A look at the Winnipeg Jets protected list for NHL Expansion to Vegas

The following Jets won’t be seeing the above skyline of Las Vegas anytime soon (as a member of the newest NHL team at least) as it was revealed this morning that Winnipeg will be protecting the following 11 players from selection by the Golden Knights in the upcoming Expansion Draft on June 21st:

Forwards (7):
Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Bryan Little, Mathieu Perreault, Adam Lowry, Joel Armia and Andrew Copp.

Defencemen (3):
Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers.

Goalie (1):
Connor Hellebuyck.

Of course this was all made possible courtesy of longtime Thrashers/Jets defenceman Tobias Enstrom waiving his no-movement clause after he was requested to by the team meaning the team could protect 7-3-1 as opposed to 8-1.

This means the following players are available to be picked by the Golden Knights from the Jets:

Unprotected (under contract):
Shawn Matthias, Marko Dano, Tobias Enstrom, Mark Stuart, Julian Melchiori and Michael Hutchinson.

Unprotected RFAs:
Scott Kosmachuk, Ryan Olsen, Quinton Howden, JC Lipon, Ben Chiarot,

Unprotected UFAs:
Anthony Peluso, Chris Thorburn, Brenden Kichton, Paul Postma, Brian Strait and Ondrej Pavelec.

Unprotected:
Tomas Kubalik*

*He wasn’t listed by CapFriendly but the NHL does have him on the Jets list.  For those unfamiliar with him he was a 2008 5th round pick by Columbus who traded him to Winnipeg on March 10th, 2013 for 2007 Thrashers 3rd rounder Spencer Machacek.  He last played in North America about ten games for the Jets affiliate in St. John’s during the 2012-13 season after the trade and has been playing overseas ever since.