The PWHL unveiled the rules for their upcoming expansion draft, where they are adding two teams. Those will be PWHL Seattle and PWHL Vancouver. The rules are pretty wild, and you can read them here. 

According to the PWHL Expansion Rules: 

Each of the six inaugural PWHL teams will have the opportunity to initially protect three players from selection in the Exclusive Signing Window and the Expansion Draft. After an inaugural team has relinquished two players - whether through the Exclusive Signing Window or the Expansion Draft - that team will be permitted to protect one additional player, increasing their protected list to four players.

Insane right?

So that got us thinking - What if the NHL (don't get any bright ideas) had the same rules? And if they did, who would the CBJ protect if this same type of draft were held with the current roster intact? This includes players in AHL Cleveland.

So let's take a stab at it.

The Jackets would likely choose Zach Werenski, Adam Fantilli, and Kirill Marchenko as their three protected players. 

Per the rules, after a team has given up two players, they can then protect a fourth. The first two players to be picked would likely be Kent Johnson and Denton Mateychuk.

So who would the fourth protected player be? My guess would be Dmitri Voronkov. 

So, to recap this expansion draft scenario, the Jackets would protect Werenski, Fantilli, Voronkov, and Marchenko. They would lose Johnson and Mateychuk.

Could you imagine the team that a new NHL team could put together if they had these rules? Would they ever lose a game? 

The NHL expansion rules are crazy as it is, but could you imagine this type of draft happening in the NHL? I couldn't. 

How would you protection list look? Tell us in the comments below. 

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