The Pittsburgh Penguins have five players with no-movement clauses who are on the official protected list distributed two weeks ago by the NHL to its 30 clubs: Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin.
Because Fleury also has a modified no-trade clause in his deal, many have wondered since last year whether he would be protected; that's another example of why the NHL and NHL Players' Association had to sign off on this list, because more than a few players have partial no-trade clauses, in addition to a no-move. In the end, Fleury must be protected by the Penguins, unless like any other player on this list, he signs a waiver allowing exposure in June's expansion draft.
Instead, he figures to be traded either before the March 1 trade deadline or in the offseason to a team he has approved, given that he has a say via his no-move clause. This is a mutually beneficial situation, because Fleury needs a fresh start where he's the clear No. 1, and the Penguins must ensure that they use their one goalie slot to protect Stanley Cup-winning No. 1 Matt Murray.
Having said that, the Penguins then need to ensure they have a goalie under contract who they can expose as one of the top four players for the Vegas Golden Knights (teams must expose one goalie, two forwards and a defenseman who fit the rules criteria) to choose from. Prospects Tristan Jarry and Sean Maguire are exempt from the expansion draft because they have not been pros long enough.
The first decision the Penguins need to make closer to the expansion draft is whether they're going with the 7-3-1 (seven forwards-three defensemen-one goalie) protection format or 8-1 (eight skaters-one goalie). I think that will greatly depend on the development/performance this season of 22-year-old defenseman Derrick Pouliot. This was seen as a critical season for the 2012 first-round draft pick to establish himself as a mainstay, but he got hurt in the opening game of the season and only recently returned. If Pouliot has a solid season, would the Penguins want to protect him along with Letang, Olli Maatta and Brian Dumoulin? If so, that would mean protecting eight skaters (four forwards, four defensemen) and one goalie.
Up front, as mentioned, Crosby, Malkin and Kessel are automatically protected. The Penguins catch a break because Conor Sheary is exempt from the expansion draft as a second-year pro. On the flip side, 22-year-old center Oskar Sundqvist, who has played well in the AHL, is actually eligible for the expansion draft (because he played pro hockey in Sweden in 2014-15), so the Penguins have to either protect him or expose him.
What it's really going to boil down to for the Penguins is which of Carl Hagelin, Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson or Tom Kuhnhackl they expose. Hagelin is the better player, but he's making $4 million for another two years past this season, while the other three players have bargain-basement salaries all under $650,000.
Pending unrestricted free agents don't qualify for the expansion draft, which on the Penguins is Chris Kunitz, Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen and Trevor Daley. You better believe the Penguins won't re-sign these guys until after the expansion draft in order to make things a little easier protectionwise.
Really, after the Penguins iron out their goalie situation, the rest of their expansion draft plan isn't that difficult.