BOSTON BRUINS

The Boston Bruins won’t have to worry as much as some other teams about the player they are going to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Bruins have David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, David Backes and Zdeno Chara on NMC’s, and will have more than enough spots available to keep their best players protected.

Up front, the Bruins will have four forward spots open on the protected list. Brad Marchand, Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak are going to be protected, and the only decision will be who they will keep out of Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes and Riley Nash. Considering Nash is an easy player to replace and Jimmy Hayes has regressed, I protected Beleskey.

On the blueline, the Bruins may want to keep one of Adam McQuiad or Kevan Miller, but considering they are the types of defencemen the league is making irrelevant, they would be better off protecting Torey Krug and either prospect Linus Arnesson or Colin Miller. Miller is playing a top six role for the club and Arnesson hasn’t knocked anybody’s socks off.

In goal, Tuukka Rask is obviously the goaltender the team will protect, leaving struggling but still capable prospect goalie Malcolm Subban exposed.

PROTECTED: David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, David Backes, Brad Marchand, Matt Beleskey, Ryan Spooner, David Pastrnak, Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, Colin Miller, Tuukka Rask

NOTABLE EXPOSED: Jimmy Hayes, Riley Nash, Dominic Moore, Brian Ferlin, Tim Schaller, Adam McQuaid, Kevan Miller, Linus Arnesson, Joe Morrow, Anton Khudobin, Malcolm Subban