The NHL are exploring options to expand further as soon as the 2027-28 season. It could be in Auston or Houston, Texas, or maybe they go back to Atlanta for a third time. That doesn't matter too much. What matters the most is who the Toronto Maple Leafs might lose in the resulting Expansion Draft.
As part of any expansion, the league will let the new team(s) pick one player from each team to form their roster. It's a concept we all know too much about with the somewhat recent additions of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken.
But if something were to happen very soon, who could the Leafs lose?
Who the Maple Leafs could lose in an expansion draft might shock you
Over at The Athletic, they did a little bit of a mock expansion draft. Going through the rosters of all 32 NHL teams, and deciding what their protection lists are going to look like, they then acted as the 33rd team and grabbed a full roster of some somewhat intriguing players.
For the Leafs, their projected protection list was fairly straight forward. With the previous expansion rules, teams can protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie; or they can go with eight skaters and a goalie (if they have a whole lot of very good defensemen). The Leafs were projected to go with the latter and I think it's mainly just because there's not really any players you need to protect.
Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, Matthew Knies, Darren Raddysh, Jake McCabe, Chris Tanev, and Emil Andrae are the eight skaters, with Sergei Bobrovsky being the goaltender. Any player who just finished his first or second year in pro hockey is also exempt, so if expansion was to happen for the 2027-28 season, forwards like Easton Cowan and Gavin McKenna do not need to be protected. And considering that, are there any forwards you would really be desperate to protect over being able to keep an Andrae or a Tanev?
It's obviously a decision that would need to be made, but this is the projection.
With that list, who is now slated to get picked up by the nameless 33rd team?
Maple Leafs lose Artur Akhtyamov in mock expansion draft
With the players available, the group over at The Athletic decided to add young netminder Artur Akhtyamov to the new roster, instead of any other forward or defenseman. And that makes sense.
While they also have goalies like Filip Gustavsson and Sebastian Cossa as projected pick-ups, Akhtyamov certainly has the highest ceiling of any available Leaf and could eventually become something really solid for this expansion team.
"To round things out, we needed some organizational depth. After some lights-out play for the Calder Trophy-winning Toronto Marlies — and thanks to a very weak crop of other options — Artur Akhtyamov felt like an easy choice to make," they wrote.
Akhtyamov is coming off a Calder Trophy win where he posted a 2.22 goals against average and a .923 save percentage in 22 playoff games, so his stock is fairly high. He's projected to start next season with the Marlies again, for his third straight season, but could easily get more than the three NHL games that he managed to get in just last season.
He has a fairly bright future, so it makes sense to see him snatched away if he were to be made available.
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