Seattle’s Expansion Draft Grade: Incomplete

Seattle Kraken

Sorry, Seattle. We need to mark the draft enlargement report as “Incomplete”.

After more than two years of speculation about whether the 32nd NHL franchise would attempt to follow in the immediately successful footsteps of the Vegas Golden Knights, Wednesday gave no definitive answer. The grade we give the Kraken depends on whether the build up of the roster is nearly complete in 2021-22.

When player names began to leak on Wednesday morning, courtesy of Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, it appeared that the 32nd NHL franchise was putting together a team built to immediately battle for a playoff spot. In what form will it be the softest league in the NHL in 2021-22, why not? The obvious queues for winning now came from Seattle’s defense decisions. With the handover of a four-year contract for $ 16 million to rugged right-handed UFA defender Adam Larsson and a five-year contract of $ 23 million to towering UFA blueliner Jamie Oleksiak, the Kraken signed not only a lot of money but also a significant tenure . Other big names who joined them in defense were promising puck mover Vince Dunn, who escaped no protected minutes with the St. Louis Blues and wouldn’t overtake Torey Krug on the depth map, and longtime captain of the Calgary Flames, Mark Giordano, whom she abandoned for his running year instead of coughing up the younger Chris Tanev.

He also supports the idea that Seattle is interested in competing immediately in the Pacific: with the addition of center Yanni Gourde and wingers Jordan Eberle, Joonas Donskoi and Brandon Tanev, GM Ron Francis signed $ 5.17 million AAVs , $ 5.5 million, $ 3.9 million, and $ 3.5 million with maturities of four, three, two, and four years.

“When I found out that I still had a few years to spare, I knew they were serious, that I would be here for a while,” said Eberle. “That’s exciting. Every time you feel like starting a franchise, I get excited. So I want to be the guy who’s here for a while and help this team win.”

But that was about it when it came to some bubbly decisions for the Kraken on Day 1. No Carey Price. No Vladimir Tarasenko. No James van Riemsdyk. No MaxDomi. The rest of the choices ranged from buy lows on previous prospects, to cost-effective net upside games, to forward checks and, most commonly, back-end list fillers that looked almost like punts to save cap space. And no subsidiary deals were announced on Wednesday, no draft capital or prospects acquired in exchange for Kraken selection player X or Y from a particular NHL team. For example, the acquisition of Tanev’s bulky contract wasn’t part of a “take this guy” deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins, while the Golden Knights took several similar steps on the night of the draft expansion in 2017. They acquired Shea Theodore as a “thank you” from the Anaheim Ducks for choosing Clayton Stoner over Sami Vatanen, for example.

As NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Hockey News on Wednesday evening, all of Seattle’s trades that included “draft expansion considerations” should have been announced by the 10:00 am Wednesday morning deadline. So the Kraken didn’t grab any assets or picks because it helped teams choose their expansions.

“That would be so much different from what Vegas went through,” said Francis. “There has been no draft extension for 17 years. Vegas did a good job taking advantage of the rules and lack of experience of everyone in this area. But the moment one finished, they knew we were coming in and they had a lot more time to prepare for us … last time, GMs were more likely to overpay for certain assets protect. This time they learned from it and were not ready to make mistakes that they made the last time. “

That doesn’t mean Seattle has no trades up its sleeve, however. The league-wide trade freeze will be lifted on Thursday at 1:00 p.m., after which the Kraken will be free, according to Daly, to announce all trade that is technically independent of the expansion draft. So you can do the equivalent of Vegas picking Marc Methot and trading him to the Dallas Stars a few days after the expansion draft in 2017. Although things can change between now and the unfreeze, Francis set expectations of any flurry of movement, claiming that there was “probably a lot less than you think”.

He suggested the octopuses aren’t done wading into the UFA market just yet. Based on the Seattle picks expected to play at the NHL level, capfriendly.com predicts the team has more than $ 28 million in Cap Space, and just because a player didn’t sign in the early window, that means not that the Kraken can’t be big bidders when the league-wide free agency begins on July 28th. For bigger names like Gabriel Landeskog, for example, it’s probably better to look around with multiple teams. That doesn’t mean Seattle won’t harpoon major UFAs anymore.

But after night 1? We can’t confirm what’s on offer when the octopuses cook. They haven’t made any expansion draft trades, and we don’t know what other moves they will announce on Thursday. The project is incomplete, but Wednesday turned out to be a relatively conservative start.

In the gate, Seattle resisted the temptation to snag the Moby Dick option in Superstar Price and instead risk pretty cheap stoppers with high ceilings. Chris Driedger, signed by the Florida Panthers for three years as a UFA with an AAV of $ 3.5 million, has a career salvage percentage of .929 on his 38 appearances. Vitek Vanecek has stood up admirably for Washington Capitals battery mate Ilya Samsonov during a few COVID singers, showing at least enough potential to qualify as serious competition for Driedger. They make a relatively inexperienced tandem, but both have demonstrated ability to be viable NHL starters, and Driedger enjoys the competition.

“When we came to an agreement, I had no idea who my goalkeeping partner would be, so I’m just betting on myself in this situation,” said Driedger. “There will be competition everywhere in the NHL. I’m used to that. I try not to focus on it that much. I am convinced of my game. “

The Golden Knights thrived in part from barely buying up some untapped talent, and the Kraken might try to do the same. Forwards like Colin Blackwell and Mason Appleton are late bloomers who hinted upward trends last season when they were given bigger opportunities. The same applies to Blueliner Haydn Fleury. So maybe the octopuses hunt for their own William Karlssons and Nate Schmidts.

However, the similarities with the Golden Knights expansion design end there. It’s been a borderline start for the Kraken, but at least they haven’t shed much or no dead money on themselves, so they have the flexibility to surprise with some high-profile moves in the coming days and weeks.

2021 Expansion Draft Picks, in order:

Boston Bruins – Jeremy Lauzon, D
Buffalo saber – Will Borgen, D
Detroit Red Wings – Dennis Cholowski, D
Florida Panthers – Chris Dryedger, G
Montreal Canadiens – Cale Fleury, D
Ottawa Senators – Joey Daccord, G
Tampa Bay Lightning – Yanni Gourde, C
Toronto Maple Leafs – Jared McCann, LW
Carolina Hurricanes – Morgan Geekie, C
Columbus Blue Jackets – Gavin Bayreuther, D
New Jersey Devils – Nathan Bastian, RW
New York Islanders – Jordan Eberle, RW
New York Rangers – Colin Blackwell, RW
Philadelphia Flyers – Carsen Twarynski, LW
Pittsburgh Penguins – Brandon Tanev, LW
Washington Capitals – Vitek Vanecek, G
Arizona Coyotes – Tyler Pitlick, RW
Chicago Blackhawks – John Quenneville, California
Colorado Avalanche – Joonas Donskoi, RW
Dallas Stars – Jamie Oleksiak, D
Minnesota Wild – Carson Soucy, D
Nashville Predators – Calle Jarnkrok, LW
St. Louis Blues – Vince Dunn, D
Winnipeg Jets – Mason Appleton, RW
Anaheim Ducks – Haydn Fleury, D
Calgary Flames – Mark Giordano, D
Edmonton Oilers – Adam Larsson, D.
Los Angeles Kings – Kurtis MacDermid, D
San José Sharks – Alexander True, C
Vancouver Canucks – Kole Lind, RW