Bruins reveal protected players list for expansion draft

The NHL officially made public the players available and protected from the 30 eligible clubs (excluding the Vegas Golden Knights) for the Seattle Kraken’s expansion draft.

For the Boston Bruins, it was revealed the team will go the 7-3-1 route and protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender ahead of the July 21 draft.

Those players are:

Forwards: Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Charlie Coyle, Craig Smith, Jake DeBrusk and Trent Frederic

Defense: Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo

Goalie: Dan Vladar

Bruins players that are available for the Kraken to select, per the NHL’s site:

Anton Blidh (F), Paul Carey (F), Peter Cehlarik (F), Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (F), Taylor Hall (F), Cameron Hughes (F), Ondrej Kase (F), Alex Khokhlachev (F), Joona Koppanen (F), David Krejci (F), Karson Kuhlman (F), Sean Kuraly (F), Curtis Lazar (F), Greg McKegg (F), Nick Ritchie (F), Zach Senyshyn (F), Chris Wagner (F), Linus Arnesson (D), Connor Clifton (D), Steven Kampfer (D), Jeremy Lauzon (D), Kevan Miller (D) - retiring, John Moore (D), Mike Reilly (D), Jarred Tinordi (D), Jakub Zboril (D), Callum Booth (G), Jaroslav Halak (G), Tuukka Rask (G)

The Kraken’s pickings likely come down to Clifton, Lauzon or Ritchie from that list, with the probability that the Bruins will lose one of those defensemen.

The Bruins’ protected list isn’t surprising and was fairly predictable. The forwards’ list was a no-brainer with three players with no-move clauses (Marchand, Bergeron and Coyle) and they weren’t going to expose Pastrnak or Smith.

The only real wild card was protecting DeBrusk over Ritchie (or would have been vice versa), as DeBrusk struggled this past season.

The Kraken can sign pending free agents from now until July 21, and if they do, it will use up their pick from each respected team. The 2021 NHL Expansion Draft goes live at 8 p.m. this Wednesday. Get ready!