The Only Expansion Draft Article You Will Ever Need (Part 1)

[Plate 386]

The Only Expansion Draft Article You Need

 

Expansion drafts are some of the biggest highlights we can bring to the VHL. They are a time for stress as players live with uncertainty. Will you be protected? Will you move and be part of a potential Cinderella story? I am going to break down for you everything you need to know about the expansion draft format. I teamed up with @SirRupertBarnes to tackle a huge project where we made a protection list for every single team in the VHL. Huge shoutout to him. You can find the link to the second part of this series at the end of the article.

 

I will only be talking about the expansion draft/what teams will protect in this article. I do not touch on the Draft Lottery Tournament or the new playoff format. I will do that next season.

 

Rules for existing teams

TLDR; Your team will protect eight active players eligible to play in S73. That is anyone drafted from S66 to 72. This includes both skaters and goalies. Draft picks cannot be selected directly from existing teams. You will likely see your team protect 1 goalie, 2 or 3 defensemen, and the rest forwards.  

 

There are only a couple exceptions to the rules. If an expansion team is forced to select a player that is inactive, they also get a 2nd round pick in one of the three upcoming drafts (S73-75). It is a little wordy, so I will break it down for you guys.

 

London selects an inactive player from Moscow. Moscow now must give up a 2nd round pick on top of that player. Moscow chooses what 2nd round pick they get rid of. The pick must be a part of the S73, S74, or S75 draft.

 

How does the Expansion Draft Work?

There are 24 total assets that the expansion teams will be drafting from. Because there are 4 expansion teams and 24 things to pick from, the draft will be 6 rounds. The three major selections the expansion teams will be picking from are players, their S73 draft positions, and compensation picks.

 

Any unprotected player from existing teams are up for grabs. Once an existing team has lost a player to the expansion draft, they cannot lose any more players.

During the S73 VHL Draft Lottery, placeholder teams will mark where the expansion teams get to draft. The range for which expansion teams get their selections is between 5-12. This process is done separately, by random. Those positions are acquirable in the expansion draft in the same way that a player would be selected. They will be used for expansion teams to determine their own place in the draft.

 

There will be 8 compensation picks available for selection by expansion teams. They are placed 21-24 overall in each of the next two drafts, S73 and S74. Expansion teams are limited to 2 compensation picks in a single draft and 3 in total. These picks are arbitrary and only serve the purpose of filling out expansion team rosters quickly.

 

Are You Protected?

I went through the list of teams alphabetically and made up my own list of what the players I would protect. I also went through and talked about what players I think will be chosen. Mind you, take this all with a grain of salt. Since the actual lists are hidden from our eye I thought it would be fun to make up a "public list" for people to see who they would protect with this perspective. 

 

Names in black are protected, with the best player available shown underneath. TPPS stands for TP per Season. It doesn’t take into account Veteran depreciation, or rapid VHLM growth. If a player has twice the average TPPS (The average being 172), then they are considered to have "superstar" talent and have an "!" next to their number when listed. A player that has red showing on their background in TPPS has a "?", to signify an opinionated decision rather than the "best one". This is a case by case basis. The number next to the best player available was their TPA at the time of writing. 

 

Calgary Wranglers

Projected Expansion List (TPPS): R. Jubis (225), K. Rice (215), E. Encarnacion (284), M. Lahtinen (263), L. Mitchell (450!), G. Zod (395!), J. Lafontaine (231) , C. Paddywagon (134?)

Best Available Players (TPPS): J. Poremba (208), S. Gunnar (159?)

 

The biggest decision that Calgary will be making is whether or not to protect Paddywagon (939 TPA) for another cup run next season, or to protect the goalie prospect Poremba. My first list had Paddywagon unprotected in favour of Poremba. After looking it over, it makes more sense to expose the goalie prospect. 

 

Calgary will be poised to take a cup next season so you want to protect most of your good players. Unfortunately in this case, Calgary also has some prospects that they want to keep. It will be possible to protect most of the core pieces. Zod, Mitchell, Lafontaine are all super important players to the future Wranglers squad.

 

Gunnar and Poremba are both available with the list that I've proposed. Either player could easily be taken. Poremba will be a solid starter in the league, but is a bit of a project. The other option, Gunnar, had an incredible 80 point season in S72 and was +44. An expansion team is going to get a very solid player from Calgary.

 

D.C Dragons

Projected Expansion List: B. Graves (249), L. Valentino (191), B. Forest (158), G. Washington (237), G. Leslieur (189), X. Leflamant (195), S. Wolski (330), L. Flaten (292)
Best Available Player: R, Johnson (145?) 

D.C’s core is at a great spot for now and the future. The players from Graves all the way to Leslieur are your VHL studs that will be protected for the long haul. 

 

There are also a couple great prospects looking to bolster the roster in the form of Wolski and Flaten. Their splashes into the VHL will be under the Dragon's wing. 

 

Ricky Johnson is a solid defenseman that will probably be heading out of the Dragons lair. A consistent 40 point scoring defenseman will be sought after pretty early on in the expansion draft. 

 

The Dragon's management has done a great job at building a team to look forward to in the future. Only time will tell what player will be chosen from this squad.

 

 

H.C Davos Dynamo

Projected Expansion List: R. Davis (377!), D. Oquinn (172), S. Hornet (539!), R. Winter (485), J. Bruden (200), J. Lefebrve (235), C. Rust (193), J. Exotic (181), T. McHugh (168)

Best Available Players: H. Helmsley (159), J. Jaguar (152), J. Willis (154), B. Chungus (152)

 

You may notice that legends Hunter Helmsley and Jet Jaguar are unprotected. They are both retiring next season. I may be too ocular on this season, in my assessment on Davos for next season. I do not think they have a realistic chance at making the cup next year. I foresee them selling everything anyway. (This is going to age like a fine wine, I already know it).

 

The issue here is that Davos has too many prospects that they want to protect. Rust, Exotic, Lefebrve and McHugh are all important pieces for their future. On top of that, you have the cornucopia of your team in the form of S. Hunter that will be holding together the fruit of your future.

You could make the case for protecting H. Helmlsey or J. Jaguar, then trading them for more value next season. There is only one situation that I can see where Davos protects everybody. Davos places their protection list, where Helmsley and Jaguar are protected in place of Exotic and McHugh.  Then offers a 2nd or 3rd to whatever expansion team selects J. Willis over T. McHugh.

 

But as of the list that I have now, there are too many players to protect. You will be seeing a great player leave this organization. It would not surprise me if a player from Davos was selected among the first round of the expansion draft.

 

As for who will be chosen, H. Helmsley or J. Jaguar are a bit of an “all-in” selection. You have one season to make use of their skill before they retire. You can also make a case for selecting a prospect such as B. Chungus or J. Willis, but we all know that isn’t happening.

 

It will be interesting to see Gustav Mattias get Davos through this expansion draft.

 

Helsinki Titans

Projected Expansion List: E. Summers (221), H. Okada (189), J. Bob (332), J. Spaz (174), V. Vaakaneinen (491), S. Elsby (364!), Z. Driver (328), J. Rose (225)
Best Players Available: B. Helminen (152), K. Andersen (146?)

 

Helsinki has a player pool loaded with some star talent. Vaakaneinen, Elsby and Driver are all future prospects that will tear it up. It’s important to protect those core pieces that are already established and still have quite a bit of time left in their careers. These lists do have a tendency to pick on veterans, but time is a resource that is just as valuable as TPA sometimes. 

 

In the VHL you have Summers, Okada and Bob that are too good to let go. The Titans have great players that are VHL ready, and will-be VHL ready players in a season or two. They had a pretty good record and even made the playoffs. I don't think Helsinki will go into a full push next season, which is why letting a regular go isn't the worst thing to have happen. 

 

I would say that Helsinki wouldn’t be too bothered to give up Helminen or Andersen. It sucks losing a future piece like Heminen and Andersen is already a top 4 defenseman. The other options are too valuable, which is saying something for the quality of players on the Titans roster. Hafkey has a lot of TPA (887), and for an expansion team they might want to make a push, could be a viable option. In my opinion I would be taking Helminen or Andersen over that player. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for part one of this article. The second part, written by @SirRupertBarnes is found with the link below. I hope you all had a good read and make sure to drop a like on his section of the series! We put a lot of work into this and it was a ton of fun. Cheers. 

 

Words: 1685 (Pre-Edit, I only added a thank you to SirRupert Barnes)

Edited July 13, 2020 by Plate
Added SirRupertBarnes' link to the second part of the series.

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