher to properly utilize the cap space created by the potential loss of a veteran leader.