Who's Going to Vegas? Flyers Unveil Expansion Draft Protected List

There were a couple surprises on the Flyers' protected list, which the NHL released Sunday morning, prior to this week's expansion draft.

General manager Ron Hextall decided to protect young goalie Anthony Stolarz while leaving veteran goalie Michal Neuvirth exposed.

He also opted to protect forward Scott Laughton, whose future on this team is somewhat questionable given the talent ahead of him, while leaving Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Michael Raffl and Jordan Weal (UFA) unprotected.

First and second-year players like Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny were exempt from the draft and do not have to be protected.

Here's the Flyers' protected list:

Forwards (7)
Sean Couturier
Valtteri Filppula
Claude Giroux
Scott Laughton
Brayden Schenn
Wayne Simmonds
Jakub Voracek

Defensemen (3)
Shayne Gostisbehere
Radko Gudas
Brandon Manning

Goaltender (1)
Anthony Stolarz

The players from which the Vegas Golden Knights can choose from who were left unprotected are:

Forwards
Bellemare, Greg Carey, Chris Connor, Boyd Gordon, Taylor Leier, Colin McDonald, Andy Miele, Raffl, Matt Read, Chris VandeVelde, Jordan Weal, Dale Weise, and Eric Wellwood.

Defensemen
T.J. Brennan, Michael Del Zotto, Andrew MacDonald, Will O'Neill, Jesper Petterson, Nick Schultz.

Goalies
Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth.

The expansion draft is set for Wednesday.