Kraken makes surprising pick from Sharks’ roster
SAN JOSE >> The Sharks will lose center Alexander True in the NHL expansion draft to the Seattle Kraken, which formed its roster Wednesday with players left available by 30 teams throughout the league.
True, 24, just finished his fourth professional season with the Sharks organization and is a pending restricted free agent.
In 2021, True had one assist in seven NHL games as he spent the bulk of the season with the Barracuda, where he had 20 points in 27 games.
The Kraken’s decision to take True, who played from 2014 to 2017 with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, was confirmed to this news organization by an NHL source. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic first reported the selection.
The Kraken had to submit their expansion draft selection list to the NHL by 7 a.m. (PT) this morning, along with a list of restricted and unrestricted free agents that they signed from other teams. Seattle was allowed to take one player from each of the 30 teams that had to participate in the process.
Seattle’s roster will be officially unveiled today on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. (PT), although nearly all of the team’s picks had been reported hours ahead of time.
Per reports, the Kraken now has three goalies, as mandated, and 15 forwards and 11 defensemen.
Among the more notable players the Kraken selected were forwards Yanni Gourde from the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and Jordan Eberle of the New York Islanders, plus defensemen Mark
Giordano of the Calgary Flames and Vince Dunn from the St. Louis Blues.
Former Sharks Joonas Donskoi and Colin Blackwell were also chosen by the Kraken from the Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers, respectively.
The Kraken chose not to select several players with a higher price tag, electing instead to preserve valuable space under the NHL’s salary cap of $81.5 million.
Some high-profile players that had been available included Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price and St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko. Price’s contract carries a $10.5 million cap hit for the next five years and Tarasenko’s deal has a $7.5 million hit for the next two years.
The Sharks had several other more experienced forwards available, including Ryan Donato, Dylan Gambrell and Matt Nieto, along with Jayden Halbgewachs, Kurtis Gabriel, Maxim Letunov, Patrick Marleau and Marcus Sorensen.
Donato is a pending RFA and Gabriel, Letunov, Marleau and Sorensen are all slated to become UFAs next week. It is unclear if any of them will be back with the Sharks next season.
The same can be said for goalie Martin Jones, who was exposed to Seattle but remains on the Sharks roster for now. The Kraken instead chose Joey Daccord (Ottawa) and Vitek Vanecek (Washington), and had recently signed former Florida Panthers goalie Chris Driedger as a free agent.
Jones’s future with the Sharks is murky at best, as his contract carries a cap hit of $5.75 million for the next three years and could be bought out by the Sharks in the coming days. The Sharks recently acquired Adin Hill from the Arizona Coyotes, and he’ll likely play a significant role for San Jose going forward.
The Sharks and 29 other NHL teams sent their protected list to the NHL last Saturday. Only the Vegas Golden Knights, who came into the league in 2017, were exempt from the draft.