Who protect the Calgary flames in a hypothetical expansion concept

The NHL has not seen an expansive concept in four years, and without plans in the near future it seems as if we will not get an NHL franchise for a while. Recent reports suggest that the next expansion team may only come to the earliest until 2028. With the current era of Calgary Flames Hockey who probably misses the pleasure of an extension storage, why not pretend that there is one yourself?

With the flames in the middle of a retool, who would hang the organization around if an expansion point was held this summer? Let’s look.

Expansion problems Rules

Let us assume that the NHL keeps the expansion rules the same as earlier iterations in 2017 and 2021. Here is a refresher course at a high level about how it works.

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Each team has the option to protect two different combinations of players. Below are the two options:

1. Seven attackers, three defenders and one goalkeeper
2. Eight skaters – Forward or Defencemen – and one goalkeeper.

For obvious reasons, the combination of Seven Forward and Three Defenseman has been the dominant selection, where the eight skaters options are incredibly rare.

Expansion Draft eligible

Not every player in an organization is eligible to be selected and therefore does not have to be protected. Below are the guidelines for the eligible expansion of Puckpedia:

If a player has three or more years of professional experience from the end of the end of the 2024–25 season, they are eligible. Professional experience is defined in accordance with exemptions (MKBA section 13.4) as:

• If the player was 20 or older from December 31 of a season, every season with 1+ NHL, AHL or Echl GP counts as a year of professional experience.

• If the player was less than 20 from December 31 of a season, every season has a 11+ NHL doctor as a year of professional experience.

Exposed players

Based on the above guidelines, the most remarkable players are eligible here to be selected in the Flames schedule if there was an expansion design this summer:

Unless the Flames asked them to refrain from their NO movement clauses as they did with Milan Lucic for the 2021 expansion, Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Mikael Backlund would be protected by their contracts as standard. Given the status of all three players, it is difficult to propose a scenario in which they would be asked to refrain from their NMC this summer. All three are seen as nuclear veteran pieces in the Roster, and I doubt whether the team would like to lose them for nothing.

To be honest, the Flames do not have much value for grabbing in this doing expansion concept. Given the current status of the schedule, there are only a few players on the list above that would really hurt to lose. It could also have been an even weaker list, because the single game by Matt Coronato in the NHL in 2022–23 was eligible to be selected by the narrowest margins.

Exempt players

Fortunately, the Flames have a handful of exciting young players who are currently not eligible for selection. Below are the most remarkable names that Pro hockey played, but would be protected due to a lack of experience.

If one or more of the above players had to be protected, this could have created a number of difficult calls. We don’t have to worry for now.

The protected list

With the above requirements and the list of players who need protection, here is who I would protect if an expansion design were to be held this summer.

To be honest, this was not exactly a difficult list to put together. As mentioned above, the Flames don’t really have a lot of high-end talent in the NHL, apart from a few names, so there were not really difficult calls or important players who were exposed. Normally a trio of experienced players with clauses without movement would cause a number of important problems in an expansion of an expansion, but the flames can all be comfortable without much stress who loses a place.

Let’s get rid of the obvious picks. Dustin Wolf is one of the most valuable young goalkeepers in the NHL and the backbone of the future of the Flames. It was him or Devin Cooley for the place. Go on.

In defense, the choices are very simple in the same way. With young studs such as Brzustewicz and Parekh who are not yet eligible for selection, the Flames actually only have three current defenders who are worth protecting. Mackenzie Weegar, Kevin Bahl and Rasmus Andersson are the only top-four defenders on the Roster and the easy picks for the defense group. None of Hanley, Pachal, Bean or Miromanov is worth protecting.

If Andersson were traded, the next man to protect would probably be a young player such as Ilya Solovyov or Yan Kuznetsov as the flames see a future for either in the NHL.

At Forward the choices were usually also easy to make. After the three veterans, Coronato and Connor Zary are head and shoulders above someone else. Both are the first round picks from the middle of the 20th with legitimate top of the top six. In the case of Coronato, he is already one of the best attackers in the team.

The last two places at Forward became a little more Dicey, with a handful of names that are worth the places. Eventually I went with Morgan Frost and Yegor Sharangovich. Frost has the highest upward value of the remaining group after Coronato and Zary, and plays a key position as a center. I don’t see that the flames want to lose him for nothing.

In Sharangovich, the Flames have an end-20th through a rough contract, but with a history of 30 target production. No one else in the remaining group has that advantage, so he made the pick about players such as Martin Pospisil and Joel Farabee, while his age gives him a lead on Blake Coleman.

Who remains exposed?

With the 11 protected players above, here are the most remarkable players who would be unprotected and for the taking.

When I am the made -up expansion team, I am not exactly in love with my options when it is time to choose a flame. There is not much to be found here, and not much advantage to choose from. I see no real selection options for defense. All three names are at his best bottom-pairs players and not worth it.

At Forward there are a few names that can be intriguing. If I had to guess, I think Pospisil would be the most likely name selected from this group. The 25-year-old has received a solid reputation in the competition as a plague and has been a solid complementary bottom-six wing player in the NHL.

Perhaps an expansion team loves the benefit of Farabee and thinks he could thrive in a new environment, but that contract would probably scare up most teams. If the expansion foster wanted to win immediately, Coleman could be a secret choice, but since he will soon be 34, I doubt if it would happen. In Adam Klapka and Rory Kerins, the Flames can run the risk of losing a younger property, but in a realistic point of view, both boys probably fill out fourth rings in the NHL and they are not large pickups for an expansion team.

Nothing to lose, for now

All in all, the rather unfortunate NHL expansion is not this summer. With the current state and their schedule in Flux because they record prospects, there is not much to worry about when it comes to who they can lose.

The flames would be quite comfortable at the moment with any expansion design, given the lack of high-end talent they have in the pro ranks. That said, if NHL extension continues in 2028, this can be a different story with an abundance of young names that are no longer exempt.

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