Équipe: 2021-22 Kraken de Seattle

Date de création initiale: 18 juill. 2021

Publié: 18 juill. 2021

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Oh boy, this will be a WILD team to make here. I'll go through every team and explain who I believe is best selection and why (also explanation for trade if needed)

Anaheim: Haydn Fleury
- Seems like one of the more safe bets in the entire expansion draft. Fleury is a former Top 10 pick, Francis draft pick to add, and couldn't quite crack Carolina's stacked D core, he did get minutes with Anaheim in the remainder of the season however. Not too much to elaborate on, Francis gets back his old kid here in Fleury.

Arizona: Christian Fischer
- Protecting Larsson over Fischer may turn out to be a stupid decision, but anyways, I believe SEA nabs up Fischer. To his standards Fischer has had a few subpar seasons recently with ARZ which might have lead to his unprotection. He's 24, has time to turn it around in Seattle.

Boston: Nick Ritchie
- Seems like another slam dunk pick for me, even though he's a pending RFA, SEA gets to negotiate their own deal for the 25 year old PWF. As Boston might not have wanted to pay him what he wanted with new contracts for Hall, Krejci, Reilly & Rask all looming, seems fair why'd they expose Ritchie.

Buffalo: Dustin Tokarski
- Honestly, not much of value here in BUF (to no surprise). But SEA will eventually need a 3rd goalie, you may have found one in Tokarski.

Calgary: Nikita Nesterov
TRADE:
SEA - Emil Heineman, FLA 2022 2nd Round Draft Pick & Expansion Draft Considerations (Not to pick Giordano)
CGY - Future Considerations
- Essentially here CGY flips the value they got from Sam Bennett in order to keep their captain Giordano on the squad. Whether or not I feel CGY should pay to keep a 37 year old Gio on the roster isn't the question here, we know and it's been reported CGY has been grinding away with SEA to find a deal to keep Gio, CGY shouldn't really offer much more than this. Nesterov as well is a throwaway pick, signed in KHL, his UFA rights will just expire.

Carolina: Jake Bean
- You could essentially copy and paste my explanation for Fleury over with Jake Bean. Yet another Ron Francis draft pick, couldn't quite crack CAR's defence, all the opportunity in the world to do so here.

Chicago: Adam Gaudette
- Another young pending RFA left unprotected. Chicago got him for relatively cheap from VAN and now he's unprotected. SEA should take a shot on the former Hobey Baker winner.

Colorado: Joonas Donskoi
TRADE:
SEA - COL 2021 3rd Round Draft Pick & Esnured Selection of Donskoi or Compher
COL - Future Considerations
- With pending contracts looming for Landeskog, Makar & Grubauer, COL does a minor deal here, giving SEA a 3rd round pick to ensure one of Donskoi or Compher selected. Both have a 3.9 and 3.5 million dollar cap hit respectively. Even though Compher is younger and 400k cheaper, Donskoi would provide a lot more to the table in SEA.

Columbus: Max Domi
- Another very slam dunk pick here. CBJ is bugging protecting injured all year Nyquist and Eric Robinson to name a few over Domi, Domi will surely rebound into something great for SEA.

Dallas: Joel Hanley
- If you were to call this a throw away pick, I wouldn't quite disagree with you. With the numerous pending RFAs being selected (and more to come) SEA needs to select at least 20 contract already in place for next season, and Hanley falls into that category. Not like there was a whole lot to choose from in DAL, just more pending RFA B/C level prospects as well as Ben Bishop (but we have goalies all taken care of). While SEA doesn't have an AHL team, Hanley can get loaned back to Texas Stars as he'll unlikely see any NHL playing time.

Detroit: Troy Stecher
- Rare Steve Yzerman L going out to NY and trading for Nick Leddy, this move in turn leaves Troy Stecher unprotected. After a great World Championships, SEA would love to have a player like Stecher fall into their laps, I doubt Yzerman will give up more futures to keep him protected either.

Edmonton: Tyler Benson
- Looks like Ken Holland does it again, leaving young pending RFA unprotected. Best case scenario for EDM is that SEA takes anybody but Benson (or maybe Marody), but unless Jujhar really catches the eye of SEA management, Benson should be the slam dunk pick here.

Florida: Chris Driedger
TRADE:
SEA - Anton Stralman (50% Retained), FLA 2021 2nd Round Draft Pick & Ensured Selection of Chris Driedger
FLA - Future Considerations
- Before Andrew Ladd ultimately got cap dumped to ARZ, FLA was also in contract with them about dumping Anton Stralman. With SEA's rumoured pick to be Driedger for quite a while now, FLA tacks on their 2nd round pick as well as Stralman at 50% retained (1 year remaining) to make sure SEA signs and selects Driedger. Stralman at 2.75 at 1 year remaining or even 50% retained of that could be an excellent asset for SEA to flip.

Los Angeles: Carl Grundstrom
- A stupid decision by LA to keep the horrible contract of Dustin Brown protected over young prospect (with a contract already signed for this year) in Carl Grundstrom. An asset from the Jake Muzzin trade of old, Grundstrom will work to make the Kraken opening night roster.

Minnesota: Victor Rask
TRADE:
SEA - PIT 2021 1st Round Draft Pick, Matvei Guskov & Ensured Selection of Victor Rask
MIN - Future Considerations
- After leaving young goalie Kaapo Kahkonen unprotected, MIN will have to steer SEA away from selecting him. MIN will overpay in this scenario, getting Rask's 4 mil cap hit off the books whilst in the process of trying to resign Kaprizov ontop of Parise & Suter's dead cap hit's coming into affect. Guskov is a minor prospect who will likely stay in Russia until SEA gains an AHL team, while the 1st is fair value for not selecting Kahkonen & taking on Rask's contract.

(I'm going to lump both Montreal & Nashville into one section, as it'll feature another massive 3 way trade)

Montreal / Nashville: Shea Weber & Ryan Johansen
TRADE:
SEA - Carey Price (1.5 Million Retained), Cody Glass, LAK 2021 2nd, 2022 3rd, STL 2021 4th Round Draft Picks, Ensured Selections of Shea Weber & Ryan Johansen
MTL - Mathieu Olivier & NSH 2021 1st Round Draft Pick
NSH - Shea Weber
- Massive trade here, I'll explain all sides. Nashville essentially pays big to re-acquire the LTIR contract of Shea Weber to avoid cap recapture penalties as well as lose the contract of Ryan Johansen. IT will cost them Glass, Olivier, a 1st, 2nd & 3rd. As NSH seems to overhaul and rebuild here, they'll be able to recapture a lot of those picks. As for MTL, NSH pays them their 1st for taking back the Weber deal to avoid recapture penalties as well as getting French depth forward in Olivier. As for Seattle, they get Carey Price slightly retained to kick start their franchise, they get a former 1C in Johansen and with a new system can hope to turn it around. As well, the recently acquired Cody Glass alongside 3 depth draft picks. I saw the suggested Weber back to NSH through expansion which really kickstarted this idea. I also knew NSH was working with SEA for them to take one of Johansen or Duchene.

New Jersey: Andreas Johnsson
TRADE:
SEA - NYI 2021 1st Round Draft Pick, PK Subban 50% Retained & Ensured Selection of Andreas Johnsson
NJD - Future Considerations
- Another pretty huge trade here which ultimately reunites Subban with Price (as well as NSH teammate Johansen). In addition to Johnsson & Subban, the Devils have valuable assets lying around unprotected (Bastian, Butcher). This trade steers SEA clear from selecting either and gives them a 1st for value wise, this does seem like a lot of cap SEA is taking on, but plenty of these players can and will be flipped.

New York I: Ken Appleby
TRADE:
SEA - Bode Wilde, Jordan Eberle, Leo Komarov, Thomas Hickey, COL 2022 2nd Round Draft Pick & Ensured Selection of Ken Appleby
NYI - Vladimir Tarasenko
- So this ends up spoiling the selection of St Louis, but anywho. In this case, SEA takes 2 cap dumps in Komarov & Hickey, Bode Wilde, a 2022 2nd Round Draft Pick just to downgrade from Tarasenko to Eberle. SEA will end up burying Hickey in the AHL, and buying out the contract of Komarov. As well as Ken Appleby, who, I mean will be loaned out in the AHL?

New York R: Julien Gauthier
- No more wild trades until we get to TBL & TOR (hint hint) but anywho, NYR ended up protecting Kevin Rooney over young prospect Julien Gauthier, another former Ron Francis draft pick, he's a slam dunk selection.

Ottawa: Vitaly Abramov
- Even though Abramov is signed in the KHL and isn't eligible to return until the 2023/24 season, he's honestly one of the better picks from OTT. SEA can simply tender his RFA deal, retain his rights, attempt to sign him that offseason, if he chooses not to oh well, not like you missed out on anything else huge.

Philadelphia: Shayne Gostibehere
- This has Dave Hakstol's name written all over this draft pick. Throwback to the 2017/18 season when Gostibehere broke out with a 65 point season, the coach for Philly at the time was Hakstol. The very next season was a down year for Ghost, because Hakstol left. Hakstol will bank on his guy in Gostibhere, requiring PHI not to incentivise to select him.

Pittsburgh: Casey DeSmith
- DeSmith will be Seattle 3rd NHL Callibre goalie selection, with the goalie market hot as ever, he'll be flipped.

San Jose: Dylan Gambrell
- Coming out of NCAA Gambrell has struggled to really produce at an NHL level, he's from the Seattle area, he'll have all the opportunity to turn it around,

St Louis: Vladimir Tarasenko
- Blues leaving Tarasenko unprotected just for Seattle to go flip him might be one of the stupidest moves this offseason but I'm here for the chaos. Another attractive option from STL is Vince Dunn, he's much younger and also doesn't have an injury history. I feel the value SEA can get flipping Tarasenko will mismatch what Dunn can bring to the Blues. As well to note, it's been reported NYI is one of the teams Tarasenko would waive NTC to.

Tampa Bay: Tyler Johnson
TRADE:
SEA - TBL 2022 1st Round Draft Pick, Amir Mifhatkov & Ensured Selection of Tyler Johnson
TBL - Casey DeSmith
- Like I said with DeSmith getting flipped, here it is. SEA gets a young Russian goalie prospect in Miftahkov who will likely spend the next season or two refining his game in the KHL. As well, TBL tacks on a future 1st round draft pick to offload the contract of Tyler Johnson. Many thought Johnson would be the one to go last offseason, but they elected to sit Kucherov instead. I highly doubt Tampa goes that route again.

Toronto: Alex Kerfoot
TRADE:
SEA - Nick Abruzzese & Ensured Selection of Alex Kerfoot
TOR - Future Considerations
- With it being revealed Toronto is going 8-1 for expansion list electing to protect Holl over recently acquired McCann & Kerfoot, I'm convinced TOR and SEA have a deal in place. I could be completely off in value wise, but giving SEA a top NCAA prospect to steer them to select Kerfoot instead of McCann essentially is a good price for SEA, you're not losing bringing Kerfoot in on your team.

Vancouver: Kole Lind
- Jimbo does it again, trading away a 3rd round draft pick to acquire Jason Dickinson only to leave 2017 2nd Round Pick Kole Lind unprotected. Considering SEA's cap situation and overload of draft picks, I don't think VAN would be able to strike a deal to keep Lind around.

Washington: Zdeno Chara
- Out of left field pick here, but SEA instantly gets their captain with Chara. At the ripe age of 44 years old, Chara can sign at league minimum, play almost 7th D minutes at this point, and mentor a very new team. I don't see WSH wanting to bring him back, and Francis being a defence first general manager, could really help make this team competitive out of the gate with this free agent signing.

Winnipeg: Dylan DeMelo
- The last pick of the draft goes to Winnipeg where they select DeMelo. I see Gambrell & Appleton as similar players which makes me think they'll look at DeMelo instead (also they barely reach the 9/9 defence requirements with the final 2 picks). DeMelo is a very underrated piece and WPG will regret losing him.

Before UFA and RFA signings, SEA has just over 8 million in cap space, and I feel they'll go to get more.

First off, in the case DAL doesn't bring back Vatanen and/or Oleksiak, they could look for some depth defensive help. They end up paying a 4th for the services of Anton Stralman, who is 50% retained once again, making 1.375, a valuable asset.

Last trade here is flipping Johnsson to the St Louis Blues. This would be in the situation where they don't bring back Schwartz ontop of losing Tarasenko, although they may go out and possibly get Landeskog, they might need another middle 6 scoring winger in Johnsson. As Seattle is shedding cap in this situation, they move down from a 2nd to a 5th in order to get Johnsson's deal off the books

As for contracts, Driedger gets a fair 3.5 x 3 deal to be the backup to Carey Price. Chara takes league minimum. As for RFA's, Ritchie gets a big pay day, Bean & Gaudette get standards 1x1 prove me deals, while AHLers like Benson & Lind get a multi year deals.

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