Announcing the 2026 Blueshirt Banter Expansion Draft: A Primer

The dog days of summer, they are a'barking, but we here at Blueshirt Banter are determined to provide you with the best hockey content money (a very reasonable amount of money; but don't ask me, because I wouldn't know—they don't pay me no money to not do jobs) can buy, regardless of the lack of news. To that end, the team here at the Banter is preparing to reshape the National Hockey League.

Back in June, the PWHL held an expansion draft to seed their two newest teams in Seattle and Vancouver. Now we're expanding the NHL as well, by welcoming two new franchises: Atlanta and Houston.

Over the next couple of days, your Banter writers will serve as general managers for the 32 teams in the league, determining protection lists based on the expansion draft rules that were in place when Seattle entered the NHL in 2021. Once completed, this will culminate with a special expansion draft episode of Blueshirt Bandwidth by the GMs of our two new, yet-to-be-named teams—Joe, GM for Houston; and Eric, GM for Atlanta.

Protection lists will be posted by division. But before we start sharing our lists, here's a reminder of the rules at play:

• Teams may protect eight skaters and a goaltender; or seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goaltender.
• First and second year players are draft exempt. These players are defined as:
  • Players aged 18 or 19: A professional season requires playing at least 11 NHL games in a given season.
  • Players aged 20 or older: A professional season is counted by playing one game in any professional league (NHL or AHL) while under an NHL contract.
• Each team must expose at least two forwards and one defenseman who were under contract for the 2025–26 season and played in at least 27 games in the 2024–25 season, or more than 54 games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25.
• Teams must expose one goaltender under contract for the 2025-26 season.
• For our purposes, unsigned RFA's will be considered as rostered players.
• Players with a no-movement clause must be protected, unless the NMC turned into a no-trade clause or lifted entirely as of July 1, 2025.
• The two expansion teams must draft a minimum of fourteen forwards, nine defensemen, and three goalies.
• The salary cap for the 2025-26 season is $95.5 million. The combined salaries of the players drafted must add up to at least 60% of the salary cap ($57.3 million) and not exceed 100% of the salary cap.
• Seattle, as was the case with Las Vegas the last time around, is exempt from having their players selected in the expansion draft.

That's it. Those are the rules.

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.