How does NHL expansion draft work? A deeper look into how the league brings in new teams

The Vegas Golden Knights were an NHL expansion team just six years ago and hoisted the Stanley Cup on Tuesday night.

Shortly after Vegas was introduced and had success, the league grew to 32 teams as the Seattle Kraken became the latest expansion team. In just their second season, Seattle made it to the second round of the playoffs.

With the two newest expansion teams having success out of the gate, let's take a look at how the NHL's expansion draft works.

How does the NHL expansion draft work?

When the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken were introduced into the league, the same rules were in play.

Both the Golden Knights and Kraken selected one player from every team, however, Vegas was exempt from a player being drafted from them by Seattle. The draft resulted in each team selecting 30 players with at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goalies

Although both expansion teams could select 30 players, at least 20 had to be under contract for the following season. They also could not buy out any players they drafted for at least one season.

The other teams also had to follow some rules as to who could be protected and who couldn't.

The rules they had were as follows:

• All players with no movement clauses at the time of the draft, and who decline to waive those clauses, must be protected and will be counted toward their team's applicable protection limits. All first- and second-year professionals, and all unsigned draft choices, will be exempt from selection and will not be counted toward protection limits.

Along with that, teams had to comply with leaving certain players unprotected with those being:

• One defenseman who is a) under contract and b) played in at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.
• Two forwards who are a) under contract in and b) played at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.
• One goalie who is under contract or will be a restricted free agent at the end of his current contract immediately prior to 2021-22. If a team elects to make a restricted free-agent goalie available to meet this requirement, that goalie must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the team's protected list.

Meanwhile, any player who suffered potentially career-ending injuries could not be selected by any expansion team.

Will there be another NHL expansion draft soon?

The NHL will likely expand again but won't be in the next few years. Cities like Houston, Utah, and Atlanta have all expressed interest in getting a team. League commissioner Gary Bettman said they won't be looking to expand for quite some time.

"We're not in an expansion mode right now," said Bettman. "There continues to be a number of people, entities and cities expressing interest in having an NHL franchise where they don't have one. Places like Atlanta, like Houston, like Quebec City. But it's not really something, at least right now, that's anywhere close to the front burner for us."

When the league does expand again, whether or not these same rules will apply is uncertain at this time.