The San Jose Sharks are coming off their worst season in 15 years. It was only the second time in 22 years that they failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yet this is still a club that’s just one season removed from playing in the Conference Finals. It is really anyone’s guess as to how the Sharks will fare in the upcoming 2020-21 season.
Are they a team in need of a rebuild, or do they have the potential for a few deep playoff runs in their immediate future? This upcoming campaign should be a big indicator of which direction this salary-cap-strapped team is heading, and the answer should influence its approach to the NHL Expansion Draft next summer.
This offseason the Sharks acquired Devan Dubnyk (G) and Ryan Donato (F) in separate trades with the Minnesota Wild. They also added depth forward Matt Nieto and brought back Sharks legend and former Seattle Thunderbird, Patrick Marleau (F), both on one-year deals via free agency.
Assumptions
The Sharks do not have any pending UFAs that will impact the Expansion Draft after the 2021 season. Both Erik Karlsson (D) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (D) have no-move clauses (NMC), and we will assume they will not waive those clauses.
Roster Wildcards
The roster is fairly set, so any wildcards will be driven by trades or UFA signings after this article is published.
Protected List
Forwards
The Sharks forward core of Logan Couture, Evander Kane, Timo Meier, and Tomas Hertl are pretty much locks to be protected. We would add 24-year-old, Kevin LeBanc, and 22-year-old prospect, Jonathan Dahlen, to the protected list. Dahlen has yet to play in the NHL but seems to be knocking on the door.
The seventh protected forward spot will come down to Bonney Lake’s own Dylan Gambrell, former Thunderbird, Alexander True, or either Maxim Letunov or newly acquired Ryan Donato.
Here are the cases to be made for protecting each of those players:
Gambrell has the most offensive upside.
True is the youngest of the four and appeared to belong in the NHL when he was called up at the end of last year.
Letunov had two quality development years in the AHL.
Donato has the most NHL experience with 130 games.
Who gets protected will really come down to how these players progress during the 2020-21 season. At this point, we are going to project that Donato is protected based on the fact that he is the only one to have shown that he can contribute in the NHL as an everyday player.
Projected Protected
Logan Couture (Lock)
Timo Meier (Lock)
Thomas Hertl (Lock)
Evander Kane (Lock)
Kevin LeBanc
Jonathan Dahlen
Ryan Donato
Defense
As stated above, Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic have no-move clauses and will take two of the three protected defense slots. At first glance, you might assume Brent Burns would be the third protected defenseman for the Sharks. After all, Burns has been an offensive juggernaut for the Sharks over the last six seasons. He had 128 points in 152 games over the last two seasons. However, he will be 36 next summer and will have four more years left on his contract that has a cap hit of $8M a year.
Those are all important things to consider if there ends up being another up-and-coming defenseman that would be exposed with the protection of Burns. Assuming that there is no major drop-off in production from the hockey-playing caveman, then Burns should be the third protected defenseman in the Expansion Draft.
Projected Protected
Erik Karlsson (NMC – Lock)
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (NMC – Lock)
Brent Burns
Goalie
Both Dubnyk and Martin Jones are looking for rebound years after somewhat disastrous 2019-20 performances. At this time, we do not see any reason why the Sharks would protect Jones, who has underperformed since signing his six-year deal in 2017. Dubnyk is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2020-21 season, so there is no real benefit to San Jose for protecting him either. The only other goalie candidate to protect is a 22-year-old in their AHL franchise, Josef Korenar.
Projected Protected
Josef Korenar
Top Expansion Candidates for Seattle Kraken
Forwards
Dylan Gambrell
Alexander True
Maxim Letunov
Defense
Radim Simek
Goalie
Martin Jones
Either Gambrell or True would be a storybook scenario given their Pacific Northwest ties, but before the story is written, the Kraken will need to make sure they are everyday NHLers in the league. Both appear to be destined for the top level, and this next season will be a huge indicator on their broader outlook.
Letunov is in the same boat but might spend one more year in the AHL before getting his opportunity. Simek is a serviceable defenseman, should the Kraken determine that they can fill out their forward roster with selections from other teams. If San Jose ends up exposing Burns, and he has a normal season by his standards, the Kraken will have a hard time not picking him.
Side Deal Scenarios
The Sharks are up against the salary cap and have a few big contracts that they might want to shed. The Kraken’s biggest asset is cap space, which could make for a pretty good match. Of the players without a NMC, Martin Jones has the biggest potential to be part of a side deal with Seattle, but it still seems like Jones would need to have a bit of a bounce back year for Seattle to consider picking him. His $5.7M cap hit would be on the high side for a potential back-up goalie, but it might help the Kraken hit the cap floor requirement per the Expansion Draft rules.
When the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft rolls around next year, the Senators won’t be letting any highly valuable assets go for nothing. Besides being one of the NHL’s worst teams last season, Ottawa was also one of the cheapest.
Ottawa’s 62 points were second-worst last season, behind only the Detroit Red Wings, and its $70.516 million in player salaries ranked 27th out of 31 teams, according to Spotrac.
Only in mid-October did the Senators exceed the salary floor of $60.2 million, leaving them with $11.8 million in cap space as of November 14. Unpopular owner Eugene Melnyk probably wouldn’t spend much money in better times either, though. This makes it likely that the Senators will be hovering around the salary floor again next offseason when they have to submit their protection list for the Expansion Draft.
So, which Senators players will be available to the Kraken?
Here’s why Seattle will likely choose a depth player from Ottawa.
Assumptions
Because of their large amount of cap space, the Senators might be willing to acquire another team’s bad contract if it comes with a top prospect and/or high draft pick. Look for these deals to happen around the 2021 trade deadline or offseason, especially if the NHL has to go very long without fans in arenas because of the pandemic.
Those bad contracts will be available for the Kraken to choose no matter what team they belong to, so the question is whether Seattle general manager Ron Francis believes it’s worth taking on any of those pricy risks. If it’s a serviceable player with only a year remaining on his contract, Francis could be enticed with an extra player or Entry Draft pick through a side trade.
Senators Offseason Wildcards
With so much cap space, Ottawa has room to bring in more free agents this offseason. All indications are that the Senators are content with their roster, however, after signing forward Alex Galchenyuk to a one-year, $1.05 million deal late last month.
Even if Melnyk permits a larger payroll, any new contracts will be short term because of revenue uncertainty over COVID-19.
Protected List
Forwards
Brady Tkachuk, LW (Lock) Drake Batherson, RW (Lock) Connor Brown, RW (Lock) Colin White, C Logan Brown, C Evgenii Dadonov, RW Austin Watson, RW
Dadonov, 31, signed a three-year, $15 million free agent contract that’s back-loaded with $6.5 million due in the final year of the deal. So if the former Florida Panther fails to click and falls down the depth chart next season, perhaps the Senators will leave him unprotected.
Defense
Thomas Chabot (Lock) Nikita Zaitsev (Lock) Josh Brown
Acquired in an offseason trade from Florida, the 6-5 and 217-pound Brown is no more than a fifth or sixth defenseman. But being a right-handed shot will help Brown’s stock when the Sens submit their protected list.
Goalie
Matt Murray (Lock)
After being acquired from Pittsburgh and signing a four-year, $25 million contract, Murray would have to have a disastrous first season in Ottawa to be left unprotected. The two-time Stanley Cup champion does have a lot to prove after a disappointing 2019-20 in which he was 20-11-5 with a 2.87 GAA and .899 save percentage.
Top Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft Players – Senators
Forwards
Center Chris Tierney (6-1, 195 pounds) had an unspectacular 11 goals and 26 assists in 71 games last season, but he was Ottawa’s best faceoff man (51.17 percent) and a good penalty killer with four short-handed goals. The six-year veteran with 61 goals, 128 assists and 189 points in 436 games is only 26 and would be a good role-playing, bottom-six forward who could occasionally move up to the second line.
Left winger Nick Paul is a year younger than Tierney and has less NHL experience (112 games, 13 goals, 15 assists, 28 points). But he’s bigger at 6-3 and 219 pounds with good speed. He can also kill penalties and would be a bottom-six forward at best.
For the Senators, the final forward to protect from the Seattle Kraken in the Expansion Draft might come down to deciding between Tierney and Austin Watson. At Expansion Draft time, Watson will have two years and $3 million remaining compared with Tierney’s one year and $3.5 million. Watson is two years younger, less skilled but bigger (6-4, 204 pounds) and plays a more rugged game. As the younger, skilled Sens develop, they’re going to need veteran players such as Watson to protect them.
Fun fact: From 2014-15 to 2017-18 with the Sharks, Tierney scored eight goals and 12 points in 18 games against the Vancouver Canucks. He also notched four assists in four games against the Canucks since he’s been a Senator. So he’s got that going for him if he ends up back in the Pacific Division.
Defense
Seattle’s pickings appear slim among Ottawa blue-liners with Christian Wolanin, 25, and Maxime Lajoie, 22, leading the way.
Wolanin (five goals, 10 assists and 15 points in 43 career NHL games and eight goals, 24 assists and 32 points in 49 AHL games) missed much of 2019-20 to injury. But the 6-2, 185-pound left-hand shot figures to compete for the third pairing next season.
The speedy Lajoie (seven goals, eight assists and 15 points in 62 NHL games) has faded since a quick start to his NHL career in 2018. He’ll likely be back in AHL Belleville, where the left-handed shooting Lajoie notched four goals, 13 assists and 17 points in 48 games last season.
Goalie
After Murray, the Senators have a bunch of question marks on their goaltender depth chart. No. 2 Anders Nilsson, who will be an unrestricted free agent in 2021, is a career backup and not worth considering. Marcus Hogberg and Joey Daccord figure to continue playing in Belleville of the AHL, and Filip Gustavsson is on loan to Sodertalje SK in Sweden.
Unless Hogberg or Daccord emerge with a spectacular season, Gustavsson is the most intriguing option for Seattle. The 2016 second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins was a highly touted prospect who was named the top goalie of the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships after leading Sweden to a silver medal. He has been disappointing over two-plus seasons in Belleville (29-28, 3.28 GAA, .891 save percentage), but the 22-year-old is off to a nice start in 14 games at Sodertalje (8-5, one shutout, 2.20 GAA, .925 save percentage).
Goalies take a lot longer to develop. Calgary Flames netminder Jacob Markstrom, for example, split time between the AHL and the Florida Panthers at the same age and never became a No. 1 goalie until he was 27 with the Canucks. So if Gustavsson can get back on track, the Kraken might consider taking him as a project for their third goalie.
Side Deal Scenarios
Ottawa has a deep prospect pool (recently ranked seventh by The Athletic), and it added three first-round picks during the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Unfortunately for Seattle, the Senators’ best prospects will be protected or be exempt from Expansion Draft protection because of a lack of pro experience.
Unless many fringe players have breakout seasons next year, Sens GM Pierre Dorion should have no need to pursue any trades to steer Francis from taking certain players. Dorion does have three 2021 second-round Entry Draft picks, as well as all of his 2022 and 2023 picks, though, should the need arise.
Other Notes
The Senators’ top prospects such as C Josh Norris, LW Alex Formenton and D Erik Brannstrom are exempt from the Seattle Kraken in the Expansion Draft due to lack of North American pro experience.
Jim Wilkie is a longtime Northwest journalist, former NHL editor and NHL Insider writer for ESPN.com, a onetime GSHL All-Star, and SJHA hockey dad. Follow him on Twitter @jimwilkie.
Now that the NHL Entry Draft is done, and the bulk of the NHL Free Agency period is complete, we can officially start zeroing in on how teams might approach the Seattle Kraken NHL Expansion Draft next summer. There will certainly be roster moves between now and that momentous event, but those changes will pale in comparison to the volume of transactions we’ve witnessed over the past three months.
Here at Sound Of Hockey, we will be going through every team over the next few weeks to project who will be protected and who might be targeted by the Kraken, and we will look to uncover all the nuances that come with the Expansion Draft.
Before we start, let us walk through Expansion Draft rules. 30 of the 31 existing NHL teams will be participating, with the exception being the Vegas Golden Knights, who are exempt. Each team participating will lose one player to the Kraken.
Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft Rules
Seattle must select one player from the 30 participating teams. They are required to select at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders. That would leave four additional players for the Kraken to choose for whichever position they see fit. Additionally, 20 of the players selected must be under contract for the 2021-22 season, and the aggregate salary cap hit must be between 60 and 100 percent of the 2020-21 upper limit of the cap.
Other Teams’ Expansion Draft Rules
Existing clubs will be able to protect either:
7 Forwards, 3 Defensemen, and 1 Goalie
8 Skaters (any combo of Forwards and Defensemen) and 1 Goalie
Any player with a full No-Movement Clause in his contract must be protected unless said player waives his NMC, which was not common in the 2017 Expansion Draft.
Exemptions
Players with two or fewer seasons of pro hockey experience in North America, either AHL or NHL, are automatically exempt from the Expansion Draft and therefore do not need to be protected by their teams. There is also a threshold of 10 games that needs to be exceeded to count as a season of pro hockey.
A good example of this will be Quinn Hughes. Hughes only played five games in 2018-19, and thus that season will not count as a pro season. Since he played more than 10 games in the 2019-20 season, he can play the entire upcoming season with no significant injuries, and he will still have only two completed seasons when the Expansion Draft occurs, making him exempt.
Exposure Requirements
As part of their requirements, the 30 teams participating in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft must expose two forwards and one defenseman that are under contract for the 2021-22 season. These players are required to have played 40 games in the 2020-21 season or have 70 or more NHL games over the 2019-20 & 2020-21 seasons combined. Similarly, teams must expose a goalie that is either under contract in 2021-22 or a restricted free agent following the 2020-21 season.
Worth noting, we highly anticipate that the games played requirements for forwards and defensemen will be adjusted down due to the 2019-20 season being abbreviated and the likelihood that the 2020-21 season will also be shorter than the usual 82 games.
Career-Ending Injuries Clause
Players with potential career-ending injuries who have missed more than the previous 60 consecutive games may not be used to satisfy a team’s player exposure requirements unless approval is received from the NHL. These players will be deemed exempt from selection. Ryan Kesler would be a good example of a player that fits in this category. Due to injuries, Kesler has not played a game since the 2018-19 season and is unlikely to take the ice next season, even though he is under contract until 2022. In this scenario, Kesler cannot be used to fulfill one of the spots in the two-forward exposure requirement.
These exposure requirements are designed to guarantee the 30 NHL teams participating make legitimate NHL-level players available to Seattle.
2017 Expansion Draft
To get some insight on how the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft may play out, we can look back at the 2017 Expansion Draft because the rules were identical for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Here is how NHL teams chose to protect their players, either via the seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie scenario, or via the eight total skaters and one goalie route.
This is how Vegas drafted its players across positions.
As a reminder, the minimums for forwards and goalies was 14 and three respectfully, thus Vegas used all four of its position agnostic picks on defensemen.
The Rest of the Story
It gets more complicated. Another part of the Expansion Draft will be the trades that occur before, during, and after the event. Predicting these scenarios will be downright impossible without insider information up until the very moment the Kraken submit their picks to the league. A lot of this will involve wheeling and dealing by teams to try to manage their cap space, so here are some of the terms and scenarios you should be aware of before the Expansion Draft.
Pending Unrestricted Free Agents
There will be several players exposed by their teams that will be “Pending Unrestricted Free Agents” (UFA). The scenario is that a player will have just played the last year of his NHL contract with his team and will become an Unrestricted Free Agent roughly one week after the Expansion Draft. The Kraken will have a 48-hour window before their selections are made to talk and negotiate with any of these UFAs. An example here is where a player like Taylor Hall is left unprotected by Buffalo. Seattle could discuss a potential contract term for a new deal with Hall. If they reach an agreement, Seattle would then choose Hall in the Expansion Draft. If they cannot reach a deal, Seattle would find some other player to select from Buffalo.
Draft and Let Walk
This is a scenario where Seattle would draft a player that they know will become an Unrestricted Free Agent on ~July 1st (or a week after whenever the Expansion Draft actually happens). This would imply no actual intention of signing this pending free agent. This would come into play if the Kraken do not see any other notable assets on the NHL team’s roster, but selecting this UFA would fulfill the rule of selecting one player per team. Vegas did this with three players: Chris Thorburn (WPG), Connor Brickley (CAR), and Jean-Francois Berube (NYI).
Draft and Flip
In this scenario, the Kraken more than likely would have a predetermined arrangement with another NHL team that if Seattle chooses Player X on Team A, then Team B would trade assets (either players from Team B or picks for the Amateur Draft) to Seattle for Player X. After the Vegas Expansion Draft there were four players that were immediately traded to another NHL team, literally being jettisoned the following day. Alexei Emelin (MON -> NSH), David Schlemko (SJS -> MON), Marc Methot (OTT -> DAL), and Trevor van Riemsdyk (CHI -> CAR) are in this category.
Side Deals
The side deal is the meatiest of meaty subjects in the Expansion Draft. Fans and the media alike point to the side deals as the reason Vegas got so good so fast. Vegas completed nine side deals leading up to and during the Expansion Draft.
This is where Seattle would negotiate terms of their player selection with each respective team in advance. An example of this was when Anaheim agreed to trade Shea Theodore to Vegas if Vegas selected Clayton Stoner in the Expansion Draft. Clayton Stoner was injured and would never play another NHL game. Theodore was a young, up-and-coming defenseman for Anaheim. Vegas gets a young prospect, while Anaheim would get the Clayton Stoner contract and financial commitment taken off their books.
Side deals in the Expansion Draft netted the Golden Knights an additional six players, 10 Entry Draft picks, and signing rights to one player. The media narrative going around is that teams will be less wiling to do these side deals with Seattle, but with a flat salary cap expected over the next few seasons, you can imagine that teams will be forced to unload some contracts to remain cap compliant.
Summary
We hope this gives you a good overview on what to expect in the Expansion Draft scenarios as the Kraken get closer and closer to selecting their team. There is no doubt NHL rosters will change before summer, 2021, but we can start to circle some players on teams that may be candidates, and that is exciting stuff.
SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken opened the doors for local media to get a look at their Northgate practice facility Tuesday as they are within nine months of completion.
When finished, Northgate Ice Centre will be a 167,000 square foot, state of the art facility that the NHL club will use to train and practice. It will also house their front office staff and feature three sheets of ice. Those sheets will be available to the public and will be the only accessible sheets of ice within the Seattle city limits.
The Kraken hope that Northgate will become the meeting place and hub of hockey in the Northwest.
“We have a big focus on grassroots, learn to skate, learn to play, the youth programs all the way to the adult programs,” Todd Humphrey, Seattle’s Senior Vice President of Digital, Fan Experience, and Kraken Training Center said during the media tour Tuesday afternoon. “So, as a community, this should be a place where you can come and really experience hockey.”
The facility will be opened in phases.
In July of 2021, the NHL rink and office will be online with the community rinks following in September.
The building is impressive, even in its current skeletal state.
It contains all the bells and whistles you would expect in an NHL practice facility. The players will have a lounge to relax in, training rooms, and a spacious dressing room. Hockey superstition says that you cannot step on the logo on the floor of most dressing rooms, so to avoid any mistakes, the Kraken logo will be on the dressing room’s ceiling.
Media members check out the Kraken dressing room during a tour of the Northgate Ice Centre (Brian Liesse)
Beyond the NHL facilities, there are other highlights that will serve the community at large.
That includes a Virginia Mason Health Center and a rather spacious pub. The yet to be named bar covers the width of two rinks — the NHL rink and one of the community rinks will be visible to its patrons. Can’t get tickets to a game? The Kraken hope to turn the bar into the place for fans to gather and watch both home and away games.
Scheduling the three rinks will be a challenge as the team estimates they will have 20,000 hours of ice time available for the community. Planning will include existing youth and adult hockey organizations.
“We are (talking) in earnest,” Humphrey said about youth hockey clubs. “We have been clear with them, we are not looking to steal their business. We are coming in here to build this game and build on the work they’ve already done. We think there’s a huge opportunity.”
The facility in Northgate is set up perfectly for youth hockey games, adult games, and hosting tournaments. Supporting the current youth organizations is part of the game plan as well as offering Kraken led teams and training.
“You will see the Junior Kraken, whether it’s next year or the year after,” Humphrey said. “We intend to have a Junior Kraken program. We’re working with USA hockey to make sure we are teaching youth the right way.”
Building a training facility from scratch is a challenge and it began with Dave Tippett’s influence and continued after he left to coach the Edmonton Oilers. General Manager Ron Francis took over and helped design a building that the Kraken feel will be attractive to NHL players.
With approximately nine months before open, most of the major design decisions have been made. The only decisions left are the fine, finishing touches.
“There are nuances in the design, the colors, the carpet, and staff uniforms,” Humphrey said. “Those decisions are still in the air but we’re working on it.”
Right now, the three rinks are in place. They are covered in dirt and still need boards and ice. The Kraken have installed a 28-ton ice maker which is ready to go. July will come quick and the rinks will be crowded with NHL players, as well as youth hitting the ice for the first time.
“We all feel like we are bringing something of importance to this city,” Humphrey said. “I think it’s coming at an interesting and unique time with Covid. We’re excited to launch this; it’s going to blow people’s hair back.”
For more on the Northgate facility, enjoy the following photo gallery from photographer Brian Liesse.
Welcome to your new home for hockey coverage in the Pacific Northwest, where passionate fans, writers, and content creators can convene to discuss all things Seattle Kraken and beyond. We are thrilled to be here with you, on our new-look and fully re-branded site, Sound Of Hockey.
As you may know, NHLtoSeattle was founded in 2010, with the hope of building a grassroots hockey community strong enough to one day land our city the 32nd NHL franchise. The mission was a success, and we are now fast approaching a day when our Kraken will take the ice for their inaugural season at what will certainly be a shiny new Climate Pledge Arena.
With the success of that mission came a need for change within our humble organization, a change that would allow us to expand our coverage of the sport we love so deeply, while also making what we do sustainable.
In addition to your familiarity with the NHLtoSeattle brand, we hope that you have also had some interaction with the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, which has now been steadily and organically growing its audience for more than two years. With the existing recognition of the podcast, and the understanding that we simply couldn’t call ourselves “NHLtoSeattle” forever, we decided that re-focusing our two separate channels into one cohesive and sustainable brand built for the long haul was the way to go.
This site is as much yours as it is ours, and we hope to see you here often. So poke around, give us feedback, and make yourself at home. Because together, we can prove to the world that Seattle truly is a hockey city.
With the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting today here are some players to watch that could be wearing Kraken jerseys in our inaugural season.
Pittsburgh Goalie Situation
If the expansion draft were to happen this summer, Pittsburgh would have a tough decision to make between who to protect and who to expose in the draft, Tristan Jarry or Matt Murray. Murray played the majority of the games this year, starting 38 out of the 69, but had a career low .899 save percentage. He got to start in 4 of the last 5 games before the pause, but head coach Mike Sullivan has refused to name the game one starter. Jarry had a higher save % of .921 compared to Murray’s .899 save %. The expansion rules state that a team can only protect one goalies. If we assume the Penguins do not trade one of these goalies before the trade deadline next season, one of them will be exposed. Pittsburgh is not afraid to use two goalies in the playoffs and they are certainly not afraid to hold on and expose a goalie going into an expansion draft.
The quiver of talent in St. Louis Blues
Sammy Blais, Zach Sanford, Ivan Barbashev, and Justin Faulk. (I am forecasting Schenn, Schwartz, Kyrou, Sundquivst, Thomas, O-Reilly, Tarasenko for forwards & Pieterangelo, Parayko, Dunn for defensemen will be protected). Good chance 2 or 3 of them are exposed in the expansion draft and and that is a pretty good lineup to choose from. If pending UFA Alex Pietrangelo does not resign this offseason, the Blues will probably protect Faulk. There are scenarios where the Blues could expose a higher salary forward and protect the likes of Blais/Sanford/Barbashev, but then that could mean picking from Schenn, Sundqvist, and Tarasenko. All those guys are expected to play and if St. Louis wants to put another run together so we should get a lot of opportunity to see these guys play.
Nashville Depth
Calle Jarnkrok, Craig Smith, and Rocco Girmaldi. If Calle Jarnkrok is exposed, how does a team named the Kraken not draft him on name alone? Ok, in all seriousness, I love this crew of players. They are playing down the line up a bit, so getting more opportunity on the ice will help those guys could shine.
The young guns in Carolina
Morgan Geekie (21yo), Jake Bean (21yo), and Hayden Fleury (24yo) are likely to be exposed to Seattle’s Expansion Draft next summer. All of them are tracking to become every day NHLers and they could be a good opportunity to get some young blood on the Seattle squad. They might not start on the Hurricanes squad when the playoffs begin, but if the Canes move past the qualifying round, then you should expect one or two of them to step in should there be injuries. It will be hard to draw many conclusions from the small sample size of ice time and games, but hopefully we get a glimpse of their capabilities.
