Most of these guys will be protected.

God I hope the Jets don't let Copper go

a big nope on Fabbro

Heinen and Copp are likely getting protected. Not sure for every D.

you need to add 20M more in salary to even be eligible.

Well if they protected him, they will lose Ekholm

Who would the wild protect over Brodin, Spurgeon, and...? Does Suter have an NMC?

Most of these guys will have bigger extensions by the time SEA starts playing

They'll either have a deal in place not to select Ekholm, go 4-4-1 and protect both, or trade Ekholm before the draft. There is no scenario where NSH willingly lets either Fabbro or Ekholm get selected in the expansion draft.

will they be eligible if they spent that during free agency?

yes, they just need to meet the minimum 60.2M by the start of the season.

Suter and Spurgeon both have NMC so it would be Brodin vs Dumba for the 3rd spot. I guess it depends a lot on Brodin's contract status. Also the Wild did a lot to protect those guys from VGK expansion so they might do something similar for Seattle.

I'm positive that Suter has a NMC

Pretty hard for Detroit to lose Perlini, When he's not being qualified by all accounts.

Brodin is a UFA that summer, so if he doesn't have an extension in place prior and they don't trade him, that's a good hint that Guerin has an agreement to sign him after the draft. If they extend him this offseason and Dumba has a bounceback year, they'll surely go with protecting 8 skaters and protect Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, and Dumba. Hard to say which forwards they'd protect, but assuming no major trades they'd likely protect Parise, Zuccarello, Fiala and Erickson Ek.