Buffalo Sabres Have Little To Fear When It Comes To NHL Expansion

Earlier this week, the NHL outlined its framework for a potential expansion draft . . . and every Buffalo Sabres fan in the world yawned and went right back to caring not a lick.

In case you were curious, the NHL declared that teams would have two options when it comes to protecting their players in case an expansion draft were to occur: teams could choose to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goaltender, or they can just protect eight total skaters and a goaltender.

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In addition, players who are in the first two years of their professional careers, including time spent in the minors, would be protected under the guidelines of the expansion draft.

The NHL will announce any expansion plans it has in June, meaning that an expansion draft would occur following the 2016-17 season, which should mean the following to Buffalo Sabres fans:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sure, the part about players in their first two-years will no longer apply to Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, but who cares?  As it stands, the Sabres can really pick either option of protecting its players and remain pretty much unscathed should such a draft occur.  The Sabres really only have one defenseman that I would absolutely protect, Rasmus Ristolainen, leaving them with seven more players to protect using the eight total skaters approach.

Of course, if the team miraculously went out and got a top-four LHD this offseason, it could always go the other route, selecting three defensemen to protect, which would still give it seven forwards to shelter.  Do the Buffalo Sabres even have seven forwards that an expansion team would consider drafting?

Not really!

As a bonus, prospects such as Hudson Fasching, Sean Malone and whomever the Sabres draft this year would be protected automatically, as they would either still be considered prospects or would fall within the two-years into their career clause.

This isn’t to say that the Sabres do not have any players worth looking at outside of the 716, but with the NHL leaning toward expanding by only one team, maybe two, Buffalo doesn’t stand to lose more than what, one or two players due to an expansion draft?  None of whom would even remotely be considered irreplaceable.

Things might get a little bit interesting when it comes time for the Sabres to pick which goaltender they would like to protect, but with so many teams currently in possession of two starting-caliber goalies, what expansion team is going to be looking in the direction of the Buffalo Sabres when it decides who will skate between the pipes?

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Sure, all of this might change should the Buffalo Sabres become very active as buyers and free-agent collectors this postseason, and the best-case scenario would have been that both Eichel and Reinhart would have been protected automatically, meaning the team would not have to use two of its picks on those studs.  As of right now, though, there are many teams who will have tough decisions to make should the NHL announce it has plans to expand, and the Buffalo Sabres just are not one of them.