I really like Pokka and I know you've get to give to get but I'm not sure if i we can really afford to protect him

How do you see the Leafs using their protection? I did a quick list in my head and couldn't see it being an issue, but you likely follow the team closer than I.

well we could do 4 defenseman considering a lot of our forwards are too young to qualify, but our three D are Rielly, Gardiner and Carrick, however this would leave some of our forwards unprotected,

I would be curious to hear other Leafs Fans Thoughts too

How do you see the Leafs using their protection? I did a quick list in my head and couldn't see it being an issue, but you likely follow the team closer than I.[/quote]

well we could do 4 defenseman considering a lot of our forwards are too young to qualify, but our three D are Rielly, Gardiner and Carrick, however this would leave some of our forwards unprotected,

I would be curious to hear other Leafs Fans Thoughts too[/quote]

im a leafs fan and first off i would do kapanen for pokka in a heart beat.

2nd pokka is a D idk why this has him protected as a forward. the one thing we need is defense and if Chicago came to us and offered this, i cant see Lou turning it down.

in terms of expansion protection, heres who i see us protecting (we dont have much t o protect cause all our young guys are exempt.)

forwards;
Kadri
JVR
Bozak
Komarov
Martin
Rychel/Holland/Brown (one of them not sure who. doesnt really matter)

defennse

Rielly
Gardiner
C. Carrick.

Goalie

Andersen

Exempt:

Matthews, Nylander, Marner, Soshnikov, Zaitsev, Kapanen, Dermott, Gauthier, Timashov, Lindberg.

Kruger has to be protected. He has a NMC/NTC that kicks in next year. Have to move him this year if you want to.

So, if the Leafs went the 8 skater 1 goalie route, and we assume my proposed trade happened: Rielly, Gardiner, Carrick, Pokka, Rychel, Kardri, JVR (if not flipped during the year), Leipsic

??

he doesn't have a NMC which is the only thing that needs to be respected with regard to protecting....

If the Trade Happened our protection list would probably be:

Kadri
JVR
Brown
Komarov

Rielly
Gardiner
Carrick
Pokka

Man Carrick is a pretty decent prospect but If I am GM, I wouldn't lose much sleep over him being taken in the expansion draft. It would suck but definitely not a travesty. I think he's being way overvalued here. Habs have a couple studs on the farm that could be lost for nothing but frankly the actual impact wouldn't be that great.

You really got to ask yourself is Carrick worth potentially losing Bozak or Martin? Not sure about that personally.

Regardless of NTC NMC...never happening. The biggest thing Bowman has for UFA vets is his word...kiss that good bye if you let Kruger go after he gave the Hawks a discount last year.

What exactly is his other options then? Someone is getting burned and i think the players there will understand that. There's no other way. Realistically what else can he do? A certain amount of cap has to be exposed.

I don't think every UFA will throw the Hawks under the bus if this one scenario unfolds. Its not like every other GM won't be doing the same thing. The thing with Bowman is that he has helped build a winner and that trumps other teams GM's who haven't done jack squat yet. If I'm a UFA I'm still contacting the Hawks to offer my services regardless of how poor Kruger has been treated. Boohoo the guy is making millions of dollars. I don't think he is that distraught over this.

I like the trade for Pokka seeing we would exempt
Kadri, JVR, Brown, Komarov, Reilly, Gardiner, Carrick, Pokka if this happens. But Blackhawks really like Pokka and see him as part of their future so odds are they would trade another dman for cap space before doing this.

F50marco - The current plan I believe (not a part of the organization clearly) is going 7/3/1 leaving either TVR, Gustafsson, or Rasmussen available. The Hawks actually have (2) EXTRA forward slots available even if you cover Kruger. Panarin is exempt. (Toews, Kane, Hossa, Anisimov, & Kruger). Keep Ryan Hartman and still there's one more slot. They should really make a trade with another team that can't protect all their forwards. A few hard choices are OTT Dzingel...Lazar? NJ - Smith-Pelly? Is MTL going to protect Philip Danault? Probably not. It's better to get an AHL player than lose someone for nothing.

Who do you think MTL will leave available on the forward side? Same with EDM wow, they have a lot of forwards they need to protect. Maybe a mid season Pokka trade can we worked out?

Oh and Pokka isn't a forward...the description has Pokka protected in the forward position.

If you don't think Kruger should be exposed and therefore be kept do you also want to keep Panarin? Seabrook? Crawford?

One of those 4 (barring some serious cap magic) won't be a Hawk in 17/18. I'm most comfortable losing Kruger to afford Panarin. You're welcome to prefer another move.

Also Gus is exempt. And I wrote Pokka in the forward group but meant Panik (which assumes he's worth keeping).

It wouldn't be a cap space move. It would be all about getting in front of the expansion draft. We can't (easily) protect Pokka. Would like to get something that is exempt in return.

Chicago has to leave exposed something like 15-20M of salary. They need to leave somebody of high cap hit unprotected. Its not about trying to get value back, its about being expansion draft compliant. They a many NMC so they have to either find ways to sign some UFA's so that they can expose some players or get some of their NMC's to waive their contracts.

So NHL.com states

Player Exposure Requirements
* All Clubs must meet the following minimum requirements regarding players exposed for selection in the Expansion Draft:

i) One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

ii) Two forwards who are a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

iii) One goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18. If the club elects to make a restricted free agent goaltender available in order to meet this requirement, that goaltender must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the club's protected list.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expansion-draft-rules/c-281010592

Could be wrong but i think there is also a minimum cap requirement needed also. If not, then I really don't know what everyone is worried about then. Just use this year to get a couple cheap mediocre players up to requirements and expose them. Problem solved.

I'm under the understanding that there is more details either we don't know about or that are still to be finalized.

You could be right. I just haven't seen that info being supported by the NHL publicly. I have seen A TON of misinformation on blogs. So I guess my answer is still, you could be right. I don't know.

To expand on your point though. The cap space I would protect Including Kruger, but not that additional person I was eluding too is $56,421,261. Which if we have a projected Cap Ceiling ot $75,000,000 (estimated) then there's $18,578,539 of space available. Again, this may not be how they do it, but if not...who would AZ put up? They literally only have (3) forward contracts that go beyond this year that aren't ELCs and that's including the newly acquired Bolland.

I don't understand why everyone is so up in arms over Sekera? He's a decent player. Just not top 2 material. Their trying to play him there but he's a really good top 4. The problem in EDM is that they have such a porous defense that players are playing above their ability grade. Sekera got a fair value contract. He's not as bad as people make him out to be. Slot him in the top 4 with Larsson and then slot Klefbom with a Subban for example and Sekera starts looking really good with controlled usage.

Edm is in no position to start turning away good dmen. They have enough trouble getting them to sign with them as is and trading for them is value suicide apparently. (Hall for Larsson)

Yeah I needed to edit. Saw he had a NMC.

Bill Daly said the rule about a minimum cap requirement was not going to be in effect.

“At one point it was contemplated that there would be a minimum threshold of salary made available. That’s not part of the current formation." - Daly http://www.espn.com/blog/craig-custance/insider/post?id=7844