Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, Tony, but I'm pretty sure you have to protect re-signed and pending UFA's in the expansion draft. For each individual, their contract status shouldn't really matter - the contract part is only that every team has to have a minimum # of signed guys at each position).
So if they are your property and eligible by the criteria, they have to be either protected or exposed.
my question was more or less vice versa. it is not mandatory to protect pending or re-signed ufas, right? you can chose for either whether to protect or expose them