Since the PWHL announced its expansion rules, social media
has been taken over by fans of the original six markets who are shocked by how
favourable the rules are to the new franchises. In a nutshell, each of the original
six franchises can only protect three players. They can add a fourth player
once they’ve lost two to expansion teams.
Now, I know this wouldn’t happen in the NHL as any expansion
team gets to pick its lineup from the league’s other 32 teams, but just for discussion’s
sake, if Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes had to do the exercise Daniele
Sauvageau will soon undertake for the Montreal Victoire, who would he pick?
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It stands to reason that Hughes would elect to protect his
captain, Nick Suzuki, but after that, it gets complicated. Cole Caufield has
proven to be a perfect complement for the captain, but will Ivan Demidov
eventually perform better than Caufield? Would he protect a projection rather
than a player who has shown he can already perform in the NHL? What we’ve seen
from Demidov so far has been impressive, and he instantly became a fan favourite.
Of course, protecting both would be possible, but then he
would expose both Lane Hutson and Juraj Slafkovsky. I don’t see a scenario where
Hughes would be willing to let Hutson go. So, if he were faced with these tough
decisions, I think he would likely protect Suzuki, Demidov, and Hutson. This
means he would probably lose Caufield and Slafkovsky before being able to
protect a fourth player, which would probably be Kaiden Guhle. At least Jacob
Fowler wouldn’t have to be protected since he’s in Laval.
That would set the rebuild back years. The PWHL fans’ outcry
over the last 24 hours is perfectly understandable. Sauvageau has built a good
team even though it has been unable to move past the first round of the
playoffs so far. However, only being able to protect three of Marie-Philip Poulin,
Laura Stacey, Anne-Renee Desbiens, Erin Ambrose, and Cayla Barnes is pure
torture. The Victoire also has Jennifer Gardiner, the player who won the
accuracy skill competition at the last Canadiens’ skill competition, smashing
the four targets faster than anyone else, including Habs players.
The next time there’s an expansion draft in the NHL,
whatever the protection list parameters are, remember it could be much worse.
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