from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

In a little over 10 months, 30 teams will have to file their protected lists for the 2017 expansion draft, which the Las Vegas franchise will use to help assemble its roster.

Part of the trick will be for teams to determine whether to choose Option A (seven forwards, three defensemen, one goalie) or Option B (eight total skaters, one goalie). Under Option A, teams can declare 11 players off limits compared to nine in Option B. But Option A is no good for clubs stacked on defense, such as Nashville: P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, and Ryan Ellis being the Predators’ top-four unit. Las Vegas GM George McPhee can only dream of snatching one of those four. So while Option A would be the more preferable avenue for a team like the Bruins (Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, and Colin Miller being the likely three), other clubs will go with protecting fewer players, just as long as they make the right ones untouchable.

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