Seattle Hockey: Way too early mock expansion draft version 1.0
Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning.
Forwards
When Vegas played the inaugural season, they surprised the rest of the league with the quality of their forwards. The Knights were able to score goals in bunches to put opponents on their heels quickly. Seattle could come very close in that regard with a very quality corps of forwards as well. The following are the forwards selected in this mock, along with their current team, age, and cap hit, beginning with the 2021-22 season.
- Andrew Copp – Winnipeg, 25, RFA (arbitration-eligible)
- Marko Dano – Columbus, 25, RFA (arbitration-eligible)
- Jordan Eberle – NY Islanders, 30, three-years, $5.5M
- Robby Fabbri – Detroit, 24, RFA
- Christian Fischer – Arizona, 23, RFA
- Tyson Jost – Colorado, 22, RFA
- Max Jones – Anaheim, 22, RFA
- Zack Kassian, Edmonton, three-years, $3.2M
- Andrew Mangiapane – Calgary, 24, RFA (arbitration-eligible)
- Brayden Point – Tampa Bay, 24, one-year, $6.75M
- Victor Rask – Minnesota, 27, one-year, $4M
- Antoine Roussel – Vancouver, 30, one-year, $3M
- Colton Sissons – Nashville, 26, five-years, $2.86M
- Vincent Trochek – Carolina, 26, one-year, $4.75M
- Mikhail Vorobyov – Philadelphia, 23, RFA
While this group is young, there is plenty of NHL talent. The top two projected lines can score, while the third will be a classic checking line with some offense mixed in. Point is the best of the bunch. He has 262 points in 295 NHL games.
Lines
- Fabbri – Trocheck – Point
- Jost – Rask – Eberle
- Sissons – Copp – Roussel
- Mangiapane – Fischer – Kassian
Unless Vorbyev, Jones, or Dano, beats out one of the above (which could happen), they will start in the minors.
Braden Point is the team’s star. If Fabbri is back from his knee injury, he’ll be a catalyst. Eberle is a scoring threat that will elevate his linemates. Roussel and Kassian are perfect players to “maintain the peace” and keep opposing teams from running roughshod over the younger guys. Even the third and fourth lines have players with some offensive upside.