GDT: Game 37: Los Angeles Kings (19-13-5) @ Seattle Kraken (10-22-4) - 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET

[Irie]

Try it again! Redo the Expansion draft. Go for it. Don't forget you have hindsight.

Seattle Expansion Draft Simulator - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Yeah, even with 20/20 hindsight, there was never going to be a contender assembled from that expansion draft.

Looking back over the lists, it amazes me how many teams seriously bent over backwards to make sure Francis had absolutely nothing to choose.

A ton of the GMs in the league were so hell bent on not losing even an average piece in the expansion draft, that they seriously screwed themselves over in the process. I guess Vegas really left them scarred

 

[The Marquis]

With hindsight...

Yeah, it actually looked better at the time than it does now even, and really sort of reinforces that most of those picks were absolutely the right call given who was available... even with hindsight. Taking Tarasenko means you don't get Dunn. Taking either Duchene or Johansen, you lose Jarnkrok. Those are the most notable cases where we picked a player that wasn't going to be a UFA that didn't end up considerably better in favor of saving cap space and/or going with youth and neither of those guys is doing poorly at all. We still had to send guys to the AHL to fill out that roster, so we needed the Twarynski's, Fleury's, etc. I don't really see Why you don't still pick Twarynski. Voracek MAYBE, but we need goal scoring, he's getting loads of assists, but he's got ONE GOAL, and JVR hasn't been good.

Now Evan Rodriguez is available... but is he half the player if put on Seattle? Probably not, let's not kid ourselves, so even with hindsight of THAT I'm picking Tanev. Would taking Kylington over Giordano and Tarasenko over Dunn worked out? Maybe. You lose the leadership and a pretty good PP guy, but gain a surefire goal scorer and a future Dman who has a lot of potential. I'm torn on Tarasenko and Dunn, but that's because Dunn is a good hockey player despite his flaws, not because I think Tarasenko would have been a bad pick.

The harder I look at this, There are only a few picks I'd change and most are inconsequential and could definitely be risky (DeMelo over Appleton for example, not because Appleton isn't good in his role, but because DeMelo is RD and we need a little more of that, and it would shore up the holes in our D. Appleton was still a great pick from that though, no question, arguably the right one.

I'm STILL probably taking Bayreuther (which I didn't in my own picks originally) and Quenneville. Probably still MacDermid for the pick we got. Pitlick for SURE is getting picked for the flip.

It's not like Francis picked any of those 4 guys instead of Tarasenko, Duchene, or that quality player. There was nobody else in those cases. Hell, even Clague got waived by LA who I figured Francis would pick.

The more I look at it, the better it looks to me.

 

[Irie]

With hindsight...

Yeah, it actually looked better at the time than it does now even, and really sort of reinforces that most of those picks were absolutely the right call given who was available... even with hindsight. Taking Tarasenko means you don't get Dunn. Taking either Duchene or Johansen, you lose Jarnkrok. Those are the most notable cases where we picked a player that wasn't going to be a UFA that didn't end up considerably better in favor of saving cap space and/or going with youth and neither of those guys is doing poorly at all. We still had to send guys to the AHL to fill out that roster, so we needed the Twarynski's, Fleury's, etc. I don't really see Why you don't still pick Twarynski. Voracek MAYBE, but we need goal scoring, he's getting loads of assists, but he's got ONE GOAL, and JVR hasn't been good.

Now Evan Rodriguez is available... but is he half the player if put on Seattle? Probably not, let's not kid ourselves, so even with hindsight of THAT I'm picking Tanev. Would taking Kylington over Giordano and Tarasenko over Dunn worked out? Maybe. You lose the leadership and a pretty good PP guy, but gain a surefire goal scorer and a future Dman who has a lot of potential. I'm torn on Tarasenko and Dunn, but that's because Dunn is a good hockey player despite his flaws, not because I think Tarasenko would have been a bad pick.

The harder I look at this, There are only a few picks I'd change and most are inconsequential and could definitely be risky (DeMelo over Appleton for example, not because Appleton isn't good in his role, but because DeMelo is RD and we need a little more of that, and it would shore up the holes in our D. Appleton was still a great pick from that though, no question, arguably the right one.

I'm STILL probably taking Bayreuther (which I didn't in my own picks originally) and Quenneville. Probably still MacDermid for the pick we got. Pitlick for SURE is getting picked for the flip.

It's not like Francis picked any of those 4 guys instead of Tarasenko, Duchene, or that quality player. There was nobody else in those cases. Hell, even Clague got waived by LA who I figured Francis would pick.

The more I look at it, the better it looks to me.

Pretty sure Rodriguez was UFA and Pittsburgh was going to resign him after the expansion, so that would have been a wasted pick. And I agree, even if he was signed, I still would have taken Tanev. He was great before his injury.

But yeah, All these Monday morning trolls came in here after the draft asking why not Clague? Why not Gadjovich, why not why not? They didn't have the foresight to realize that those guys would not make the opening night roster due to the other picks availalbe, and while sure, they are definitely better players than who Seattle picked, they still had zero trade value and were eventually plucked off in waivers, proving that Francis DID do his homework and knew he'd lose them for nothing.

Depending on what Gio is traded for, Kylington may have turned out to be the better choice, but I actually did not see a single mock expansion draft that had him as the pick, so if it turns out to be the wrong pick, everyone and their brother got it wrong as well.

 

[HoseEmDown]

In hindsight these are the changes I make.

Dillon over Vanacek, if you know you're signing Grubauer and that you can get 2 2nd's for Dillon you make that pick.

Milano over Fluery, Milano has been waived before and carries and injury risk so I see why he was passed. But Fluery didn't take a spot in the lineup and they could use more offense, not sure if Milano produces the same here but worth the risk.

Miller over Borgen, if you're not gonna play the kid get somebody you might play. Or somebody who could have been flipped, probably with retention, instead.

Namestnikov over Cholowski, wasn't a fan of Cholowski especially with how many other defenseman they took. Namestnikov is do it all but not very well kinda player. Probably means no Johansson which is fine as he's been hit or miss and you could trade Namestnikov at the deadline like hopefully they do Johansson.

Gadjovich over Lind, I just like his style of game better, team could use more nasty.

Wedgewood over Bastian, since they don't take Vanacek they need another goalie. Also taking Gadjovich they don't need Bastian.

Zadorov over Quennville, if you know they were going to trade a 3rd for him you pick him and flip. Not sure that offer was there though as they flipped Pitlick there and you would think it could have been a package deal if they wanted Zadorov. Think that deal only happened after they missed in free agency.

So 7 changes but not adding any of the big names they get slack for. 1 of the swaps is also because they needed to fulfill the draft requirements. 2 of them were deals that were made after free agency and teams missed their targets. 2 of them are because the original pick is wasting away in the pressbox most nights so get a veteran the coach might play. Really the team wouldn't be changed too much from what it is. So unless the addition of Milano and Namestnikov has that big an effect the team is in the same spot they are.

 

[gstommylee]

Regarding Vanacek, by rules we had to take 3 goalies. No one knew Grubby was gonna hit FA market. We would had traded a goalie regardless of who it was when we signed Grubby.

 

[The Marquis]

Pretty sure Rodriguez was UFA and Pittsburgh was going to resign him after the expansion, so that would have been a wasted pick. And I agree, even if he was signed, I still would have taken Tanev. He was great before his injury.

But yeah, All these Monday morning trolls came in here after the draft asking why not Clague? Why not Gadjovich, why not why not? They didn't have the foresight to realize that those guys would not make the opening night roster due to the other picks availalbe, and while sure, they are definitely better players than who Seattle picked, they still had zero trade value and were eventually plucked off in waivers, proving that Francis DID do his homework and knew he'd lose them for nothing.

Depending on what Gio is traded for, Kylington may have turned out to be the better choice, but I actually did not see a single mock expansion draft that had him as the pick, so if it turns out to be the wrong pick, everyone and their brother got it wrong as well.

Kulington was on my original mock draft, but I took Tarasenko and JVR and had no money for Giordano.