NHL insider: Expansion means Wild would lose one or two good players

Wild fans: There are so many things in life to fret about, don't waste time sweating expansion.

Just accept the fact that if the NHL expands by one or two teams, the Wild will lose one or two good players.

All 30 teams will. That's the price to be paid for a handsome $500 million expansion fee that'll be split among 30 clubs.

"Assuming we do expand, the goal is to create a deeper pool of players for the one or two teams that come in, which makes sense," Wild GM Chuck Fletcher said after being given a preliminary outline last week of what to expect if the league expands. "At least internally, we've always felt there's going to be fewer protections and more good players exposed by every team."

It seems a foregone conclusion that in two to three months, the 10-owner executive committee — Wild owner Craig Leipold is a member — will recommend expansion for 2017-18. It also seems the NHL will only expand by one team — Las Vegas — and not two — Quebec City.

If there's only one expansion team, each of the 30 teams would lose one player during a 2017 expansion draft.

In the four-team 1998, 1999 and 2000 expansion that introduced the Wild, 26 teams had the choice to protect nine forwards, five defensemen and one goaltender or seven forwards, three defensemen and two goalies.

The initial plan this time is for teams to either protect eight skaters and one goalie or seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie. First- or second-year pros would be exempt. Unsigned draft picks would be exempt for two years after they're drafted.

What has to be negotiated between the NHL and NHL Players' Association is whether teams will be forced to protect players with no-move clauses.

From a Wild perspective, if that ends up being the case, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville would eat three of the seven forward protections (Thomas Vanek's contract ends in 2017), Ryan Suter would eat one of the three blue line protections and Devan Dubnyk would be the goalie protected.

So the Wild will have big decisions. Up front, let's assume Parise, Koivu and Pominville are protected (meaning they're not traded or bought out), the Wild would have to protect four among Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Tyler Graovac, Erik Haula, Nino Niederreiter and Jason Zucker. This assumes none of those players is traded by then and doesn't take into consideration other acquisitions this offseason or next season.

On defense, things get hairy. With Suter protected, the Wild would have to protect two among Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba, Gustav Olofsson, Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon. This assumes none is traded by then and that Mike Reilly is exempt because he'll be completing his second-year as pro.

It would seem an almost certainty that the Wild loses a good defenseman unless the Wild exposed Zucker and a new Las Vegas franchise wanted to select the only Las Vegas-raised NHLer in history.

In 1993, Fletcher was Bob Clarke's 26-year-old assistant in Florida and was part of a front office that selected such players as John Vanbiesbrouck, Brian Skrudland and Scott Mellanby in an expansion draft.

"It is a fun process to go through," Fletcher said. "I would assume that there will be a lot of activity and maneuvering around the league this summer and fall as teams prepare for this. You usually have the ability to cut deals with the expansion team, too."

For example, in 1993 Tampa Bay asked Florida to take goalie Darren Puppa in the expansion draft. The Panthers traded him back to the Lightning for a third-round pick.

The most fun job in the NHL may be the Vegas team's first GM. It would be a dream to start a team from scratch, and with the reduced protections expected this go-round, there will be several solid hockey players to choose from.

"It'll create a lot of interest from fans and media as they speculate and analyze everything," Fletcher said. "It'll be fun — assuming we expand."

NHL short takes

After implementing the coach's challenge and 3-on-3 overtime for this season, the NHL's general managers recommended no rule changes at last week's meeting in Boca Raton other than to streamline goalie ­equipment.

"People feel the game's in a good place, so there's no sense in making changes year after year if you don't need to," Wild GM Chuck Fletcher said. "There was no groundswell to do anything. The coach's challenge has had the desired effects and more games have been decided in overtime than ever."

The GMs did learn next year's salary cap is estimated to be about $74 million, about a $2.5 million hike.

Last week, NFL senior vice president for health and safety Jeff Miller acknowledged during a roundtable discussion on concussions that there's a link between football and such neurodegenerative diseases as CTE, which has been found in the brain postmortem of athletes.

Asked to comment, Commissioner Gary Bettman said: "I think it's fairly clear that playing hockey isn't the same as playing football. And as we've said all along, we're not going to get in a public debate on this."

With Calgary visiting the X on Thursday, it'll be interesting to see if coach Bob Hartley starts Niklas Backstrom, the winningest goalie in Wild history, against his old team.

He is slated to start his first game in more than 14 months Sunday in Montreal.

Sunday: 7:30 p.m. at Chicago

Tuesday: 7:30 p.m. vs. L.A.

Thursday: 7 p.m. vs. Calgary

Saturday: 2 p.m. at Colorado

Sun, Tue NBCSN • Thu, Sat FSN

Player to watch: Johnny Gaudreau, Flames

"Johnny Hockey" ranks sixth in the NHL with 70 points.

VOICES

"I don't have an explanation."

— Veteran Zach Parise, shrugging his shoulders, after the Wild's blowout loss to New Jersey