they probably wont expose white imo, and honestly will probably protect zatisev too

You can protect one more d

Why you only have 2 D protected?

I would not protect goalie Murray. If for some reason he is playing well, and Seattle selects him, well they gives the Sens an additional 6.25m in cap to get another goalie.

It’s unlikely Daccord is taken, they’re going to have a lot better options for goalies... for example:

Allen
Khudobin
Vanecek
Berdin
And others

It’s likely Ottawa loses a guy like Abramov, or whoever ends up being the guy left exposed when they protect Paul.

Which forward would you unprotect from that list then? And yeah I'm not too concerned about who's protected on D after Chabot

fixed - not that Seattle would take Zaitsev anyway haha

tierney, not that hes bad but i could live with losing him more than white

If they can't acquire another goalie then they'd risk going into next season without a proven NHL goalie which can really kill a young team. These goalies aren't always easy to acquire

The thing is Tierney would be taken in a heartbeat by Seattle but idk if they would want 4 more years of White at 4.75M. I'm sure when Dorion has talks with Seattle he will have a better idea of their intentions. If Seattle would take white then I agree with you but if that contract still looks like an inconvenience by the end of the season, then protect Tierney all the way. They should make White play a few games on D so they can protect him instead of Zaitsev haha

If the Sens left both White and Tierney unprotected, Seattle would easily take White. So, in that case, the Sens should protect White. Ideally they trade Tierney at this year's deadline after seeing what Blake Coleman went for last year (Tierney compares remarkably well throughout his career) but if they lose him it's not the end of the world. He's not vital to the future of the team whereas White has more upside in that regard.

Protecting Zaitsev feels odd since his contract likely protects him as is; he's a bottom pairing D making 2nd pairing money, so the Sens can likely shop around and target teams that are expected to lose a D because of how many they have. Teams like LA (Clague, Roy?), Colorado (Toews?) or Carolina (Skjei, Bean, Fleury?) come to mind. Make the trade with our exempt assets (like Lassi Thomson), and then protect them.

I think leaving Daccord unprotected is a mistake. Even if Murray is available, it can only be a win if they take him. Worst case scenario, the Sens are back on the hunt for a goalie. We traded a 2nd and our 800th best prospect to get Murray, so it's not very difficult to get one and the market is never very hot. It's smarter to just leave Murray open and if Seattle wants that contract then let them take it. Daccord may not be the answer to everything but he's at least interesting enough to hang on to (unless he's absolutely garbage this year). They would probably be intrigued by him because of his waiver eligibility and his potential which very few other available goalies have, as well as his long term contract that will keep him around for a while at a cheap price.

I think Seattle takes Tierney, Abramov, or Daccord. My brain says Daccord, my gut says Tierney, but my woke answer is Abramov. Where else are they going to get boom or bust prospects with incredible upside that they can feed insane minutes to and potentially get a superstar out of it? That's what Abramov is and that's what he's always been.