Knights si na základe širšej stratégie budú vyberať nielen hráčov, ktorí sa im hodia do kádra, ale siahnu aj po hokejistoch, ktorých môžu vzápätí vymeniť a dostať za nich draftové voľby.
"Už viackrát sme hovorili, že chceme budovať mužstvo najmä cez vstupný draft. Z tohto pohľadu je rozširovací draft až na druhom mieste. Je našou prioritou, aby sme v nadchádzajúcom vstupnom drafte mali čo najviac výberov," uviedol pre zámorské médiá generálny manažér George McPhee.
Najzaujímavejšie mená medzi nechránenými hráčmi:
Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh), Roberto Luongo (Florida), Petr Mrázek (Detroit), Michal Neuvirth (Philadelphia), Sami Vatanen (Anaheim), Dan Hamhuis (Dallas), Zach Bogosian (Buffalo), Paul Martin (San Jose), Marián GÁBORÍK, Dustin Brown (obaja Los Angeles), James Neal, Colton Sissons, Pontus Aberg (všetci Nashville), Matt Dumba, Eric Staal (obaja Minnesota), Tomáš Plekanec (Montreal)
Zoznam hráčov chránených pred rozširovacím draftom:
ANAHEIM DUCKS
Andrew Cogliano (útočník), Ryan Getzlaf (Ú) Ryan Kesler (Ú), Corey Perry (Ú), Rickard Rakell (Ú), Jakob Silfverberg (Ú), Antoine Vermette (Ú), Kevin Bieksa (obranca), Cam Fowler (O), Hampus Lindholm (O), John Gibson (brankár)
ARIZONA COYOTES
Nick Cousins (Ú), Anthony Duclair (Ú), Jordan Martinook (Ú), Tobias Rieder (Ú), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (O), Alex Goligoski (O), Connor Murphy (O), Luke Schenn (O), Chad Johnson (B)
BOSTON BRUINS
David Backes (Ú), Patrice Bergeron (Ú), David Krejčí (Ú), Brad Marchand (Ú), Riley Nash (Ú), David Pastrňák (Ú), Ryan Spooner (Ú), Zdeno CHÁRA (O), Torey Krug (O), Kevan Miller (O), Tuukka Rask (B)
BUFFALO SABRES
Tyler Ennis (Ú), Marcus Foligno (Ú), Zemgus Girgensons (Ú), Evander Kane (Ú), Johan Larsson (Ú), Ryan O'Reilly (Ú), Kyle Okposo (Ú), Nathan Beaulieu (O), Jake McCabe (O), Rasmus Ristolainen (O), Robin Lehner (B)
CALGARY FLAMES
Mikael Backlund (F), Sam Bennett (Ú), Micheal Ferland (Ú), Michael Frolík (Ú), Johnny Gaudreau (Ú), Curtis Lazar (Ú), Sean Monahan (Ú), T.J. Brodie (O), Mark Giordano (O), Dougie Hamilton (O), Mike Smith (B)
CAROLINA HURRICANES
Phillip Di Giuseppe (Ú), Elias Lindholm (Ú), Brock McGinn (Ú), Victor Rask (Ú), Jeff Skinner (Ú), Jordan Staal (Ú), Teuvo Teräväinen (Ú), Trevor Carrick (O), Justin Faulk (O), Ryan Murphy (O), Scott Darling (B)
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
Arťom Anisimov (Ú), Ryan Hartman (Ú), Marián HOSSA (Ú), Tomáš JURČO (Ú), Patrick Kane (Ú), Richard PÁNIK (Ú), Jonathan Toews (Ú), Niklas Hjalmarsson (O), Duncan Keith (D), Brent Seabrook (O), Corey Crawford (B)
COLORADO AVALANCHE
Sven Andrighetto (Ú), Blake Comeau (Ú), Matt Duchene (Ú), Rocco Grimaldi (Ú), Gabriel Landeskog (Ú), Nathan MacKinnon (Ú), Matt Nieto (Ú), Tyson Barrie (O), Erik Johnson (O), Nikita Zadorov (O), Semjon Varlamov (B)
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
Cam Atkinson (Ú), Brandon Dubinsky (Ú), Nick Foligno (Ú), Scott Hartnell (Ú), Boone Jenner (Ú), Brandon Saad (Ú), Alexander Wennberg (Ú), Seth Jones (O), Ryan Murray (O), David Savard (O), Sergej Bobrovskij (B)
DALLAS STARS
Jamie Benn (Ú), Radek Faksa (Ú), Valerij Ničuškin (Ú), Brett Ritchie (Ú), Antoine Roussel (Ú), Tyler Seguin (Ú), Jason Spezza (Ú), Stephen Johns (O), John Klingberg (O), Esa Lindell (O), Ben Bishop (B)
DETROIT RED WINGS
Justin Abdelkader (Ú), Andreas Athanasiou (Ú), Anthony Mantha (Ú), Frans Nielsen (Ú), Gustav Nyquist (Ú), Tomáš TATAR (Ú), Henrik Zetterberg (Ú), Danny DeKeyser (O), Mike Green (O), Nick Jensen (O), Jimmy Howard (B)
EDMONTON OILERS
Leon Draisaitl (Ú), Jordan Eberle (Ú), Zack Kassian (Ú), Mark Letestu (Ú), Milan Lucic (Ú), Patrick Maroon (Ú), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Ú), Oscar Klefbom (O), Adam Larsson (O), Andrej SEKERA (O), Cam Talbot (B)
FLORIDA PANTHERS
Aleksander Barkov (Ú), Nick Bjugstad (Ú), Jonathan Huberdeau (Ú), Vincent Trocheck (Ú), Aaron Ekblad (O), Alex Petrovic (O), Mark Pysyk (O), Keith Yandle (O), James Reimer (B)
LOS ANGELES KINGS
Jeff Carter (Ú), Anže Kopitar (Ú), Tanner Pearson (Ú), Tyler Toffoli (Ú), Drew Doughty (O), Derek Forbort (O), Alec Martinez (O), Jake Muzzin (O), Jonathan Quick (B)
MINNESOTA WILD
Charlie Coyle (Ú), Mikael Granlund (Ú), Mikko Koivu (Ú), Nino Niederreiter (Ú), Zach Parise (Ú), Jason Pominville (Ú), Jason Zucker (Ú), Jonas Brodin (O), Jared Spurgeon (O), Ryan Suter (O), Devan Dubnyk (B)
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Paul Byron (Ú), Phillip Danault (Ú), Jonathan Drouin (Ú), Alex Galchenyuk (Ú), Brendan Gallagher (Ú), Max Pacioretty (Ú), Andrew Shaw (Ú), Jordie Benn (O), Jeff Petry (O), Shea Weber (O), Carey Price (B)
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Viktor Arvidsson (Ú), Filip Forsberg (Ú), Calle Järnkrok (Ú), Ryan Johansen (Ú), Mattias Ekholm (O), Ryan Ellis (O), Roman Josi (O), P.K. Subban (O), Pekka Rinne (B)
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Taylor Hall (Ú), Adam Henrique (Ú), Kyle Palmieri (Ú), Travis Zajac (Ú), Andy Greene (O), John Moore (O), Mirco Müller (O), Damon Severson (O), Cory Schneider (B)
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
Andrew Ladd (Ú), Anders Lee (Ú), John Tavares (Ú), Johnny Boychuk (O), Travis Hamonic (O), Nick Leddy (O), Adam Pelech (O), Ryan Pulock (O), Thomas Greiss (B)
NEW YORK RANGERS
Kevin Hayes (Ú), Chris Kreider (Ú), J.T. Miller (Ú), Rick Nash (Ú), Derek Stepan (Ú), Mika Zibanejad (Ú), Mats Zuccarello (Ú), Nick Holden (O), Ryan McDonagh (O), Marc Staal (O), Henrik Lundqvist (B)
OTTAWA SENATORS
Derick Brassard (Ú), Ryan Dzingel (Ú), Mike Hoffman (Ú), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Ú), Zack Smith (Ú), Mark Stone (Ú), Kyle Turris (Ú), Cody Ceci (O), Erik Karlsson (O), Dion Phaneuf (O), Craig Anderson (B)
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Sean Couturier (Ú), Valtteri Filppula (Ú), Claude Giroux (Ú), Scott Laughton (Ú), Brayden Schenn (Ú), Wayne Simmonds (Ú), Jakub Voráček (Ú), Shayne Gostisbehere (O), Radko Gudas (O), Brandon Manning (O), Anthony Stolarz (B)
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Sidney Crosby (Ú), Patric Hörnqvist (Ú), Phil Kessel (Ú), Jevgenij Malkin (Ú), Brian Dumoulin (O), Kris Letang (O), Olli Määttä (O), Justin Schultz (O), Matt Murray (B)
SAN JOSE SHARKS
Ryan Carpenter (Ú), Logan Couture (Ú), Jannik Hansen (Ú), Tomáš Hertl (Ú), Melker Karlsson (Ú), Joe Pavelski (Ú), Chris Tierney (Ú), Justin Braun (O), Brent Burns (O), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (O), Martin Jones (B)
ST. LOUIS BLUES
Patrik Berglund (Ú), Ryan Reaves (Ú), Jaden Schwartz (Ú), Vladimír Sobotka (Ú), Paul Šťastný (Ú), Alexander Steen (Ú), Vladimir Tarasenko (Ú), Jay Bouwmeester (O), Joel Edmundson (O), Alex Pietrangelo (O), Jake Allen (B)
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Ryan Callahan (Ú), Tyler Johnson (Ú), Alex Killorn (Ú), Nikita Kučerov (Ú), Vladislav Namestnikov (Ú), Ondřej Palát (Ú), Steven Stamkos (Ú), Braydon Coburn (O), Victor Hedman (O), Anton Stralman (O), Andrej Vasilevskij (B)
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Tyler Bozak (Ú), Connor Brown (Ú), Nazem Kadri (Ú), Leo Komarov (Ú), Josh Leivo (Ú), Matt Martin (Ú), James van Riemsdyk (Ú), Connor Carrick (O), Jake Gardiner (O), Morgan Rielly (O), Frederik Andersen (B)
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Sven Bärtschi (Ú), Loui Eriksson (Ú), Markus Granlund (Ú), Bo Horvat (Ú), Daniel Sedin (Ú), Henrik Sedin (Ú), Brandon Sutter (Ú), Alexander Edler (O), Erik Gudbranson (O), Christopher Tanev (O), Jacob Markström (B)
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Nicklas Bäckström (Ú), Andre Burakovsky (Ú), Lars Eller (Ú), Marcus Johansson (Ú), Jevgenij Kuznecov (Ú), Alexander Ovečkin (Ú), Tom Wilson (Ú), John Carlson (O), Matt Niskanen (O), Dmitrij Orlov (O), Braden Holtby (B)
WINNIPEG JETS
Joel Armia (Ú), Andrew Copp (Ú), Bryan Little (Ú), Adam Lowry (Ú), Mathieu Perreault (Ú), Mark Scheifele (Ú), Blake Wheeler (Ú), Dustin Byfuglien (O), Tyler Myers (O), Jacob Trouba (O), Connor Hellebuyck (B)