The list of Washington Capitals players available for and protected from the Seattle Kraken expansion draft is now known.
Among others, the Caps have chosen to protect American hero TJ Oshie, goalie Ilya Samsonov, controversial forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, and young forward Daniel Sprong. Defender Trevor van Riemsdyk is a surprise inclusion on the protected list.
The Kraken’s choice from the list of available players will be announced on Wednesday.
We’ve previously shared our predictions as to whom Washington would protect.
Here’s the list of protected players:
- Nicklas Backstrom
- Lars Eller
- Evgeny Kuznetsov
- Anthony Mantha
- T.J. Oshie
- Daniel Sprong
- Tom Wilson
- John Carlson
- Dmitry Orlov
- Trevor van Riemsdyk
- Ilya Samsonov
Which means these are the available players:
- Nic Dowd
- Carl Hagelin
- Garnet Hathaway
- Conor Sheary
- Brenden Dillon
- Nick Jensen
- Michal Kempny
- Justin Schultz
- Pheonix Copley
- Vitek Vanecek
One noteworthy protected player is TJ Oshie. As of last week he said he was unaware of whether or not he would be protected.
Keep in mind that a number of players, particularly Alex Ovechkin, are unrestricted free agents. The Kraken can now negotiate with Ovechkin if they so choose. If they sign him as a UFA before the expansion draft, he would then become the Kraken’s pick from the Capitals.
As of Friday, Ovechkin said he was still negotiating his next deal with Washington, though others have reported that the deal is already all but done and waiting until after the expansion draft to be signed.
The expansion draft will be held on Wednesday, July 21.
Screenshot courtesy of @Capitals
