Rejoint: mars 2018
Messages: 219
Mentions "j'aime": 46
To also add to the previous comments about UFA's. As it has been pointed out already, Seattle is well within the rules (and their right) to draft any player that is a UFA. And yes, by drafting such a player would give them an opportunity to try and sign him before free agency opens officially, which would be after the entry draft in late July. What hasn't been posted in a comment yet (I don't believe) is that a UFA that gets selected by Seattle does not have to sign with them, making it a useless pick by Seattle.
I can see several teams not protecting UFA's but having a verbal agreement in place with the player/agent that as soon as free agency opens, they sign on the dotted line.
I would suspect that if Seattle had a UFA in mind, they would reach out to that player's representatives to find out about the possibility of signing after getting selected in the expansion draft. Otherwise, I don't see why Ron Francis would take that gamble. Impossible to know what will happen of course but, like the Vegas expansion draft, I predict several teams making side deals with the Kraken to "lose" certain players off their roster!