The Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft took place on June 21, 2017. That night, the league announced ten trades that the Golden Knights had made with expansion draft considerations in mind, but they weren’t done there. Over the next two weeks, they completed seven more trades to fix the roster construction. After all, an expansion process usually doesn’t leave you with a perfect mix of players, and free agent frenzy had also provided some opportunities to add to that initial group.
Starting with Trevor van Riemsdyk, the Golden Knights shed the extra defensemen they selected in the expansion draft, collecting a number of draft picks in the process. There was van Riemsdyk, David Schlemko, Marc Methot, and Alexei Emelin to move, since they simply couldn’t keep all the NHL defensemen that were targeted in the draft.
The Seattle Kraken, now nearly a month after their own expansion draft, have made three trades. One of those was to send goaltender Vitek Vanecek back to his original team, while Kurtis MacDermid and Tyler Pitlick were also flipped for fourth-round picks. But the problem that Vegas faced four years ago now faces Seattle as well–there are still just too many defensemen.
Not even counting Dennis Cholowski, who is currently an unsigned restricted free agent the Kraken have ten defensemen under contract for the 2021-22 season. None of them, not even 22-year-old Cale Fleury, are waiver-exempt. That means unless they’re going to carry more defensemen than any other team in the league this season (even playing a couple of them at forward) some will have to be either traded or exposed on waivers before the season begins. Sure, Connor Carrick, the team’s lone defensive free agent signing can likely clear without worry after a disappointing season in New Jersey, but even he has 241 games of NHL experience. None of the other defensemen are risk-free when it comes to waivers, meaning something has to give in the next few months.
The odd balance here is that, even though they’re facing a roster crunch, the actual depth chart isn’t very long. Because the Kraken won’t have a full-time minor league affiliate this season and are just sending a handful of players to the Charlotte Checkers, the list of defensemen actually ends at Carrick–number ten on the chart (until Cholowski is signed). A few training camp injuries and suddenly you’re looking extremely thin on the back end, scrambling for some insurance options just to make an active roster. While that situation might solve the issue of waivers for a while, when those players healed the Kraken would be in trouble once again, having to push players through midseason. Worse, what if they were to lose one or two players on waivers and then suffer a few injuries in the early part of the season?
A potential fix is to sign a few more players like Carrick—with NHL experience but likely to clear waivers at the start of the season—while also trading a few of the current options in the meantime. The problem is that many of the league’s teams have basically locked their rosters and may not be jumping to trade for another defenseman after spending in free agency. Perhaps the plan is to wait for training camp injuries to happen around the league, but it is a tricky situation that Seattle finds themselves in right now, with a risky depth chart that essentially is both too full and too short at the same time.
This isn’t a surprise. The Kraken flubbed the draft out of the shoot and didn’t have a real plan in place. It is clear to see when you draft a guy that decides to sign a PTO in Switzerland or pass on a player that is traded for multiple 2nd round picks. They probably thought they could trade some of them but instead sat on there hands when it would have been the best time to do so.
Not sure they really flubbed it. Teams knew this draft was coming and were prepared to protect key players and assets unlike when the Golden Knights came into the league. Sure they couldve made a few more trades but it seems like Francis bet more on Free Agents coming in than selecting players in exchange for future assets.
Says the guy with zero nhl management experience
Was the Golden Knights draft a surprise?
Didn’t other teams know the rules before hand?
I didn’t watch Hockey back then so I’m curious if you meant teams were more prepared this time, or if the last expansion draft was unexpected?
Not saying the Vegas expansion draft was a surprise for the NHL just saying teams had more time to prepare for this draft and had experience dealing with an expansion draft recently. Vegas had a chance to draft really solid players that teams had a hard time protecting, but Seattle had a lot less appealing options available to them
I’m still waiting for something to make everything the Kraken did make sense. I’m not sure it’s coming actually…I though sure Francis and co have a plan these are pros running an nhl hockey club. I’m really struggling to see their vision at the moment.
Francis forgot to turn off auto-save before starting his expansion GM mode.
Gosh, Gavin, that sure is an excessively kind way of saying it.
Vegas had 9 D man make opening night roster
(Engelland, Schmidt, Miller, McNabb, Sbisa, Merrill, Hunt, Garrison and Reinhart)
After a handful of games Garrison and Reinhart were sent to the AHL clearing waivers. And Theodore was brought up who was waiver exempt
@vegasloveforthebills – Which Reinhart are you talking about? And, Merrill & Hunt aren’t listed on the opening night roster, per
link to hockey-reference.com
They’re referring to Griffin Reinhart
@admiral hopppaaa – Thanks for the refresh. Griffin Reinhart, one of the “I forgot about him” guys in hockey history. Token expansion draft pick, now starring on the European Tour…
If you just remember that the Oilers traded #16 (Barzal) and #33 (traded to TBL for #28 – Anthony Beauvillier) at the 2015 draft for Griff, you’ll never forget him.
@admiral hopppaaa – My impression of him was a guy who was super-hyped, but never really delivered. Showed a bunch of promise in juniors, but, something went a bit sideways for him, at least relatively speaking.
Gee, every single piece of evidence seems to indicate that Francis botched that expansion draft but unless you are actively employed by an NHL organization you aren’t allowed to point out the obvious, so clearly we all need to defer to Francis’ infinite wisdom.
We agree on something! :0
But I did win a playoff pool once, so I think that gives me some clout to comment on management matters. :D
spot on
Francis’ tenure in Carolina indicated he would take the play it safe route in Seattle as well, and that turned out to be true. We’ll see how it goes, but he really didn’t take advantage of teams cap crunches as he probably should have.
I was disappointed in the Kraken draft. They selected too many young guys with some possible upside but not enough players with significant experience. I didn’t like the mixture. They selected some good sized D but maybe some D with little offensive upside.
reality they have eight guys other teams would want. Doubtful another team picks Cale Fluery or cholowski. they have little real trade value either.
Gee Gavin, I sure hope Ron and company get a glance at your write up. I really feel like they’re headed for disaster unless they start listening to the armchair GMs and the “experts”. I remember these same “experts” trying to straightened Vegas out as well.
What a bunch of idiots.
Write it down so you can make excuses why you got it so wrong….