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Expansion Draft

S

sickbeast

New member
Hey guys the NHL Expansion Draft for Vegas is on Wednesday.  Here is a list of the Leafs' protected and exposed players:

Available
Brian Boyle (F)
Eric Fehr (F)
Colin Greening (F)
Seth Griffith (F)
Teemu Hartikainen (F)
Brooks Laich (F)
Brendan Leipsic (F)
Joffrey Lupul (F)
Milan Michalek (F)
Kerby Rychel (F)
Ben Smith (F)
Andrew Campbell (D)
Matt Hunwick (D)
Alexey Marchenko (D)
Martin Marincin (D)
Steve Oleksy (D)
Roman Polak (D)
Antoine Bibeau (G)
Curtis McElhinney (G)
Garret Sparks (G)

Protected
Tyler Bozak (F)
Connor Brown (F)
Nazem Kadri (F)
Leo Komarov (F)
Josh Leivo (F)
Matt Martin (F)
James van Riemsdyk (F)
Connor Carrick (D)
Jake Gardiner (D)
Morgan Rielly (D)
Frederik Andersen (G)

Who do you guys think Vegas will take?  I'm a bit concerned because the Leafs have a lot of highly skilled young players.  I have a feeling Vegas is going to be very interested in some of our players.
 
I'm surprised they protected Leivo.  Not good enough to get into the lineup over Ben Smith.
 
L K said:
I'm surprised they protected Leivo.  Not good enough to get into the lineup over Ben Smith.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Leivo over Leipsic is a little surprising...I think most of us think Leivo could be leveraged into more production this year, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised there.
 
This is not a surprising list.

Leivo is the first in line for any top 9 injury replacement. There's too much value there to just give away.

Keefe specifically pointed to Leipsic's defensive deficiencies at the end of the season; usually that stuff is kept from the press but they were calling him out very pointedly. He doesn't PK either, which is where Kapanen and Soshnikov have been able to niche ahead.

Obviously Martin was protected, and there's only three players I would've put in his place, so that's not the worst.
 
I see the Leafs losing Marincin.  When he got in the lineup, he was a valuable, dependable D-man.  At 25, he's still young, and ready to contribute.

 
I'm not so worried about who we lose (except for Seth, because duh); I'm more interested to know how we can take advantage of some unprotected pieces like Manson, Demers, etc. Parlaying some of our excess young up and coming contracts to Vegas as they need to build a pipeline would be mutually beneficial.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Yeah, little disappointed that they went with Leivo over Leipsic.
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I mean I'm happy to say it. This feels a lot like Steve Sullivan where the folks running the team had a talented young player and for whatever reason became laser focused on what he couldn't do instead of the things he could.
 
Nik the Trik said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Yeah, little disappointed that they went with Leivo over Leipsic.
Click to expand...

I mean I'm happy to say it. This feels a lot like Steve Sullivan where the folks running the team had a talented young player and for whatever reason became laser focused on what he couldn't do instead of the things he could.
Click to expand...

Had he been left exposed, I'm sure that could be applied to Leivo (that skating!). I'd prefer that they'd kept as many of Leipsic, Leivo, and Rychel as possible, since we don't know quite what any of them are yet, but the one that makes it will almost certainly be better than, say, Matt Martin -- who wouldn't've been lost to Vegas anyway.
 
Now they're saying Vegas might take Lupul:

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2017/06/18/maple-leafs-protect-josh-leivo-ahead-of-nhl-expansion-draft.html

I *really* hope the Leafs don't give them any type of draft picks or prospects to convince them to take Lupul.
 
sickbeast said:
Now they're saying Vegas might take Lupul:

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2017/06/18/maple-leafs-protect-josh-leivo-ahead-of-nhl-expansion-draft.html
Click to expand...

This is mostly baseless speculation as window dressing to a report about the protection list including Leivo on it.

Lupul would be good to reach their cap floor and good for the Las Vegas economy though. I actually wouldn't mind sending a mid-tier (e.g. Lindberg) prospect to grease the deal through, as we could use the contract limit flexibility. Losing his cap hit is a significant backscratch for the Leafs as it wipes out almost all of the bonus overage.
 
herman said:
sickbeast said:
Now they're saying Vegas might take Lupul:

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2017/06/18/maple-leafs-protect-josh-leivo-ahead-of-nhl-expansion-draft.html
Click to expand...

This is mostly baseless speculation as window dressing to a report about the protection list including Leivo on it.

Lupul would be good to reach their cap floor and good for the Las Vegas economy though. I actually wouldn't mind sending a mid-tier (e.g. Lindberg) prospect to grease the deal through, as we could use the contract limit flexibility. Losing his cap hit is a significant backscratch for the Leafs as it wipes out almost all of the bonus overage.
Click to expand...

If Lupul can play, and at somewhere reasonably close to his former level, then it may not take much a sweetener for McPhee.  I expect they will be starved for offense, and Lupul certainly has (had) the skills to provide some.
 
Should there be another expansion draft in two-three years time (Seattle getting a franchise), the Leafs may end up losing one of their core players, depending on where they are by then. 

Not much significance in this expansion draft (of the unprotected list) but all that could change come the next expansion draft (should there be one), in which the Leafs may find themselves in a tighter situation concerning their roster, as per where they would be by then (depending on whom they sign, trade, draft, etc., etc.), taking everything else into consideration.
 
herman said:
This is mostly baseless speculation as window dressing to a report about the protection list including Leivo on it.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, the fact that he wasn't included in that list of hurt players who were expansion-exempt was pretty odd. I think he was the only player in that situation who wasn't put on the list. Of course, the entire Lupul situation has been pretty odd.
 
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