[rfp1234]

Not many surprises.

A few head-scratchers: Marchessault, Jagr, Mrazek, Vatanen left unprotected. Pysik, Howard, Bieksa, Reaves protected by their respective teams.

Vegas won't be a 70 game loser. Parity rules.

[Alberta's Child]

It's almost like there's a science to an expansion draft. The players that get left unprotected are typically veterans and/or players with huge contracts who have become a drag on the team over time. With a salary cap in place, teams will try to protect players who have favorable contracts that provide good value to the team at reasonable salaries.

Other unprotected players are those who their team expects to lose in free agency anyway. Jagr, for example, has been playing under one-year contracts over the last few years -- and he'll be a free agent on July 1st, so Florida stands a good chance of losing him to another team anyway.

Something else to keep in mind is that any player who has a no-movement clause in his contract MUST be protected in the expansion draft unless he agrees to waive that clause (like in the case of Marc-Andre Fleury of the Penguins).