Fluto Shinzawa at the Boston Globe is usually pretty good at reasoned, intelligent takes when it comes to looking at the Boston Front office. One such thing he’s started to look at is how the Expansion Draft is going to effect Boston, and how they’re going to tackle it, including a pretty reasoned projected list of players likely to be protected from becoming a Vegas [ADJECTIVE] Knight.
From a more recent column:
The prevailing theory right now is that Don Sweeney will be using the 7-3-1 setup to protect players, and it appears to be holding steady as the playoffs move on. In the interest of analysis, let’s take a look at the choices:
7 Forwards:
No real arguments to be made here. Exposing Marchand would be...ill advised given the year he’s had, Bergeron, Krejci and Backes have NMCs that must be honored, David Pastrnak was the second highest scorer on the team, and Riley Nash was a defensive stalwart that the depth needed to keep the bleeding to a minimum, especially post third line shifts, and if Dominic Moore’s leaving then there’s no need to go looking for another Dominic Moore.
Ryan Spooner is really the only pick you could say has a bit of controversy for it, but him being an RFA means that Boston could easily just move him for something moderately valuable. 39 points in the NHL is still 39 points, after all. And if they decide they still need him? Then they can just sign him all over again.
3 Defensemen:
Chara will have one last year on his contract going into next year, and his 6.9 million dollar salary will drop down to a square 4 million, providing some much needed cap relief. As for Krug, the first round probably proved without a shadow of a doubt the Bruins need him or a player like him. And comparable players are...Erik Karlsson and not a whole lot of other players. He’s staying.
Kevan Miller, as much of a pain in the rear he can still sometimes be, proved without a shadow of a doubt he can take the #4 spot and be a serviceable talent on the backend for the foreseeable future.
However, one could also make just as good of an argument for his fellow Miller-in-crime Colin Miller as Boston’s defense tends to work best when an offensive defenseman and a defensive defenseman are working in tandem, and was usually an enormous contributor to shots and chances throughout the season, even if luck would have these shots blocked away. And if you want to be honest with yourself, both players finished the season with 13 points. Assume both can only go up from where they are.
One Goalie:
Come on. Khudobin improved down the stretch but there was a point when the only goalie over .900 in SV% was Tuukka Rask. And that included some truly brutal games from when Rask was not a roster player due to injury. There is no other option as of right now.
Whatever your real or imagined concerns with his game, not keeping him would be putting a railspike through Boston’s foot, head and rear. Painful, and fatal.
Verdict:
Honestly? The list seems like a no-brainer. Half of the work is done for you already with the NMCs for better and worse, and a good number of choices seem to be pretty logical or pragmatic, or in some cases a straight toss-up.
If this is how it shakes out, then Don’s done himself good.
The other really big bright side is of course, the vast majority of players that we’re all excited about are either exempt altogether as part of their ELCs, or are already part of this list.
If this is how it pans out, I think Boston should be alright.