When the owners of the NBA's Utah Jazz, the Smith Entertainment Group, put out a release on Wednesday saying they were ready to make Salt Lake City the home of a future NHL team, even as soon as next season (ahem, Arizona Coyotes), it got the NHL world all a-flutter about the possibility of yet another new market joining the league.

While they're eager enough to jump into the fray as soon as next season, it's got us thinking about yet another NHL expansion coming down the road.

With expansion on the table and the folks in Salt Lake eager to get a team as soon as possible, we've decided to mash those ideas up and break out a new-old tradition of scheming up how an expansion draft would go if it happened this summer.

How do we do it? Easy, we follow the same rules the Seattle Kraken had for their expansion draft. Unlike the Kraken's draft where Vegas was exempt, the Golden Knights have been around long enough to be thrown into the mix to lose a player. Seattle will get a pass, however, because it's still green in the league.

Players who are due to be unrestricted free agents this summer will not be eligible for our exercise, but RFAs will be. At least 20 players have to be under an active contract, and they'll need at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies.

We'll be loading up the Salt Lake City NHL team with 31 players to (probably) jump right into the NHL and become a force to be reckoned with. That's how it works now, right? Onward!

Anaheim Ducks: Brock McGinn

The sexy, dazzling possibility for the Ducks would be if they exposed John Gibson and protected Lukas Dostal (something that would be a distinct possibility!), but the possibility of the Ducks losing their No. 1 goalie for nothing would be really, really low even in this hypothetical draft.

Assuming they'd have a side deal cut with Salt Lake to make sure they didn't take Gibson, forward Brock McGinn would be the likely candidate for selection. He hasn't put up big points this season, and he's got another year left on his deal worth $2.75 million against the cap. But he's a solid bottom-six guy and kills penalties. That'll do for a new club.

Arizona Coyotes: Alexander Kerfoot

This is another situation where a goaltending debate would likely lead to a protection trade. In this case, the Coyotes would almost certainly protect Conor Ingram, which would leave Karel Vejmelka exposed to the draft. Ingram is having a great year, but Vejmelka is still a solid trade chip for them to use and, besides, you can never have enough goaltending.

Alexander Kerfoot is a toss-up to be exposed to the draft, and a $3.5 million cap hit would be a bit juicy for a new team to take on. However, he would make for a solidly experienced player with some scoring ability and a veteran's touch in the room for a new group. Like Anaheim, Arizona's got a lot of young guys who would be ineligible for the draft, so they'd be saved from having to make a few other tough choices.

Boston Bruins: Linus Ullmark

Back during Vegas's expansion draft in 2017, the Golden Knights wanted very much to pick Linus Ullmark away from the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres protected Robin Lehner, but cut a deal with Vegas to make sure they stayed away from Ullmark.

Sure, the same thing would probably happen in this situation with Salt Lake. After all, the Bruins have a great thing going with Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman in goal. But the Bruins have cap constraints, and they also have Brandon Bussi crushing it in goal in the AHL.

Ideally the best thing to do would be to trade Ullmark (or Swayman) so as to maximize a return. But $5 million in cap space would make for a heck of a pickup for a team in need of room to maneuver. Salt Lake landing a former Vezina winner as their top pick in the expansion draft would be a great way to start a franchise.

Buffalo Sabres: Henri Jokiharju

The Sabres have essentially picked what their future team is by signing multiple young players to long-term extensions. Ideally, the easiest person for them to expose would be forward Jeff Skinner, but his no-move clause prevents that from happening.

While the Sabres would protect almost all of their younger players on second or third contracts, they wouldn't be able to protect all of them, and if the choice fell between forward Jordan Greenway or Henri Jokiharju, the young defenseman would make for a great choice. He's played big minutes in Buffalo and still has a lot of upside even with all of his experience.

At 24 years old, he would give Salt Lake someone who could be a leader and be able to grow further in a new situation.

Calgary Flames: Daniel Vladar

Incredibly, the Flames have four players on their current roster with no-move clauses that would prevent them from being exposed to our version of the expansion draft. That means Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund and Jacob Markström all cannot be part of this.

Don't worry though, that doesn't take away our fun. What really does that are the UFAs-to-be: Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev.

Fine, all right, we'll pick goalie Daniel Vladar. Vladar, although he's struggled this season, has shown some great ability during his time in the NHL and as the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights have shown, you can literally never have enough goaltending when starting up an expansion team.

The unfortunate thing about the Flames having to protect Markström is they'd have to cut a deal with Salt Lake to protect goalie prospect Dustin Wolf. It's a deal Calgary would be unhappy but relieved to make to hang onto their top goalie prospect.

Carolina Hurricanes: Jesper Fast

While Jesper Fast has been an outstanding role player for the Carolina Hurricanes, in this version of the expansion draft he'd be caught in a bit of a crunch.

The 'Canes would have to protect captain Jordan Staal because of his no-move clause and guys like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Martin Necas, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Michael Bunting would likely get protected along with defensemen Dmitry Orlov, Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns.

Fast's PK ability would be coveted by Salt Lake and his aggressive forechecking all-around would give them a player to provide an example to others.

Chicago Blackhawks: Andreas Athanasiou

Chicago is almost expansion draft-proof based on what's going on with their roster on Cap Friendly.

They've got tons of guys on entry-level contracts, a boatload of UFAs-to-be, and any veterans they do have that could be exposed cost a lot of money. They'd have to protect Seth Jones and Taylor Hall because of no-move clauses and veterans like Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, Ryan Donato, Connor Murphy and Philipp Kurashev all make sense to protect for experience purposes.

They could protect Petr Mrazek who they just extended, but depending on how they feel about Arvid Söderblom they could protect him and dare Salt Lake to take Mrazek. Then again, exposing Mrazek after signing him to an extension would be pretty cold-blooded.

We'll stay away from that mess, however, and pick the ultra-fast Andreas Athanasiou for Salt Lake's forward group.

Colorado Avalanche: Logan O'Connor

You might not know a ton about Logan O'Connor, but he's a superb bottom-six player for the Avalanche and with all the other talent Colorado has, it would be really hard for them to protect him from an expansion draft.

O'Connor comes with a solid cap hit of $1.05 million and he's produced more points this season than other forward candidate Ryan Johansen who comes with a $4 million cap hit.

Decent production, grit, and a solid price to pay make O'Connor a solid choice to make for Colorado's very likely insta-rivals in Salt Lake City.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Adam Boqvist

Columbus won't exactly have a lot to offer up our newbies from Salt Lake City. Of their eligible players to be exposed, there's not a lot of scoring to speak of and most of their talented young players are on entry-level deals.

One area they'll likely have a few players to offer up is on defense. This is a toss-up between Andrew Peeke and Adam Boqvist and considering Peeke is a top candidate to be moved at the trade deadline this year, we're leaving him out of this conversation for now and going with the 23-year-old Boqvist.

Boqvist hasn't found his stride yet in Columbus and is a strong candidate to find better fortune in a different situation. What's a better situation than a team that's completely brand new and offering a blank slate?

Dallas Stars: Scott Wedgewood

The Dallas Stars have four players with no-move clauses and have to be protected in an expansion draft. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Esa Lindell and Ryan Suter are all accounted for which makes protecting everyone a tricky issue.

You know they'd protect Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen so that's seven skaters and Jake Oettinger would also be protected in goal. Mason Marchment would likely be the eighth skater which would give Salt Lake City a couple of interesting ways to pick from Dallas.

Radek Faksa or Evgenii Dadonov could add a lot to their potential forward group, but goalie Scott Wedgewood would make for a great veteran backup and make sure Salt Lake City's goaltending was not just deep, but good, too.

Detroit Red Wings: Olli Määttä

The Red Wings would have a lot of forward talent to protect in an expansion draft this summer and while they've got a couple of defensemen they'd have to consider as well, there are a few that might not make the cut.

Between players like Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl and Olli Määttä, the more attractive option for a start-up team in Salt Lake City might be Määttä who's been part of some very good (and bad) teams in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles as well as Detroit. He's serviceable, he's steady, and he also doesn't cost a lot in terms of money or time commitment on a contract.

Our Salt Lake team needs some veteran help on the blue line and a guy like Määttä would blend in just fine.

Edmonton Oilers: Brett Kulak

While the Oilers' roster is full of tantalizing talent with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman among them...none of those guys are going to be there for Salt Lake to grab in an expansion draft.

If there's an area to pick from on Edmonton's roster for our expansion team, it's the Oilers' defense. No, not Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm or Evan Bouchard. A choice between Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak would be more likely and even though the internet loves to pick on Ceci, he plays big minutes for the Oilers.

But expansion teams like sneaky, savvy picks and Kulak has the kinds of fancy stats that say he can steady out a defense corp. We're pretty sure the Oilers would love to see an expansion team take a chance on goalie Jack Campbell and give them a break on his contract, but Kulak would be a more prudent selection even with a few more years on his contract.

Florida Panthers: Spencer Knight

There's no doubt the Panthers would do whatever they could to make sure a Salt Lake expansion team didn't draft Knight, who's currently in the AHL and working his way back after being in the NHL's player assistance program. He's the goalie that's Bobrovsky's heir apparent and Florida would be foolish to let him get away.

But the Panthers have a few guys they're going to have to pay this offseason in Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour most namely and they're already paying big bucks to Bobrovsky, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad. They might want Knight to return as Bob's backup next season but good luck fitting his $4.5 million cap hit on the roster.

We know we've picked three goalies already before, but if you're not taking advantage of teams in a bind during the expansion draft, you're not playing the game right.

Los Angeles Kings: Carl Grundström

The Kings are in a spot with their roster where they'd have four players with no-move clauses to protect (Anže Kopitar, Kevin Fiala, Philip Danault, Vladislav Gavrikov) as well as a few key players without them they'd never leave exposed (Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore, Drew Doughty, Mikey Anderson).

Weirdly enough they'd have to acquire a goalie to protect, but that's OK because we're pretty good on goalies now. Pierre-Luc Dubois might be the kind of player that could help, but his contract is a non-starter for Salt Lake City. Carl Grundström is set to be a restricted free agent this summer and plays with the kind of grit any new team would like to have.

Minnesota Wild: Jake Middleton

We're picking defenseman Jake Middleton from the Wild although the chances the Wild would protect him are reasonably good, but it would require a risky exposure elsewhere in their lineup.

The "easy" pick would be to go for Marcus Johansson since he would likely be readily available for this and he'd be a solid veteran scorer to add. But Middleton has proven to be a solid defender and is playing top minutes for the Wild right now. He'd give them a physical player on the blue line and with some of the puck movers we've picked, a little bit of grit could go a long way.

Plus, look at that mustache. Salt Lake City could use a guy with a duster like that patrolling the ice and stealing hearts all over town.

Montréal Canadiens: Jonathan Kovacevic

The Canadiens would have more than a few younger players to want to protect for this kind of expansion draft and although a few of them are on injured reserve now, that wouldn't make them out of sight and out of mind.

The Habs have a few veteran forwards and defensemen who'd likely be up for grabs, but some of them have contracts that are already aging poorly on players with some hard miles on their bodies. That's why a guy like defenseman Jonathan Kovacevic fits the bill here.

Kovacevic is inexpensive but playing good minutes on the Canadiens' blue line and his advanced stats on a poor Montréal team aren't too bad. Not every selection for this is going to be a world-beater, but a player with good value like Kovacevic can make our version of Salt Lake's depth that much better.

Nashville Predators: Colton Sissons

One thing our Salt Lake City team needs is some guys who can handle the center position. Fortunately for us, the Nashville Predators have a guy like Colton Sissons who could wind up being available to pick.

Sissons is a middle-six forward who can play with some grit, but also has some scoring touch as well as he's shown this season. Finding good centers in an exercise like an expansion draft means needing to be on top of scouting and what kind of way GMs and coaches want their team to play.

Fortunately for us, we have no such worries and are trying to put something together for everyone to talk about! Grabbing Sissons to play some good two-way hockey in Salt Lake City sounds good enough for us.

New Jersey Devils: Erik Haula

What's not to love about Erik Haula? He plays hard, he scores big-time goals and he's an outstanding two-way player. This leads to a question as to why the Devils would even expose him in an expansion draft.

Well, see, they've got a lot of other really good players on their roster. Dougie Hamilton and Ondrej Palat have no-move clauses. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt are cornerstones. John Marino is proving to be a superb defenseman and Jonas Siegenthaler has been as well. Mix in Timo Meier (despite how poorly he's played this year) as well and that's New Jersey's protected list.

Could they expose Meier and protect Haula? Sure, they could but imagine the message that would be sent to the guy they just gave a monster contract extension. It would be a heck of a dare to Salt Lake City if they did though.

New York Islanders: Kyle Palmieri

Something our Salt Lake City squad doesn't have nearly enough of is goal scorers. Fortunately, the New York Islanders would have their hands full deciding on who to protect in an expansion draft and we're thinking Palmieri and his $5 million a year cap hit would be there for the taking.

Palmieri is likely past his days as a 25-to-30-goal scorer in the NHL, but maybe a new situation in a new city would be something to help reinvigorate the 32-year-old winger. Palmieri's always had a nose for the net and he's had numerous clutch moments throughout his career. For our Salt Lake squad, that kind of know-how would be good to have.

New York Rangers: Ryan Lindgren

The Rangers had better hope an actual Salt Lake City expansion team doesn't happen for a few more years because if it were to happen this summer, they'd be in a bind.

The Rangers have five players with no-move clauses (Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, Jacob Trouba) and that would almost force them to have a protection list with seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie to protect their most valuable guys.

There's no way they'd let any of Adam Fox, K'Andre Miller, Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko be exposed and whoever the seventh forward had to be wouldn't really matter. Leaving defenseman Ryan Lindgren exposed would be painful either from losing him straight out or the ransom trade they'd have to make to keep Salt Lake City from grabbing him. For our purposes, we're happy to take Lindgren and run away smiling.

Ottawa Senators: Artem Zub

Everything is coming up blue line for us now.

The Senators have only a couple of players with no-move clauses: Claude Giroux and Travis Hamonic (what?) which means they'll need to protect their top players like Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Shane Pinto, Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun.

While they'd have to pick one more forward, in order to protect all the forwards and defensemen they'd like to, it would mean making a sacrifice on the blue line more than likely. Leaving one of Artem Zub or Erik Brännström exposed to the expansion draft would mean losing one of those players.

Zub has a few years left on his deal, but he's proven to be a solid blue liner for Ottawa and boy could our Salt Lake City lineup use more of that. Zub can help generate offense from the defense, something else this team will need.

Philadelphia Flyers: Morgan Frost

As good as the Flyers have been this season, they haven't been lacking drama in their lineup. Fortunately for our expansion draft, we can do our part to help relieve them of some of that by taking forward Morgan Frost.

Looking up and down the Philadelphia roster and figuring out who they might protect for such a thing helped highlight that, yes indeed, Frost could be exposed for such a thing. He's been in and out of the lineup along with John Tortorella's good graces as well.

We're suspending some disbelief here to make this call because there are ways to make it easier for them to hang onto Frost, but let's lean into the debate around Frost being in and out of the lineup and creating some drama of our own. Frost would be a great pickup for our expansion group in Utah and would give him the change of scenery he very well may need.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Reilly Smith

Reilly Smith proved to be one of the savviest moves the Vegas Golden Knights made during their expansion draft process. Adding him from the Florida Panthers gave them an instant goal scorer for their Misfits line and someone that ultimately helped them win the Stanley Cup.

Smith's season in Pittsburgh hasn't gone so hot and with the Pens having five guys with no-move clauses, things get really tight when trying to protect players for an expansion draft. Smith's proven he can get it done with a whole new crew tossed together and, yeah, our Salt Lake City roster needs someone who can score.

Going with Smith is the right call for us, although if given our druthers, we'd try to sign Jake Guentzel as a free agent and have that count as our Penguins pick. But...we're trying to not break our own rules here.

San Jose Sharks: Jan Rutta

We have to take someone from every team, OK?

The Sharks don't have a ton of protection choices because they have a pile of players on expiring contracts and are set to be UFAs. They also have a couple of guys who would be exposed whose contracts are so rough it would be malpractice for our fledgling Salt Lake City team to add them to our ledger.

Let's limit the damage and bring in a veteran like Jan Rutta to be part of the defense and play a role in getting the franchise off the ground. Rutta is serviceable and at 33 years old can provide a guiding hand to the group.

St. Louis Blues: Nick Leddy

The St. Louis Blues won't make it easy on our Salt Lake City management. Their top forwards would all likely be protected and there's no way Justin Faulk or Torey Krug would be exposed on defense.

Sure, they could expose Colton Parayko and his monster contract, but we're not too interested in taking that on. Nick Leddy and his not-as-long and not-as-expensive contract might be the best of a tough bunch of options to go with.

In a real situation, this would likely be a time to grab someone to provide depth in the AHL for this group, but we're trying to make this a little more interesting. Although I guess when we're saying Nick Leddy is making things more interesting, that's saying it all.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Darren Raddysh

The Lightning must be really sick of having expansion drafts to dance around. Fortunately, they're pros at finding ways to dodge the salary cap and know best how to maintain a top lineup after losing key players.

Tampa Bay would have a few guys with no-move clauses to deal with and several other players they wouldn't want to leave exposed to our Salt Lake City grabby hands. All that said, they might be stuck when it comes to their defense and who they'd opt to protect.

We'd be hoping blue liner Darren Raddysh would be one of those players because when it comes to finding a solid contributor whose salary cap hit is manageable and could be a player who'd thrive in the opportunity he'd have with an expansion team, Raddysh stands out. He's been a good fit with the Lightning, but would other players take priority in this situation?

Toronto Maple Leafs: Jake McCabe

The Maple Leafs don't make it too easy to figure out who or how they'd make sure to cover their bases for an expansion draft. They've got five players with no-move clauses (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly) and more than a few options for how they'd try to divvy things up to cover everyone.

I hear you Leafs fans, take Ryan Reaves. No, we're not helping you out.

It's wishful thinking that defenseman Jake McCabe would somehow slip through to be selected, but his palatable contract probably would crush those hopes. Still, taking McCabe makes more sense for our Salt Lake City group than taking on longer contracts of possible exposed players like David Kämpf or Calle Järnkrok. That said, the Leafs could force the issue depending on who they protected.

Vancouver Canucks: Pius Suter

If the Vancouver Canucks are serious about moving on from Andrei Kuzmenko for some reason and wanted to expose him to the expansion draft, Salt Lake City would be more than happy to take him on. But...a guy who can produce offense the way he can probably isn't just going to be given away. That's why we're going to pick out a solid defensive forward with some offensive touch like Pius Suter.

Suter takes care of his own end of the ice very well and he's shown he can put the puck in the net, too. We like that for Salt Lake City and his kind of sensibility up front would be beyond helpful for the team.

But like we said, if GM Patrik Allvin wants to leave Kuzmenko out there to be taken, we're down with that.

Vegas Golden Knights: Paul Cotter

Vegas didn't have to go through Seattle's expansion draft and give up a player, but this time around they'll have to give one up to soon-to-be rival Salt Lake City. How they'd go about it would be fascinating.

They've only got a couple of guys with no-move clauses (Mark Stone and Jack Eichel) and a couple of guys set to be UFAs this summer that keep them off the protection list.

This means getting sneaky with our pick and 24-year-old forward Paul Cotter fits the bill for us. He's a 100-percent effort player who's developed some scoring touch and a lot of hard work. He's a coach's dream and, hey, whoever Salt Lake City's coach is for this kind of fantasy draft will thank us for helping out.

Washington Capitals: Evgeny Kuznetsov

Salt Lake City is going to need some amount of skill on their roster and considering how Washington has been trying to find a way to unload Evgeny Kuznetsov for years, we're happy to oblige.

Kuznetsov will have one more year left on his contract and that $7.8 million cap hit doesn't scare us too much for a year (Please don't do any math on the players we've taken, thank you).

Kuznetsov would get a fresh start in a new place and a chance to shake off all the negativity that surrounded him in D.C. It's a risk to take him given his numbers have gone down steadily, even more so this season, but for one year it's worth trying. After all, if the old Kuzy shows up, that means goals and fun. If not...well, it was worth trying, right?

Winnipeg Jets: Rasmus Kupari

The Jets have a real good thing going, but an expansion draft could be a little tricky for them because now they've suddenly got a lot of good options around the lineup.

One particularly strong area is their forward group and whether they decided to keep eight total skaters or seven forwards and three defensemen, they might not be able to cover everyone up front.

That's what makes us jump for 23-year-old Rasmus Kupari who they got in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade over the summer. He's still pretty fresh in the NHL and there's some speed and skill in his game as well as the typical Finnish defensive dedication. He'd get a bigger role with our Salt Lake City group though and that's what makes us jump for the pick.

Salary information provided by CapFriendly.com