With the recent passing of the trade deadline, Expansion protection lists from each of the twelve teams were entered and shortly made public to the league. With the hype around expansion, the multiple mock drafts out there and coming amidst the 1.5x media period we now have, there is bound to be a strong lead up and question marks over who will be taken, will they be traded back and how the expansion GMs will prioritise their picks and needs in¬ the expansion draft. Both Dewalt and Woelkers, with their respective Co-Gm’s of Highhaschdi and Bwestfield, have experience in leading team and will have their work cut out working who will happily take a place on an expansion team and who might just leave them for dust the following season, a balancing act I do not envy at all.
Unlike last expansion where my current team, the Yellowknife Wraiths, did not have to worry as much about losing players through the expansion draft compared to any other team due to the Sarasota GMs, Frost and RainDealy both coming from the team, they must be prepared to lose up to two players during the draft. With the protection lists being official, and being my personal team that my future will be all in on, I thought I would go through who was protected, reasons as to why they were as well as which players are left open, who is most likely to be taken and what that spells for the Wraiths next season, whether that be calling up people from the Developmental Simulation Football League or through key drafts in the early round of the season 26 International Simulation Football league, a reddit draft primed with fresh faces.
First off is going through each of the protected players and making educated inferences about why they were protected to see what type of philosophies the GM’s, Fly and PMoney, took towards protecting which assets and where they are willing to give up on someone. The last seasons have seen Wraiths end up with heart break, consistently making the playoffs and Ultimus appearances, finally winning it all last season in what is an ageing team that has now had multiple people enter regression, leave in free agency or retiring.
Protection 1: Colby Jack (flyeaglesfly29) – QB – S22 – 794 TPE
A GM protection but besides the user behind Jack, this would have been a guaranteed protection. Jack is the future QB who, whilst having a teething season transitioning from the DSFL to the ISFL, will become one of the leading QB’s of the new wave as he starts to hit his prime. That said, it is just a simple must protect but is an important piece of the Wraiths future that gets secured all in one go. The only other Quarterback on the roster is from season 24 and is thus an auto-protected player but again, it’s a gm pick so nothing much here had to be decided about where the future lies.
Protection 2: Patrik Money (PMoney) – DT – S22 – 741 TPE
The Co-GM of the Wraiths and therefore the other must be protected sees the bright future of Defensive Line being kept in another two for one special. The other defensive tackles on the roster that are eligible for expansion, Joe Exotic and Braxton Sinclair, are both down in the DSFL as Inactive players. The other Defensive Tackle on the roster, Giannis Kroustis, is retiring and whilst having two defensive tackles currently in the DSFL, they are both IA and much lower TPE. Money will become pretty important as one of the anchors of the defensive line. Young and max earning in a position with no depth, it is a very easy protection to make besides the fact it is a GM of the team.
Protection 3: James Cho (cho135) – DE – S22 – 750 TPE
Partnering Money on the defensive line as a fellow anchor for the future line of the Wraiths is James Cho, a fellow S22 player in the Defensive End position. Protecting one of each linemen position sees the Wraiths able to leverage these two players whilst bringing up or acquiring talent without impacting the team too much. There is only one other defensive end on the books in Yellowknife is Nero Alexander, the player of Ex-gm Shadyshoelace, is a S15 player and going to be entering their fourth season of regression, and will be less TPE than Cho at the start of next season. Protecting Cho, who is soon going to me handed the mantle of lead defensive end, secures Wraiths to have to a great window of having one of the best defensive lines in a few seasons time between Cho and Money.
Protection 4: Douglas Quaid (HENDRIX 2.0) – LB – S21 – 944 TPE
Moving through the protection list of the Wraiths, there starts to be an emerging pattern on how they decided on how to protect and how the team will shape up for next season after the expansion draft. The Wraiths protect Douglas Quaid, another LB with multiple seasons before he hits his prime, as well as being a max earner. The theme continues with young max earners being the protected players, and what will be seen is that they are spread around all positions. Quaid is almost already at his effective maximum level with 3 seasons still left to play regression, he is going to be a beast. Looking at the other LB’s on the roster, Maurice Virtanen is in his last season before regression, at just under 1200 TPE but long time IA, gets left unprotected, probably due to both of these reasons with two young linebackers drafted by the Wraiths in S24, Alejandro Chainbreaker and Brach Thomaslacher. These will be taking over Virtanen’s spot in a few seasons and being auto protected, it makes sense to leave what is the Wraiths highest TPE player unprotected.
Protection 5: Mervin Leonard (hihihi_62) – CB – S17 – 1135 TPE (peak of 1236)
Moving onto another defensive position, this time further out to the back field and the oldest person protected by the Wraiths, Leonard is already faced one round of regression. Whilst maintain some veteran presence on the field will go along way for the future of the wraiths defence with the other young members that will build their future unit, looking at the only other CB in the roster highlights a weakness. That is Johnny Snuggles, who after many years of service for the Wraiths, sits at only 354 TPE as a S13 players and has now announced his retirement. This leaves the Wraiths short in the position and by holding onto Leonard, it will lessen the headache in trying to potentially replace both players in this position at the same time.
Protection 6: Johnny Hellzapoppin (Colabear) – S – S22 – 720 TPE
The 5th defensive player protected, Hellzapoppin is another young high earning player in the Wraiths outfit who is currently the number one safety on the roster. Not only is Hellzapoppin an amazing player, but probably moreso than the other protections (sorry but not sorry teammates) in my view the most known/ high profile user. Cola is a member of HO and a streamer of our games, one of the forces behind the new innovations of how they are streamed and are reasons that should not be forgotten about when thinking about protections. The other safeties consist of promising players Magnus Valdyr and L’Carpetron Dookmariot, though they have both gone IA as of late and may not demonstrate enough trust for the expansion teams to pick them up. Furthermore, the Wraith’s two safeties in the DSFL, Jon Bois and Ed Ball are both long term IA and will probably need another active to pair alongside Hellzapoppin for the future. A great user profile with the only high earning and active safety, an easy protection for the team.
Protection 7: Acura Skyline (Skyline) – RB – S22 – 771 TPE
Back to the offensive side of the ball and this protection probably the most talked about one that we know was coming, simply because it was in a contract that this would happen. Skyline had a clause in his recent resigning to the team that he must be protected in the next expansion. A young max earning player that will be the backfield for years and years in the Wraiths offence, there was a solid chance that Skyline gets protected with or without the clause. The impact of the clause though is most felt by fellow running back Mathias Hanyadi, who will be entering regression for next season but has boast an immensely successful career, including awards consisting of RBoTY, OPoTY and MVP, he has won it all. With Skyline being protected and ageing, the Wraiths thoughts choice was whether or not to protect him and it seems the verdict is in that the Wraiths are heavily looking to protect their future, evident in all protections.
Protection 8: Kai Sakura (DarknessRising) – WR – S23 – 610 TPE
Finally its myself, the youngest of the protections as the only guy from the S23 to be protected. I mark the third offensive player in team protected, and whilst a year younger than fellow wide receivers Susan Cash Jr. and Mike Lee, have cemented the WR1 spot in my rookie season with some decent numbers. I would say my general activity and being a season younger whilst slightly ahead of TPE has earnt me this protection spot, shaping up for an offence that has a capped QB in Colby Jack, RB in Skyline and myself as the WR that will be cutting defences in everyway. With one expansion team being ran both two WR’s, there is probably less need to be protected but I would also think that being in Minnesota war room with Woelkers and Dewalt, with Dewalt being one of the GM’s who drafted me, would also see me be a person they could trust to build. Anyways, I’m a wraith and probably gonna be a wraith for the foreseeable future so that’s all I want to say about myself.
With all the protections, it’s clear what the intention of the Wraiths was with their protections, keep the youth intact all through the team. There is 1 player protected in every defensive position and main offensive position. Tight Ends on the wraiths roster are either young or lower earning, if not both, plus can sort of be put with WR for having a catcher, and the OL consist of Lazlo who is retiring. The protections give the Wraiths something to work with everywhere, keeping themselves the ability to pivot anywhere in the upcoming rookie draft and FA and options are always good to have.
What this means for the expansion draft however, is that most likely would see the older high TPE players taken, if they are to lose players. Offensively, Hanyadi could be the spearhead of offence for a few years as he goes into regression or Susan Cash might be a decent option to consistently earn, particularly for NYS. On the Defensive side of the ball, there is a lot more people who can be taken but not extremely attractive options that can be tipped as 100% leaving the team. Nero is quite old and won’t last long before retirement and no other defensive linemen would be anyway near adequate to be taken. Virtanen is by far one of the most attractive options at his high tpe and only just hitting regression but do expansion teams really want to take a player’s corpse instead of a active user and growing player to help build their team and branding? The last option is the team’s kicker, Dougie Smalls, who is maxed out and S21, a few seasons in him and probably one of the more likely players to be taken from the team from a sheer analytical view. Only time will tell what happens
*1978 words*
Unlike last expansion where my current team, the Yellowknife Wraiths, did not have to worry as much about losing players through the expansion draft compared to any other team due to the Sarasota GMs, Frost and RainDealy both coming from the team, they must be prepared to lose up to two players during the draft. With the protection lists being official, and being my personal team that my future will be all in on, I thought I would go through who was protected, reasons as to why they were as well as which players are left open, who is most likely to be taken and what that spells for the Wraiths next season, whether that be calling up people from the Developmental Simulation Football League or through key drafts in the early round of the season 26 International Simulation Football league, a reddit draft primed with fresh faces.
First off is going through each of the protected players and making educated inferences about why they were protected to see what type of philosophies the GM’s, Fly and PMoney, took towards protecting which assets and where they are willing to give up on someone. The last seasons have seen Wraiths end up with heart break, consistently making the playoffs and Ultimus appearances, finally winning it all last season in what is an ageing team that has now had multiple people enter regression, leave in free agency or retiring.
Protection 1: Colby Jack (flyeaglesfly29) – QB – S22 – 794 TPE
A GM protection but besides the user behind Jack, this would have been a guaranteed protection. Jack is the future QB who, whilst having a teething season transitioning from the DSFL to the ISFL, will become one of the leading QB’s of the new wave as he starts to hit his prime. That said, it is just a simple must protect but is an important piece of the Wraiths future that gets secured all in one go. The only other Quarterback on the roster is from season 24 and is thus an auto-protected player but again, it’s a gm pick so nothing much here had to be decided about where the future lies.
Protection 2: Patrik Money (PMoney) – DT – S22 – 741 TPE
The Co-GM of the Wraiths and therefore the other must be protected sees the bright future of Defensive Line being kept in another two for one special. The other defensive tackles on the roster that are eligible for expansion, Joe Exotic and Braxton Sinclair, are both down in the DSFL as Inactive players. The other Defensive Tackle on the roster, Giannis Kroustis, is retiring and whilst having two defensive tackles currently in the DSFL, they are both IA and much lower TPE. Money will become pretty important as one of the anchors of the defensive line. Young and max earning in a position with no depth, it is a very easy protection to make besides the fact it is a GM of the team.
Protection 3: James Cho (cho135) – DE – S22 – 750 TPE
Partnering Money on the defensive line as a fellow anchor for the future line of the Wraiths is James Cho, a fellow S22 player in the Defensive End position. Protecting one of each linemen position sees the Wraiths able to leverage these two players whilst bringing up or acquiring talent without impacting the team too much. There is only one other defensive end on the books in Yellowknife is Nero Alexander, the player of Ex-gm Shadyshoelace, is a S15 player and going to be entering their fourth season of regression, and will be less TPE than Cho at the start of next season. Protecting Cho, who is soon going to me handed the mantle of lead defensive end, secures Wraiths to have to a great window of having one of the best defensive lines in a few seasons time between Cho and Money.
Protection 4: Douglas Quaid (HENDRIX 2.0) – LB – S21 – 944 TPE
Moving through the protection list of the Wraiths, there starts to be an emerging pattern on how they decided on how to protect and how the team will shape up for next season after the expansion draft. The Wraiths protect Douglas Quaid, another LB with multiple seasons before he hits his prime, as well as being a max earner. The theme continues with young max earners being the protected players, and what will be seen is that they are spread around all positions. Quaid is almost already at his effective maximum level with 3 seasons still left to play regression, he is going to be a beast. Looking at the other LB’s on the roster, Maurice Virtanen is in his last season before regression, at just under 1200 TPE but long time IA, gets left unprotected, probably due to both of these reasons with two young linebackers drafted by the Wraiths in S24, Alejandro Chainbreaker and Brach Thomaslacher. These will be taking over Virtanen’s spot in a few seasons and being auto protected, it makes sense to leave what is the Wraiths highest TPE player unprotected.
Protection 5: Mervin Leonard (hihihi_62) – CB – S17 – 1135 TPE (peak of 1236)
Moving onto another defensive position, this time further out to the back field and the oldest person protected by the Wraiths, Leonard is already faced one round of regression. Whilst maintain some veteran presence on the field will go along way for the future of the wraiths defence with the other young members that will build their future unit, looking at the only other CB in the roster highlights a weakness. That is Johnny Snuggles, who after many years of service for the Wraiths, sits at only 354 TPE as a S13 players and has now announced his retirement. This leaves the Wraiths short in the position and by holding onto Leonard, it will lessen the headache in trying to potentially replace both players in this position at the same time.
Protection 6: Johnny Hellzapoppin (Colabear) – S – S22 – 720 TPE
The 5th defensive player protected, Hellzapoppin is another young high earning player in the Wraiths outfit who is currently the number one safety on the roster. Not only is Hellzapoppin an amazing player, but probably moreso than the other protections (sorry but not sorry teammates) in my view the most known/ high profile user. Cola is a member of HO and a streamer of our games, one of the forces behind the new innovations of how they are streamed and are reasons that should not be forgotten about when thinking about protections. The other safeties consist of promising players Magnus Valdyr and L’Carpetron Dookmariot, though they have both gone IA as of late and may not demonstrate enough trust for the expansion teams to pick them up. Furthermore, the Wraith’s two safeties in the DSFL, Jon Bois and Ed Ball are both long term IA and will probably need another active to pair alongside Hellzapoppin for the future. A great user profile with the only high earning and active safety, an easy protection for the team.
Protection 7: Acura Skyline (Skyline) – RB – S22 – 771 TPE
Back to the offensive side of the ball and this protection probably the most talked about one that we know was coming, simply because it was in a contract that this would happen. Skyline had a clause in his recent resigning to the team that he must be protected in the next expansion. A young max earning player that will be the backfield for years and years in the Wraiths offence, there was a solid chance that Skyline gets protected with or without the clause. The impact of the clause though is most felt by fellow running back Mathias Hanyadi, who will be entering regression for next season but has boast an immensely successful career, including awards consisting of RBoTY, OPoTY and MVP, he has won it all. With Skyline being protected and ageing, the Wraiths thoughts choice was whether or not to protect him and it seems the verdict is in that the Wraiths are heavily looking to protect their future, evident in all protections.
Protection 8: Kai Sakura (DarknessRising) – WR – S23 – 610 TPE
Finally its myself, the youngest of the protections as the only guy from the S23 to be protected. I mark the third offensive player in team protected, and whilst a year younger than fellow wide receivers Susan Cash Jr. and Mike Lee, have cemented the WR1 spot in my rookie season with some decent numbers. I would say my general activity and being a season younger whilst slightly ahead of TPE has earnt me this protection spot, shaping up for an offence that has a capped QB in Colby Jack, RB in Skyline and myself as the WR that will be cutting defences in everyway. With one expansion team being ran both two WR’s, there is probably less need to be protected but I would also think that being in Minnesota war room with Woelkers and Dewalt, with Dewalt being one of the GM’s who drafted me, would also see me be a person they could trust to build. Anyways, I’m a wraith and probably gonna be a wraith for the foreseeable future so that’s all I want to say about myself.
With all the protections, it’s clear what the intention of the Wraiths was with their protections, keep the youth intact all through the team. There is 1 player protected in every defensive position and main offensive position. Tight Ends on the wraiths roster are either young or lower earning, if not both, plus can sort of be put with WR for having a catcher, and the OL consist of Lazlo who is retiring. The protections give the Wraiths something to work with everywhere, keeping themselves the ability to pivot anywhere in the upcoming rookie draft and FA and options are always good to have.
What this means for the expansion draft however, is that most likely would see the older high TPE players taken, if they are to lose players. Offensively, Hanyadi could be the spearhead of offence for a few years as he goes into regression or Susan Cash might be a decent option to consistently earn, particularly for NYS. On the Defensive side of the ball, there is a lot more people who can be taken but not extremely attractive options that can be tipped as 100% leaving the team. Nero is quite old and won’t last long before retirement and no other defensive linemen would be anyway near adequate to be taken. Virtanen is by far one of the most attractive options at his high tpe and only just hitting regression but do expansion teams really want to take a player’s corpse instead of a active user and growing player to help build their team and branding? The last option is the team’s kicker, Dougie Smalls, who is maxed out and S21, a few seasons in him and probably one of the more likely players to be taken from the team from a sheer analytical view. Only time will tell what happens
*1978 words*
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