1992 NHL Expansion Draft

The 1992 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 18, 1992. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1992–93 season, the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Rules
21 of the 22 franchises in the league at the time of the draft were allowed to protect two goaltenders and fourteen position players (the San Jose Sharks were the only team exempt of protection restrictions as they were an expansion team the previous season). Beyond that, every team had to make available at least one goaltender who had played at least one game in the 1991–92 NHL season. This clause (known to the league teams far in advance) led to several trades so that teams could fulfill the requirement without exposing their two lead goaltenders. It also led to anomalies such as Ray LeBlanc (the star of the 1992 United States Olympic team) being put into the only NHL game of his career so that the Chicago Blackhawks could expose him, and therefore would not have to expose Ed Belfour, Dominik Hasek or Jimmy Waite.

There were 42 players selected in the draft, two from each participating franchise. The Lightning and Senators were each to pick two goaltenders, seven defensemen and twelve forwards.

Post-draft
Among players selected in the 1992 NHL Expansion Draft and then moved before the start of the 1992–93 season were the following:

Tampa Bay:
 * Frederic Chabot (traded to Montreal for Jean-Claude Bergeron on June 18, 1992)
 * Tim Hunter (traded to Quebec for future considerations on June 19, 1992)
 * Jeff Bloemberg (traded to Edmonton for future considerations on September 25, 1992)