Who the Sharks need to protect from the Golden Knights in the NHL Expansion Draft

Editor’s Note: The original version of this article incorrectly stated Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton had to be protected because of their no movement clauses. Check out No. 23 here. The article has been corrected to reflect that.

The Vegas Golden Knights exist now as the form of an amorphous brand in a city filled with amorphous brands. By this time next year the Knights will be filled with a collection of cast offs from the rest of the NHL — but make no mistake, the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft will hurt.

Using capfriendly.com’s expansion draft tool, I went through the motions for the Sharks to figure out who is on the chopping block. It is not very much fun. You probably have some questions about how the expansion draft works, right? Lucky for you, Cap Friendly also has a very nice FAQ that you can work through as you read.

The Sharks have two options: protect eight skaters and one goalie OR protect seven forwards, three defenders and one goalie. First, a look at all the players who can be selected by Vegas:

Since we learned Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau don’t need to be protected, the Sharks might want to go with the eight skaters option. Here’s how I would do things if they go with seven forwards and three defenders...

• Joe Pavelski
• Logan Couture
• Tomas Hertl
• Chris Tierney
• Melker Karlsson
• Matt Nieto
• Barclay Goodrow

This seems pretty straight forward. There’s no one I left off this list that I’d be worried about getting claimed by Vegas — that’s primarily because of how strong the Sharks are on defense. Yes, it’s the defenders that will give you heart palpitations. Remember, the Sharks can only protect three under this format ... so here goes:

• Marc-Edouard Vlasic
• Brent Burns
• Justin Braun

The first two are no-brainers. San Jose HAS to protect those guys. It’s the third defender that gets tricky. To me, the choice boils down to Braun or David Schlemko. They’re the same age and Schlemko has a better contract but as a third-pairing defender I don’t think he offers as much value as Braun does on the top pairing.

That being said, a lot of guys can put up solid numbers while playing with Vlasic. It’s conceivable that a player like Tim Heed or Mirco Mueller can eventually grow to become that type of player. Or maybe not and the whole thing goes bust, who knows?

Speaking of Heed and Mueller — both would be exposed in this situation. I think Vegas takes either Braun or Schlemko (that’s what I would do anyway) but don’t rule out the possibility of the Knights swooping in to snag Heed.

That’s why the eight skater prospect seems slightly more promising. If the Sharks go that route, here’s who I would protect:

• Logan Couture
• Joe Pavelski
• Tomas Hertl
• Brent Burns
• Marc-Edouard Vlasic
• Justin Braun
• David Schlemko
• Chris Tierney

Yes, that opens the possibility that Vegas picks up someone like Karlsson ... but I gladly take that risk for the benefit of protecting Schlemko. Things can change between now and June, but as things stand right now I think the Sharks should go with eight skaters instead of the 7/3 format because their defense is currently their strongest point.

Regardless, this is not a fun decision for the Sharks to make and knowing they’ll have to play whoever gets selected 5-6 times a year only makes it worse. San Jose has one of the best defense cores in the league this year — but don’t get used to it. It could take a major hit after the expansion draft.