Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft 2.0 – If We Knew Then What We Know Now
If the Seattle Kraken could turn the clock back six months and re-do the Expansion Draft – how different would the roster look?
On July 21st, 2021, about 4,000 people gathered as the Seattle Kraken hosted the expansion draft during a beautiful summer day at Gasworks Park, overlooking Lake Union. People across the state were glued to their phones, TVs, and radio broadcasts as they eagerly awaited the announcement of which players Seattle would select from the 30 other NHL teams (Vegas was exempt, of course).
After the ceremony was completed, many fans were left disappointed, as Seattle opted to select a roster that featured many young up-and-coming players and a strong defensive roster. Thus opting out of selecting some perennial high-scoring forwards and displaying a roster that some might say resembled the scoring quality of the Las Vegas Expansion Draft from 2017.
Six months later, Seattle finds themselves ranked 30th in the overall NHL standings with 34 points in 47 games (.364 winning percentage) and tied for 28th in goal differential (-41). Needless to say, this is not what many fans expected from this team. Today is the day that we get to look back and say, “What if?” Let’s pretend we can rewind the clock to six months ago and do over the Expansion Draft, knowing what we know now.
How different would the roster look? I analyzed the list of players who were left exposed at the expansion draft and made my own selections based on the current point production of this season while also taking into consideration salary, position, and advanced stats. Needless to say, the team would look much different than the one that opened the season on October 12th, 2021.