Buffalo Sabres NHL Expansion Draft Options

Buffalo Sabres will have decisions to make before expansion draft.

With the introduction of an as-yet-unnamed new team to come into the NHL for the 2017-18 season, the Buffalo Sabres – and the other 29 current NHL teams – will be faced with an NHL expansion draft before we know it.

With this, the Buffalo Sabres will have to make some decisions as to which players they choose to protect in the draft, and which ones they expose for potential drafting by the Las Vegas . (Side note: I like the Aces as a name. Saw that one thrown out there on Twitter yesterday – although the Black Knights would also be fantastic.)

Before I go through my picks for the Buffalo Sabres’ options for the NHL expansion draft, here’s a quick breakdown of what we known in terms of rules/guidelines so far, per Sportsnet:

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Players with two years of professional experience or less are exempt from this whole thing. They don’t need to be protected, and aren’t exposed to the draft.

Players with no-movement clauses in their contracts MUST be protected by their teams — unless the player agrees to waive his NMC, in which case he can be exposed.

Teams can protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender. They have to expose two forwards and one defensemen who play either 40 games next season, or 70 between this past season and the upcoming one. They also have to expose one goaltender who is either under contract for the 2017-18 season, or who is a restricted free agent in 2017.

With that, the Buffalo Sabres have some options. Let’s break it down.

Players with two years of professional experience or less are exempt.

This lets Buffalo Sabres fans breathe easy, because both Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart are off the list with this rule. In addition, guys like Casey Nelson, Hudson Fasching, Justin Bailey and Jason Kasdorf are also exempt.

Others exempt: Evan Rodrigues, Eric Cornel, Nicholas Baptiste, Brendan Guhle, Vaclav Karabacek, Brycen Martin and William Carrier. In addition, any new draft picks made this year would be exempt as well.

Players with no-movement clauses in their contracts MUST be protected by their teams — unless the player agrees to waive his NMC, in which case he can be exposed.

This takes care of Zach Bogosian, so he’s off the table.

Alright, this is where it gets interesting.

In addition to Bogosian, I’d protect Rasmus Ristolainen and Josh Gorges. There’s your three defensemen that the Buffalo Sabres are allowed to protect. Unfortunately, that leaves guys like Mark Pysyk, Jake McCabe and Cody Franson exposed – but you have to pick and choose.

For the forwards, I’d protect Ryan O’Reilly, Evander Kane, Nicolas Deslauriers, Tyler Ennis, Brian Gionta, Zemgus Girgensons and Marcus Foligno. That leaves, at least, Matt Moulson, David Legwand Johan Larsson as potential exposures for the expansion draft – all of whom already meet the games-played standard from this past season alone.

Finally, the goaltending. You’ve got to think the Buffalo Sabres protect Robin Lehner. That would be my move.

In the end, if things work out as they’ve being put out there right now, the team from Las Vegas will only be able to select one player from each team — so it’s not like you’re losing five pieces at once, but it’s still an interesting process to think about.

Next: Buffalo Sabres Mock NHL Draft

If you’d like to try a full mock expansion draft, check out this tool from General Fanager.