The first step to our mock draft is to establish the list of players that will be available for the Las Vegas franchise to draft. To do this, we decided to have a blogger from each team represent their own franchise and select the players that will be protected from the Mock Expansion Draft available player pool. To see the rules which were followed to protect players, hit this link.
Next up, we have the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers are being represented by Allan Mitchell from LoweTide.ca.
Protected Players
- G – Cam Talbot
- F – Connor McDavid
- F – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- F – Anton Lander
- F – Leon Draisaitl
- F – Taylor Hall
- F – Benoit Pouliot
- F – Jordan Eberle
- F – Nail Yakupov
- F – Anton Slepyshev
- D – Oscar Klefbom
- D – Darnell Nurse
- D – Andrej Sekera
- D – Justin Schultz
- D – Griffin Reinhart
Analysis from LoweTide.ca:
I kept all of the obvious players (basically the No. 1 overalls and the top end youngsters). I kept only a few veterans, like Talbot who could solve the goalie issue for the rest of the decade. Sekera is expensive but the Oilers have so little on defense and he’s miles better than Mark Fayne and the other expensive defensemen.
Forwards are all young but Pouliot, and he’s rugged with an edge and can play with skill. There are some inexpensive forwards here (Lander, Slepyshev) and that’s going to be important for the Oilers when McDavid’s second contract kicks in.
Among the most attractive players available are inexpensive youngsters with solid potential. Anders Nilsson, Bogdan Yakimov, Jordan Oesterle, Brandon Davidson and Andrew Miller might be able to help an NHL team and hang around long enough to be there when the good times arrive. Veterans who would be worth having are goalkeeper Ben Scrivens, defenseman Mark Fayne and center Mark Letestu. Teddy Purcell would be a free agent but might be worth retaining, offense will be in short supply.
The entire list of unprotected players that will be available for Team Lane and Team Pothier to select from can be found here.
To see more team explanations just like this one, check out The Sin Bin Mock Expansion Draft Landing Page.
Special thanks again to Allan Mitchell from LoweTide.ca. Be sure to follow @Lowetide on Twitter, and heck, throw us (@SinBinVegas) a follow too while you’re at it.
Jim
Following the roles of the 2000 expansion draft, players on elc’s do not need to be protected!!
Ken Boehlke
You are correct, however, due to the draft being two years away, we chose to not use that rule so it would be easier for each team to make their selections. Rather than get into contracts, we wanted to simplify.