The NHL has now released the expansion protections lists for all 30 teams. Remember, the Vegas Golden Knights are exempt from having to participate in this expansion draft.

The Buffalo Sabres list mostly went as expected. This list is the first potential sign of what the club could be looking to do with their roster this offseason. Forwards

As expected, the Sabres went with the seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender route with their protection list. The other option they could have explored was going with eight skaters regardless of position and one goaltender. There were really no surprises on the players that were protected from being selected by the Seattle Kraken.

The Expected: Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt, Anders Bjork, Rasmus Asplund and Tage Thompson

If Eichel and Reinhart were not traded by yesterday’s 3 PM EST. roster freeze, these are six of the forwards we all expected the Sabres to protect. Some people have debated whether Tage Thompson should be protected, but the team apparently sees some potential in his game. Either that or there’s another factor (ownership) wanting to see Thompson work out in Buffalo.

There could be an argument to leave Bjork exposed, but they did acquire him as part of the Taylor Hall trade just a few months ago. He played well in his brief time in Buffalo and Don Granato did specifically reference him in his media availability a few weeks as a piece moving forward.

Jeff Skinner waiving his no-move clause opened up another spot at forward for the Sabres to utilize. 

The good news is protecting Rasmus Asplund. The 23-year-old forward finally was able to lock down a roster spot this season. He may have had one of the best development seasons of any pro “prospect.”

It was a small sample size, but you can see in Evolving Hockey’s model above that he was an impactful player at both ends of the ice. There’s even an argument to be made that he was the main reason that his line with Mittelstadt had some success. 

Exposed: Kyle Okposo, Jeff Skinner, Zemgus Girgensons, Cody Eakin, JS Dea, Tobias Rieder, Riley Sheahan, Andrew Oglevie, Drake Caggiula and CJ Smith

Defense

Just like with the forwards, there wasn’t much of a surprise with the three players that were protected. The only debate was the final spot on the list between Rasmus Ristolainen and Will Borgen.

Protected List: Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Rasmus Ristolainen

The Sabres opted to protect Ristolainen. It won’t be a popular decision amongst some of the fan base. Many are expecting the club to move on from the Finnish defender this offseason and saw this as a prime opportunity to do so. It would have been interesting to see if the Kraken would have gone ahead and picked Ristolainen in the draft.

While it won’t be popular, I do understand why the Sabres went this route. I had a source earlier this week informing me of a rumor that they have a deal in place or are at least close on one involving Ristolainen. The reason that it couldn’t happen before the expansion draft was because the other team involved did not have the protection slot for the big defender. The rumored return was an early draft pick (second round) and a roster player. We’ll see what happens after July 21st.

The bad news here is that Will Borgen is now exposed to the Kraken to select off of the Sabres roster. The 24-year-old defender hasn’t played many pro games, but he has shown some promise when he has been in the lineup.

In the 10 games he played this season he was the third-best Sabres defenseman in even-strength defense per 60 minutes in Evolving Hockey’s goals above replacement model. It’s a small sample but gives you an idea of his potential defensively.

Exposed: Will Borgen, Colin Miller, Jake McCabe, Brandon Davidson, and Matt Irwin

Goaltender

Protected – Linus Ullmark

This one was an easy and obvious decision. The Sabres had to expose Dustin Tokarski to meet the exposure requirements as he’s the only goalie under contract for next season.

Ullmark is an unrestricted free agent and the Sabres have until July 28th to come to a contract agreement before he hits the open market. I’m not confident something gets done there before free agency opens.

Exposed: Dustin Tokarski, Carter Hutton, and Micahel Houser

Now, we sit and wait to see who the Kraken select on Wednesday. We also are waiting to find out if the Sabres worked out some sort of deal with the Kraken to select a specific player. Reports were that the price was high to accomplish that, but perhaps it’ll come down leading up to the draft.

Data via: Evolving Hockey and Cap Friendly

Photo Credit: Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images