I understand why Seattle didn't pick Duchene with how he was trending, but man with hindsight this team could be sooo much better. Even the picks they could have gotten for flipping some of these guys would be far more noteworthy.

I tried not using hindsight and I flipped back and forth between Johansen and Duchene and I've made teams like this with both. I just felt like those two were the only players available that have and could fill a 1C roll, Yanni Gourde is a 3C at best and McCann just isn't there either, although I do like him.

I do like your optimism, but there were reasons why Francis didn’t go after the bigger contracts in the expansion draft. He was really hoping that GM’s would be as stupid as they were with Vegas and they would pay in draft capital. Unfortunately, Francis rolled the hard line of wanting a first round pick for ANY expansion draft considerations. He wants to build the team through the draft, and while hindsight screws over certain picks, Francis went on the safe route. Francis wanted to take as anti Vegas an approach as possible, so the earliest that the Kraken might look to compete would be in maybe the 2025-26 season, when they have their core established and the prospects coming up.

Still alot of their picks don't make sense for that either, why not grab guys and trade them for draft capital? They drafted a couple guys that they let walk as UFAs when they could have drafted players as positive assets. The whole expansion draft was very confusing. Also this roster would have alot more draft capital than their current one.

Seattle took Bayruether and let him walk because they wanted Kivlenieks. Obviously, that was before Kivi did what he did and lost his life, so they opted to take effectively no one by letting Bayruther return to Columbus. It was just a sign of respect.

I mean, for certain teams, the best choice wasn’t exactly the ideal choice for Francis. For example, JVR, Johansen, Duchene, Tarasenko, and a few others would have gotten a pretty decent return if they had the years they had this year. That being said, up until that point on the contracts they were on, they were either inconsistent on the scoresheet or limited with injuries in Tarasenko’s case. While they would have been good assets to flip, they would have had to have the seasons they had this year, and that was by no means a guarantee. And with Francis, he can be very particular in that sense. Even the UFA signings, Grubauer is still an elite goalie, and I look at him this year as I look at Markstrom’s first year with Calgary. And with some elite UFA players coming due in the next couple of years, Francis might end up accelerating his build with some UFA signings, with players like Horvat, Larkin, Huberdeau, and Pastrnak at the forefront of the picture.

That is understandable

You forgot to add a second to the leafs trade

What are you talking about?

I understand why they picked Appleton over DeMelo. With Larsson and Oleksiak in the top RD spots, it would be a bit much to have a 3rd pairing RD making $3million.

I was looking more at the trade potential but I do agree with you.

Lyubushkin got a second a 4th and a roster player

That makes alot of sense, load up and flip. I think Vegas was planning on doing that in year 1 until they realized they were good.

Yeah that's nice, it wasn't a trade back it was just me picking him over Pitlick from Arizona.

Also how stubborn Francis was with making deals with teams was ridiculous. I get wanting to get the best for your team but I feel there could have been a couple reasonable deals to be had.

I don't remember what the insiders were saying at the time, was Francis asking for Vegas expansion draft pricing (a first or a good prospect)?

Something like that