What if the Rangers got 1oa and wanted to keep Laf

Kakko Stays.

What is NSH supposed to do with Trouba, Josi, Ellis, Ekholm, and Fabbro all needing protection in the expansion draft?

Speaking of the expansion draft do you think they save, Josi, Ellis, Ekholm and Fabbro? Or just 3 of the 4

Buffalo pass. Johansen is not of great value because of his recent results and a huge contract, Kakko not enough to get Eichel.

NSH has Davies and Farrance who project to be top 4/6 d on the left side (and they should be in the NHL within the next two seasons), so I could see a scenario where Ekholm is traded prior to the expansion draft and they go 7 - 3 -1 and protect Josi, Ellis, Fabbro. I honestly don't know though. It probably depends on what a potential Ekholm extension would look like as well. Maybe they go 4 - 4 - 1 and protect all 4 along with Duchene, Arvidsson, Forsberg, Johansen, but they would likely lose a pretty good forward in the process. It's a tough place to be in, so I'm not really sure what the best direction to go is yet.