Procédé et chronologie du dragt d'expansion

Parce que c'est proche et intéressant:

July 13: Deadline for asking players to waive their no-move clause for the Expansion Draft. If the player agrees, the team is not required to protect the player in the draft.

July 16: Last day to put a player on waivers prior to the Expansion Draft, and the deadline for players to agree to waive their no-move clauses. Waivers are required prior to a buyout, and teams may wish to buy out players prior to the draft, so they would need to do it by this date. The buyout window opens 24 hrs after the Stanley Cup Final.

July 17: At 3 p.m. the Expansion Draft trade and waiver freeze begins. No NHL SPCs can be signed in this period except by Seattle in relation to the draft. All other teams must live with their roster as it exists during the freeze. Seattle is able to sign pending UFAs and RFAs to SPCs (see below) and also to make trades with teams that will be finalized by the league when the freeze is lifted. But two other teams cannot make side deals, nor can they re-sign their own UFAs or RFAs during this period.

July 17: By 5 p.m., teams must submit protection lists for the Expansion Draft to the league.

July 18: The NHL must approve and distribute the protection lists to all NHL teams by 10 a.m. They will likely be made public at about that time. At that time Seattle may begin interviewing UFAs and RFAs who are available for selection (on the exposure list), and they may sign them to contracts if they reach agreement. That signing counts as their selection from that team.

For example: if Seattle were to sign Frederik Andersen to a contract in this period, he would become their selection from the Toronto Maple Leafs. They may only speak to players who are exposed, not anyone on a protection list. And by default, they can only sign one player per team.

July 21: Seattle must submit their Expansion Draft choices to the NHL by 10 a.m. They must also submit any SPCs for signed players, and the distribution of the list of choices to the public will take place by 8 p.m. No details have been provided yet as to what form this will take.

July 22: The trade and waiver freeze and signing moratorium are lifted at 1 p.m.

Once the freeze is lifted, all the teams are operating under the same rules and will proceed to the entry draft portion of this July offseason on July 23.