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Except for the buzz surrounding post-season awards picked up by Chris Pronger, Pavol Demitra, and coach Joel Quenneville, all has been quiet down at Kiel Center for the last month and a half, after the Blues were stunned in the first round of the playoffs, losing in seven games to the 8th seeded San Jose Sharks.
Blues fans knew this was going to be an interesting summer, and with the NHL season now officially over the summer has begun.
On Tuesday the Blues, along with the NHL's other 26 established teams (the new Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers were exempt), released their protected and unprotected lists for the expansion draft to stock the league's two newest teams, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, which begin play in October. The expansion draft will be held on Friday June, 23 in Calgary.
Teams could either protect one goalie, nine forwards, and five defensemen, or two goalies, seven forwards, and three defensemen. The Blues went with the latter, choosing to protect young goalie Brent Johnson in addition to Roman Turek, instead of a forward like Scott Pellerin or defensemen such as Marc Bergevin and Jeff Finley.
The Blues, like every other team, will lose two players in the draft but unlike many other teams they don't have anything to worry about. They protected all of the players they would like to have back and most of their prized younger players like Jochen Hecht, Ladislav Nagy, and Marty Reasoner have less than three years pro experience and can't be considered for selection. Unrestricted free agents such as Tyson Nash, Mike Eastwood, and Kelly Chase will not be picked because if a team wanted them they would just wait another week until they become unrestricted free agents, sign them for nothing, and not waste a pick on them.
The most interesting decision the Blues made in the draft was protecting young defenseman Bryce Salvador over veterans Finley and Bergevin. The Blues think Salvador, who spend last season with the AHL's Worcester Ice Cats, can compete for a job on their blueline this fall. By protecting Johnson, another Worcester youngster, in goal over veteran Jamie McLennan the Blues could put themselves in the market for a veteran backup as an insurance policy later in the summer. Johnson should make the team and the Blues are high on him as is evident by the fact that they protected him over McLennan.
What will happen in the expansion draft is anybody's guess. There are always a flurry of minor trades as teams try to keep guys they want but couldn't protect, and sometimes dump unselected players that they don't want back. If the Blues don't make any deals look for them to lose McLennan and maybe a young forward like Reed Low or a veteran like Pellerin. Pellerin is a restricted free agent so if the Blue Jackets or Wild picked him, they wouldn't have to worry about losing him after July 1 (when free agency begins) since they would still retain the right to match any offer he may get. Pellerin doesn't seem to figure into the Blues plans next season. No team can lose a goalie and a defenseman, so if McLennan does in fact get selected Finley and Bergevin are safe.
Here is the complete list of Blues protected and unprotected players:
Protected List (Position)
Lubos Bartecko F
Craig Conroy F
Pavol Demitra F
Michal Handzus F
Jamal Mayers F
Pierre Turgeon F
Scott Young F
Al MacInnis D
Chris Pronger D
Bryce Salvador D
Brent Johnson G
Roman Turek G
Available List (Position)
Bob Bassen F
Derek Bekar F
Sylvain Blouin F
Jim Campbell F
Kelly Chase F
Mike Eastwood F
Derek King F
Reed Low F
Tyson Nash F
Scott Pellerin F
Andrei Petrakov F
Pascal Rheaume F
Stephane Richer F
Stephane Roy F
Tore Vikingstad F
Marc Bergevin D
Vladimir Chebaturkin D
Dave Ellett D
Jeff Finley D
Edvin Frylen D
Yuri Gunko D
Bryan Helmer D
Dan Keczmer D
Ricard Persson D
Dmitri Plekhanov D
Rudy Poeschek D
Libor Prochazka D
Darren Rumble D
Matt Smith D
Jamie McLennan G
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