Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: The St. Louis Blues underachieved this year and now have to protect certain players from the Seattle Kraken. It appears Doug Armstrong will go with the 7-3-1 strategy in protects.
One variable may be Vince Dunn. There are teams out there who want to make a trade with St. Louis. After that, Seattle will have few options so maybe a sweetener deal happens. Dunn remains an asset in that sense. As for the forwards, Ivan Barbashev, Sammy Blais, and Zach Sanford are pretty clear-cut candidates.