Joined: May 2019
Posts: 10,250
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I'm thinking it's more and more likely that they actually protect Skjei. I don't think they want to lose two of their top four defenseman (Hamilton, Skjei) in the same off-season and it's never a guarantee that you can get replacements via FA. He was playing 24 minutes a night in the playoffs, whereas Bean was only playing around 14. I could see Brind'Amour pulling for Skjei. It makes more sense to protect Bean, but I wonder if they end up protecting Skjei in order to keep the core of their defense intact,