By Canadian Press

NHL GMs starting to think about next expansion draft with Seattle looming

Mar 27, 2018 | 3:45 PM

Kevin Cheveldayoff isn’t expecting NHL general managers to completely rewrite the script when the next expansion draft rolls around.

He does, however, believe some tweaks are in order with it seeming more and more likely Seattle will become the league’s 32nd franchise in the not-too-distant future.

“Everyone’s going to probably look at it differently,” the Winnipeg Jets GM said at last week’s meetings in Florida. “It will probably have a lot to do with where you are in your own organization and own team.”

When the Vegas Golden Knights started to build their roster at last June’s expansion draft — a process where a new team gets to pluck unprotected players from the league’s existing clubs — it was the first such exercise in the NHL since 2000 when the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets became its 29th and 30th franchises.

GMs in that era actually had to cope with expansion drafts three straight years (the Nashville Predators in 1998 and the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999 were the other two) and would have had a handle on the process by the end.

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The rules changed drastically to allow Vegas to ice a competitive team right away in a non-traditional hockey market after paying US$500 million to join, with established clubs facing the reality of losing more talented players than in expansion drafts past.

GMs were only allowed to protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goalie or eight skaters and one goalie this time around. Players with no-movement clauses had to be on that list unless they agreed to waive, while first- and second-year professionals, as well as unsigned draft picks, were exempt.

All other players were up for grabs, with each team guaranteed to lose a member of its roster.

One of the stories of the NHL this season after clinching a playoff spot Monday, the Golden Knights benefited greatly from the system by playing GMs off of each other in side deals to gather as many draft picks and as much talent as possible.

“(Vegas) did a great job of taking advantage of the rules and maximizing assets,” New Jersey GM Ray Shero said.

Seattle as the NHL’s next franchise, possibly as early as early 2020, appears to be a slam dunk. A deep-pocketed potential ownership group led by billionaire David Bonderman and filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer submitted an expansion application to the league in February.

And that means GMs of the league’s other clubs will have to again begin mapping out which players to protect and how to minimize losses.

“We try to look what’s been done in the past and what to try and learn from it, but at the time of all of our decisions, including Vegas’s decisions, we make the decision based on the information we have,” Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman said. “We’ll be able to look at it next time around.

“Would we do anything different? I don’t know, but first of all it will depend on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

With the fee to join the NHL bumped up to $650 million, teams have been told the next expansion draft, if and when it happens, will be held under the same conditions as Vegas.

Los Angeles Kings GM Rob Blake said he expects managers to be extra wary of contract stipulations moving forward.

“You’ll look at no-movement clauses and different things,” he said. “You could see how it could be restrictive depending on how many you have.

“Bringing kids in — whether you burn a (contract) year or play a year based on when they come and whether you have to protect them. There’s certain things you might look at … a little more forecasting knowing there’s another team coming.”

Cheveldayoff said no matter the goal of a GM heading into the next potential expansion draft, each should be better prepared.

“I would suspect having gone through it so recently that your philosophies are going to be a little more refined,” he said. “They’ll be little more thought through, because you’ve gone through it.

“As opposed to, ‘What’s it going to be like?’ You know what it’s going to be like and you know how you want to approach it.”

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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press