Happy Monday y'all!

Pretty slow news week and I am not into pouring fuel on rumors, but on Twitter last week, NHL player agent Allan Walsh posted that "NHL expansion is coming. Houston and Atlanta." This would be easy because Houston would be added to the West and Atlanta to the East.

So today, we'll take a look at protection lists for each Western Conference team in the Central Division. *Not sure what protection rules would be, but we'll assume it is seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie or any mix of eight skaters and one goaltender. Some fringe spots will go to the player who has the lowest cap hit, trying to free up some space to replace the player who was lost.

Chicago Blackhawks: Chicago is going with the 7/3/1 protection plan here and this is what their list would look like: Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Tyler Bertuzzi, Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, and Patrick Kane (Kane has as NMC and has to be protected, while this will only be Anton Frondell's second pro season so he is exempt). On the backend, the Blackhawks would protect Bowen Byram, Alex Vlasic, and Artyom Levshunov, while in net their keeper is Spencer Knight.

The Original Six club is obviously a young one right now and the majority of their future pieces would be safe because their youngins are exempt.

Colorado Avalanche: The Avalanche are in a different boat than the Blackhawks. Most of their list is going to consist of veterans: Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Gabe Landeskog (NMC), Gavin Brindley, Zach L'Heureux, Fyodor Svechkov, Parker Kelly, Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Josh Manson, and MacKenzie Blackwood.

The Avs take the 7/3/1 approach and protect their stars, but also some youth that the acquired this offseason. I'm personally a fan of Manson so that could be a biased pick, but I'm sticking to it.

Dallas Stars: The Stars will be the first one on this list to protect eight skaters and a goalie. I have them keeping Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Justin Hyrckowian, Thomas Harley, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Lian Bichsel, and Jake Oettinger. I am assuming with them not being able to get a long term deal done with Jason Robertson, he is as good as gone. This will allow Dallas to keep their top four defensemen intact as they are on very term friendly deals.

Minnesota Wild: General Manager Bill Guerin and his staff will go the 7/3/1 route and keep Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson-Ek, Michael McCarron (NMC), Yakov Trenin, Danila Yurov, Bobby Brink, Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, Jonas Brodin, and Jesper Wallstedt. Having a goalie tandem like the Wild do will make it tough to keep both guys, but there is only one net to protect.

Nashville Predators: The Predators are in a transitional period with hiring Chris MacFarland as their new GM, but unfortunately the previous management group handed out a lot of NMC, so their list is filled with players they are forced to protect. Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Mavrik Bourque, Jack Drury, Luke Evangelista, Matthew Wood, Roman Josi, Brady Skjei, Nick Perbix, and Juuse Saros are the group I selected for Nashville. MacFarland signed guys like Bourque and Drury so they are staying, while prior management signed Marchessault and Skjei to their massive contracts.

St. Louis Blues: The Blues get a little luck in this expansion draft as Pavel Buchnevich has a NTC and not a NMC, thus allowing him to go unprotected. Because of that, my protection list includes Robert Thomas, Dylan Holloway, Mason McTavish, Jimmy Snuggerud, Connor McMichael, Jake Neighbours, Jon Berggren, Philip Broberg, Colton Parayko, Logan Mailloux, and Joel Hofer. A great list of young (minus Parayko) talent, the Blues are set up nicely because a couple of their prospects will be exempt as they have not started year three yet.

Utah Mammoth: Owner Ryan Smith is willing to spend money and committed to building a winner ASAP. It would be a shame to see them take a step back, but their roster is in pretty good shape. My list would be Logan Cooley, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther, Clayton Keller, Vincent Trocheck, Anders Lee, Jack McBain, Mikhail Sergachev, MacKenzie Weegar, John Marino, and Sebastian Cossa. Lee is a protection because of a NMC and Cossa is the choice in net because of his future appeal.

Winnipeg Jets: As of this writing, Connor Hellebuyck is still a member of the Jets, but if he gets dealt, I imagine this list looks very different. My current look for Winnipeg is Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Gabe Vilardi, Cole Perfetti, Adam Lowry, Isak Rosen, Brad Lambert, Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Mario Ferraro, and Hellebuyck. Lowry has a NMC (but he is your captain and there isn't much else to protect from this forward group) and Ferraro has the lowest cap hit between him, Dylan Samberg, and Dylan DeMelo.

Who would be on your protection list for these Central Division squads? Let me know on Twitter, @LAM1926, and check back next week for our Pacific Division list.