The Seattle Kraken approached the Expansion Draft differently than the Vegas Golden Knights in a number of ways. They did not make any side deals, they wasted fewer selections on players they did not intend to sign, and they made fewer trades after the draft. While the results were too similarly deep teams, with the Knights adding talent through side deals and the Kraken going after several big free agents, Vegas did not face the roster crunch that Seattle is now staring down. The Knights pared down their roster strategically early on, while the Kraken are seemingly waiting to see how the preseason plays out. With those game already underway, the regular season is right around the corner and the Kraken’s inaugural 23-man roster is far from set.
The biggest question facing the NHL’s newest franchise is just how risk-averse are Ron Francis and company. Francis was a slow and methodical builder in Carolina who was actually criticized for taking too few changes and missing out on potential big swings. That Francis would look at this current roster and see a worrisome number of potential waivers casualties – and he would be right. CapFriendly currently projects forwards Morgan Geekie and Kole Lind and defensemen Dennis Cholowski and Cale Fleury as being among those sent down to the AHL. The odds of any of those players clearing waivers, nevertheless all five, seem slim. Geekie especially would be a can’t-miss waiver claim (and as such won’t be waived). Lind and Fleury are each only 22 and were highly-regarded prospects in the 2017 NHL Draft, while Cholowski has a 2016 first-rounder and already has 100+ NHL games under his belt.
Yet, the trade-off is obvious. The Kraken could take their chances and try to slip some or all of these names through waivers and establish elite depth in the minors or they could find space on the roster to avoid the threat of waivers. The latter would not be easy. Again, CapFriendly already has Seattle at 24 roster members, one more than is permissible. This is likely in recognition that Yanni Gourde is expected to begin the season on the injured reserve, but still presents issues once he returns. Clearly space for upwards of four additional contracts is a daunting task. The roster is rife with veteran talent, all of whom have been skating together in camp and building chemistry. The vast majority simply will not be assigned to the AHL, but even those on the bubble may have carved out a role for themselves already. Could the Kraken demote late-summer signings Riley Sheahan and Ryan Donato? Possibly, but that is just two openings and both at forward. On defense, there is seemingly no one that could be sent down and the Kraken are not going to carry nine or ten blue liners.
All of this leads to the real roster crunch question: trade or cut? Seattle will have to decide who they want on the 23-man roster and from there decide whether to test the trade market on the outliers or take the zero-sum approach of waivers. They would have little leverage in making deals with the roster crunch looming unless they decide to dangle players with enough value to create a bidding war. Constructing their opening night roster thus could mean determining not the 23 best players, but the 23 players that maximize their value with the others either possessing trade value or lesser waivers risk.
The roster crunch could go in a number of different directions for the Kraken. The one thing that is certain is that NHL’s newest roster is not going to look the same by the franchise’s regular season debut. Change is coming and it is key for the expansion club that they are the right changes.
This is why you have side deals and select Carey Price.
Not having an AHL club of their own to acquire non waiver players is vital. Some will scratch their heads,but think about it.
Price would have been the worst move of the offseason.
Price-Age 34-2.50GAA/.917SV% career(695GS) 2.64/.901 Last season(25GS)
Grubauer-Age 29-2.34GAA/.920SV% career(187GS) 1.95/.922 Last season(39GS)
Driedger-Age 27-2.09GAA/.929SV% career(34GS) 2.07/.927 Last season(23GS)
P.S. Price did have a nice 13-9 2.28GAA/.924SV% in last years playoff run, but I think the Kraken ended up pretty darn good in Net! ;)
This roster build is probably the most intriguing thing of the offseason. They literally tried to build 2 lines and then got 45 3rd and 4th liners and hoped something would stick and they wouldn’t look stupid. I just hope whatever product is put on the ice on Opening Night is competitive and we’ll thought out. The Seattle fans deserve not to have to suffer for 5 years before being competitive
Between Craig Patrick, Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford, I’d always been lucky enough to have a GM who wants to win and tries to make it happen.
Until this summer, watching Hextall and Francis in particular, I wasn’t fully aware of the perils of a “patient” or “conservative” GM. In reality, they are just timid and sackless. No stones.
SEA left better players on the table in order to “weaponize cap space” “calling the shots from their throne” and then promptly spent that cap space on marginal players like Jaden Schwartz and Alex Wennberg.
Everyone tried to invent some brilliant and magical unseen plan based on the unchallenged group think that “cap space is king” when in reality Ronnie just blew it.
Francis, in the last expansion draft, traded away a Carolina draft pick to protect a 12th player. So he understands the game.
I predict the side deals he’s already made will now come into play as he acquires draft picks for some skaters he’d otherwise send down. Stay tuned.
Read a few comments.
After the initial success of Vegas, I believe Seattle was not going to get the same level of/or any side deals. Previous thinking was “It’s an expansion team, what can they do”. Vegas changed that, and Francis is working in that evolved situation.
I do not expect Seattle to do well, and this has historically been how expansion teams work in most leagues, by intent.
Plus when the borders open up, half of the Seattle seats will be filled with Vancouver fans who just want to vacation and see a game for less $$.
I don’t think Lind would be picked off waivers. The claiming team would need to keep him on the NHL roster, which I don’t see happening, or risk him on waivers to go back to Seattle’s AHL loaner.
Only team I see keeping him would be Arizona, but they want character guys so not sure they’d take him in the first place