Last time the Wild participated in an expansion draft, it was the one plucking has-been's and wanna-be's from the other teams. And the Wild received:
| Draftee | Previous Team |
| Jamie McLennan (G) | St. Louis Blues |
| Mike Vernon (G) | Florida Panthers |
| Chris Terreri (G) | New Jersey Devils |
| Sean O'Donnell (D) | Los Angeles Kings |
| Curtis Leschyshyn (D) | Carolina Hurricanes |
| Ladislav Benysek (D) | Mighty Ducks of Anaheim |
| Chris Armstrong (D) | San Jose Sharks |
| Filip Kuba (D) | Calgary Flames |
| Oleg Orekhovsky (D) | Washington Capitals |
| Ian Herbers (D) | New York Islanders |
| Artem Anisimov (D) | Philadelphia Flyers |
| Stacy Roest (c) | Detroit Red Wings |
| Darryl Laplante (C) | Detroit Red Wings |
| Scott Pellerin (LW) | St. Louis Blues |
| Jim Dowd (C) | Edmonton Oilers |
| Sergei Krivokrasov (RW) | Calgary Flames |
| Jeff Nielsen (RW) | Mighty Ducks of Anaheim |
| Jeff Odgers (RW) | Colorado Avalanche |
| Steve McKenna (F) | Los Angeles Kings |
| Michal Bros (F) | San Jose Sharks |
| Joe Juneau (C) | Ottawa Senators |
| Darby Hendrickson (C) | Vancouver Canucks |
| Jeff Daw (C) | Chicago Blackhawks |
| Stefan Nilsson (F) | Vancouver Canucks |
| Zac Bierk (G) | Tampa Bay Lightning |
| Cam Stewart (LW) | Florida Panthers |
DUDE! Look at those names. Seriously, look at them. If there's one thing that can be certain, it's that the Winnipeg new-Jets and the Quebec new-Nordiques will have a better jump-start than the Wild had, if for no other reason than they don't have Doug Risebrough calling the shots.
The draft will take place today, on Thursday, and the results will be announced next Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday. Stat-head Gabe Desjardins of Behind The Net is running the new Winnipeg franchise, and will face off against James Mirtle (formerly of From the Rink) of The Globe & Mail is running the new Quebec franchise.
So, who have the Wilderness chosen to protect and risk losing in the 2010 SB Nation Mock NHL Expansion Draft?
Protected:
G: Niklas Backstrom
D: Cam Barker, Brent Burns, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon
F: Andrew Brunette, Matt Cullen, Cal Clutterbuck, Guillaume Latendresse, Martin Havlat, Mikko Koivu, John Madden
Unprotected:
G: Josh Harding
D: Marek Zidlicky
F: Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Kyle Brodziak, Chuck Kobasew, Antti Miettinen, Eric Nystrom, James Sheppard, Brad Staubitz
Two of our players will be taken in draft today, but we can only lose either one goalie OR one defenseman. Yes, I could have protected more players, but frankly, this gives us the opportunity to potentially lose some bad contracts. Is it likely? Not really, but I'll take a shot.
Who do you hope they pick? What would you have done differently?