How much will the expansion draft affect current teams?

[Victor 10,940]

With expansion draft details not yet revealed but speculation being that protection rules will be similar to S65 and S66 and each team will lose an asset, here's a brief overview of how that affects every existing VHL franchise.

 

Calgary – Win now mode means little to lose

The Wranglers went old fashioned by accelerating their rebuild to end up where they are now – competing with two lines and basically no prospect pool. Whether it will work out remains to be seen as there is some uncertainty over the future of franchise goaltender Brick Wahl, but on the bright side it means they can protect most of the team. Expect veteran Robert Malenko and/or youngster Cody Smith exposed – they're players Calgary would rather keep but can deal without.

 

New York – Won't notice

The good thing about being bottom of the league is not having many valuable assets. New York's attempt to compete bottomed out last off-season and has left them without too many pieces at the moment – they'll probably have to end up protecting some inactive players as they have more slots than core players. That might mean losing a reasonably valuable third round pick, but the Americans have enough of those in S68 and S69 to cope.
 

Seattle – Timing works against them

If the Bears were a season behind in their rebuild and about to draft big in S68, they'd have nothing to worry about. Instead they went in on S67 and now have more players from that draft class than there are protection slots. And that's before counting slightly older players like John Frostbeard and Dallas Jones. In the long run, Seattle wouldn't be able to keep this whole team together anyway but it does mean they have to decide who has the most upside now which can be a tough call this early on in players' careers.
 

Vancouver – Should stop drafting so well

The Wolves hit a low in the first season after moving from Quebec but have rebounded well thanks to building a new team effectively entirely through the draft. That does mean they have a young, deep team with more actives players than they can keep, as an article by one of their own players clearly shows. There's little more to add to that – Vancouver will need to decide who the most important players are to their continued contender status.

 

Toronto – No impact

After this season, Devise has 99 problems, but the expansion draft ain't one of them. Between retirements, pending free agents, and not having made a draft pick since S63, Toronto has nothing to lose and might only 4 players under contract going into the off-season. At the absolute most, they'll have 11, meaning they're probably losing someone like Gucci Garrop or Bolt Vanderhuge. Looks like that S70 3^rd round pick is coming into play.
 

Moscow – Probably better off for it

Having known about expansion for a while, naturally I've assessed how I'll be affected by it and although there are still a couple decisions to make, overall it's probably a blessing as the salary cap tightens around Moscow... and a few other GMs will probably be thinking along the same lines. Without revealing my game plan, I think the Menace will be able to retain our core players and lose someone who might have been a cap dump anyway.
 

Malmo – Would be happy to avoid but will deal

Going into their third season, the Nighthawks will be at a point where they're a young team with more active players than protection slots but they've already been throwing players away before S67 given ice time and cap considerations. Whoever they lose, a Gaudette, a Basaraba Moose, or maybe Dalton Wilcox, will be a piece an expansion team would love to have, but probably one Malmo can deal without.
 

Davos – Is getting real tired of expansions

The problem with being in a perennial rebuild, other than obviously not actually winning anything, is also having a deep prospect pool vulnerable to expansion draft raids. Davos already lost Dan Baillie and Jack Lynch in S65 and S66, two of Moscow and Malmo's best expansion draft selections, and will likely have one of their fine S67 prospects (Leblanc, Ligriv, or someone else) stolen this time.

 

Riga – Also resigned to losing a promising young player

The Reign have made a living since circa S61 or so off never having to sell the farm by constantly replenishing their roster with younger players. The result? Six seasons straight in the playoffs but also always having more players than expansion draft protection slots. Riga can't protect all their stars (Kastelic, McWolf, Dahlberg) and also all their S66 players, therefore will provide another useful piece for the expansion teams to grab.

 

Helsinki – Potential tough decisions

In a league of trying to never enter a firesale, a few franchises are building the old fashioned way, and Helsinki is one of those. This expansion draft catches them at a reasonably good time, where an ageing roster will need some cap balacing anyway so perhaps the Titans will sacrifice one of their loyal servants in order to compete longer. It's a risk though, there's no guarantee Guillaume Fontenette will develop to replace a Jesse Wilson or Bert Meyers to the level of Matt Thompson or Dan Wilinsky, but probably will work out well for Helsinki either way.

[Banackock 8,047]

Interesting. 

[ShawnGlade 1,010]

Yes, very tired of expansions

 

Davos has gifted 2 expansion franchises with elite young talent that has already started making an impact, am I really about to do it again?

Edited August 17, 2019 by ShawnGlade

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

2 hours ago, ShawnGlade said:

Yes, very tired of expansions

 

Davos has gifted 2 expansion franchises with elite young talent that has already started making an impact, am I really about to do it again?

Plan better?

[ShawnGlade 1,010]

2 hours ago, eaglesfan036 said:

Plan better?

Nah you right, lemme just build this competitive roster for next season and then get slapped in the face with it mid season

 

I said this the last two expansions, this is really something that needs to be announced in the offseason, not mid season