DEPTH of the DEEP
THE KRAKEN IS a monster, but will the Kraken be monsters? Sure, we all know the kraken is a beast that rises up from the murky depths of the ocean to eat ships whole. But will the Seattle Kraken be a beast in the sense of, Bro, there was a beast-mode Kraken Quake at Climate Pledge Arena!
The Vegas Golden Knights took the NHL by storm in their inaugural season, winning the Pacific with 109 points and reaching the 2018 Stanley Cup finals. The last expansion teams before the Golden Knights, the ’00–01 Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, both finished last in their divisions. The most obvious difference between the Knights and the pitiful new franchises of the turn of the millennium (Columbus, Minnesota, Atlanta Thrashers, and Nashville) was the expansion draft. Back then, existing teams could protect nine forwards, five defensemen,
The Vegas Golden Knights dominated in their first season. Will the Seattle Kraken follow their lead?
By Sam Page
and one goaltender from selection. That left Columbus and Minnesota to pick exclusively from bottom-six forwards, depth defensemen, and backup goalies. In ’17, by contrast, the NHL allowed the protection of just seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie (or eight total skaters and a goalie—an option for teams built around their defense).
Seattle got the same lenient expansion rules this year. Should it plan the parade route? Maybe not. One advantage the Golden Knights had over the
Kraken is that those rules were new and they could savvily capitalize on other teams’ panic over whom to protect. More important than whom the Golden Knights picked was whom they didn’t. General manager
George McPhee lined up
10 “side deals” with teams, in which a rival GMs agreed to lopsided trades on the condition that Vegas not take a certain player in the expansion draft. Vegas netted seven players and 10 draft picks from those trades, and, more crucially, got better players than the ones who were protected.
In maybe the most infamous such deal, the Florida Panthers dealt Jonathan Marchessault (above right) to Vegas to make sure the Golden Knights picked
Reilly Smith (above left). The latter forward was about to have a five-year, $25 million extension kick in. Maybe Florida wasn’t sure it wanted to pay him $5 million a year
So how many side deals did the Kraken make? Zero! Don’t blame general manager Ron Francis, though: His fellow executives likely learned from their mistakes with Vegas.
after a season in which he scored 37 points and was -13. But in their first year in Vegas, Marchessault had 75 points in 77 games while Smith had 60 in 67. In another such deal, the Golden Knights promised to pick William Karlsson and take on a player on long-term injured reserve in return for a first- and a second-round pick from Columbus. Karlsson finished third in the NHL with 43 goals that season; Vegas flipped the Blue Jackets’ picks for more NHLers.
So how many side deals did the Kraken make? Zero! Don’t blame general manager Ron Francis, though: His fellow executives likely learned from their mistakes with Vegas and weren’t eager to empower another juggernaut. Seattle’s only sin was going second. The Golden Knights’ ascent had to be especially irksome for franchises that had struggled themselves as expansion teams not too long ago. Ultimately, though, they got what they paid for: Columbus and Minnesota forked over $80 million each as an expansion fee to the NHL. Seattle and Vegas both had to pay $500 million.
Instead, the rest of the league tried to tempt the Kraken:
You can have our stars, but you have to take their contracts, too. Among the big-name players not protected were defensemen P.K. Subban and Kevin Shattenkirk, forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Matt Duchene, and goalie
Carey Price (right). Most every player on that list has two things in common: name recognition and a current employer eager to get out of their deal.
The desire to at least take Price had to be significant. He had just led the Montreal
Canadiens to a surprise Stanley Cup finals appearance. He has ties to the area: His wife is from Washington and he grew up in nearby Vancouver. And the Golden Knights had success taking an aging pedigreed goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, in their expansion draft. But Price is the highestpaid netminder in the NHL with an annual $10,500,000 cap hit.
Ultimately, the Kraken passed on Price and many other expensive superstars. That’s not to say the Kraken are a bunch of nobodies. They nabbed longtime Calgary captain Mark Giordano (left) with a year left on his contract. He’ll be a stabilizing presence and, if worst comes to worst, an attractive trade-deadline rental to shop. Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, and Jaden Schwartz have the makings of a fine top line. And the nature of the expansion draft means that the depth is solid: Defenseman Vince Dunn, from
St. Louis; and center Calle Järnkrok, from Nashville; aren’t household names, but their former teams will miss them.
Still, this Seattle roster doesn’t have the elite talent to terrorize the league right away. What it does have is salarycap flexibility and plenty of cheap, useful players other teams might trade draft picks for in the future. That’s more than the teams trying to dump their overpaid veterans onto Seattle can boast. And it’s much more of a head start than the expansion teams of 20 years had.
The Golden Knights’ 2018 run required a special mix of their savvy and other teams’ mistakes. Don’t expect lightning to strike twice. (Or the Tampa Lightning strike for a third time—Check out our Stanley Cup pick on page 48.)