Alex Ovechkin was not among the players the Washington Capitals protected in the upcoming expansion draft, but his pending free agent status gave the franchise the wiggle room to do so.
With Ovechkin set to become a free agent this month, the Capitals star would be free to sign elsewhere even if the Seattle Kraken select him this week.
Instead, the Capitals protected 11 players under a 7-3-1 format: Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie. For the Capitals, those forwards included Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson, Lars Eller, Anthony Mantha and Daniel Sprong, while they protected defensemen John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov and Trevor van Riemsdyk and netminder Illya Samsonov.