Matt Duchene, Nashville Predators.
Welcome to Pacific Northwest Sports’ sixth Seattle Kraken mock expansion draft. It’s been a little hectic in the NHL since Tampa won the Cup. With all the trades, signings, no movement waivers, and buyouts, the landscape is very different.
While there might be more trades among the other 30 beforehand, the picture of who will be available to Seattle is getting clearer. Kraken General Manager Ron Francis will have some quality players to choose from.
Before getting into the details, there are some important dates to keep in mind.
The Kraken has an exclusive, two-day window to sign unrestricted free agents. If they sign a UFA before the expansion draft, he counts as the player Seattle drafted off his original team. For example, if Seattle signs Dougie Hamilton on July 19, he would count as the Kraken’s expansion selection from Carolina.
There are positives to signing early free agents. Kraken GM Ron Francis could land a few choice draft picks from teams who don’t want to lose key players. In this example, the Bruins don’t want to lose a promising young player like Ondrej Kase or Jakub Zboril. Boston could offer up a second-round pick if the Kraken sign UFA center Greg McKegg.
Here are some players the Kraken should sign before draft day.
I still think going all out for Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog is the right move. The Avs, however, will do everything in their power to resign him.
Tyson Barrie – (Five years, $30M). Barrie is the elusive puck-handling, power-play quarterback every team needs. He had an excellent bounce-back year in Edmonton and earned his payday.
Zach Hyman – (5-years, $27M). It’s time for Hyman to step outside the shadow of his more prolific Maple Leaf teammates. The 29-year-old should be at the minimum a 50-point scorer over the next five seasons.
Luke Glendening – (2-years, $2.5M) – Glendening is the type of blood and guts, defense-oriented forward every team needs. Even better, he has a career 55 percent face-off winning percentage.
The NHL has a precise set of expansion draft rules. They are the same ones used by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2019. All parameters existing teams must follow when protecting players are listed below.
Here is a brief recap of the rules in place when the Seattle Kraken selects the Expansion Draft. They are quite favorable to the drafting team. Remember, Vegas went to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year of existence.
Again, there is no way to account for trades Francis makes or backroom deals he puts together before and during the draft. There is no cap on the number of transactions he can make.
For now, with the help of Capfriendly.com’s Expansion Draft Simulator, this is our preliminary team.
Going back to Vegas, the key to their entire season and big Stanley Cup Playoffs success was goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. If Seattle hockey fans are looking for hope of a hot start to the franchise, look no further than this cadre of backstops. Among them, there is starting material, backups, third options, and a number one.
The following list is goalies selected in this mock, along with their current team, age, and annual cap hit (beginning with the 2021–22 season).
Jake Allen – Montreal, 30, 2-years, 2.88M
Casey DeSmith – Pittsburgh, 29, 1-year, $1.25M
Keith Kinkaid – New York Rangers, 31, $825K
Malcolm Subban – Chicago, 27, $850K
Vitek Vanecek – Washington, 25, 717K
Many think the Seattle Kraken should try to deal for Montreal Canadiens backstop Carey Price. After he led the bleu, blanc, et rouge to the Cup Finals, it’s certainly a popular option. It’s also exceedingly short-sided. Price is 34-years-old, with five years left on his contract at a whopping $10.5M AAV. Even if he were to waive his no-movement clause, this contract would tie up Seattle’s salary cap for half a decade.
Montreal teammate Jake Allen is a much better investment. The eight-year vet is four years younger than Price and has two years left on his current deal with a $2.88M AAV. Allen is a starting-caliber goalie who has a career 2.52 goals against average and .912 save percentage. Those numbers improved to 2.06 and .925 in 29 postseason appearances.
Either Casey DeSmith or Keith Kinkaid, two experienced netminders, will back Allen up. One stays in Seattle while the other gets traded. Malcolm Subban is on the team in case of emergency, while Vitek Vanicek is the Kraken goalie of the future.
Vanecek could throw a huge wrench into this plan. He’s NHL ready but stuck behind Ilya Samsonov in Washington. If the Czech seizes his opportunity early on, three or four of the selections could get dealt. Seattle can always find veteran backups later in free agency.
The way to build a good hockey team is from the net out. Playing solid defense is crucial at the NHL level, especially in the playoffs. This group of blueliners should keep things steady for the Seattle Kraken in their own zone without sacrificing offense.
Tyson Barrie – Edmonton, 29, UFA (proposed 5-years, $32.5M, $6.5M AAV)
Josh Brown – Ottawa, 27, 1-year, $1.20M
Erik Cernak – Tampa Bay, 23, 2-years, $2.95M
Vince Dunn – St. Louis, 24, RFA
Haydn Fleury – Anaheim, 24, 1-year, $1.30M
Jake Gardiner – Carolina, 31, 2-years, $4.05M
Radko Gudas – Florida, 31, 2-years, $2.50M
Oliver Kylington – Calgary, 24, RFA
Jeremy Lauzon – Boston, 1-year, $850K
Colin Miller – Buffalo, 28, 1-year, $3.88M
Jonas Siegenthaler – New Jersey, 24, 2-years, $1.13M
After looking at the parings, the first question is going to be, “what about those other good defensemen like Gardiner and Miller.” I expect the pair along with either Brown or Fleury (or maybe both) to be traded. However, he could wait until the trade deadline on one of them to catch a desperate team in need of help.
Cernak and Barrie are an excellent first pairing. Barrie is the puck rusher, while Cernak has the role of“stay-at-home guy.” They should work well together. It’s the same for Dunn and Gudas. Both Barrie and Dunn are guys who can quarterback the power play.
What stands out is the group’s collective ages. Only Gudas is over 30-years-old. The resident tough guy has other intangibles than youth.
Vegas surprised the rest of the league with the quality of their forwards during their first season. The Knights scored goals in bunches and put opponents on their heels quickly. There will be more than enough talent available to Seattle for the Kraken to be equally explosive.
Since the draft was announced, local product T.J. Oshie was a favorite to be the face of the Seattle Kraken franchise. Unfortunately, the shootout ace has other plans. He wants to stay in Washington and asked the Caps to protect him.
It’s just one of the reasons why there is so much change from recent mocks. The recent buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in Minnesota, as well as several players waiving NMCs, made a huge difference.
Mason Appleton, RW – Winnipeg, 25, 1-year, $900K
Lawson Crouse, LW – Arizona, 24, 1-year, 1.53M
Matt Duchene, C – Nashville, 30, 5-years, $8.00M
Luke Glendening, C – Detroit, 31, (proposed 2-years, $2.5M, $1.25M AAV)
Zach Hyman, LW, RW – Toronto, 29, (proposed 5-years, $27M, $5.4M AAV)
Nazem Kadri, C – Colorado, 30, 1-year, $4.00M
Tanner Kero, LW – Dallas, 28, 2-years, $750K
Kevin Labanc, RW, LW – San Jose, 25, 3-years, $4.28M
Blake Lizotte, C – Los Angeles, 23, 1-year, $800K
Zack MacEwen, C, RW – Vancouver, 25, 1-year, $825K
Matt Martin, RW – New York Islanders, 3-years, $1.50M
Kevin Stenlund, RW – Columbus, 24, 1-year, 1.05M
Nico Sturm, C – Minnesota, 26, 1-year, $725K
James van Riemsdyk, LW – Philadelphia, 32, 2-years, $7M
Without any other roster moves, Appleton and Stenlund can fight it out for playing time on Kadri’s flank. The loser can either move to the third line or be the 13th forward. Nico Sturm faces an uphill battle to make the final roster.
Duchene will wear the “C” as the first Seattle Kraken captain. His linemates, van Riemsdyk and Hyman, are more dynamic than what he had in Nashville, which should snap the veteran pivot out of his recent scoring malaise.
The third and fourth lines are filled with plenty of grit. With Martin and MacEwen joining Gudas, it will be very hard for opponents to get away with any shenanigans.
One area that will need to be addressed in post-draft free agency is secondary scoring. The second line might need a boost.
We’ll have one more mock before the Seattle Kraken announce their expansion picks.