Now that the Seattle Kraken have signed Philipp Grubauer in free agency, they are sending Vitek Vanecek back to the Washington Capitals. It was just a week-long vacation for the young netminder, who was claimed in the expansion draft and now sent back to Washington in exchange for a 2023 second-round pick.
This move will raise quite a few eyebrows, given the Kraken passed up the opportunity to select Brenden Dillon from Washington, only to see him flipped for two-second round picks on Monday. In fact, it’s one of those picks that Washington is using to reclaim Vanecek, sending Winnipeg’s 2023 selection.
At any rate, the Capitals have their tandem of Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov back intact and basically only lost a second-round pick in the expansion draft. The 25-year-old goaltender actually carries a cap hit of just $716K this season, less than the league minimum of $750K. That’s because of the three-year deal they signed him to back in 2019 before he’d ever even played at the NHL level. In 37 appearances this season, Vanecek posted a .908 save percentage, a 21-10-4 record and a 2.69 goals-against average. The Capitals would have been forced to look outside the organization if he hadn’t become available again, but they’ll now be able to go about an offseason as if nothing happened.
For Seattle, adding a second-round pick is important, even if it comes with some regrets. The big win here was signing Grubauer, who can anchor the franchise even if they go through a few growing pains in the early years. He and Chris Driedger will form the NHL tandem, while Joey Daccord is also still in the system.
More evidence Seattle botched the expansion draft. Every day it’s something new.
it’s getting pretty ridiculous that the bar for an expansion team is they should be good enough to go to the final in their first year… the scrutiny on every choice is ridiculous.
It’s not so strange to choose the going goaltender over Dillon. I wouldn’t have guessed Dillon is worth two seconds. And an expansion team isn’t supposed to bully it’s easy to winning every transaction and setting itself up for immediate success otherwise they have failed. Building a franchise is supposed to be challenging. Ask NJ or Buffalo or Toronto. They have taken many cracks at it to fall flat on their faces for years and years. Not every team will sail as smoothly as VGK to contention.
@Neo, nobody is saying that they should go to the Finals year one. However, all GMs’ jobs are to maximize asset management, even expansion teams. They clearly have failed time and again at that, in just a week.
They picked John quenneville from the Blackhawks not to sign him while zadorov was unprotected and zadorov was traded for a 3rd rounder today, they left so many assets on the table, I could’ve drafted so much better for them, and I didn’t like hockey until 2009 when the hawks played the flames in the playoffs and I realized that olli jokinen was so ugly I had to become a diehard of anyone who beats him
Vitek was just the wrong and so many levels
They had to draft three goalies, they signed one of top ones today, so they flipped the guy that was going to be the backup for a second round pick. Don’t see how that’s botched?
@BuddyBoy a player who was available in expansion got the Caps two 2nd round picks. Seattle lost out on a 2nd round pick just for selecting the wrong player.
This is all an excellent amount of hindsight. Of course they were going to be able to sign Grubauer, so they shouldn’t have spent a pick on this young goalie? You figure that was a known certainty for Francis and his team?
You figure every team in the league was ready to spend two second round picks on Dillon? Plenty of teams might be ready to spend one, but who knew Winnipeg would up the price to two? Apparently all the hindsight fans watching from home. Are there any records of you pointing out the groundwork of why these decisions were bad on the day they were made? Yes, people make suboptimal or even awful decisions and it’s especially easy to point out faults in hindsight. None of the decisions here I expect anyone nailed so easily the day they were made. Was Grubauer expected to sign with Seattle? Were there teams waving multiple picks for 31 year old defenseman that are middling contributors?
I’ve been as critical of Francis as anyone but…they also had to take players they can keep if there was/is no market for them…and had Grubauer not come onto the market, Vanacek would be their backup.
This is a good return given the shifting circumstances. Also, a gift for the Caps. Great insurance for Samsonov.
So you can re-acquire a player lost in the expansion draft? So confusing……
Sure. Why not?
The only thing I can recall is if a team buys out a player, then they can’t reacquire him for a year. That’s why the Caps traded Orpik, along with Grubauer, then Colorado bought him out and the Caps resigned him
I asked this question a week ago and everyone said no, you have to wait a year before being able to re-acquire the player picked in the expansion draft. Guess they were wrong. ;)
The big thing was salary retention I believe. For instance Seattle picks Lucic but trades him back to Calgary for a 2nd but 50% retained. That would have been illegal I believe
Which leads to my point of why teams couldn’t make draft picks available to Seattle as well as players during the expansion draft? A new team with no prospect pool could use a 2nd round pick more than a journeyman player.
I’m sure Seattle would have left Vanecek alone if they were more confident they were getting Grubauer.
That’s just poor planning imo, they had an exclusive window to talk to any and all FA’s and they didn’t know they were gonna get this Grubauer guy?(especilly for the money they threw at him) so we end up using the pick on something we didn’t really need afterall, and lost a 2nd rounder in the process(in hindsight of course)….a smart GM should’ve took advantage of the situation! Sure, we got something…just not as much as we could/should have is all!
He is not worth a 2nd when FA just started, we needed a veteran to bridge the gap
Most of the free agent goalies are gone. This 2nd rounder was a bit of a freebie. I’m OK with it
Anyone not happy is upset because their GM is not as smart or not as lucky. This also means Lundqist is not a Cap next season?
Caps will still lose in the 1st round of playoffs.
Lundqvist isn’t even eligible to sign a contract right now, he hasn’t been medically cleared after his heart surgery
Hahahaha, now can we stop pretending that Seattle didn’t completely botch the draft? Also, I thought that teams couldn’t trade for players that were picked in the expansion draft for 1 year, did I make that up?
NHL said they couldn’t be returned with retention as that would be cap manipulation. This essentially equates to WAS giving SEA a 2nd to not pick anyone.
They couldn’t retain salary and then send them back. So say Montreal couldn’t get Seattle to eat 5 million per year and then send a couple of first round picks for them to do it.
For Price that is.
@wreckage & CacaPeePee Thanks!
Would’ve been a good backup tbh
Kraken already screwed up team. Fire Francis.
Agreed. Conservative Francis.
Slow playing for the next 20years
Moronic post if the day.
So glad to see this site is same as baseball and football. Every armchair GM could have done a better job. I don’t know enough about the players because I have only been a playoff fan. I can tell you that it is highly doubtful your cheetoh stained fingers could do better.
There might have players you liked more but you don’t know what Francis and his staff are thinking. You know the guys who get paid to do this. Keep telling yourself you are better and smarter. Put it on your resume and I am sure you get hired as at least a draft specialist.
Yes, you are correct. Every GM throughout the history of the NHL has only made good trades, signings and draft selections. Any fan critique of any of those moves that turned out to be correct was due only to dumb luck and not any knowledge of the game.
Shut up, fans, and let the pro’s do their thing!
“I don’t know what I’m talking so I assume that no one else does either. And I never heard of the Appeal to Authority fallacy, either!”
By this logic, each side will win each trade and every signing will work out great, because “the guys who get paid to do this” are pros who know exactly what they are doing.
What a utopia.