The NHL's newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, get their first look at each team's list of protected players on June 17 and have until June 21 to select their initial roster.
In the case of certain teams, the protection list can already be guessed, but there are at least 10 teams with some awfully difficult decisions to make in the next two-plus weeks.
To be clear, this isn't to argue that the other 20 teams don't have good players to lose, but simply that the choice of which of them to expose isn't particularly difficult. For instance, the Chicago Blackhawks have almost no choice but to lose Trevor van Riemsdyk, so GM Stan Bowman doesn't have any particularly difficult choices to make while composing his protection list.
Here's a look at 10 NHL GMs who do:
In terms of selecting the team's first No. 1 goalie, the Golden Knights may be looking to the Stanley Cup finalist Penguins, who have both Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray to choose from.
Technically, GM Jim Rutherford doesn't really have a decision to make on his protection list, because Fleury's no-movement clause means that he has to be protected. However, losing Murray is completely unacceptable, which means that Rutherford will have to either buy out Fleury's contract, or convince him to waive his clause so that he can either be traded or exposed in Murray's place. In that last case, the Golden Knights may prove to be perfectly satisfied to pick Fleury.
For Rutherford, the alternative is to offer the Golden Knights some kind of an incentive to skip over their goalies altogether, like a draft pick or a prospect. That might not be a bad proposal for either side, because the Golden Knights are bound to find a defenseman they like instead, whether that's Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, or someone off the board like Derrick Pouliot.
If they don't find a No. 1 goalie in Pittsburgh, then the Golden Knights might try Colorado, who have both 2014 Vezina Trophy runner-up Semyon Varlamov and last season's starter Calvin Pickard.
Given Varlamov's hefty $5.9 million cap hit for two more seasons, plus his disappointing .898 save percentage in an injury-plagued 2016-17 season, it might make sense for the Avalanche to risk losing him in the expansion draft, and to build towards the future with the 25-year-old Pickard.
Such a decision might be practical, but it isn't without risks. If Varlamov were to regain his 2013-14 and 2014-15 form, during which time his .925 save percentage ranked third among the 36 goalies to play at least 60 games, then he could be the type of goalie that could lift an otherwise mediocre team into contention. Pickard is probably lacking in that high-ceiling potential.
Moving on to the blue line, the GM with the toughest decisions to make is Anaheim's Bob Murray, and it's because of an abundance of solid young talent.
In the traditional protection list configuration, Murray can protect three defensemen. Even if he convinces Kevin Bieksa to waive his no-movement clause and/or decides to buy out the contract, he still must expose at least one of Hampus Lindholm, 23, Sami Vatanen, 25, Cam Fowler, 25, or Josh Manson, 25.
Yes, there is a configuration that will allow Murray to protect all four defensemen, but it will leave only four spots to protect the team's forwards. Once Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler are considered, that means he can protect only one of Rickard Rakell, Jakob Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano. That's even worse!
There's no easy solution for the Ducks, who are destined to lose a quality (and young) top-four defenseman or top-six forward no matter what they do. At least it will make room for Jacob Larsson, Shea Theodore and Brandon Montour, who aren't eligible for the expansion draft due to lack of NHL service time.
To round out the top defensive pairing, the Golden Knights will be carefully reviewing San Jose GM Doug Wilson's protection list.
Obviously, Wilson will choose to protect Norris Trophy finalist Brent Burns and veteran Marc-Edouard Vlasic, the latter of whom is among the best shutdown defensemen in the NHL. But then he must choose between Paul Martin, Justin Braun, Brendan Dillon and David Schlemko.
In this case, Wilson's best option might be to expose extra forwards in order to protect two of those four defensemen. That still leaves him space to protect Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl up front, along with one of Mikkel Boedker, Joel Ward, Melker Karlsson or Chris Tierney.
The Panthers' roster presents another opportunity for the Golden Knights to land a top-four defenseman.
Due to his no-movement clause, Keith Yandle will have to be protected, and GM Dale Tallon will obviously choose to protect franchise defenseman Aaron Ekblad, but then what? He will have to choose between Jason Demers, Alex Petrovic and Mark Pysyk, with far too many solid young forwards to entertain the possibility of protecting more than one of those three.
In this case, Tallon's best bet is to protect Demers, given his importance in all manpower situations and against top opponents, which leaves Petrovic or Pysyk for Vegas to consider.
To complete the top four, the Golden Knights may turn to the Islanders.
GM Garth Snow has to protect Johnny Boychuk due to his no-movement clause, and can then protect two of Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey, Calvin de Haan or Dennis Seidenberg.
Based on his underlying numbers, de Haan is considered one of the league's most underrated players within the analytics community. However, just because a decision may appear simple to the number crunchers doesn't mean it will be easy for Snow, who has to consider a variety of other factors when setting his protection list. There will be a useful defenseman available here for the Golden Knights.
After a whirlwind season that ended in a heartbreaking Game 7, double-overtime goal in the Eastern Conference final, the Senators have the unenviable task of deciding which players to risk exposing to the expansion draft.
On defense, Dion Phaneuf's no-movement clause means that he has to be protected, and he will obviously be joined by franchise player Erik Karlsson. But, that still leaves Marc Methot and Cody Ceci, not to mention underrated secondary players like Chris Wideman and Fredrik Claesson.
The tough decisions don't end there. Up front, GM Pierre Dorion will obviously protect Mike Hoffman, Derick Brassard, Mark Stone, and Kyle Turris, but which three of Bobby Ryan, Clarke MacArthur, Zack Smith, Alex Burrows, Ryan Dzingel and Jean-Gabriel Pageau should he keep under his protective umbrella? There are no clear answers.
On May 4, 2017, the Golden Knights signed KHL free agent Vidam Shipachyov to a two-year contract. His first linemate may currently be on the roster of the Wild, who simply have too many quality forwards to protect them all.
Based on their no-movement clauses, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville must be protected. That leaves four spots for Eric Staal, Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker and Nino Niederreiter. Due to his age, Staal, 32, may be the odd man out.
Then again, Vegas may prefer to snap up one of Minnesota's defensemen. The Wild will be protecting Ryan Suter, and two of Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba. Depending on how well they filled their blue line elsewhere, that may be the direction for Vegas to go.
Having the incomparable goalie Henrik Lundqvist means exposing his backup Antti Raanta, who is arguably the best goalie in the NHL who is not already an established No. 1 -- especially with Scott Darling getting snapped up by the Carolina Hurricanes.
However, this isn't about the goaltending situation, where there's no decision to be made. GM Jeff Gorton's real head-scratcher will be deciding which of his overachieving forwards he should risk exposing in the expansion draft; Michael Grabner, Brandon Pirri or Jesper Fast. Protecting any of these three players means taking a spot on the protection list from a solid top-six contributor like Kevin Hayes or Mika Zibanejad. That's probably not happening.
To round out the forward depth, the Golden Knights are guaranteed to get at least one solid option from the Canadiens.
For example, players like Andrew Shaw, Torrey Mitchell, Paul Byron and Phillip Danault could all be exposed, and make excellent additions to Vegas' bottom six.
GM Marc Bergevin does have some options to limit their choices, however. He could risk exposing the team's top two-way center Tomas Plekanec, who is 34 and carries a $6.0 million cap hit. Obviously, Plekanec would be a prime target for the Golden Knights, but it would help Montreal keep one of the league's best bottom-six groups together.