[discodude5]

Something I did to decide what looked good in my league for protected players was save the game as a quickstart just before the expansion process.
Then try different numbers of protected players so you can see if too many good players are left unprotected.I don't know if challenge mode will allow you to see their lists.

I've found scheduling the draft after free agency begins works well, used this after going through threads about expansion suggested it.
Because of the timing I know I used less than 20 protected in my drafts.
One difference is I only had two team expansions.