Pre-Game Talk: Seattle Expansion Draft (It matters)

[J Corso]

I don't believe that Seattle has any interest in Price at all. This whole thing is a media created nothing. Bunch of Montreal writers thinking "why wouldn't the best goalie in the league draw interest?" completely unable to see that Price hasn't been good for years.

The theory that Seattle is faking interest to garner picks or something at least has a little shred of possibility.

 

[MS]

For the sake of my curiosity, I played around with who I'd take in the expansion draft if I were Seattle and this is what I came up with:

Anaheim	D - Josh Mahura	RFA
Arizona	RW - Tyler Pitlick	$1.75 million/1 year to UFA
Boston	D - Connor Clifton	$1.0/2 to UFA
Buffalo	G - Dustin Tokarski	$715k/1 to UFA
Calgary	D - Mark Giordano	$6.75/1 to UFA
Carolina	W - Nino Niederreiter	$5.25/1 to UFA
Chicago	W/C - Adam Gaudette	RFA
Colorado	W - Joonas Donskoi	$3.9/2 to UFA
Columbus	C - Kevin Stenlund	$1.0/1 to RFA
Dallas	D - Ben Gleason	RFA
Detroit	D - Troy Stecher	$1.7/1 to UFA
Edmonton	W - Tyler Benson	RFA
Florida	G - Chris Dreidger	UFA
LA	C - Blake Lizotte	$800k/1 to RFA
Minnesota	D - Carson Soucy	$2.75/2 to UFA
Montreal	D - Brett Kulak	$1.8/1 to UFA
Nashville	C- Nick Cousins	$1.5/1 to UFA
New Jersey	W - Nathan Bastian	$825/2 to RFA
NYI	D - Sebastien Aho	$725k/1 to RFA
NYR	W - Colin Blackwell	$725k/1 to UFA
Ottawa	C - Chris Tierney	$3.5/1 to UFA
Philadelphia	W - Nicolas Aube-Kubel	$1.0/1 to RFA
Pittsburgh	W - Brandon Tanev	$3.5/4 to UFA
San Jose	C - Dylan Gambrell	$1.1/1 to RFA
St Louis	D - Vince Dunn	RFA
Tampa	C - Tyler Johnson*	$5.0/3 to UFA
Toronto	C - Jared McCann	$2.9/1 to RFA
Vancouver	W - Matthew Highmore	$725k/1 to RFA
Washington	G - Vitek Vanecek	$716k/1 to RFA
Winnipeg	C - Mason Appleton	$900k/1 to RFA

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

- basically the idea here is to commit as little money past 21-22 as possible, especially to players over 30, while following the Vegas model and building a fast, high-motor team.

- obviously Seattle will do better than this because they can make trades. The only trade I assumed was the one dead certainty, which is that Seattle will surely cull major assets from Tampa for taking Tyler Johnson.

- this comes in at $50.5 million, just over the $49 million minimum needed from the expansion draft. From there it will be very easy to get to the $60 million cap floor.

- I tried to take a mix of a few quality veterans (Giordano, Niederreiter) close to UFA mixed with a bunch of younger/faster players with some upside.

- again, tried to pick veterans with only 1 year left so if the team is out of the playoffs it presents a potential haul at the 2022 deadline. The only money I committed past age 30 and past 1 year was to Johnson (again, trade for extra assets) and Brandon Tanev who I am a massive fan of.

- took Dreidger-Vanecek as the two goalies and a veteran for the AHL.

- toughest choice is Demelo vs. Appleton from Winnipeg. Would love to have Demelo on that blueline but Appleton is probably the highest-value asset available in the entire draft.

- took a lot of Cs assuming some could move to wing. There isn't any impact C there but McCann/Appleton/Tierney/Johnson is actually 4 very solid top-9 two-way centers. Easy to build a very good 4-line team from that foundation.

This leads to a roster something like :

Niederreiter-McCann-Blackwell
Johnson-Tierney-Gaudette
Tanev-Appleton-Donskoi
Bastian-Cousins-Pitlick

Soucy-Giordano
Dunn-Clifton
Mahura-Stecher

(sides not necessarily correct)

To me that looks not bad at all.

 

[digger1188]

Price will end up in Seattle

 

[StreetHawk]

Price will end up in Seattle

Sounds like Dreidger is getting $3.5 mil per over 3 years. So, adding Price's $10.5 mil to that would put them at $14 mill for their goaltending for the next 3 seasons. Seems like a large amount to allocate for goaltending.

 

[Hammer79]

Just realized the Kraken can sign him or Edler. Yeah, totally. Cheap, short deal? Either one would be a great pickup as a depth guy.

Might as well, even if Virtanen wasn't involved in a lawsuit over alleged sexual misconduct, he's overpaid for the production he brings.

Lind needs waivers right away and probably doesn't crack the lineup as a regular, so that would be a pure throw-away pick. Holtby had an awful season, but could bounce back. Roussel is dramatically overpaid, ditto Beagle. Everyone else that we left unprotected are marginal NHL'ers or out of the league completely. So either you bite the bullet on Holtby, or sign Sutter, Hamonic or Edler.

 

[WTG]

No idea why Seattle is even thinking about bailing out Montreal on that Price contract. He had a good few series but that doesn't erase his mediocre last 3 seasons. People put their playoff blinders on i guess.

I'd also take Tarasenko if he'd report to Seattle. If he can recover and keep healthy he's a beast.

 

[PM]

If they take Price and deal him to another team with 50% retained they could get a haul though.

 

[VanJack]

The Expansion Draft pundits have the Kraken taking Lind, Gadjovich, Highmore or Holtby from the Canucks , but I wouldn't sleep in on Virtanen.

Sure he's in a world of trouble right now, but he's earning $2.5m for just this season and then is an RFA. The Kraken could either try to trade him closer to the deadline next February, or simply walk away by not qualifying him at season end.

He's a bounce back candidate for next season if he gets a fresh start, and would be a lock to make the team. Gadjovich, Lind and even Highmore would not be guaranteed spots on the opening night roster. And the Kraken don't need AHL players at this point.

 

[Hit the post]

This leads to a roster something like :

Niederreiter-McCann-Blackwell
Johnson-Tierney-Gaudette
Tanev-Appleton-Donskoi
Bastian-Cousins-Pitlick

Soucy-Giordano
Dunn-Clifton
Mahura-Stecher

(sides not necessarily correct)

To me that looks not bad at all.

UFA: sign Edler & Halak. Rotate Edler in & out of the lineup to keep him "fresh".

Not a great team but somewhat respectable.

 

[arttk]

No idea why Seattle is even thinking about bailing out Montreal on that Price contract. He had a good few series but that doesn't erase his mediocre last 3 seasons. People put their playoff blinders on i guess.

I'd also take Tarasenko if he'd report to Seattle. If he can recover and keep healthy he's a beast.

Regular season Price is meh but post season Price is clutch. If the pick Price, they will probably still get Dreidger to be the 1B. Only issue will be the fact of it being crazy expensive.

 

[rypper]

If they take Price and deal him to another team with 50% retained they could get a haul though.

Thing is, Price is owed so much money in signing bonuses.

Say Seattle takes him, retains 50% and flips him. Next year he's paid 6.75m in signing bonus and 1m actual salary.

So is Seattle only retaining on his actual salary 1m and the trading team on the hook for all his remaining signing bonuses?

That's much less attractive.

 

[DFAC]

Reading all thee mock expansion drafts it seems like Seattle will have a pretty solid team.

I think it’s almost a given they finish ahead of us

 

[StreetHawk]

Thing is, Price is owed so much money in signing bonuses.

Say Seattle takes him, retains 50% and flips him. Next year he's paid 6.75m in signing bonus and 1m actual salary.

So is Seattle only retaining on his actual salary 1m and the trading team on the hook for all his remaining signing bonuses?

That's much less attractive.

Whatever % they retain on they retain it on all compensation from that point forward.

 

[Johnny Canucker]

Gaudette trade for highmore. Lose highmore for nothing.

 

[Johnny Canucker]

League said they will not allow a player like Price to be exposed, taken by Seattle , then traded back to Montreal for a pick as it’s clear circumvention and they will be watching.


Meanwhile Kucherov / Stamkos miss the entire season and start game 1 of playoffs and play every game. Not circumvention.

guess rules only apply to certain teams.

 

[rypper]

I think the equivalent seems to be what Montreal is setting up to do. Hinting at Price and Weber potentially missing big time next season (or not playing at all) and then they could have them ready for the playoffs.

That's like 18m they could use in season to get the team to the playoffs before bringing in price and Weber.

 

[RandV]

The Expansion Draft pundits have the Kraken taking Lind, Gadjovich, Highmore or Holtby from the Canucks , but I wouldn't sleep in on Virtanen.

Sure he's in a world of trouble right now, but he's earning $2.5m for just this season and then is an RFA. The Kraken could either try to trade him closer to the deadline next February, or simply walk away by not qualifying him at season end.

He's a bounce back candidate for next season if he gets a fresh start, and would be a lock to make the team. Gadjovich, Lind and even Highmore would not be guaranteed spots on the opening night roster. And the Kraken don't need AHL players at this point.

Lind and Gadjovich would need to clear waivers but they probably pass through, so it wouldn't be too big a surprise if Seattle just takes a couple players like that from the Canucks or other teams. The team that starts the season with the waiver required bubble player holds the advantage as if they do get waived and a team does put in a claim they have to actually keep him on the 23 man roster. I don't think the rule here has changed, that if a team makes a waiver claim but then within a set period of time waives the player again the original team gets 1st choice and can send them down without requiring waivers.

 

[Canucker]

League said they will not allow a player like Price to be exposed, taken by Seattle , then traded back to Montreal for a pick as it’s clear circumvention and they will be watching.


Meanwhile Kucherov / Stamkos miss the entire season and start game 1 of playoffs and play every game. Not circumvention.

guess rules only apply to certain teams.

But can they pick up Price, trade him to Arizona (or some other low cap team) with salary retained for an asset or two, then have Arizona trade him back to Montreal with even more retained? Just to screw with Bettman.


(Yes, I know this will never happen)

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

But can they pick up Price, trade him to Arizona (or some other low cap team) with salary retained for an asset or two, then have Arizona trade him back to Montreal with even more retained? Just to screw with Bettman.


(Yes, I know this will never happen)

I believe the NMC comes with the player..so they cannot trade Price anywhere without his consent.

 

[Canucker]

I believe the NMC comes with the player..so they cannot trade Price anywhere without his consent.

If he was in on it and the goal was to help Montreal he would likely not have an issue waiving to get back there.

 

[Nucker101]

But can they pick up Price, trade him to Arizona (or some other low cap team) with salary retained for an asset or two, then have Arizona trade him back to Montreal with even more retained? Just to screw with Bettman.


(Yes, I know this will never happen)

would be hilarious, feel like if NHL GM's were more progressive, they could definitely pull shit like this to expose the expansion raft and cap retention rules.

So far the slickest thing we've seen is 3rd wheel teams eating some cap space on a player and getting a pick/prospect out of it to help facilitate a trade between 2 other teams.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

But can they pick up Price, trade him to Arizona (or some other low cap team) with salary retained for an asset or two, then have Arizona trade him back to Montreal with even more retained? Just to screw with Bettman.


(Yes, I know this will never happen)

That seems like an Awful deal for One of the three teams unless some serious Collusion is going on. Either Montreal or Arizona give up to much or Seattle takes to little.

 

[DaveBabych]

Gaudette trade for highmore. Lose highmore for nothing.

I’m as happy as anyone to criticize Jim Benning, but Chicago didn’t protect Gaudette either and the reality is if he hadn’t been traded he probably wouldn’t have been protected here.

 

[JanBulisPiggyBack]

Gaudette trade for highmore. Lose highmore for nothing.

I would be very very surprised if Seattle takes Highmore and if they did

meh oh well

 

[VanJack]

Gaudette trade for highmore. Lose highmore for nothing.

I agree it would be a downer, but as a bad deal it's still a long way from trading a second rounder and Tyler Madden to the Kings for Tyler Tofoli, and then losing him to the Habs.