The NHL Expansion Draft will take place on Tuesday, and the Chicago Blackhawks have announced their list of players that will be protected going into the selection show.
Players with no-movement and no-trade clauses were automatically protected, meaning that players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will remain with the Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks only had a handful of decisions to make, and they ended up choosing to protect three forwards.
Richard Panik, who just signed a new extension with the Blackhawks, was protected, along with Ryan Hartman and Tomas Jurco.
The decision by the Blackhawks to protect those forwards means that the team has opted to leave four players from last year's NHL roster exposed for the expansion draft. Two forwards are on that list, as Jordin Tootoo and Marcus Kruger will both be available to the Golden Knights.
Two defensemen will also be available, as Trevor van Riemsdyk and Michal Rozsival are both on the list of available players.
The Blackhawks can still make a trade with the Golden Knights to guarantee that they keep certain players that are exposed, and there have been reports that they're looking at a deal that could send both Kruger and van Riemsdyk to Vegas ahead of the expansion draft.
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Numerous minor leaguers and impending free agents were also left unprotected, including Viktor Svedberg, Ville Pokka, Brian Campbell, and Andrew Desjardins.
Vegas has until Wednesday to negotiate new deals with impending free agents, or if they want to negotiate a trade with the Blackhawks.
Here is the full list of protected players:
Forwards:
Artem Anisimov*
Ryan Hartman
Marian Hossa*
Tomas Jurco
Patrick Kane*
Richard Panik
Jonathan Toews*
Defensemen:
Niklas Hjalmarsson*
Duncan Keith*
Brent Seabrook*
Goalie:
Corey Crawford*
The NHL Expansion Draft will take place on Wednesday morning, with the announcements of which players were selected coming during the NHL Awards ceremony in Las Vegas that night.
