The Edmonton Oilers revealed their protected player list Sunday at 10:30 a.m. EST, as well as exposed names.
For the Oilers, there were no surprises. Considering they made no deals up to the point of the freeze, they went with the original 7-3-1 protection plan. Edmonton protected forwards Milan Lucic (NMC) Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Patrick Maroon, Zack Kassian and Mark Letestu. They also protected Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson on defence. Of course, Cam Talbot (NMC) was the protected netminder.
Edmonton Oilers
Many were curious if Eberle would be left unprotected after an interesting tweet from Mark Spector Saturday. Of course, to no surprise, he was on the Oilers’ protected list and will not be heading to Vegas.
Benoit Pouliot, Iiro Pakarinen, Jujhar Khaira, Mark Fayne, Tyler Pitlick, Griffin Reinhart Kris Russell and Laurent Brossoit are just a few players that will be left exposed. Pitlick and Russell, of course, are UFAs and will probably not be desirable to Vegas. Though Khaira is appealing, the Oilers could always work out a deal with the Golden Knights to make sure he’s not up for the taking. Brossoit, too, should be okay, just because there are bigger goalies left exposed (i.e. Petr Mrazek). Reinhart could also be appealing, but hasn’t proved his NHL worth just yet.
Overall, there are no surprises here for the Oilers, and this is a blessing in disguise. The team will not lose any key pieces, and this is why it was smart for them not to pull the trigger on a trade. First off, if they did, they would not get to protect everyone that they get to keep. Second, some big names were left exposed, and now, the Oilers can see the true value in trade targets and assess availability after the draft.
The Vegas Golden Knights will reveal their roster at the expansion draft Wednesday.