In the buildup to the 2017 expansion draft, virtually all the focus was on players teams were going to protect and, more importantly, who they were forced to expose. There was a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth over the potential loss of valuable assets with nothing in return.

There wasn’t much mental energy spent on anticipating solutions to problems associated with the players still on your roster after the Golden Knights were finally finished with their year-long vulture circle of NHL depth charts.

However, when Vegas GM George McPhee cashed his Red Wings chip by selecting 24-year-old prospect Tomas Nosek (who likely projects into the bottom half of an NHL forward group) over established players Riley Sheahan and Petr Mrazek, he both created and performed off-season work for his Red Wings counterpart Ken Holland.

How so?

An expansion draft isn’t just a way to give a new NHL owner actual bodies to fill out the jerseys he paid $500 million to purchase. It’s also a very public (and rare) window into the internal valuation discussions of a team’s war room. When the front office puts out its protected list, it is not only directly speaking to the newest member of the NHL but also indirectly sending messages to the players in its own dressing room. So when the Red Wings left both Sheahan and Mrazek available for selection, it also gave a window into what some of the exit interviews might have looked like in Detroit after their first non-playoff season since before the Internet existed.

With expansion now over, organizations will put the curtain back up on that window almost immediately. At the draft, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill shared a glimpse of how the team will handle the re-entry of the non-claimed players back into the fold.

“I’ll have conversations with all our guys, certainly the decision process could come up,” Blashill said. “At that point it’ll be in the past, we have to look to the future. I don’t believe in spending a whole bunch of time in the past. If there are explanations wanted… I’ll communicate from my end. I’m sure Kenny will from his end as well.”

This is a true statement. It’s also an understatement.

NHL general managers and coaches generally do not take a passive approach to their roster assets, especially in the modern-day NHL, where managing relationships with players (and their agents) is almost as important as managing the salary cap. So how did McPhee insert himself into the off-season development plan of the Red Wings? In my opinion, when Vegas passed on both players in favor of a projected third or four-line forward, it likely reinforced the end-of-season messaging that each player received, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum. In order, as Blashill rightly points out, for both player and team to begin to focus on the future, a communication plan prior to training camp would be a smart investment of time. Here’s what I believe the conversation for each player will and should include:

Riley Sheahan

Sheahan’s nightmarish 2016-17 NHL campaign is well documented: zero goals on his first 106 shots in 79 games plus the undesired dressing room Green Jacket for biggest minus on the team. It wasn’t totally surprising that Detroit didn’t protect the former No. 21 overall pick in the NHL draft in what should be the prime of his career. What is notable is that Vegas felt an undrafted player one year younger with 17 career NHL games under his belt was better value. If Sheahan were a patient in intensive care, this would be noted in his charts as a further complication in his recovery. In a case like this, the messaging is typically two-fold and tough love: The past IS the past but with one year left on your contract, your future is NOW.

I always felt it was better (and cheaper) to fix your roster problems internally. For Sheahan to get back to the performance arc he was on prior to last year, then the Wings have to deliver the delicate message of belief and reality: Belief in the player so that he feels he is coming into training camp with a clean slate, and reality in that there is tremendous urgency to his situation.

Petr Mrazek

When Holland and his staff made the decision to submit a list of available players for the Golden Knights with Mrazek’s name on it, it also exposed a hint of internal unhappiness with the Red Wings’ sometimes starting goalie. Okay, maybe more than a hint. An unexpected maneuver like this turns the NHL rumor mill up a notch, and the whisperings coming out of Detroit was that the Red Wings’ management felt Mrazek may have projected a bit too much professional complacency in just the first year of his only non-entry level NHL contract.

If this was the case, I’d bet my car that Mrazek’s exit interview with Holland and Blashill was something along the lines of “just because you are in the NHL doesn’t mean you’re in the NHL.” For a young player with a potential case of NHL overconfidence, the fact that the Golden Knights independently decided he wasn’t a good enough asset at a critical position to start building their franchise around speaks volumes. Assuming, of course, that Mrazek is even listening.