Eleven players, not including captain Landeskog, on Colorado Avalanche expansion protection list
Jul. 19—The Avalanche released the 11 players they'll protect in Wednesday's 2021 expansion draft — seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender.
The list consists of centers Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Jost and Nazem Kadri, left wingers Andre Burakovsky and Valeri Nichushkin, right wingers Mikko Rantanen and Logan O'Connor, defensemen Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Samuel Girard and goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Not included were J.T. Compher, Joonas Donskoi, Brandon Saad and captain and top-line forward Gabriel Landeskog. Compher and Donskoi each have two years left on their contracts.
Landeskog and Saad are unrestricted free agents. If they're targets for Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis and his staff, they can be interviewed exclusively by Seattle before Wednesday.
Any signed contracts must be submitted by Wednesday at 7 a.m., according to the Kraken website.
Erik Johnson, who was injured for most of the 2020-21 season, waived his no-trade clause and is unprotected. He has two seasons left on his deal at $6 million apiece, per CapFriendly.
First and second-year professionals are exempt from the expansion draft. That list for Colorado includes Bowen Byram, Alex Newhook, Sampo Ranta, Conor Timmins, Pavel Francouz and Mikhail Maltsev, who was acquired in a trade Thursday.
