NHL releases list of 66 players who must be protected, and there are surprising names not on the list.

The National Hockey League Expansion Draft continues to take shape and on Wednesday the NHL and NHLPA released a list of the current NHL players who must be protected from the draft by their respective teams.

The final list is comprised of 66 players who have been ruled exempt from the expansion process due to the fact that the players in question all have a no-movement clause in their existing contract. The list impacts all but four NHL squads.

The two biggest surprises came in the form of players who were left off the list, specifically Anaheim's Antoine Vermette and Ottawa's Bobby Ryan. Both men were believed to have no-movement clauses, but in Ryan's case the no-movement is specific to being demoted to the minors, and therefore will not apply to the expansion draft giving Ottawa the opportunity to expose him, although that seems unlikely.

In the case of Vermette he does have a full no-movement clause, the problem for him is that it expires on June 15th 2017, just two days prior to the deadline for NHL teams to submit a list of players they wish to expose.  This means that the Ducks will also have the option of exposing him should they choose.

On the opposite side of the coin the New York Rangers will be forced to protect forward Rick Nash after it was revealed that the language of his contract allowed him to carry his no-movement clause with the Blue Jackets to the Rangers.

Here's the full list of players who must be protected courtesy of Sportsnet:

[pub]

Anaheim (4)

Kevin Bieksa
Ryan Getzlaf
Ryan Kesler
Corey Perry

Arizona (1)

Alex Goligoski

Boston (4)

David Backes
Patrice Bergeron
Zdeno Chara
David Krejci

Buffalo (1)

Kyle Okposo

Carolina (1)

Jordan Staal

Columbus (5)

Sergei Bobrovsky
David Clarkson
Brandon Dubinsky
Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell

Chicago (8)

Artem Anisimov
Corey Crawford
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Marian Hossa
Patrick Kane
Duncan Keith
Brent Seabrook
Jonathan Toews

Colorado (2)

Francois Beauchemin
Erik Johnson

Dallas (2)

Jamie Benn
Jason Spezza

Detroit (1)

Frans Nielsen

Edmonton (3)

Milan Lucic
Andrej Sekera
Cam Talbot

Florida (1)

Keith Yandle

Los Angeles (1)

Anze Kopitar

Minnesota (4)

Mikko Koivu
Zach Parise
Jason Pominville
Ryan Suter

Montreal (2)

Jeff Petry
Carey Price

Nashville (1)

Pekka Rinne

New Jersey (1)

Ryane Clowe

N.Y. Islanders (3)

Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ladd
John Tavares

N.Y. Rangers (4)

Dan Girardi
Henrik Lundqvist
Rick Nash
Marc Staal

Ottawa (1)

Dion Phaneuf

Philadelphia (1)
Claude Giroux

Pittsburgh (5)

Sidney Crosby
Marc-Andre Fleury
Phil Kessel
Kris Letang
Evgeni Malkin

Tampa Bay (4)

Ryan Callahan
Valtteri Filppula
Victor Hedman
Steven Stamkos

Toronto (1)

Nathan Horton

Vancouver (3)

Loui Eriksson
Daniel Sedin
Henrik Sedin

Winnipeg (2)

Dustin Byfuglien
Toby Enstrom