The protection lists won’t be finalized for a few hours yet but it appears Seattle knows who they will be taking from the Panthers. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the Kraken will select goaltender Chris Driedger from Florida and sign the pending unrestricted free agent to a new contract.
Driedger has definitely been a late bloomer. After Ottawa non-tendered him back in 2018 following a season that saw him post a 4.04 GAA in the AHL, he went to Florida on a two-way deal, doing well enough to earn another two-way contract in 2019, one that just expired now. But instead of serving as their third or even fourth-string goaltender as they intended, the 27-year-old worked his way into an early-season promotion in 2019-20 and has stayed with the Panthers ever since.
He finished off that season with a 2.05 GAA and a .938 SV% in 12 games and while he wasn’t quite able to duplicate those numbers this past season, he came pretty close, posting a 2.07 GAA with a .927 SV% in 23 games. By comparison, Sergei Bobrovsky, who they intended to have as their starter, had a 2.91 GAA and a .906 SV% in his 31 appearances. Bobrovsky carries a $10MM AAV while Driedger made just $850K.
Driedger will certainly be in line for a significant raise on his next deal even though he’s still quite inexperienced in the NHL with all of 38 games under his belt. If Seattle winds up selecting and extending him as expected, he should get an opportunity to push for the number one role depending on which other goaltenders the Kraken pick on Wednesday.
As for Florida, this will be a much different expansion experience for them. Last time, they lost both Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault to Vegas with the two becoming top-six fixtures for the Golden Knights ever since. Now, they appear to be set to lose a player they were highly unlikely to retain anyway with top prospect Spencer Knight also in the mix for playing time between the pipes. Losing someone they weren’t going to be able to keep is basically the best-case scenario for them, a nice reversal of fortune from 2017.
Expecting to see a flurry of trades on the next few hours, but who knows?
@Gbear – I think so, too. @Brian, @Zach and company could be working their fingers to the bone today. Remember, guys, hydrate! ;)
@Mac- Short shifts are they key when typing in this kind of heat. :D
@Gbear – And always be alert to that familiar refrain: “Change it up, change it up!” :)
@Mac – Overstaying a typing shift is what leads to misspells. :D
@Gbear – And, possibly, “running into” Zach Hyman before you can hit “submit.” Where’d my article go? Parros is going to give me two for this one! Hey, Hyman, get up! You’re not really hurt!
@Mac – Losing a writer to concussion protocal now would be disastrous. :D
@Gbear – We’re going to have to put you in the quiet room for that “protocal”! That is a little-known French “energy drink”, alleged to use rare ingredients from the original primordial soup, aged to about 3.7-4.0 billion years. Even better than Russian Gas! Your get-up-and-go will be get-up-and-gone! :)
Boy, you get one letter wrong and you get the box. Tough league I’m playing in here. :p
Sprint changing over my phone settings to T-Mobile is not helping my already poor thumb typing skills. :D
@Gbear – I would have replied sooner, but I was in the other bin for 10+5+2. I could see you waving, or something, but the glass was fogged, or so I thought. The timekeeper guy said, that’s not fog, that was done by the other guy. He was pawing at the glass, trying to get out. I asked him if he was wearing #43, by chance. He says, “Yeah, how did you know?” Lucky guess…
Clubs working the war rooms.
The first official NHL Krakhead.
If they pair Dreiger with whichever goalie the Wild don’t protect, Seattle will have a pretty solid tandem.