In the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, only one team elected to protect five defencemen.
However, after Vegas made a strategic effort to collect defencemen in that expansion draft, could teams be more willing to protect their defencemen in 2021?
One team that is likely to protect four — if not five — defencemen are the Nashville Predators. Here is their projected protection list, courtesy of Adam Vingan at The Athletic.
Forwards
- Colton Sissons
- Filip Forsberg
- Luke Kunin
Defencemen
- Roman Josi
- Ryan Ellis
- Mattias Ekholm
- Dante Fabbro
- Alexandre Carrier
Goalie
- Jusse Saros
One of the more surprising decisions on this list was the choice of keeping 23-year-old defenceman Alexandre Carrier over 27-year-old forward Viktor Arvidsson.