First of all, my thanks to everyone who participated by submitting your own lists. We took the obvious selections along with your suggestions and came up with the following (adhering to the 9-5-1 format):
F – David Booth, Stephen Weiss, Michael Frolik, Rostislav Olesz, Shawn Matthias, Radek Dvorak, Steven Reinprecht, Christopher Higgins, Marty Reasoner
D – Dmitry Kulikov, Bryan McCabe, Dennis Wideman, Bryan Allen
You’ve of course noticed there are only four defensemen; due to “terms” of the draft, at least one defenseman who had played 40 games last year or 70 over the past two seasons must be left unprotected, hence Mike Weaver (77 games in 2009-10) being omitted. Other than he, no one else qualified.
Conversely, two forwards must be left unprotected under the same terms; there wasn’t a lot of love for protecting Cory Stillman (likely due to salary & pending UFA status), Byron Bitz, and Steve Bernier anyway, so they find themselves potentially on the way to Winnipeg or Quebec. Same story with goaltender Scott Clemmensen.
We’ll announce the results of the draft – to be held Friday afternoon between team GMs James Mirtle (QUE) and Gabe Desjardins (WPG) – and who virtually “remains” a Panther soon after.
Salary numbers courtesy of CapGeek.
Who’s the likeliest Panther to be chosen in Friday’s mock expansion draft? (And yes, the salary cap is in force – player name followed by cap hit / remaining years on current contract)
| F – Cory Stillman ($3.53M / one year) | 15 |
| F – Steve Bernier ($2M / one year) | 35 |
| F – Byron Bitz ($0.68M / one year) | 13 |
| D – Mike Weaver ($0.9M / two years) | 6 |
| G – Scott Clemmensen ($1.2M / two years) | 42 |