The NHL announced on Wednesday that protected and available player lists for the Vegas Golden Knights' expansion process will be made public.

The league was reportedly leaning toward not making the lists public before the draft after discussions with general managers at the annual spring GM meetings earlier this month.

The player selection process will take place on a date to be determined. 

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly explained the decision to Dan Rosen of NHL.com.

"After a lot of internal discussion following the General Managers meeting, we determined it would be best to disclose those lists publicly," said Daly. "One of our guiding principles from the start of this process was to prioritize transparency, and certainly here, keeping the lists private would not have promoted that particular objective.

"Also, while I think the Managers on balance favoured maintaining the privacy of the process, I can't say I felt anyone expressed particularly strong views on the subject one way or another. So, in the end, we ran it by the Players' Association and it ultimately became a pretty easy decision."