The NHL's expansion protection lists were released late Sunday morning and offered fascinating insights into whether the league had learned anything from the Vegas expansion draft.

For the most part, the answer seemed to be, "a little." Breaking down all the individual decisions is perhaps not worth the effort, as this is news that will matter for another 60 hours or so. But one surprising trend is that teams were more willing — thanks in large part to the flat cap — to put highly talented players out there if their price tags were a bit much.

Let's put it this way: Fewer teams were being all that demure about asking guys to waive their no-movement clauses, and one need only look at Tampa Bay's exposure list (which included Ondřej Palát, Yanni Gourde, and Jan Rutta) to understand how importa