Speculation: Seattle Expansion Draft Thread.......

[Steve Zissou]

I'm still perplexed about Edmonton losing Adam Larsson.

The Oilers must act fast to address their hole on defense after Adam Larsson signs with the Kraken

An industry source close to Larsson said the Oilers’ last offer was “relatively close” to the Kraken’s, adding “starting fresh with a brand-new team in a place like Seattle appealed to him.”

“I don’t know his reasons why he decided to go,” Oilers GM Ken Holland said. “I know it wasn’t about money. I’m disappointed he’s gone.”

Larsson leaving Edmonton represents a surprising but not shocking turn of events from earlier this month when it appeared as though solid progress was being made on a contract extension.


I get the trade for Duncan Keith. Well, kind of, I guess.

But with the trade brought his NMC and then Edmonton went the 7-3-1 route – opting to protect Nurse, Bear, and Keith.


Larsson had been a leader on the Oilers, the oldest letter-wearing player. He took on the thankless role of playing tough defensive minutes; he saw nearly a third of his ice time come against elite competition with just 31 percent offensive zone starts, per Natural Stat Trick and PuckIQ. Only Nurse saw more time on the penalty kill.


This leaves Edmonton with a big hole on their back end and let's be honest, Duncan Keith doesn't have much game left. This is what makes me LOL at Toronto and Edmonton because of how their teams are built.

Moreover, why make the Duncan Keith trade before the expansion draft!? They could have prevented Larsson from leaving.

That Taylor Hall trade looks super, super shitty for Edmonton right about now.

 

[Reclamation Project]

It’s pretty incredible that the Oilers would be a bottom 5 team if you removed Draisaitl (criminality underrated) and McDavid. They carry that entire team. They’re basically an NBA team. I bet Detroit fans are doing cartwheels that Yzerman is their GM.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Can't imagine Eberle being traded considering he was up on stage modeling the jersey tonight.

Yeah, I somehow doubt they’re going to fly out a player they just selected and introduce him to the fans, only to trade him the next day. Unless they’re in the business of wasting money and letting fans down.

 

[BigBrown]

So no team paid Seattle to not pick a player? Not a single one? That kind of blows my mind. Insiders kept saying the price was high but jeez... at that point it's probably better to drop your price a bit and sucker some teams into giving you free assets instead of walking away empty handed.

Oh well. Let's see if they flip some of these guys for anything good or interesting. Not getting my hopes up, so far this has been more hype than substance.

The Kings are a clear winner out of this whole thing. They got a top 6 forward in Arvidsson on the cheap out of it, I doubt he would have been available at that price had there not been an expansion draft. Also losing MacDermid is probably a net positive in terms of on ice results.

 

[Steve Zissou]

I may be in the minority but I'm glad Clague remains a King.

In his short couple of stints up in the bigs he hit a few posts and looked dangerous in the offensive zone more often than not. I think Clague will continue to add some more muscle to his frame so he isn't so easy to get pushed off the puck, especially down low and along the boards.

Now, if only we could sign or trade for a legit 1 LHD down the road it would really help our backend and allow Clague to develop over the next 2 seasons...

 

[Statto]

I may be in the minority but I'm glad Clague remains a King.

In his short couple of stints up in the bigs he hit a few posts and looked dangerous in the offensive zone more often than not. I think Clague will continue to add some more muscle to his frame so he isn't so easy to get pushed off the puck, especially down low and along the boards.

Now, if only we could sign or trade for a legit 1 LHD down the road it would really help our backend and allow Clague to develop over the next 2 seasons...

Clague really should have been able to add the needed muscle by this point, he’s 23. I do think he looked stronger over the last 18 months or so but I think he’s one of those guys that adding bulk will negatively affect his movement. He’s had more opportunity to strengthen up over this off season, so it really is now or never.

He could get a long look on the left side this season, I’d guess starting as the 7th D and has to establish himself this season. He’s waiver eligible now so he’s out of time, in LA.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

I missed this earlier, I explains why some of that happened, but quite a few of those picks are still extremely strange:

 

[BigBrown]

Did they select Jarret Stoll too?

 

[illegal_stick]

So no team paid Seattle to not pick a player? Not a single one? That kind of blows my mind. Insiders kept saying the price was high but jeez... at that point it's probably better to drop your price a bit and sucker some teams into giving you free assets instead of walking away empty handed.

Oh well. Let's see if they flip some of these guys for anything good or interesting. Not getting my hopes up, so far this has been more hype than substance.

The Kings are a clear winner out of this whole thing. They got a top 6 forward in Arvidsson on the cheap out of it, I doubt he would have been available at that price had there not been an expansion draft. Also losing MacDermid is probably a net positive in terms of on ice results.

Really good point. If you look at the overall expansion draft, we lost a 2nd, 3rd and MacD for Arvidsson. I'll do that a million times over.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I'm still perplexed about Edmonton losing Adam Larsson.

The Oilers must act fast to address their hole on defense after Adam Larsson signs with the Kraken

An industry source close to Larsson said the Oilers’ last offer was “relatively close” to the Kraken’s, adding “starting fresh with a brand-new team in a place like Seattle appealed to him.”

“I don’t know his reasons why he decided to go,” Oilers GM Ken Holland said. “I know it wasn’t about money. I’m disappointed he’s gone.”

Larsson leaving Edmonton represents a surprising but not shocking turn of events from earlier this month when it appeared as though solid progress was being made on a contract extension.


I get the trade for Duncan Keith. Well, kind of, I guess.

But with the trade brought his NMC and then Edmonton went the 7-3-1 route – opting to protect Nurse, Bear, and Keith.


Larsson had been a leader on the Oilers, the oldest letter-wearing player. He took on the thankless role of playing tough defensive minutes; he saw nearly a third of his ice time come against elite competition with just 31 percent offensive zone starts, per Natural Stat Trick and PuckIQ. Only Nurse saw more time on the penalty kill.


This leaves Edmonton with a big hole on their back end and let's be honest, Duncan Keith doesn't have much game left. This is what makes me LOL at Toronto and Edmonton because of how their teams are built.

Moreover, why make the Duncan Keith trade before the expansion draft!? They could have prevented Larsson from leaving.

That Taylor Hall trade looks super, super shitty for Edmonton right about now.

Edm could not have prevented Larsson from leaving. They could've protected him, but he still gets to go on the 28th if he so chose.

 

[Reclamation Project]

I missed this earlier, I explains why some of that happened, but quite a few of those picks are still extremely strange:

McPhee and McCrimmon are looking even better today. Damn they totally worked over the league. Karlsson, Marchessault, Smith, Theodore, and numerous picks that were flipped for elite talent like Stone and Pacioretty. They leveraged a really good second line and a Norris-caliber defenseman from those teams.

 

[DoktorJeep]

The Seattle decisions so far make their team look similar to the Wilds expansion approach. Heavy on D and they look like a team who will try to win playing low event hockey. I think they’ll add skill via free agency and the draft. Maybe Dougie and their pick at #2.

With a weak division they could compete for a playoff spot if a bunch of things go right. But they look like lovable losers to me as of today. Unless they get Hamilton, Landeskog and Eichel, I don’t see any Cinderella nonsense happening again.

 

[Buddy The Elf]

So no team paid Seattle to not pick a player? Not a single one? That kind of blows my mind. Insiders kept saying the price was high but jeez... at that point it's probably better to drop your price a bit and sucker some teams into giving you free assets instead of walking away empty handed.

Oh well. Let's see if they flip some of these guys for anything good or interesting. Not getting my hopes up, so far this has been more hype than substance.

The Kings are a clear winner out of this whole thing. They got a top 6 forward in Arvidsson on the cheap out of it, I doubt he would have been available at that price had there not been an expansion draft. Also losing MacDermid is probably a net positive in terms of on ice results.

Yeah I was expecting extortion like VGK but I guess there are a lot more variables this go around. Years of planning and learning from mistakes obviously played a part. I still expected more familiar names on their roster. I guess there is still time to take on some bloated contacts with compensation and free agency.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Vegas took advantage of a league not comfortable with the new expansion rules as GM's drastically overpaid to keep middling players safe. Seattle thought they could similarly take advantage, but times have changed. Not a single pre-expansion deal by a team to keep someone from being selected. The only deal for a drafted expansion player returns a 4th, which is a bunch of nothing.

Francis has a lot of cap to try and absorb big contracts from teams looking to get under the cap or to overpay in free agency, but it's time to stop any sort of comparisons to Vegas.

The league approached the Vegas expansion with fear and desperation. Fear of losing a player they didn't want to lose (and were willing to overpay to make sure it didn't happen), or desperation for Vegas to take a particular player (and teams were willing to overpay for it to happen). The fact is that simply didn't happen with Seattle. Seattle also has fierce competition in the cap dump graveyard for assets department from the Coyotes. Seattle is not Vegas, the circumstances surrounding the expansion draft could not have been different.

 

[DoktorJeep]

I think Francis is an average GM. His canes teams never made the playoffs. If the expectations were that Seattle be competitive out the gate, maybe he did a bad job at the expansion draft and the comparables aren’t close to Vegas.

 

[kilowatt]

There's still a good chance we lose Clague to waivers. He's Paul LaDue with a higher draft pedigree. He's Thomas Hickey. Kings aren't playing essentially three rookies on the left side next season and Anderson and Bjornfot are ahead of him on the roster. Hope I'm wrong though, I like Clague.

But sheesh... this defense sucks.

Anderson - Doughty
Bjornfot - Roy
Clague - Walker

 

[Soapdodger]

I was 100% sure that we made a side deal with the Kraken. I still can't believe that they passed Grundström and Clague in favour of MacDermid.

 

[Kudelski37]

There's still a good chance we lose Clague to waivers. He's Paul LaDue with a higher draft pedigree. TE]

Clague is way ahead of Ladue in development. Ladue didn't make his pro (AHL/NHL) debut until he was 24 and only played a total of 122 games for Ontario. Clague just turned 23 and has played 124 games in Ontario and 22 NHL games. Clague has been slightly more productive than Ladue was in Ontario 0.53 pts/game vs 0.52 pts/game. He might not become much, but he has a much better chance to develop into an everyday NHLer than Ladue.

 

[verbalkint47]

Overall I like what Francis did. I like the defence and the goaltending is acceptable. Looks like he is trying to build a team that is high effort and difficult to play against. Some of the picks aren't what I would have done but I can understand them.
However there are a few major head scratchers (barring any side deals or follow up moves).
Passing on JVR, Voracek, or Ghost for a 24 year old AHLer is strange. Even if he didn't like any of them, surely he could have retained salary and flipped them.
Taking a 27 AHL defenceman instead of Domi also seems crazy. Again, even if you don't like Domi retain some salary and flip him.. or even give him top 6 minutes and move him at the TDL.
Just seems like very poor asset management to me

 

[kilowatt]

Clague is way ahead of Ladue in development. Ladue didn't make his pro (AHL/NHL) debut until he was 24 and only played a total of 122 games for Ontario. Clague just turned 23 and has played 124 games in Ontario and 22 NHL games. Clague has been slightly more productive than Ladue was in Ontario 0.53 pts/game vs 0.52 pts/game. He might not become much, but he has a much better chance to develop into an everyday NHLer than Ladue.

Not to belabor the point, but you've just further proven that they're almost the same player. I actually liked LaDue and agree that Clague has higher upside, but sometimes even high picks don't work out. I'm just not convinced he's an NHL player for LA.

 

[tbrown33]

There's still a good chance we lose Clague to waivers. He's Paul LaDue with a higher draft pedigree. He's Thomas Hickey. Kings aren't playing essentially three rookies on the left side next season and Anderson and Bjornfot are ahead of him on the roster. Hope I'm wrong though, I like Clague.

But sheesh... this defense sucks.

Anderson - Doughty
Bjornfot - Roy
Clague - Walker

Yes, but we are *likely* not going into training camp with that group, exactly...

 

[kilowatt]

Yes, but we are *likely* not going into training camp with that group, exactly...

Sure, replace Clague with Maatta and that's the best we've got right now.

 

[tbrown33]

Sure, replace Clague with Maatta and that's the best we've got right now.

What I'm saying is we're not likely going into training camp with this exact grouping:

LHD:
Anderson
Bjornfot
Clague
Maatta
Wolanin
Moverare

RHD:
Doughty
Roy
Walker
Strand

None of these contracts are eligible to be moved to the AHL without going through waivers outside of Bjornfot and Anderson.

 

[Lt Dan]

Sure, replace Clague with Maatta and that's the best we've got right now.

I would rather play Clague and/or let a kid battle for that spot.

Maatta can suck it

 

[regulate]

MacDermid's Kraken career is over. Traded to the Avs for a 4th rounder in 23.