Who Will The Ducks Protect From Seattle?

Expansion draft protection lists are due Saturday, July 17 and the Ducks are at risk of losing another quality player. Just like they lost Clayton Stoner back in 2017. Haven't heard of him? That's okay. The Ducks traded Shea Theodore, in exchange for Vegas selecting Stoner. This was done to ensure that exposed players Josh Manson and Sami Vatanen, core pieces to the Ducks' future, were not selected by Vegas. Theodore was splitting time between the NHL and AHL for the two seasons prior, and it looked like the offensive defenceman couldn't translate his game to the big league. Stoner was a depth piece that had been regressing for the last few seasons. Seemingly not big losses.

However, things took a dark turn when Vatanen was traded a few months later and Theodore was in the process of putting up career numbers on a surprisingly successful Vegas team. Anaheim messed up big time. But at least Josh Manson is still a big part of the team (and also likely protected this go-round).

The Ducks won't make the same mistakes this time. They will protect their best players and pray that Seattle takes mercy on the league's 2nd worst team this past season. There also are not projected to be any side deals. Thankfully, the Ducks are a young team and have a good amount of key pieces that are exempt from the wrath of the Kraken.

Below is The Quack Report's projected expansion list. For an in-depth discussion on this, check out Episode 54 of The Quack Report on your favourite podcast platform!

Forwards:
Adam Henrique
Jakob Silfverberg
Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen
Troy Terry
Isac Lundeström
Max Jones

Defencemen:
Cam Fowler
Hampus Lindholm
Josh Manson

Goaltender:
John Gibson

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