Seattle Expansion

[Matthew]

Oleksiak at 5 years x 4.6M seems expensive

[Matthew]

Ron Francis shouldn't be a part of this. He doesn't even wanna be here.

[Matthew]

Like that home jersey

Lots of nice merch

[hong57]

Wheres the leaked team?
I have three krakens already with half the team picked wtf

[hong57]

Oleksiak at 5 years x 4.6M seems expensive

More than larsson.. really!?

[bills09]

No side deals?

[Matthew]

No side deals?

Yeah that was annoying. It's half the fun!

[Matthew]

Seattle has 28M heading into free agency. And when they sign a guy, a different guy comes out of the lineup. So if they sign 4 players with the 28M they could have 33-34M in space.

Would be fun to see them throw money at Hamilton, Schwartz, and a couple other guys.

[Bruyns]

Really shocking they couldn’t squeeze a couple picks out of teams. You telling me LA wouldn’t toss them a late pick to take Macdermid instead of Grundstrom/Lizotte/Clague? There’s a few teams like that where you would think they could have easily leveraged a pick to take who they did. Geekie, Quenneville, Twarynski, Bayreuther, etc.

[Loki]

Really shocking they couldn’t squeeze a couple picks out of teams. You telling me LA wouldn’t toss them a late pick to take Macdermid instead of Grundstrom/Lizotte/Clague? There’s a few teams like that where you would think they could have easily leveraged a pick to take who they did. Geekie, Quenneville, Twarynski, Bayreuther, etc.

Seems like in a lot of cases they picked the guy they would have been paid to pick anyway so well done to the other teams for realising not to pay for something they were getting for free anyway

[Matthew]

Remember a lot of the players vegas picked weren't considered anything special (Reilly smith/william karlsson), or were on the downside of their careers (neal/perron) until they got there and were given the pp time to re-ignite behind a stable defense.

[Bruyns]

Remember a lot of the players vegas picked weren't considered anything special (Reilly smith/william karlsson), or were on the downside of their careers (neal/perron) until they got there and were given the pp time to re-ignite behind a stable defense.

I think the picks are fine it’s the lack of compensation I feel is their downfall.

[Loki]

A lot of Vegas's picks didn't pan out either, but they did 10 protection trades.

1. Calvin Pickard G Colorado Avalanche
2. Luca Sbisa D Vancouver Canucks
3. Teemu Pulkkinen LW Arizona Coyotes
4. Jon Merrill D New Jersey Devils
5. William Carrier LW Buffalo Sabres
6. Cody Eakin C Dallas Stars
7. Tomas Nosek LW Detroit Red Wings
8. Jonathan Marchessault C Florida Panthers
9. Brayden McNabb D Los Angeles Kings
10. Connor Brickley C Carolina Hurricanes
11. Chris Thorburn RW Winnipeg Jets
12. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare RW Philadelphia Flyers
13. Jason Garrison D Tampa Bay Lightning
14. Jean-Francois Berube G New York Islanders
15. James Neal LW Nashville Predators
16. Deryk Engelland D Calgary Flames
17. Brendan Leipsic LW Toronto Maple Leafs
18. Colin Miller D Boston Bruins
19. Marc Methot D Ottawa Senators
20. David Schlemko D San Jose Sharks
21. David Perron LW St. Louis Blues
22. Oscar Lindberg C New York Rangers
23. Griffin Reinhart D Edmonton Oilers
24. Alexei Emelin D Montreal Canadiens
25. Clayton Stoner D Anaheim Ducks
26. Erik Haula C Minnesota Wild
27. William Karlsson C Columbus Blue Jackets
28. Trevor van Riemsdyk D Chicago Blackhawks
29. Marc-Andre Fleury G Pittsburgh Penguins
30. Nate Schmidt D Washington Capitals

They got Carrier, R. Smith, Gusev, Theodore, Tuch and a bunch of picks in trades for making the picks they did

[Loki]

I feel like if they wanted the kind of performance Vegas got out of guys like Neal and Perron they probably should have picked guys like Zucker, JVR and Niedereitter rather than Tanev, Twarynski and Geekie.

Eberle is probably a good candidate to be their James Neal though.

[kyuss]

jesus christ, aside from the UFA signings (question: where they prevented from signing them as UFAs later on without spending a pick on them), most BBKLers would have done a better job for a few bucks and a day of work lol

basically it's like their only purpose was staying away from cap hits, rather than taking good players


EDIT:
https://twitter.com/GMillerTSN/status/1 ... 1500235779

ok, now it makes more sense, let's wait and see

[Loki]

To be fair, those side deals are all after the expansion draft deals, none were lodged with the NHL before the expansion draft so they're likely not protection deals, just moving on players they picked or using their cap space to take contracts from other teams

[Shoalzie]

Teams learned from the Vegas draft. Minnesota and Anaheim ended up losing multiple players to protect another. The Kraken didn't make any side deals but the 30 teams involved did a fair amount of deals amongst each other to set up their protection lists.

Now that we've seen the Seattle picks, it makes some sense they didn't take some of the hefty contracts (of players over 30) on that were on the board. They have a lot of cap room and they'll be able to pay Vince Dunn.

As for the picks themselves...

Arizona: Pitlick was fine, I was predicting Fischer...both play a similar style.

Buffalo: Borgen isn't a sexy pick but you can stash him away in the minors...Girgensons could've been an option but he missed all of last year with an injury.

Carolina: Geekie has upside and fits the profile of a lot of this roster...Niederrieter could've easily fit in their top 6 as a scorer and Bean would've been a nice long term option on defense but they've got plenty of them through the draft.

Chicago: Not too keen on the Quenneville pick...would've preferred Carpenter or even Gaudette.

Colorado: Donskoi is a solid pick; I was thinking Compher as an option too but no huge complaints here.

Columbus: Given his age and only a year left on the deal, I don't see why you don't take chance with Domi considering how thin they are down the middle. Domi probably is better on the wing given his size. I even thought Stenlund was an intriguing option. Bayreuther is seemingly a depth piece at best and they drafted a lot of defensemen. He could've been signed as a free agent.

Dallas: Not too mad at the Oleksiak choice. Only other alternatives would've been young forwards like Mascherin or Caamano.

Detroit: From the perspective of a fan of the team, I'm least heartbroken they took Cholowski. That was a Holland pick and it hasn't worked out. If you want to established, I figured either Stecher on defense or Namestnikov up front.

Florida: Driedger is a solid option to be one of their two primary goalies heading into the season. Vatrano or Acciari were options up front and maybe you take a shot in the open market with signing Driedger?

Los Angeles: MacDermid is another depth player. Maybe you take a shot at Clague or pick a forward like Wagner or Lizotte.

Ottawa: Not too mad they took a goalie; Daccord is fine. Maybe Tierney as an established alternative?

Philadelphia: Francis went way too safe with this pick. I can understand why you don't want someone like Gostisbehere. van Riemsdyk has only 2 years left on his current deal. Voracek is a hefty contract but would've been a flashier option. Obviously, it wouldn't have fit the profile of this initial roster.

Pittsburgh: No huge beef with taking Tanev. It was either him or Zucker for me.

San Jose: Another pick I was not a big fan of. True is an RFA so why not take Donato? Gambrell was another appealing option.

Toronto: The Leafs had a few options since they went with 4 F / 4 D. McCann is a fine pick. Kerfoot, Engvall or Dermott were out there as well. Taking a forward was probably the best choice.

I get it, you can't take 30 NHLers. You do need some depth you can stash away in the minors. You knew they had the opportunity to start of with a nice defense. They went out signed guys like Larsson and Oleksiak. You look at a lot of picks, only two guys over 30 but several are 28 or 29. Overall, the defense is solid. The goalies are serviceable. I figure Driedger is their #1 on opening night. Francis shied away from most of the established options with big contracts. I agree with Brendon, you could've picked a couple extra scorers. There's good bottom 6 options and I don't know if you want Gourde as your #1 center. They have the #2 pick so they can a guy like Beniers or Eklund up front.

In the Pacific, you have to believe Vegas and Edmonton are on top with teams like Kings and Canucks in the next tier down. The Ducks are a building team. The Flames are probably going to shake up their team. The Sharks are a mess. The Kraken are probably in the bottom half of that division because they don't have enough scoring. They're going to have win games 2-1 or 3-2. Maybe Francis has designs on getting some of the gems in the 2022 and 2023 draft.