Pens fans aren't happy with team's protection list; why Jeff Carter was protected

When time ticked down on the deadline for teams to submit their protection lists to the Seattle Kraken, the Pittsburgh Penguins left a couple of interesting names off of their list - namely Brandon Tanev, Jason Zucker, Marcus Pettersson and Zach Aston-Reese.

While you simply can't protect all of the players you'd like to in these circumstances, the Pens came under some fire on social media for exposing forward Brandon Tanev instead of veteran Jeff Carter.

Well, according to The Athletic's Rob Rossi, there was good reason for that. According to Rossi, the Pens were forced to protect Carter, because the Kraken were absolutely going to select him.

There was some speculation on Twitter that Carter may just elect to retire, rather than play for the Seattle Kraken, but Rossi refuted that as well, stating that Carter would not retire and that he was never actually considered to be among those exposed due to the health status of 2C Evgeni Malkin.

If Malkin is set to miss significant time this season, the move to protect Carter is certainly understandable - especially since the Pens just moved 3C Jared McCann to Toronto. The Pens are not exactly exploding with center depth at the moment, and playing it safe is not a bad call by GM Ron Hextall.

In an expansion draft setting, every team is going to lose a potential impact player - excluding the Vegas Golden Knights, of course. While I'm sure Penguins fans aren't relishing the idea of losing Marcus Pettersson or Brandon Tanev, I'm sure that the Pens are not wild about it either. The good news is that all of the major names in the important positions are covered and Hextall and company can look to replace whoever Seattle takes on Wednesday during free agency on July 28th.

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