NHL Teams Protect Themselves : Hockey: At expansion draft, the real story is who <i> isn’t </i> being picked by the Ducks or Panthers today.

If either of two Montreal goaltenders, Andre Racicot or Frederic Chabot, is selected in the NHL expansion draft today instead of Toronto’s Daren Puppa, it won’t mean that Mighty Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira or his Florida Panther counterpart, Bob Clarke, have taken leave of their senses.

It would suggest they heard offers too good to refuse.

General managers are a resourceful lot, as evidenced by their hurried stashing of goaltenders on Sunday before the trading deadline. There was more work to be done, however, before today’s draft at the Grand Theatre.

Cliff Fletcher, Toronto’s president and general manager, developed a sudden problem when he became involved in a contract dispute with goaltender Felix Potvin this week. Fletcher is upset with Potvin’s salary demand of $2 million a year and has threatened to trade him. If the Maple Leafs trade Potvin, their backup is Puppa, 28, who has been left unprotected and is coveted by both expansion teams.

Fletcher said he planned to visit the Panther contingent and the Duck camp to try to cut a deal. Puppa, a second-team All-Star in 1990, is ranked in a group of five or six goaltenders in the second tier of those available, just below the Vancouver twosome of John Vanbiesbrouck and Kay Whitmore.

There was considerable speculation that an arrangement had been worked out between the Montreal Canadiens and the two expansion teams. Montreal General Manager Serge Savard has exposed two of his quality defensemen, J.J. Daigneault and Sean Hill, instead of trading one and not protecting the other. This way, he would lose only one instead of two.

By finagling a deal with expansion teams--offering future considerations, for instance--Savard wouldn’t lose either defenseman if the Ducks or Panthers selected Chabot or Racicot as their No. 3 goaltender. Under draft rules, a team cannot lose a defenseman if it has lost a goaltender.

These sort of arrangements are not unprecedented. Some teams simply are more open than others about discussing deals. Pierre Page, Quebec general manager, freely acknowledged that he had to trade goaltender Ron Hextall to the Islanders for goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick on Sunday because he could not secure a deal with the Ducks and the Panthers to bypass Hextall.

Said one general manager: “I think you’ll be able to tell what is going on by who isn’t taken.”

One player who won’t be taken is Boston left wing Dmitri Kvartalnov. Kvartalnov, the Bruins’ fourth-leading scorer with 72 points, was on the protected list. But on Wednesday morning, he was ruled exempt by NHL President Gil Stein after an appeal by Bruin General Manager Harry Sinden.

Kvartalnov was drafted last June in the first round after playing with the San Diego Gulls of the International Hockey League for one season. He did not sign a pro contract until the summer of 1992, which was the key to Stein’s ruling. Stein said that Kvartalnov’s first professional season was this one in Boston, making him exempt as a rookie.

“It was an administrative error by the Central Registry,” Stein said. “Harry brought it to my attention and we checked the rule and he (Kvartalnov) is an exempt player.”

The Panthers and Ducks will toss a coin before the draft to determine who will pick first. They will each select 24 players--three goaltenders, eight defensemen and 13 forwards.

Every NHL team will lose two players. Clearly, the Panthers and the Ducks know who they want to select from the haves--those teams blessed with a decent goaltender or a quality defenseman. But it will be more difficult to select from the have-nots--Ottawa, Tampa Bay and San Jose.

The Kings’ unprotected pool is not exactly a great shopping list, either. Defenseman Tim Watters, 33, would seem to be the most attractive player with his experience and his two-way contract, which will pay him $325,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the minor league level.

The Ducks may be going solo at their draft table, with Pierre Gauthier, assistant general manager, making the selections. Ferreira has psoriasis and suffered a bad reaction from ultraviolet treatment. His legs are swollen, and he worked the phones from his hotel room on Wednesday. Barring a major improvement, Ferreira will make the choices on a phone hookup with Gauthier.

“I can’t walk, but I can talk,” Ferreira said.