2024 NHL Expansion Draft
| 2024 NHL Expansion Draft | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Location | Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Network(s) | CBC/TSN/SRC (Canada) ABC/Nick Jr. (United States) |
| Overview | |
| League | NHL |
| Expansion teams | Houston Aeros Kansas City Scouts Atlanta Vipers Louisville Cowboys |
The 2024 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 13, 2024. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the National Hockey League's eight new teams for the 2024-25 NHL season; Those teams were the Houston Aeros, Kansas City Scouts, Atlanta Vipers, and Louisville Cowboys. These four teams had joined the NHL after a merger agreement was reached with the National Hockey Association (NHA).
As many WHA players also had their rights held by NHL teams, those NHL teams were allowed to reclaim their players under certain conditions that had to be followed. In order to keep the NHL teams from plundering all the talent from the WHA-turned-NHL teams, each incoming franchise was allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and twelve skaters. These picks were designated as "priority selections" in the Expansion Draft.
Expansion draft rules
Reclaiming of players: The 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim any rights to former WHA players they held. The four incoming franchises, however, were allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and twelve skaters, voiding some of their players' NHL rights. These twelve players that were retained were confirmed as "priority selections" within the expansion draft. Numerous deals were cut by the incoming teams to retain some of their players. Additionally, all previously added NHL teams had the right to protect up to three goaltenders and twenty skaters.
Protected lists
(Work-In-Progress)
Dakota Rockies: goaltenders - Lewis Cheevers and Singh Anderson; skaters - Alan Littler, Brian Tewfik, Cody Taylor, David Okalik, Derek Ekblad, Drake Tonelli, Ethan Tkachuk, Finn Latex, George Parekh, Henry Welde, Ian Dzinga, James Rzeznik, Ken Messier, Koda Smith, Liam Hogan, Lvan Williams, Melissa Dinha, Neil Hope, Nicholas Marquez, Owen Prithwi, Peter Grosdanof, Paul Fazaka, Quinn Hartman, Ryan D'Costa, Swede Knox, Sheldon Lee, Trevor Agne, Thomas Faween, Ulster Johnson, Valerie Parnell, Venom Robinson, William Sarnia, Xavier Fuhr, Yannick Newell, Zenith Zulueta
