2021 Seattle expansion draft. Who do you protect?

[Puikiou]

Here's my list. What's yours?

Protected

F: Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Colin White, Nick Paul, Austin Watson, Logan Brown, Vitaly Abramov (7)
D: Thomas Chabot (1)
G: Filip Gustavsson (1)

Exposed

F: Evgeni Dadonov, Connor Brown, Chris Tierney, Ryan Dzingel (UFA), Clarke Bishop, Jonathan Davidsson
D: Nikita Zaitsev, Christian Wolanin, Josh Brown, Mike Reilly (UFA)
G: Matt Murray, Joel Daccord, Marcus Hogberg

Exempt

F: Josh Norris, Tim Stützle, Alex Formenton, Egor Sokolov, Parker Kelly
D: Artem Zub, Erik Brannström, Lassi Thomson, Jonathan Aspirot
G: Kevin Mandolese

Notes

• Tkachuk, Batherson, White & Paul are all young, affordable pieces that are going to be important parts of the future.
• Austin Watson has proven his worth as a cheap, dependable 4th line player. Big, strong, mobile, elite shot blocker, solid on the PK. He's a keeper.
• There is too much potential with Logan Brown (Spezza-lite) & Vitaly Abramov (Marchessault-lite) to risk losing them for nothing. L. Brown should have gotten a look before his injury. Back when DJ was proudly rolling out Stepan/Anisimov/Paquette. Both L. Brown and Abramov may never get there, but this should have been the year to figure it out. Instead, a collection of mediocre vets played above them and they remain mysteries.
• Thomas Chabot is the only draft eligible defenseman in the organization worth protecting.
• Filip Gustavsson is the youngest + most technically sound goaltender under contract with the organization (no disrespect to Daccord & Mandolese).
• While very good defensively, Evgeny Dadonov has produced Bobby Ryan numbers for a shade under Bobby Ryan money. 5M x 2 (11.5M real salary) off the books would be a positive given his level of play.
• While Connor Brown and Chris Tierney are dependable top 9/bottom 6 players, they're aren't exactly cheap (4M X 2 & 4.2M X 1 in real salaries). Good vets and adequate placeholders during a rebuild, but the truth of the matter is that they'd both be 4th liners on a legitimate cup contender. No one should lose sleep if either turns out to be the causality from the expansion draft.
• Losing Zaitsev or Matt Murray would be addition by subtraction given their play and salaries moving forward.
• Christian Wolanin has been one of the season's single biggest disappointments.
• Exposing proven pieces makes it less likely that Seattle would pick Joel Daccord. Especially given the abundance of goalies on the market and his limited NHL sample size given the injury.

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[FormentonTheFuture]

Would need time to come up with a full list, but Connor brown is an absolute lock to be protected

 

[Senscore]

Would need time to come up with a full list, but Connor brown is an absolute lock to be protected

Not sure what I would do if I couldn't dump on him for missing on a breakaway.

 

[aragorn]

Protected

F: B. Tkachuk, D. Batherson, C. White, N. Paul, L. Brown, C. Brown, C. Tierny (7)
D: T. Chabot, N. Zaitsev, C. Wolanin (3)
G: Matt Murray (1)

PD should try & move as many of the UFAs as possible & those they can't move let them walk at the end of the season. They need to look to the Free Agent market this summer to add a couple of the pieces they need to fill a couple more spots along with their NHL ready prospects like Formenton, JBD & Pinto.

They should also try & trade Tierny & Dadonov, if possible, they are easily replaceable IMO from within. My guess is that they will try & give Murray another yr to improve before deciding what to do about him & his contract, I don't think the other goalies have played enough NHL games to warrant be taken. What is sad is how difficult it is to come up with a list of protected players when a number of them should be replaced. But some may still have some value & it would be better to get something for some of them than lose them for nothing.

 

[Sweatred]

I’d protect Logan Brown and Dadonov exposing White’s $21 million owed. We could repurpose that money 2-4 years from now and help keep the core or add a valuable piece.

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

Protected

F: B. Tkachuk, D. Batherson, C. White, N. Paul, L. Brown, C. Brown, C. Tierny (7)
D: T. Chabot, N. Zaitsev, C. Wolanin (3)
G: Matt Murray (1)

PD should try & move as many of the UFAs as possible & those they can't move let them walk at the end of the season. They need to look to the Free Agent market this summer to add a couple of the pieces they need to fill a couple more spots along with their NHL ready prospects like Formenton, JBD & Pinto.

They should also try & trade Tierny & Dadonov, if possible, they are easily replaceable IMO from within. My guess is that they will try & give Murray another yr to improve before deciding what to do about him & his contract, I don't think the other goalies have played enough NHL games to warrant be taken. What is sad is how difficult it is to come up with a list of protected players when a number of them should be replaced. But some may still have some value & it would be better to get something for some of them than lose them for nothing.

Why would Wolanin be protected. He might not even be on the team

 

[Puikiou]

Protected

F: B. Tkachuk, D. Batherson, C. White, N. Paul, L. Brown, C. Brown, C. Tierny (7)
D: T. Chabot, N. Zaitsev, C. Wolanin (3)
G: Matt Murray (1)

PD should try & move as many of the UFAs as possible & those they can't move let them walk at the end of the season. They need to look to the Free Agent market this summer to add a couple of the pieces they need to fill a couple more spots along with their NHL ready prospects like Formenton, JBD & Pinto.

They should also try & trade Tierny & Dadonov, if possible, they are easily replaceable IMO from within. My guess is that they will try & give Murray another yr to improve before deciding what to do about him & his contract, I don't think the other goalies have played enough NHL games to warrant be taken. What is sad is how difficult it is to come up with a list of protected players when a number of them should be replaced. But some may still have some value & it would be better to get something for some of them than lose them for nothing.

I'll commit Seppuku if Chris Tierney is protected above anyone in the expansion draft. Please, enough!

As for Zaitsev (13.5M) and Murray (21M), my god...

Tkachuk - L. Brown - Dadonov
Stützle - Norris - Batherson
Formenton - White - Dzingel
Paul - Pinto - C. Brown
Abramov, Bishop

Chabot - Hamilton
Sanderson - Zub
Brännström - Zaitsev
J. Brown, JBD

Murray
Gustavsson/Daccord​

 

[Senscore]

I dare Seattle to take Matt Murray.

 

[aragorn]

Why would Wolanin be protected. He might not even be on the team

That's my point there are hardly enough good players to protect, but they have to protect 7 forwards, 3 defencemen & 1 goalie. I think they are committed to Murray for at least another yr & what other defenceman is there to protect J. Brown? Maybe Wolanin bounces back, maybe he never does, but who else is there? I wouldn't protect any of the UFAs, IMO they should be trying to get as many assets as they can for them & look who is available during Free Agency.

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

That's my point there are hardly enough good players to protect, but they have to protect 7 forwards, 3 defencemen & 1 goalie. I think they are committed to Murray for at least another yr & what other defenceman is there to protect J. Brown? Maybe Wolanin bounces back, maybe he never does, but who else is there? I wouldn't protect any of the UFAs, IMO they should be trying to get as many assets as they can for them & look who is available during Free Agency.

They don’t have to protect 3 D. Can protect 8 skaters instead

 

[aragorn]

They don’t have to protect 3 D. Can protect 8 skaters instead

Is that any better? Maybe they protect Bishop instead of Wolanin but they need defencemen more than forwards.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

They don’t have to protect 3 D. Can protect 8 skaters instead

But we're not going to go with 8 F because Chabot will be protected.

So why go 7 F and 1 D when we can go 7 and 3? Makes zero sense.

 

[Puikiou]

But we're not going to go with 8 F because Chabot will be protected.

So why go 7 F and 1 D when we can go 7 and 3? Makes zero sense.

Why protect two defensemen that would be addition by subtraction if Seattle was foolish enough to take them? Just because we can?

7-3-1 makes sense if we trade for a couple of defensemen that are actually worth protecting. Otherwise, go 8-1 and let the Kraken choose from the garbage bin.

 

[Masked]

They don’t have to protect 3 D. Can protect 8 skaters instead

Since Chabot will be protected that means that you're protecting 7 forwards either way. Why not protect a couple of extra d as well? 8 skaters is more if you have 4 d you want to protect.

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

Is that any better? Maybe they protect Bishop instead of Wolanin but they need defencemen more than forwards.

Bishop? Really... I’m just saying they don’t have to protect 3D if they don’t want to. They can’t protect Wolanin if he’s a UFA.

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

But we're not going to go with 8 F because Chabot will be protected.

So why go 7 F and 1 D when we can go 7 and 3? Makes zero sense.

It’s not 8F it’s 8 skaters. Chabot is the only d worth protecting

 

[GCK]

Protect

7 Forwards
Tkachuk
Batherson
Dadanov
White
C Brown
Paul
L Brown

3 D
Chabot
Zaitsev
Player acquired prior to expansion draft

1 G
Daccord

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

Otherwise, go 8-1 and let the Kraken choose from the garbage bin.

Not that I agree with this awkward analogy, but if we're going along with it then we've got a garbage bin to expose. Why wouldn't we take our pick of the best parts of the garbage bin so we're not even leaving them with an outside chance of getting anything good from us? They're still competition. Would make sense to gain any edge we can, however slight.

 

[Adrianopolous]

Protect

7 Forwards
Tkachuk
Batherson
Dadanov
White
C Brown
Paul
L Brown

3 D
Chabot
Zaitsev
Player acquired prior to expansion draft

1 G
Daccord

The big question is Daccord or Gus IMO

 

[Puikiou]

Not that I agree with this awkward analogy, but if we're going along with it then we've got a garbage bin to expose. Why wouldn't we take our pick of the best parts of the garbage bin so we're not even leaving them with an outside chance of getting anything good from us? They're still competition. Would make sense to gain any edge we can, however slight.

Well, let's take a look at what the garbage bin consists of:

1) Nikita Zaitsev (4.5M X 3) - Fantastic if Seattle takes the burden off our hand and he's the expansion draft casualty.
2) Josh Brown (1.2M X 1) - If Ron Francis wants him, he can gladly have him.
3) Christian Wolanin (RFA) - Fringe NHL player at best. Again, perfect if Seattle takes him.
4) Erik Gudbranson (UFA - horrid hockey player), Mike Reilly (UFA - decent hockey player), Brayden Coburn (UFA - no comment)

Why would you protect any of that? The much better idea would be to weaponize the extra D slots instead of protecting our own terrible pieces just because we can.

Example: Team A trades us a good D that they would like to protect for a 7th rounder/future considerations. We protect that D and then trade him back for a 1st/2nd/3rd round pick. Or keep him under a different agreement if it's a player that we covet. There are 2 spots after Chabot to do something like this.

 

[aragorn]

Why would Seattle take any UFA when if they wanted they could just sign them after the season? It's not like Ottawa is going to re-sign more than one or two of their UFAs, if any. It's more likely that Ottawa will look elsewhere to sign a free agent & hope they work out better than the last group they signed last summer. It's much more likely they look at Tierny, Dadonov, J. Brown or Watson if any of them are left unprotected although not sure anyone would want J. Brown.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think we should do whatever we can to convince them to take Murray and rid ourselves of the 6, 7 & 8 mil he'll almost assuredly not live up to.

I'm not a fan of paying assets for savings, but this one would be worth it imo.

 

[SensFactor]

0% chance I protect Zaitsev..... Zero

 

[wilfred]

I like to think we will have a deal for a defenseman before the expension draft. Then gor 7-3-1

 

[aragorn]

Unfortunately who we would protect or not protect is going to be different for this organization given what they gave up to get some of these guys. While I don't blame anyone for not wanting to protect Murray do you really think PD is not going to protect him after what it cost him & what he signed him for? He's also the only goalie who has more than 50 games in the NHL of this lot & has a couple of SC rings. I would be surprised & amazed if PD doesn't protect him although the way he has played he doesn't really deserve to be protect either.

The same could be said for Zaitsev given there is really no other option in the system & who knows if there is anyone better out there willing to come here in free agency. Not to mention the contract PD gave him as well, PD is in a tough spot which he got himself into whether for listening to others or on his own. Should be interesting what he finally does & will that be public?