The Seattle Kraken’s three best non-selections in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft
The Seattle Kraken caught a lucky break by not selecting these three players.
Tonight the Seattle Kraken will conduct their 2021 Expansion Draft in preparation for becoming the NHL’s 32nd franchise. Other NHL General Managers have been keeping this in mind as they continue to do the business that they have at hand, and it has no doubt be taken into consideration for the past few seasons.
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Now we will see how those moves unfold as well as what Seattle GM Ron Francis plans to do with the opportunities available to the new franchise.
Speculation has led to massive media coverage and interest throughout every NHL fanbase. It is not surprising that now, on the day of the Expansion Draft, we have massive leaks in what appears to be the Seattle Kraken’s roster. Francis has made it well known that the price for helping out another team with salary cap troubles will be top dollar.
It makes perfect sense then that there are rumored to be some rather conservative choices made by Seattle. With that type of strategy in mind, let us talk about the best selections that Seattle avoided making.
Seattle Kraken’s three best non-selections in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft
3. Carey Price
It was very surprising when goaltender Carey Price waived his no-move clause in order to allow the Montreal Canadiens to protect backup goalie Jake Allen. Montreal is paying its goalie tandem over $13 million, while Price alone is over $10 million of that cost. Additionally, Price is going to cost Montreal that $10 million until after the 2025-2026 season when he would be 38 years of age.
Price, who was the 5th overall pick in 2005, had an excellent 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, the combination of his performance, age, and injury concerns over the past few seasons led to Montreal feeling the need to acquire Allen from the St. Louis Blues. Allen flirted with being a starting goalie in his time in St. Louis before the rookie revelation of Jordan Binnington.
This information tells us that even Montreal is concerned with the future of Price as a starting goaltender, with reports suggesting that the one-time Vezina Trophy winner will see a specialist this week about potentially undergoing surgery that could see him miss significant time in 2021-22.
Working off of what we know, it looks like Seattle did not want to pick up a $10 million dollar price tag for a possible future buyout candidate. If you need a bit of contemporary precedent just look up Henrik Lundqvist‘s last year as a New York Ranger.
Even a Hall of Fame level goaltender is not safe from aging, and the inconsistencies that come from the nature of being an NHL goaltender.
2. Matt Duchene
The Nashville Predators had perhaps the strangest protection list of any team. They decided to protect only three forwards and five total defensemen. This left both Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene exposed. Had Seattle drafted either of those two centers, then it could have been seen as the Kraken doing a favor to Nashville as both of these forwards make earn $8 million dollars respectively.
Duchene however, is the bigger bullet that Seattle appears to have dodged. The 30-year-old is signed until after the 2025-2026 season, which would have him signed to the age of 35. While Duchene is skilled and has some very dynamic highlight clips out there, he has only surpassed 60 points in a season on three occasions and hit the 30 goal mark just twice in his career.
The leaked Kraken roster looks like it will have trouble scoring goals, at least on paper, but an investment like Duchene is not the bang for the buck move that will enable Seattle to be flexible in future moves as it continues to build its organizational philosophy.
1. P.K. Subban
Avoiding taking the “Subbanator” should be almost a no-brainer, but an ownership group might be touching base with the front office on the possibility of drafting some personality that can be a fan favorite. In that light, one could see the validity of that point of view. P.K. Subban has already made some appearances on ESPN and could be a decent early ambassador to new fans who come to hockey through ESPN and its new NHL TV deal.
From a hockey perspective, it is a good thing Seattle reportedly did not select Subban. The veteran blueliner has shown signs of aging in each of the past three seasons, falling quite far from his Norris Trophy-winning season in 2012-2013. Subban is still a serviceable NHL player at the age of 32, and Seattle would only need to pay him his $9 million dollar salary for one more season.
The biggest reason that Seattle has done a good thing in not selecting Subban, however is the absolute excessive amount of quality defensemen available for them to choose from. If you look over the exposed player lists from around the NHL, there is no shortage of blueliners that play as a top-four defenseman for their current team. Nearly all of those are without being paid as much as Subban is paid, Vince Dunn being a prime example.
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Avoiding Subban will enable Seattle to potentially build a defensive core that is made up entirely of second-pairing defensemen – something the Vegas Golden Knights did with great success in 2017. Obviously, there are no top-tier players there, but if you look at the current cellar dwellers of the NHL, they would love a chance at having the caliber of defense the Seattle Kraken reportedly will assemble tonight.