Major disappointment after today's announcement regarding the Expansion Draft.

For the second day in a row a big announcement game from the National Hockey League general managers' meetings that was met with widespread derision from fans and pundits alike.

Yesterday it was the reported that controversial portions of the offside rule would remain in place after the general managers decided not to push forward with any of the proposed changes. Today the controversy surrounds a ruling that has come down regarding the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft.

ESPN insider Pierre LeBrun is reporting that an important decision was made regarding the disclosure of the "protected lists" for the expansion draft, a decision not to reveal the names on those lists prior to the expansion draft. What that means is that NHL general managers want to keep secret the names of the players they protect, and perhaps more importantly, want to avoid revealing what players they will leave exposed to the draft.

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While there will certainly be insiders who report those lists once we get closer to the draft, it would be great fun for fans to have a better idea of what may occur at a very rare event, and receive that information from an official NHL source.

Needless to say the NHL has received some real criticism over this decision already, and some like Sean Gentille of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believe "The NHL is about to royally screw up the expansion draft."

The Associated Press' Stephen Whyno believes the decision should be taken out of the hands of NHL GMs.