Jordan Eberle, James van Riemsdyk, Nino Niederreiter, and Mark Giordano among the veterans available to Seattle
The Seattle Kraken are going to have quite the list of interesting players to build their inaugural team at the upcoming Expansion Draft.
The protected lists of all NHL teams (save for the Vegas Golden Knights, who are exempt) were made public on Sunday morning. They can be viewed at the NHL’s official website here.
Here’s a rundown of the interesting and surprising names who will be available to Seattle…
@Carey Price, @Jonathan Drouin, and @Shea Weber
Word came out last night that the Habs asked Carey Price to waive his no-movement clause in order for the team to protect @Jake Allen.
Price, who was born and raised in British Columbia, would be an incredible addition for the Kraken right off the hop, just like @Marc-Andre Fleury was for the Golden Knights. That said, the assumption here is that Seattle won’t take on Price and his huge contract, which features a cap hit of $10,500,000 for the next five seasons and a signing bonus of $11,000,000 to be paid out this summer.
It also seems very unlikely Seattle would take on Shea Weber given his injury concerns and huge contract. The final name that stands out with the Habs is Jonathan Drouin, who didn’t play a single game for the team during their run to the Stanley Cup Final this year. Drouin is only 26 years old and could be a good reclamation project.
@Jordan Eberle and @Josh Bailey
Since it’s Lou Lamoriello, this wasn’t actually all that shocking, but it’s still a bit strange to see the Islanders expose two of their top three scorers to Seattle while protecting @Matt Martin.
Eberle has been a consistent producer in the NHL for years and is coming off of a season in which he scored 16 goals and 33 points over 55 games. Bailey has played 13 seasons with the Islanders, racking up 162 goals and 511 points. Most recently, he put up 35 points in 54 games for the Islanders in 2021.
Eberle and Bailey have cap hits of $5,500,000 and $5,000,000 respectively but would give Seattle quality veteran forwards right off the hop.
@James van Riemsdyk and @Jakub Voracek
It had been rumoured that the Flyers would expose veteran Jakub Voracek in the Expansion Draft, but seeing James van Riemsdyk also out in the open is quite a surprise. The two of them tied with @Claude Giroux for the team’s lead in points in 2021 with 43.
The play for Philadelphia here seems to be that they’re actively looking to offload both of these contracts. While both Voracek and JVR have produced at a high level, they’re both on the wrong side of 30 and have huge cap hits of $8,250,000 and $7,000,000.
As with Eberle and Bailey above, they aren’t cheap, but either would immediately give the team a quality veteran presence up front.
@Mark Giordano
This seems like a no-brainer for the Kraken. Though he’s going to be 38 years old at the start of the 2021-22 season, Mark Giordano, the former Norris Trophy winner and current captain of the Calgary Flames, would give the Kraken a great leader to build around.
Giordano only has one year left on his contract, meaning Seattle could also opt to trade him at next year’s trade deadline to a contending team for a pretty significant return.
@Vladimir Tarasenko and @Vince Dunn
News came out yesterday that the Blues were going to expose Vladimir Tarasenko in the Expansion Draft. The relationship between Tarasenko and the team is apparently broken beyond repair due to issues over his shoulder surgeries and a change of scenery was inevitable.
The question for Seattle is whether they want to take a gamble on Tarasenko, who has only played 34 games over the past couple of seasons, or if they want to add a young defender in Vince Dunn with upside. Tarasenko has a cap hit of $7,500,000 for two more seasons and the injury is obviously a risk, but the upside of adding a superstar immediately is huge.
@Nino Niederreiter
One of the biggest surprises on Sunday was Carolina opting not to protect Nino Niederreiter, instead opting to add depth names in @Warren Foegele and @Jesper Fast to their list.
Niederreiter is one year from free agency with a cap hit of $5,250,000 and is coming off of a good season in which he scored 20 goals and 34 points over 56 games. Seattle also has another interesting option here in former first-round draft pick Jake Bean, a skilled defender who can produce offence from the blueline.
@Justin Schultz and @Brenden Dillon
Seattle will have their pick at a quality defender from the Washington Capitals as both Justin Schultz and Brenden Dillon have been exposed.
Schultz has been a big-time producer from the blueline in the past and is coming off of a season in which he scored 27 points in 46 games. Dillon, on the other hand, is a solid, shutdown defender who can anchor a defensive pair, something that could be of value if Seattle selects multiple young defencemen.
The play for Washington here seems to be freeing up cap room, which they’ll need this summer in order to ink Alex Ovechkin to a new deal.
@Yanni Gourde, @Tyler Johnson, and @Ondrej Palat
Finally, there’s the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, who inevitably had to expose multiple good players to Seattle.
Tampa ultimately decided to use the eight-skater scheme in order to keep @Erik Cernak, which resulted in Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat getting exposed. Given their tight salary cap situation and incredibly strong depth, losing one of these players won’t be the end of the world for the Lightning, but Seattle will be thrilled to have them as options.