The Minnesota Wild, like every other team in the NHL, face the unpleasant truth that they will lose a player to the Vegas Golden Knights’ expansion draft. Some teams may even lose more than that if they make deals with Vegas GM George McPhee. Most everyone assumes that the Wild will be losing a defenseman as the team’s relative wealth of legitimate Top 4 defensemen means at least one or two will be left unprotected at the draft.
Assuming the Wild take the protection scheme of 7 forwards and 3 defensemen, they will only have two protection slots on which to make a decision as Ryan Suter’s no movement clause requires him to be protected.