Seattle Kraken: 5 NHL teams poorly positioned for NHL expansion draft
Carolina Hurricanes
In Raleigh, NC, the Canes face a significant conundrum. Their best defenseman Dougie Hamilton is an unrestricted free agent. In any other season, that would be a major topic of discussion. Any thought of resigning him will have to wait until after the expansion draft.
The bigger problem for Carolina is that they have four very good defensemen under contract and can only protect three. Who do they leave exposed? Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, Jaccob Slavin, or Jake Gardiner. For now, Gardiner is the odd man out due to a big injury this year, but he is also the most offensively talented among the four.
Of course, Carolina could protect all four from the Seattle Kraken, but that could present even more problems. If they hold back the defensemen, then the Canes must expose forwards Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck.
Minnesota Wild
Minnesota is in almost the same position as Carolina. Defensemen Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, and Jonas Brodin all have no-movement clauses (NMC) and must be protected. That leaves Matt Dumba out in the cold. Unlike Carolina, the Wild have an out.
The answer isn’t protecting fewer forwards, either. Suter is 36-years-old. His contract runs through 2024-25 with an annual cap hit of almost $7.54M. The Seattle Kraken would be crazy to take on that albatross. Minnesota could ask him to waive the NMC, but that’s highly unlikely. Seattle could draft Suter and flip him for picks. Do the Wild want to take that gamble?
St. Louis Blues
Wow, the Blues are loaded. They have lots of young talented forwards and not enough room to protect all of them. Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Brayden Schenn are givens. So among Zach Sanford, Sammy Blais, Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Oskar Sundqvist, which four do they protect?
Keep in mind that aside from two players on the above list, St. Louis also has to leave David Perron and Kyle Clifford unprotected.
Among Blues’ blueliners, Justin Faulk and Torey Krug will be protected. That still leaves Colton Parayko, Marco Scandella, Vince Dunn, and Robert Bortuzzo. While the latter is a given for exposure, the other three are not.