The list of players protected by the 30 NHL teams in the upcoming expansion draft was made available on Sunday, July 18. Clubs had two options in terms of protecting players:
The Stars opted for the 7-3-1 route, and will protect the following players:
Forwards
Jamie Benn (no-movement clause)
Radek Faksa
Denis Gurianov
Roope Hintz
Joe Pavelski
Alexander Radulov (no-movement clause)
Tyler Seguin (no-movement clause)
Defensemen
Miro Heiskanen
John Klingberg
Esa Lindell
Goaltender
Anton Khudobin
Note that all players with no-movement clauses had to be protected unless they waived those clauses. Stars goaltender Ben Bishop waived his no-move on July 15 to allow the club to protect Khudobin.
The Kraken will be under the same rules as the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017, which means they'll select one player from each team (excluding Vegas) for a total of 30 skaters. At minimum, Seattle must draft 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. The Kraken can fill their four remaining roster spots with players from any position. Of the 30 skaters, a minimum of 20 must be under contract for the upcoming regular season.
Seattle has an exclusive window from July 18-21 to interview and potentially sign pending free agents who were left unprotected in the expansion draft. If the Kraken sign a player in that window it counts as their pick from that players' former team.
All first- and second-year professionals, unsigned draft choices and players with potential career-ending injuries who have missed more than the previous 60 consecutive games are exempt from selection and aren't counted toward protection limits. Notable exemptions for the Stars include forwards Joel Kiviranta (restricted free agent) and Jason Robertson, defenseman Thomas Harley and goaltender Jake Oettinger.
All NHL teams must meet the following minimum requirements regarding players exposed for selection in the draft:
Below is a list of available Stars for the expansion draft:
Forwards
Nick Caamano
Andrew Cogliano
Blake Comeau
Justin Dowling
Tanner Kero
Joel L'Esperance
Adam Mascherin
Matej Stransky
Defensemen
Taylor Fedun
Ben Gleason
Joel Hanley
Niklas Hansson
Julius Honka
Jamie Oleksiak
Mark Pysyk
Andrej Sekera
Sami Vatanen
Goaltenders
Ben Bishop
Landon Bow
Colton Point
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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.
