I really don't think any of the GMs that exposed a big contract in the expansion draft were happy that Francis passed on taking those players.
Fletcher and Poile came out in the media complaining about that very thing.
I don't believe there is anything Francis could have telegraphed that would have changed other GMs strategies. No GM wanted to lose a good asset for nothing the way some teams did in the Vegas draft, everyone had learned from the mistakes of those unfortunate GMs and made moves accordingly.
Had Francis used misdirection and telegraphed that he was going to take high AAV vets, Those GMs would have happily still exposed the Voraceks, Johansen, and Johnsons of the league. Maybe a guy like Skinner would have refused to waive, and Seattle ends up with Anders Bjork or Rasmus Asplund instead of Borgen, (which would have been so much worse), but there are not many hypotheticals where Francis cleans up in that draft.
Go back and look at the exposed player lists. Those lists are a grim read. Two expansion drafts in four years really diluted what Seattle was going to have available to them.
Off the top of my head, Appleton over DeMelo was a big miss, but at the time it felt appropriate. What other picks did he blow now that we have perfect hindsight?
It's not a hypothetical. Off the top of my head, there was Mark Giordano as the lone exception taken who didn't fit the general mold of younger veteran on a team-friendly contract. Giordano was an older player with a cap hit of not quite $7M per year. He came in and was quickly made Captain. So he was taken and paid for his perceived leadership intangibles. And he didn't finish the first season and got traded away.
From interviews of other GMs, it was clear that they talked to Francis, felt him out, and used their protections on players he expressed interest in. There is nothing the slightest bit odd about that, in fact. NHL GMs are part of an exclusive club. They all talk. They also aren't going to give away the store to their other GM buddies.
IIRC, some posters here thought he should've taken Tarasenko. I'm not going to argue whether that was a mistake or a great move. However, Tarasenko would've been a name player, older, and at $7.5M per year cap hit. That would've been 50% more than the highest players not named Giordano. So the facts line up. Francis reportedly telegraphed he wasn't going to take risks, take big contracts, etc. and he did not.
There is no question that Vegas went first here. But they've also taken huge swings. Anyone that thinks their approach has been cautious isn't paying attention. Not everything they've done has worked out, but they went for it right out of the gate. They continue to throw money around, make moves, take on big contracts, etc. At their expansion draft, they worked out a deal to take contracts from Florida before the draft and that turned into catching lightning in a bottle. It's also not true that when Seattle came along all 30 teams in the expansion draft were completely in the clear with the cap, etc. and were out to get Francis. Francis wasn't going to trade assets like draft picks, closing that door.
The knock on Francis in Raleigh was always that he was cautious and not a big gambler. Slow and steady. I see nothing that suggests he's changed his spots in Seattle.
