Mock NHL Expansion Draft - Which Canucks Get Protected?

When the NHL held an expansion draft for Nashville in 1998, Vancouver lost Scott Walker. In 1999 for Atlanta they lost Steve Staios. In 2000 for Minnesota and Columbus, they lost Darby Hendrickson.

Put your fantasy cap on because here we go again. Last week we alerted ya'll to the mock SBN expansion draft; the final votes are in and, congrats Canada, you have two new franchises NBC and Versus can ignore!

Before those media outlets can misspell Winnapeg & get nervous pronouncing Ville de Québec we need to stuff some players into their mock locker rooms. We teased the rules last week, but after the jump we'll post them again. Use the comments to list who you'd protect from the Canucks and we'll send the group consensus in.

Here are the protection rules:

• Teams can protect either 1 goalie, 5 defensemen and 9 forwards OR 2 goalies, 3 defensemen and 7 forwards. Since Vancouver doesn't have an experienced back-up to protect on the roster as of today, we need to take the first option.
  
• Each team must leave unprotected at least one defenseman who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
• Each team must leave unprotected at least two forwards who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
• Players who have not played 50 NHL games are automatically exempt.

To that last point, that means ignore the likes of Cody Hodgson, Jordan Schroeder, Cory Schneider, Sergei Shirokov and 2010 bubble players Mario Bliznak, Alexandre Bolduc, Guillaume Desbiens and Evan Oberg.

Remember also that leaving a player unprotected doesn't mean they'll automatically be taken. It's also worth keeping the contract overview handy just in case you feel it's prudent to cut ties with a guy heading into a UFA season.

Have at it folks!