My feeling is that LA won't expose Roy, Minnesota won't expose Dumba (they'll trade him for a mess of pottage first), and Nashville won't expose Kunin, for whom they just traded.

Trading Dumba before the expansion draft gives the Wild some sort of asset(s) in return and allows them to protect Jordan Greenway and Ryan Hartman.

I don't think New York Islanders make that trade, sure Varlamov is expensive, but he has played some excellent hockey this year. If he returns in the playoffs I think he'll play very well and earn himself some worth.

I'd be pretty shocked if Detroit compensated Seattle for taking Nielsen.

1. Detroit isn't losing anyone good in the first place so we wouldn't be compensating them to avoid picking a specific player in addition to taking Nielsen.

2. Nielsen only has one year left on his deal and his buyout is pretty reasonable.

3. Detroit has a projected 48.9M in cap space for next offseason.