The Calgary Flames have an extra protection slot for the upcoming expansion draft. Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports that Milan Lucic has officially agreed to waive his no-movement clause, meaning the Flames will not be forced to protect him from the Seattle Kraken. Lucic told Sportsnet that he wants to stay in Calgary but “didn’t want to handcuff” GM Brad Treliving.
We recently examined the issue Calgary was facing if Lucic did not agree to waive his clause, but that won’t be an issue now that the power forward will be exposed. It is incredibly unlikely that the Kraken will select Lucic given his contract, which still carries two years at a $6MM cap hit. As much as he has rebounded somewhat this season, recording nine goals and 20 points in 50 games, Lucic still doesn’t represent the kind of performance that Seattle would need for that kind of cap commitment. As Francis explains, before he was even acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in 2019, Lucic told Treliving that he would be willing to waive for expansion draft purposes.
Importantly, he will also now fill one of the exposure requirements for the Flames. Each team must expose at least two forwards that are both under contract in 2021-22 and fill a games played requirement. Currently, only Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane, and Lucic meet those requirements, meaning another player will likely be extended in the coming weeks. The first six on that list are all likely to be protected–as long as they’re still on the Flames roster come draft day.
Good guy Looch. I mean he has to know he won’t be picked so there’s some security there but nice of him to waive it so Calgary can protect some other players.
I mean Calgary throws a big old 2022 1st rounder in there and I bet they pick him
Is Seattle gonna pick up James Neal too? And Loui Eriksson? Andrew Ladd? Etc
If they can get big picks and top prospects to eat 2 years of about 20 million of wasted cap for a brand new franchise why not
I can now see him being traded after the draft by Seattle to the New York Rangers
Seattle’s not taking him. Lucic did this to protect a teammate knowing he’s not getting selected. Calgary lucked out on this one big time.
Respect!
Habs need to get price to do this but convince Seattle to take him