Devils are most likely going to submit a 7-3-1 for the expansion protection list. And being completely honest, the only defensemen worth protecting right now is Severson.
If Subban, Butcher, and Siegenthaler (even though we just signed him) were to be left unprotected, I would be totally fine losing one of them to Seattle. It's the forwards I'm more concerned about protecting/not losing.
But since the rosters have to be finalized/submitted by Saturday, I think Tom Fitzgerald needs to make at least 1, maybe 2, trades for defensemen that other teams are leaving unprotected. Which would force us to protect Severson, Defensemen A, Defensemen B, leaving Subban, Butcher, and Siegs open.
In my eyes, we have two valuable protection slots open on the back end. We should be acquiring 1-2 D and protecting them instead of protecting Subban, Butcher, and Siegs. It doesn't make sense to NOT make a trade before the expansion draft. This is such a huge opportunity for the Devils because between right now and the expansion draft is when we can take advantage of teams losing players for nothing.
Unless I'm missing something obvious, I think it would be such a waste not going after a guy like Dunn, Leddy, Jake Bean, Hayden Fluery, Jacob Larsson, Jeremy Lauzon...the list goes on and on.
And yeah I get that we can make these deals after the expansion draft, but wouldn't we hold more leverage doing it beforehand when unprotected players are vulnerable of getting picked by Seattle for nothing?
I am fine with protecting Siegenthaler.
But we should acquire one d-man before the expansion draft.
I think CAR, NSH, TBL, STL appear most likely to be in expansion-squeeze and may shed a d-man. All could lose more by Seattle drafting a d-man then trading and losing lesser player in draft.
My preference would be:
1. Fabbro
2. Dunn
3. Foote
4. Carrier
5. Bean
I would be willing to take on Skjei, Faulk, Ellis or McDonagh too if the trade didn’t cost too much.