Today practices kickoff for the World Cup of Hockey squads. And as the World Cup moves on, I will be watching several individual players carefully since they have a chance of becoming Las Vegas Hockey players in a year in the 2017 Expansion Draft. One in particular is Columbus Blue Jackets
Forward Brandon Saad, playing for Team North America.
Few players in the World Cup will be made available to Las Vegas in the 2017 Expansion Draft. These 170 NHLers are the best of the best and are almost certainly going to be protected by their teams next year. But there are exceptions, and Brandon Saad definitely could be one of them.
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Why? Because the Blue Jackets have themselves contracted into the corner. According to the rules of the Expansion Draft they can only protect a certain number of players. Most importantly, players who have No Movement Clauses in their contracts must be protected, sucking up those valuable hands off slots.
As it stands now, Columbus has four forwards with an NMC: Brandon Dubinsky, Nick Foligno, David Clarkson and Scott Hartnel. Good players, but maybe not the ones you’d really want to protect. Especially since that leaves only three slots to protect a talented group of eight additional forwards, including one Brandon Saad.
Brandon Saad is now 23 and signed a 6 year/$36 mil contract with the Blue Jackets in 2015. His base salary in 2017-2018 will be $6.25 mil with a $6 mil cap hit. Since Columbus is only about $3.8 mil under the current cap ceiling with more moves to come between now and the draft, if Columbus is looking to make cap room in June 2017 then Brandon Saad will be a logical choice.
that leaves only three slots to protect a talented group of eight additional forwards, including one Brandon Saad.
Many things can happen, of course, between now and the Expansion Draft. Columbus might make some trades, maybe decide Saad is worth using their protective slot on, thus exposing another on their roster. Maybe Saad will be traded before the season is out and be on a different team with different.
Still, I expect the Las Vegas Hockey franchise’s new scouting department will be keeping an eye on likely players. And who knows? Maybe Brandon Saad will be one of the first players to play in a home jersey in T-Mobile Arena?