We are roughly two weeks removed from the Seattle Expansion Draft, and the roster has already shifted quite a bit since the players were announced at Gas Works Park on July 21. Five of the players selected are no longer with the team and three high-profile free agents have been added to the squad. One thing that has been interesting over the last two weeks is the stark contrast between how the Vegas Expansion Draft played out and how the Seattle Expansion Draft went. With similar rules but very different circumstances, the two organizations ultimately took very different routes to constructing their inaugural rosters.
Expansion Draft roster moves
By the rules, Seattle and Vegas were each required to select 30 players from the teams participating in the Expansion Draft. At a high level, there were four different scenarios that could have played out for these player assets.
- Left Via UFA – This is a scenario where the drafted player became an unrestricted free agent as soon as the UFA period opened after the Expansion Draft. Selecting players with expiring contracts implied that Vegas or Seattle had no intention of signing these impending free agents and did not see any other notable assets on the NHL team’s roster from which they came.
- The Flip-Trade – In this scenario, the Golden Knights or Kraken drafted a player with the sole purpose to trade him to another team within days of the Expansion Draft.
- Side Deal – This was more of a conventional trade that would involve Vegas or Seattle being offered up draft picks, prospects, or other players to assure they select or avoid a certain individual that was exposed.
- Draft and Extend – Several players that were exposed by their teams were on the last year of their respective contracts and therefore were unsigned for the subsequent season. In the “draft and extend” scenario, Vegas/Seattle could draft the player in the Expansion Draft and sign them to a contract extension.
Vegas Expansion Draft moves
Here is a look at the Vegas Expansion Draft moves
The theme of the Vegas Expansion Draft was side deals. They acquired four additional players this way, plus the negotiation rights of another player that signed a contract nine months later with the team.
Seattle Expansion Draft moves
The Kraken had zero side deals in the Expansion Draft, but they were able to draft and extend three pending unrestricted free agents during the 48-hour negotiating period prior to the Expansion Draft. The signings of Jamie Oleksiak, Chris Driedger, and Adam Larsson to contracts should be testimonials to how players now view playing for an expansion team.
Shea Theodore, Reilly Smith, and Alex Tuch are all considered the steals of the Vegas Expansion Draft that embarrassed several NHL general managers. This is likely why there were no side deals in the Seattle Expansion Draft as general mangers feared looking bad this time around.
Free Agency – Vegas signings
Following the Vegas Expansion Draft, the general consensus was that the Golden Knights would be the worst team in the NHL in their inaugural season. That outlook probably created some reluctance for some of the higher sought-after free agents to sign with the Golden Knights. It shows in their signings when free agency opened that year.
If you do not recognize many of those names, it is probably because very few of them would actually go on to play in the NHL after signing with the Golden Knights.
Seattle free agent signings
Conversely, the success of the Golden Knights in their first year of existence probably created some sense of optimism around playing for an expansion draft team. It certainly helped in signing Oleksiak, Driedger, and Larsson during the Expansion Draft, but also came into play during free agency.
Seattle made significant upgrades in free agency while Vegas added minor league depth that never amounted to much at the NHL level.
Accumulation of draft picks
The one area where Vegas did particularly well was its ability to accumulate draft picks around the Expansion Draft. George McPhee, general manager of the Golden Knights in 2017, accumulated an additional 14 draft picks. These picks were accumulated in side deals and trades.
As mentioned above, Seattle did not have any side deals in the Expansion Draft, which really hampered their ability to accumulate draft picks. To date, Seattle has made three post-Expansion-Draft trades that have added three NHL Entry Draft picks to their quiver.
The unwillingness of NHL general managers to participate in side deals during the Seattle Expansion Draft has certainly put a damper on the Kraken’s ability to stockpile draft picks.
The Kraken are not done yet
We are quickly approaching the quiet part of the NHL calendar when there will be little news and even fewer trades. It might stay quiet on the Seattle front for a bit, but the Kraken are not done making roster moves. They still have some salary cap space at their disposal and a strong defensive core that might provide some value on the trade market. Anticipate things to heat up come September as training camps start to open across the NHL.
These were completely different scenarios and it’s not fair to compare them too much. We’ve heard it all before how GMs weren’t going to get taken like they did by Vegas, and that’s to be expected. Plus, the intangible of a nut shooting up a concert in Vegas, and the Knights being THE ONLY team in town to help people get through that, that’s something that can never be gauged, and thus why their expansion was and has been so successful.
I think the Kraken are going to be a decent team. Some wasted picks aside, like Columbus, I really can’t blame them for because to be honest I wouldn’t want Max Domi on my team either. But they’re obviously taking a different approach than what the mad owner in Vegas has demanded, and that’s fine too. It’s still going to be better than previous expansion teams like Columbus, Nashville, and Atlanta.
This is a very forgiving take on why we failed to make side deals happen. Yes, GMs were wiser, but Francis didn’t try very hard and when he did, the asking price was too high. Now we’re left with plenty of cap space that does nothing for us and very few assets. That outcome, combined with several poor draft choices that wasted opportunities to acquire additional assets – either picks or players, means that the Seattle draft has to be viewed as mediocre at best. We had a one time shot and mostly squandered it.
We shall see.
I was really disappointed with the way Francis handled the expansion draft. It seems like he tried to follow Vegas’s playbook and when the other GM’s didn’t want to play along he gave up. Francis forgot the 1 rule when participating in any NHL draft “always take the best player available”. He passed on Philly’s offer for him to take Gostisbehere for a 2nd and 7th rnd pick. Gostisbehere had his best years playing for Hakstol. He could of taken Domi, Dadonov and Henrique then flipped him to another team. Francis could of held 50% of those 3 player’s cap to create a bidding war with over 1/2 the teams in the NHL. At 50% cap for those players teams would of been getting a top 6 forward at bottom 6 prices. This would of generated the picks he was looking for. Retaining 50% of their cap would give the team an additional cap hit for the 1st year of 8.06 mill, 2nd year 5.4 mill, 3rd year 2.9. That’s a small price to pay for a lot of picks. At those additions to the cap, plus Gostisbehere, they would still be able to have the same team they do now with a little over 5 mill cap space left, that’s with Fleury’s cap taken out. With Francis not taking those players he now has to act as a cap broker to get picks. There are 3 teams under the cap floor and 5 other teams that have less cap than Seattle so there’s going to be competition to broker deals, less return per dollar compared to having the player to trade.
Tough to give your argument much weight when the Flyers literally needed to bribe the Coyotes with two draft picks to take Gostisbehere. He not only wasn’t the best player available, 30 other teams could have got him for free but there were no takers. I know this might be hard to believe but it could be that hockey ops from the Kraken could be smarter than “fans with takes” online.
Never said Gostisbehere was the the best player. Last year, Gostisbehere had his best goals/60 in his career so he’s not a complete waste of cap. Instead of getting Gostisbehere, a 2nd and a 7th he took Twarynski who has not shown that he’s anything more than a borderline NHLer. The whole deal reeks of Francis getting pissed that they would not give him their 1st to take Gostisbehere. The example I gave was not the playbook he should of followed but rather a example of how Francis was not able to think out of the box to maximize the expansion draft. I have always been a big fan of Francis and loved to watch him play but I hope he does better as a GM.
The thing you don’t take into account with the Gostisbehere deal is that it is the type of deal that made McPhee look like a genius. There’s no guarantee that Ghost will get his game back but that’s what the picks are for.
There is context missing here. GMs did not want to do any deals with Seattle in fear of looking bad so the 2nd for Gostisbehere wasn’t on the table. I know that to be the case. The media/public is much more willing likely to scrutinize Expansion Draft moves than other trades so in fear of looking bad, GMs did not offer any moves. But your scenario begs the questions, what is $4.5M of cap space worth (Ghost’s cap hit)? That isn’t a total fair comp since Ghost has some life left. Maybe a better example is Ladd’s $4.3M. That cost the Islanders a two seconds and a third.
Fletcher had offered that deal to every team only Arizona took it. Therefore Francis turned down a 2nd and 7th. If he didn’t get it offered during the expansion then he still could of had Twarynski, which looks worse for Francis. You can defend Francis all you want but if I can come up with options that would of kept the same team, maximized their cap, got a bunch of picks on top of it with 5 mill cap to spare I can only assume other GM’s would of done much better.
Can you share where he offered that up to the Kraken during the Expansion Draft?
Fletcher said he offered it to every team and that 1 wanted a 1st. This was during an interview. There was no mention it was offered during the draft. What was mentioned by some of the big rumor guys was that Francis was asking to much on deals. Like I said before, he could of had the 2nd and 7th for Ghost after the exemption draft along with his pick from the exemption draft even if they didn’t want to deal with him during the draft. For a GM wanting picks this is a failure.
You’re putting way too much stock into Gostisbehere and making it sound like 30 other GMs missed the boat on the deal the Flyers were offering. There’s a reason the biggest laughing stock in the hockey world sitting in Arizona was the only team that bit on Fletcher’s parameters.
I pointed out Ghost may never get his game back. So I don’t know how you got the idea that I thought he was great. The point I’m trying to make is that Francis failed to capitalize on the chances he had to take advantage of his cap space to get picks. The excuse that the other GM’s didn’t want to make side deals is lazy. As I pointed out earlier there was options by using cap space to get picks that he failed to take advantage of.
Lazy? It’s absolutely what happened. Ever since Seattle was announced GMs went on record saying we are going to live with a good player being taken and go from there. And they currently sit at $16 million in cap space, which means there is still plenty of time to make other deals up until the trade deadline to bolster their draft picks. I think you’re upset that they aren’t sitting on five first-round picks right out the gate and they may be playing the long game like Sakic did when dealing Duchene. Speaking of which, Duchene is a great example of someone they could very well trade for at the deadline if he comes along with your precious draft picks and another solid defensive prospect, like Nashville usually has.