If the NHL does expand in 2017, the new team or teams will draft no higher than third overall, according to Elliotte Friedman.

“If, with the caveat that none of this is set in stone, there is expansion for 2017-18, the expansion team will likely pick no higher than third in the draft — which is what they did last time in 2000,” Friedman said on Saturday’s Headlines segment.

The NHL’s general managers held their annual meetings this past week in Florida and expansion was a prominent topic.

The details of how an expansion draft, though in some ways complicated, were spelled out in this report.

From the Canadian Press:

The basic premise for an expansion draft would see teams risk losing one player under a one-team expansion and two players under a two-team scenario. The rules for protection of players, however, would be tighter than the last round of expansion in 2000.

Teams under the current framework could protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender or eight skaters and a goaltender. First and second year pros in any league are automatically exempt as are unsigned draft picks.

Daniel Goffenberg took a fun look at the best players to be taken in the 1998, ’99 and 2000 expansion drafts.