Who do they protect in expansion?

Fantstic question.

Follow up: why not try and peel Kris Russell from Edmonton on an expiring deal, WHICH would not bury Fabbro in the line up?? Less cost is assets, protection worries removed, and he is pretty damn effective.

I’m honestly confused how does acquiring kris Russell solve the problem of who they’ll protect, the only thing I see is they would have to make a deal with Seattle so that they will take Russell but they could just make a deal with them so that they’ll take some other random fringe player instead and not have to waste assets on a guy that isn’t even going to play

Russell is a UFA next year He's not remotely relevant to the expansion

I could see something around Russell + for Bonino

See it too as a straight up deal.

Russell isn't useless but he's not great, Bonino is a great 3C

Trouba moved specifically to NY for his wife, hes not getting traded

GMs don't hold back from trading players because of there wives lol. It's a business...

Hes their #1 dman with a full NMC after this season and due to the delay and the date that the clause would kick in, they probably wouldn't have time to trade him. Also why would they trade such a big part of their team this year after nearly making playoffs (they probably would've had the season not been delayed)

He's not there number 1 dman and he had a bad first season. Have you been living under a rock?

Led the team in ice time and had 55% DZS. No other defenseman on the rangers could do that, you been living under a rock bud?

Why this is a straight up deal is the Preds have too much up front, and the Oilers have too much on the backend. Contracts and term are the same too.

Russell is more effective than a lot of people think. He does his work quietly. Not saying he is a top 2 defenseman, but I say he can play top 4. No different than Bonino can play 2C, but is best suited at 3C.

The value for the Preds here is Russell provides a real opportunity to isolate Fabbro against competition that will better foster is overall development. This was lacking this year. Big time.

That nugget of thought is why I see a straight up deal.

Yes!!! Some D take a full year to get used to a new system. Further I would suggest Fox and DeAngelo were playing some isolated minutes. Trouba did some heavy lifting, so I wouldn't call his season "bad" - underwhelming yes.

But with DeAngelo and Fox's continued development I wonder if the #1 tag is something he looses....🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 I mean even managing minutes, Fox did look awefully good.

Fox is definitely the future and may even be the best dman in NY as soon as this season but Trouba was logging those minutes without even playing much PP. Pretty much on the ice for the full PK everytime and shutting down top lines

So acquiring Trouba means you'd need to protect Josi and Trouba because of their NMCs and probably Ellis. Which means you'd lose one of Ekholm or Fabbro. So not a smart move.

So acquiring Trouba means you'd need to protect Josi and Trouba because of their NMCs and probably Ellis. Which means you'd lose one of Ekholm or Fabbro. So not a smart move.

There's a thing that exists where you can send a pick or prospect to an expansion team in order for them not to pick a certain player.

Or they can protect 8 skaters because they only have 4 forwards to protect anyway. Tolvanen and Tomasino will be exempt. They can use the other 4 to protect there top 4 as well as sending a pick or prospect to protect the 5th defenseman.

If Tolvanen and Tomasino aren't NHL ready, this is a huge bust. Trouba doesn't make sense to add to this team either. The problems are 3rd pair D and middle 6 scoring. You can spend the $8M other ways to fix both, regardless of expansion drafts.

Take notes @DiehardRedWingsFan58, that's fair and educated criticism.