Monday, we looked at the SBN Expansion Draft and what players to protect on the Leafs' squad. The full details can be found here. The Leafs benefit a lot from the rules exempting guys with little NHL experience. However, the Leafs do still have to leave players unprotected even though we could likely protect the entire team via exemptions and our allotment of protected spots. So without further ado, here's who is remaining a Leaf:
Goaltender
Jonas Gustavsson is being protected and Jean-Sebastien Giguere is free to be picked up by either Gabe or James
Defencemen
Dion Phaneuf, Luke Schenn, Mike Komisarek, Tomas Kaberle, and Francois Beauchemin will be protected during the draft. Jeff Finger and Brett Lebda will be exposed in the draft. (Carl Gunnarsson is exempt.)
Forwards
This is where the exercise becomes tricky. Because of our dearth of players that fit the 40 games played/70 over past two seasons threshold we have to unprotect a player that we would normally be allowed to leave exposed. That means that Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski, John Mitchell, Colby Armstrong, Clarke MacArthur, Colton Orr, Fredrik Sjostrom, Mike Zigomanis, and Kris Versteeg are all protected. That leaves Clarke MacArthur Colby Armstrong and Mike Brown as the exposed players in the draft. (The remaining forwards not listed are exempt.)
You can follow the outcome of the draft, which is being held tonight via conference call between Philadelphia, Winnipeg, and Quebec, via the NHL hub over at SBNation.com.