NHL expansion draft 2017: Panthers may lose scoring leader Jonathan Marchessault, per report

In a surprise twist, the Florida Panthers may lose one of the best-found gems of last offseason in the upcoming NHL expansion draft.

The Panthers took a chance on 5’9 winger Jonathan Marchessault last offseason with a two-year, $1.5 million contract. He paid off with 30 goals and 51 points in 75 games. As an unrestricted free agent next offseason, Marchessault is eligible for the Vegas Golden Knights to draft in the expansion.

It seemed like protecting Marchessault would be a foregone conclusion for the Panthers. Now we’re not so sure, thanks to TSN insider Bob McKenzie.

We dove into CapFriendly’s expansion draft tool to figure out what those protection issues might be. It became pretty obvious.

Florida will certainly use protections on Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, Nick Bjugstad, Reilly Smith, and Jussi Jokinen. Keith Yandle’s no-movement clause makes him automatically protected, and the Panthers will try to protect Aaron Ekblad and goalie James Reimer as well.

That leaves a handful of good players Florida would want to protect, including defensemen Jason Demers and Alex Petrovic and forward Marchessault. But only one slot can be used for a defenseman, and the other must be used for a forward. Then Florida runs out.

Conceivably, the Panthers could still protect Demers and Marchessault. But if there’s “protection issues,” it must mean they’re trying to protect captain Derek MacKenzie. Only MacKenzie, Colton Sceviour and Marchessault are the leftover Florida forwards projected to meet exposure requirements per CapFriendly’s tool, and I can’t see them trying to protect Sceviour.

In that case, the Panthers risk exposing both Petrovic and Marchessault just to protect MacKenzie. He’s not that great, but he has Leaderships™. Marchessault has 30 goals, but does he have Leaderships™? Who can say?

So, yeah. The Panthers are set to lose someone good; if McKenzie’s reporting is correct (it always is), then they’re prepping to lose or trade their top scorer last season and undo one of the best offseason moves from a year ago.