The Vegas Golden Knights will select their expansion team on Wednesday, June 21st at 7 p.m. CST on NBC, during the 2017 NHL Awards.
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is one marquee player's who's not expected to receive any added protection from his team.
Finally, TSN's Pierre LeBrun highlighted one other option on the table for the Golden Knights: selecting an available player and immediately flipping him in a trade to a third team.
Nashville Predators forward James Neal and Anaheim Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen also were left unprotected. The fifth-year player, however, won't be ready for the start of the season after having surgery to fix a shoulder injury.
"We really like what we're looking at right now", McPhee said.
The Islanders were the only team that protected five defensemen: Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, leaving forwards Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome and defensemen Calvin de Haan and Thomas Hickey available.
Those deals won't be formally revealed until Wednesday. He holds the cards for a significant chunk of the league's talent, fielding calls from colleagues willing to trade something to keep McPhee from plucking certain players from their rosters, or to take someone from another team to flip in a deal. This game McPhee is trying to play turns a promising expansion draft pick into an impressive haul that could make the team more competitive sooner. They also have to reach at least 60 percent of last year's $73 million salary cap ($43.8 million) and have at least 20 players under contract for next season.
Mexico salvage point against Portugal in FIFA Confederations Cup
The result left Mexico second in Group A and Portugal third following Russia's 2-0 victory over New Zealand on Saturday. Mexico has won five of its last six matches , with a 2-1 home loss to Croatia in a friendly in May.
Shortly after protected lists were released Sunday morning, GMs began calling McPhee to try to poach available players from other teams.
"With expansion, there's a lot of unprotected goalies out there", Arizona General Manager John Chayka told reporters on Saturday.
"Vegas doesn't need 10", said Chayka after making a proactive move to free up the Coyotes' protected list by trading veteran goalie Mike Smith to Calgary.
After that there will be a frenzy of pre-draft trades and the usual flurry of activity just ahead of the July 1 opening of free agency, and numerous names we've heard floated over the last couple of weeks in trade rumors will likely be moved.
Chayka was exaggerating, but only slightly. Some lists were pretty obvious, while others have us wondering just what some general managers were thinking.
"At the GM meetings, the Golden Knights' George McPhee let everyone know that once the lists are handed to him, it's an auction for any unprotected player another team might want", Friedman wrote.
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