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Here’s who the Washington Capitals are protecting in the expansion draft


The NHL will release the expansion draft protection list from every team on Sunday at 10 AM, but the Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan got early confirmation on who will be protected by Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan.

It’s the same list we posted earlier in the week.

Note: Players that are red and in italics are eligible to be selected in the expansion draft. (RFA) denotes a restricted free agent while (UFA) is an unrestricted free agent.

Caps Protect List

Forwards

Alex Ovechkin
Nicklas Backstrom
Evgeny Kuznetsov (RFA)
Andre Burakovsky (RFA)
Marcus Johansson
Lars Eller
Tom Wilson
Jay Beagle
Tyler Graovac
Brett Connolly (RFA)
TJ Oshie (UFA)
Justin Williams (UFA)
Daniel Winnik (UFA)

Defensemen

Matt Niskanen
Dmitry Orlov (RFA)
John Carlson
Brooks Orpik
Nate Schmidt (RFA)
Taylor Chorney
Kevin Shattenkirk (UFA)
Karl Alzner (UFA)

Goaltender

Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer (RFA)

The most enticing players available on the Capitals roster are all restricted free agents: Philipp Grubauer (RFA), Nate Schmidt (RFA), and Brett Connolly (RFA).

Tomorrow starting at 10 AM, Vegas can begin negotiating with these players. Sportsnet explains further:

When all 30 NHL teams release their expansion draft-protected lists on June 18 at 10 a.m. ET, the Vegas Golden Knights will have an exclusive and unprecedented 72-hour window to meet and negotiate with impending free agents (unrestricted and restricted) who are still technically under contract until June 30 with their existing employers.

“Money’s not a problem,” general manager George McPhee said in a recent Q&A session with season-ticket holders. “Our owner, Bill Foley, is not afraid to spend to get the right player, and it’s our job to identify who those players are.”

If a free agent does sign with the Golden Knights between June 18 and 20, he will count as McPhee’s one selection from that player’s team.

Unless Vegas signs the player who is a UFA, they likely will not be worth selecting in the draft as Vegas can try to sign them again on July 1. Meanwhile if the Golden Knights select a RFA, they will gain team control over that player’s rights and can match any contract the skater signs with another team during the summer.

A flurry of moves were made on Saturday ahead of the NHL roster freeze on Saturday.

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