Avalanche expose Pickard in Expansion Draft

The list of protected players from 30 NHL teams is in and the Colorado Avalanche have decided to protect seven forwards, three defenseman and one goaltender.

The surprising choices were not to protect last year's starting goalie Calvin Pickard, rookie scorer Mikhail Grigorenko and maybe even veteran forward John Mitchell; otherwise, the team very much adhered to the status quo.

Pickard was the leading goaltender for team Canada in the 2017 Men's IIHF World Championships with 167 saves, a 1.49 goals-against average and 93.82 save percentage after seven games. Canada won silver after a 2-1 loss to Sweden in the gold medal game.

As many would have guessed the Colorado Avalanche protected big names like: Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson.

The Avs also chose to protect Sven Andrighetto who was most recently traded to the Avalanche by the Montreal Canadians on March 1 and Rocco Grimaldi. Grimaldi only played in four NHL games for the Avalanche last year but put up 31 goals and 24 assists in 72 games for Avs AHL affiliate the San Antonio Rampage.

Now the Las Vegas Golden Knights are on the clock as they select their team for the 2017 Expansion Draft. We will figure out what player will the leave Colorado on Wednesday evening.

For the entire NHL Expansion Draft list click here.