Stamkos, Hedman, Coburn among those on Lightning's protected list
The National Hockey League made public the list of players protected by each NHL team for the Expansion Draft, which will take place Wednesday, June 21.
The following players were protected by the Tampa Bay Lightning and cannot be selected by the Vegas Golden Knights during the Expansion Draft: forwards Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Callahan, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Vladislav Namestnikov; defensemen Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Braydon Coburn and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Vegas Golden Knights must select one player from each team to fill a roster of at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies, with a minimum of 20 players under contract for the 2017-18 season.
Vegas also can sign any restricted or unrestricted free agent left unprotected by his team from June 18-20. These free agents would not otherwise be allowed to sign with a team different than the one they played for this season until July 1.
