Will You Be Losing Your Favorite Hockey Player To The Seattle Expansion Draft?
The National Hockey League is set to welcome a new team into the mix for the second time in the last four years as the Seattle Kraken get ready to make their debut this fall as the league's 32nd franchise.
The Kraken will begin to craft their team on Wednesday night when general manager Ron Francis makes his picks during the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, which begins at 8 p.m. ET.
All the league's existing clubs — with the exception of Vegas — submitted their protected lists on Sunday and the Kraken will select one player from each team, excluding the Golden Knights, for a total of 30 with at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies.
Seattle must choose a minimum of 20 players under contract for the 2021-22 regular season and those with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season's upper limit for the salary cap. The league said in a release that the Kraken cannot buy out players chosen in the Expansion Draft earlier than the summer following its first season.
Current NHL teams can protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters — forwards or defensemen — and one goalie.
Ahead of the expansion draft, insiders are breaking selections left and right, allowing fans to piece together the roster hours before the celebration is set to begin, and here's what Yahoo Sports reports so far:
Seattle Kracken's Roster
Forwards
Tyler Pitlick (Arizona Coyotes)
Morgan Geekie (Carolina Hurricanes)
Joonas Donskoi (Colorado Avalanche
Calle Jarnkrok (Nashville Predators)
Nathan Bastian (New Jersey Devils)
Jordan Eberle (New York Islanders)
Colin Blackwell (New York Rangers)
Carsen Twarynski (Philadelphia Flyers)
Brandon Tanev (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alexander True (San Jose Sharks)
Yanni Gourde (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Jared McCann (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Kole Lind (Vancouver Canucks)
Mason Appleton (Winnipeg Jets)
Defensemen
Haydn Fleury (Anaheim Ducks)
Jeremy Lauzon (Boston Bruins)
Mark Giordano (Calgary Flames)
Gavin Bayreuther (Coumbus Blue Jackets)
Adam Larsson (Edmonton Oilers)
Jamie Oleksiak (Dallas Stars)
Kurtis MacDermid (Los Angeles Kings)
Carson Soucy (Minnesota Wild)
Cale Fleury (Montreal Canadiens)
Vince Dunn (St. Louis Blues)
Goaltenders
Chris Driedger (Florida Panthers)
Joey Daccord (Ottawa Senators)
Vitek Vanecek (Washington Capitals)
Depth Chart
McCann-Gourde-Eberle
Tanev-Jarnkrok-Donskoi
Lind-Geekie-Appleton
Twarynski-Blackwell-Pitlick
Bastian, True
Giordano-Larsson
Oleksiak-Dunn
H. Fleury-Borgen
Soucy-MacDermid
Lauzon, C. Fleury, Bayreuther
Driedger
Vanecek
Daccord
This will be updated with new information.
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