How do you suppose they do that when they have to protect Klefbom, Nurse, and Bear?
Or do you propose they go the 8 skater route and protect 4 forwards and leave the rest available?
It's certainly possible. With a handshake agreements with Nuge, Holland could protect McDavid, Draisaitl, Yamamoto and Athanasiou for forwards. The best available forward would then be Kassian. He'd be missed but is hardly irreplaceable.
It's certainly possible. With a handshake agreements with Nuge, Holland could protect McDavid, Draisaitl, Yamamoto and Athanasiou for forwards. The best available forward would then be Kassian. He'd be missed but is hardly irreplaceable.
You know what they say about those handshake deals😉
You know what they say about those handshake deals😉
Yeah. But there's precedent: San Jose didn't protect UFA center Joe Thornton for the Vegas draft. Vegas didn't bother picking him because they knew he was going to re-sign with San Jose. This allowed the Sharks to protect useful depth pieces like Ryan Carpenter and Jannik Hansen.
FYI Adam Larsson is in the same position: he's a UFA next summer and doesn't require a protected slot. I don't think we'll see him re-signed with Edmonton prior to the draft for that reason.
How do you suppose they do that when they have to protect Klefbom, Nurse, and Bear?
Or do you propose they go the 8 skater route and protect 4 forwards and leave the rest available?
The one problem with the format is if you protect 7 3 1 that would be better. But they protect Archibald, which makes no sense at all. And they leave Jones open.
Holland is going to have to work some magic if he wants this to work.