Sabres left winger, William Carrier returned to practice today after a lengthy absence from a knee injury. There’s a chance that he may return to in game action for this weekend or even next week.
William Carrier could potentially be eligible for the expansion draft if he plays at least five more games this season. I think this is a very easy decision to make and that is just to simply scratch him until there’s no possible way for him to meet the expansion draft requirements. Carrier has been excellent in his time in Buffalo this year and it would be a shame for the Sabres to lose him to Vegas for nothing when it could’ve been easily prevented. Buffalo has only eight games remaining in the season and Carrier has to sit for four of them to be exempt from the Vegas expansion draft.
Here are two scenarios for the expansion draft with Carrier being exempt and one with him being protected. I’m just going to give you a rundown of who I think Murray would protect in these two scenarios.
Carrier Exempt
Ryan O’Reilly
Kyle Okposo NMC
Evander Kane
Tyler Ennis
Marcus Foligno
Zemgus Girgensons
Johan Larsson
Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe
Zach Bogosian
Robin Lehner
Exposed
Matt Moulson
Brian Gionta
Nic Deslauriers
Derek Grant
Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Gorges
Cody Franson
Justin Falk
Linus Ullmark
Carrier Protected
Ryan O’Reilly
Kyle Okposo NMC
Evander Kane
Marcus Foligno
Zemgus Girgensons
Johan Larsson
William Carrier
Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe
Zach Bogosian
Robin Lehner
Exposed
Matt Moulson
Tyler Ennis
Brian Gionta
Nic Deslauriers
Derek Grant
Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Gorges
Cody Franson
Justin Falk
Linus Ullmark
Clearly, with the Sabres not having to protect William Carrier it will give them a lot of flexibility when it comes to their protection list. This would give them the option of being able to protect Tyler Ennis so they don’t lose him for nothing. Ennis has been remarkably disappointing for the last two seasons but a change of scenery is needed there. I think Ennis can still be traded but the return isn’t going to be anything very special at all.
Also, Tim Murray mentioned that George McPhee owes him a favor from one of their older trades so Murray could’ve asked him not to take Linus Ullmark or maybe even take one of our horrendous contracts off of our books and maybe we’ll give you a draft pick.
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