New York Islanders Reveal Protection List For Expansion Draft

The New York Islanders revealed their protection list and there was certainly some surprises along the way as the lists begin to be revealed.

If you like drama the last few days in Islanders land has been nothing but drama filled. Today we found out who the New York Islanders decided to protect for the upcoming expansion draft on Wednesday.

If you’re curious here is the list of all 30 NHL teams, but we will focus on the Isles list for now.

The Islanders decided to protect three forwards and five defenseman which I thought was very odd. Thank God, Ryan Pulock was protected but the fifth defenseman is where the surprise comes in. Here’s the full protected list:

Andrew Ladd (F)
Anders Lee (F)
John Tavares (F)
Johnny Boychuk (D)
Travis Hamonic (D)
Nick Leddy (D)
Adam Pelech (D)
Ryan Pulock (D)
Thomas Greiss (G)

Adam Pelech! Why in the blue hell is Adam Pelech protected over Calvin de Haan. The Islanders electing to protect a seventh or eighth d-man is wild, but typical stuff.

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That leaves some pretty big named players available for the Vegas Golden Knights. They can select any of these players:

Josh Bailey (F)
Steve Bernier (F)
Eric Boulton (F)
Jason Chimera (F)
Casey Cizikas (F)
Cal Clutterbuck (F)
Stephen Gionta (F)
Ben Holmstrom (F)
Bracken Kearns (F)
Nikolay Kulemin (F)
Brock Nelson (F)
Shane Prince (F)
Alan Quine (F)
Ryan Strome (F)
Johan Sundstrom (F)
Calvin de Haan (D)
Matthew Finn (D)
Jesse Graham (D)
Thomas Hickey (D)
Loic Leduc (D)
Scott Mayfield (D)
Dennis Seidenberg (D)
Jean-Francois Berube (G)
Christopher Gibson (G)
Jaroslav Halak (G)

The four names that stick out to me are Strome, Bailey, Nelson and de Haan. You could make the argument that they all needed to be protected. Although there’s a rumor saying that the Isles will have a deal with Vegas so they don’t select one of the big forwards.

That all but kisses Calvin de Haan goodbye I guess no? We predicted he would be the one to go in expansion but I’m shocked the reason for it will be because Garth Snow elected to protect Adam Pelech.

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Never a dull day in Isles land. Let’s just try to get through the next week together because it’s pretty clear Garth doesn’t have a plan and he’s just flying by the seat of his pants.