Carolina Hurricanes: Updated Look at Seattle Expansion Draft Scenarios

Scenario #1: Jordan Staal Waives NMC

For starters, and for those who haven’t read my previous article on this topic, the Carolina Hurricanes have two choices when it comes to the format they can choose to protect players: they can protect either 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie or  8 skaters (forwards and defensemen) and 1 goalie.

Any player that has a full no-move clause – an NMC – (NTC’s and modified NTC’s do not count) must be protected by their team. That player can choose to waive their NMC to free up a protection spot, but that player will then be exposed for selection.

Jordan Staal is the only player with a full NMC on the Canes’ roster, and has a choice to waive it. Without getting to far into the weeds about how invaluable and irreplaceable he is to the Canes, this first scenario requires that he waive his NMC. I personally don’t believe Ron Francis would select him given his high salary/cap hit, but that’s another story entirely.

If Staal waives his NMC, this frees up an extra spot. I believe the Carolina Hurricanes would go the 8 skaters and 1 goalie route, and would protect Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trocheck, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen (thankfully, Martin Necas isn’t eligible for the Seattle Expansion Draft), Alex Nedeljkovic, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, Jake Bean, and Haydn Fleury.

This, of course, means Dougie Hamilton would be exposed, but the fact that he’s an upcoming UFA would likely mean Francis wouldn’t want to select him over the other Carolina Hurricanes’ players with term left that would be on the table: Jake Gardiner, Brady Skjei, or Nino Niederreiter. (This could also be a bit of a strategic reason the Canes have chosen to wait until after the season ends to pursue contract extension negotiations with Dougie’s camp, but that’s pure speculation).

In this scenario, the Carolina Hurricanes would likely lose Brady Skjei, in my opinion. Gardiner has an injury history that has kept him out of a large portion of this season. Niederreiter could be the one chosen as well, seeing as how he’s had the mother of all rebound seasons, but that remains to be seen.

Francis likely would see Skjei as a safer bet, given his recent settling in with the Canes and his relatively modest salary paired with a pretty good bit of term ($5.25M through 2023-24).

If you’re worried about this scenario (you shouldn’t be), you might not want to read the next one. Proceed with caution.