It wasn’t much of a surprise that the Rangers re-signed Brett Howden yesterday. Given how much he played the last three seasons as the 4C, re-signing him was inevitable. The timing of re-signing him is what matters here, as it opens expansion draft options for the Rangers with Howden, Colin Blackwell, Kevin Rooney, and Julien Gauthier.
Exposure rules
The rules of the expansion draft get a little muddy when we get into the specifics. We know the Rangers will protect 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goalie. We also know that the Rangers will protect –barring a trade– Artemiy Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome, Pavel Buchnevich, and Filip Chytil.