Who had/has the advantage in the expansion draft? Vegas or Seattle?

[rocketdan9]

Especially in terms of available pool of talent to choose from. With goaltending getting stronger than ever in recent years, Seattle may have an advantage at picking at this position.

What about the other positions??

Click to read more...

 

[Dishtank]

I'll say Vegas had the advantage. Looking back on trades they made before and the talent/draft capital they were able to acquire to pick/not pick certain players. My guess is current GM's learned from that and you won't see nearly the amount of moves being made pre-draft.

 

[rocketdan9]

I'll say Vegas had the advantage. Looking back on trades they made before and the talent/draft capital they were able to acquire to pick/not pick certain players. My guess is current GM's learned from that and you won't see nearly the amount of moves being made pre-draft.

So you mean... other GMs today won't be eager to add picks/extras. And just let Kraken take the player they want (though there will be some resistance)

 

[Captain97]

So you mean... other GMs today won't be eager to add picks/extras. And just let Kraken take the player they want (though there will be some resistance)

I agree with this idea, I think teams will be more accepting of losing a decent guy over giving up a alot to lose an okay guy instead.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Vegas might disincentivize people from making the same sort of deals with Seattle that they made with the Knights. On the other hand, the cap is effectively flat for the foreseeable future, so Seattle has a better market.

 

[socko]

Vegas might disincentivize people from making the same sort of deals with Seattle that they made with the Knights. On the other hand, the cap is effectively flat for the foreseeable future, so Seattle has a better market.

I really like your 2nd point. If the Kraken are willing to take salary cap dumps, they can add some pieces.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

GMs learned from their mistakes and won't wanna do that again... now having said that, many many teams won't have a choice but to screw themselves in order to open cap space

It's all about cap space this summer... alot of teams are screwed and desperately need Seattle to help them

Seattle has an opportunity to become a very good team right away

 

[King'sPawn]

Vegas was a cautionary tale to GMs being married to certain players and paying too much to keep them.

Where Seattle has the advantage is a flat cap and bullying some team to give more to keep hopes of cap compliance.

 

[rocketdan9]

Vegas was a cautionary tale to GMs being married to certain players and paying too much to keep them.

Where Seattle has the advantage is a flat cap and bullying some team to give more to keep hopes of cap compliance.

Tampa, Vegas, Toronto, Colorado , Arizona could fall under cap issues for next season

But doesnt seem like many other teams are facing issues. They got a head start due to covid

Bruins wont have cap issues thats for sure

 

[LMFAO]

Vegas made some good trades which teams probably learned from this time around. But the league is getting better every year and I’m sure Seattle will have a pretty good roster and will be in the top tier of the league in their first season.

 

[Dolemite]

I'll say Vegas had the advantage. Looking back on trades they made before and the talent/draft capital they were able to acquire to pick/not pick certain players. My guess is current GM's learned from that and you won't see nearly the amount of moves being made pre-draft.

This. Now that a lot of the secrets that Vegas used to build a winner quickly is out other NHL team will be hesitant to do the same thing again.

That said, this is the way an expansion is supposed to be - Become a solid franchise from the start.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

Vegas had the advantage.
Simply put it's about time.

Vegas was announced about a year before they came in and GM's hardly had time to adjust their rosters which left them vulnerable to exposing good players.

Seattle was announced about 2 1/2 years before their expansion draft which left GM's two offseasons and three trading deadlines to adjust their rosters.

You can now clearly see the difference as there were hardly any NMC's handed out and instead of 66 NMC's with Vegas you now only have 52 NMC's with Seattle.
Teams were also able to structure their rosters in a way that has most teams covered pretty well for the expansion draft.

The only thing in favour of Seattle is the flat cap and the fact that some teams now have to find ways to offload contracts in order to gain cap flexibility.
That should help Seattle to negotiate side deals in order to add talent but even then, the way things worked for Vegas is something no expansion team should expect.

 

[thewookie1]

Vegas by far.

Vegas had the element of surprise on their side; teams won't be handing them great players this time around, I'd assume.

I doubt we'll see another Florida or Anaheim situation where a team literally overpays to save a 4th Dman.

 

[SwedishFire]

Quite the bullshit thag Vegas doesnt lose a player, and they are playing in the semis. What??

Seattle doesnt have sny leverage, and the league is even lore diluted now than when Vegas canento the league. So what to do

 

[Panthaz89]

People are underestimating the expansion draft again guaranteed good goalie and deep teams will have to give up a good player. Instantly you have a team with good depth if you studied right and then a Karlsson or two of guys who play better.

 

[Ossific]

Quite the bullshit thag Vegas doesnt lose a player, and they are playing in the semis. What??

Seattle doesnt have sny leverage, and the league is even lore diluted now than when Vegas canento the league. So what to do

They have cap leverage.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Seattle. They now know you can build a good team immediately out of these rules.

 

[Fig]

I think Seattle has a better pool of players to draft from, but I think they will not be able to replicate the perfect storm to go on a deep ride in their inaugural season like VGK did. I think Seattle's "floor" is higher, but their "ceiling" is lower if that makes sense.

Seattle won't have to overachieve in the inaugural year to be competitive. IIRC, VGK was considered/predicted to be barely beyond a bubble calibre team and they over achieved under Gallant (plus they rallied together after the shooting). I think Seattle will be a guaranteed bubble team from the get go. I think Seattle has a slight advantage on the cap crunch (although VGK leveraged cap decently too). VGK did great to flip extra players, it'll be interesting to see if Seattle can replicate or exceed that (especially if they retain).

Lots of extra players retired early during the pandemic and there's seemingly more quality trickling out between most teams 7-3-1 or 8-1 lists, so the quality of some players are improved (slightly less borderline non-NHL calibre players to meet requirements). There's going to be higher end players being exposed than in the VGK draft IMO, but some of them might have a shorter shelf life (more UFA quality and less RFA quality/disappointments vs VGK?). Lots of players got a huge boost playing for VGK (chip on their shoulder and miffed they were discarded). This might have been due to the short time to understand they might be exposed and thus they felt discarded. But with the longer awareness of the Seattle draft, I wonder if the likelihood of the Seattle group playing with the same level of chip on their shoulder won't be as high (the player worries, but accepts they are the piece to be exposed). I think Seattle will end up with more historical top line and top pairing players who had a drop in play vs VGK had more "disappointment players" who they hoped would grow into top pairing/top line players.


Not expansion draft: but I think another major difference is that Vegas after its inaugural season has the Vegas advantage. That's why they perhaps were able to insulate and improve their bubble core with pieces like AP and Stone (trade and extend) to solidify themselves as a legit contender from being a solid bubble team. I think players will definitely consider Seattle a nice place to play, but I doubt that interest will be like top 5 in the league like Vegas was from the get go.

 

[PumpkinBomb]

In 2017 there were 57 NMC contracts that had to be protected

This year there are only 46 (an additional 3 are LTIR exempt)
Only 29 NMC contracts have been signed since (and 2 are vegas and don't count) which is less than 1 per team
Meaning 30 of the 57 NMCs in place in 2017 are still in place

 

[Johno]

Vegas for sure. The GMs were scrambling to not lose anything and didn’t grasp the situation fully it seemed. Now they are a lot wiser and won’t most likely make such stupid decisions.

 

[SwedishFire]

You knew that Vegas would pock one pf the good Pittsbutgh goalies (turned out that Vegas lucked oyt on Pittsbutgh betting onnthe wrong one).

Who is going to be this turn?

And Vegas had as predicted, a hard time to fond a 1C. They bought Shipachyov in a gamble to make that secured.

Who is going to be the 1C for Seattle??

 

[rocketdan9]

You knew that Vegas would pock one pf the good Pittsbutgh goalies (turned out that Vegas lucked oyt on Pittsbutgh betting onnthe wrong one).

Who is going to be this turn?

And Vegas had as predicted, a hard time to fond a 1C. They bought Shipachyov in a gamble to make that secured.

Who is going to be the 1C for Seattle??

Ryan Johansen or Ross Colton would be my guess

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Vegas because they came in like a wrecking ball. Seattle on the other hand was the one teams prepared for.

 

[generalshepherd141]

Seattle has a case, especially considering the division.

Vegas will be really good next season. Edmonton, Calgary, and maybe Vancouver should compete for playoff spots. But Anaheim, LA, and San Jose should all be trash once again, so in my opinion Seattle would really have to screw up the draft to finish in the bottom 3 in the Pacific.

They actually have a chance to take 2nd in the Pacific, even if GMs aren't inclined to "overthink" their strategy like they did when the Knights entered the league. If the chemistry is there between Seattle's players like it was for Vegas', then they will be a solid team.

 

[MessierII]

Seattle. They now know you can build a good team immediately out of these rules.

What’s that? Hope another 3C like Karlsson becomes a 1 overnight? Or that a bottom pair D like Schmidt becomes a 1# D suddenly? Vegas was a sports miracle. You could do 100 expansion drafts under the same rules and that would never happen again.