NHL 2021

[Gabriel]

...and now it's come out that Carey Price will be undergoing knee surgery and having doctors look at some other potential issues as well, and it is expected he will miss at least the beginning of next season, if not longer.

Lots of league executives are crying foul here, especially because Seattle is supposed to have a doctor's report on every draft eligible player prior to Wednesday's selections, and Price won't see the doctors until after that.

The belief is that Montreal already expected to be without Price for most of next season, hence the desire to protect Jake Allen (along with his regular season performance), and that they made these decisions knowing that it is unlikely the Kraken will take a flyer on a guy whose medical report won't be available to them.

I'd still take him from Montreal. The jersey sales alone would be enormous, and if Bergevin is trying to game the draft by exposing Price here, if I'm Seattle, I'm pushing back and taking their franchise face away from them just to be a dick.

$10 million is a lot of money to spend on one guy in a flat cap world, but if they get creative with trades, they'll be able to select some really good talents that they can then flip for a more cost-controlled roster of near-ready prospects and veterans.

If they take Tarasenko from the Blues, then flip him and retain half his salary, they're getting a damn good return back.

[gunnar hendershow]

I could've told you Price had some nagging injuries based on how rough he looked during the regular season. It's hard also to cry foul when the season just ended and he's taking some deserved time off before seeing a doctor. Just the reality of the super tight turnarounds the league imposed from the end of the season to the expansion draft and entry draft. Had Montreal been eliminated earlier it'd have been no question that 1) Price would've been unprotected, and 2) Price would've had already had surgery for whatever is going on. Same goes for Weber.

Also that Tarasenko scenario is very likely. They might even have a deal set up already to do exactly that with someone.

[Gabriel]

CapFriendly has an expansion draft simulator, so I gave it a quick five minute whirl and came out with a list of guys that I would feel powerful parading around through the off-season. I'm not entirely sure that everyone listed as available actually is, but it wouldn't be surprising either because of how many teams are looking to shed salary through the expansion draft.

Either way, my roster shook out like this:
 

Spoiler

 

Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis)

Max Domi (Columbus)

Yanni Gourde (Tampa Bay)

Jared McCann (Toronto)

Colton Sissons (Nashville)

Jake Virtanen (Vancouver)

Cody Eakin (Buffalo)

Vladislav Namestnikov (Detroit)

Brendan Lemieux (Los Angeles)

Christian Fischer (Arizona)

Alexander Volkov (Anaheim)

Barclay Goodrow (New York)

Adam Gaudette (Chicago)

Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado)

 

Mark Giordano (Calgary)

Oscar Klefbom (Edmonton)

Brendan Dillon (Washington)

Dylan DeMelo (Winnipeg)

Thomas Hickey (Long Island)

Robert Hagg (Philadelphia)

Connor Clifton (Boston)

Julius Honka (Dallas)

Cody Ceci (Pittsburgh)

Christian Jaros (San Jose)

Jake Bean (Carolina)

 

Carey Price (Montreal)

Scott Wedgewood (New Jersey)

Joey Daccord (Ottawa)

Kaapo Kahkonen (Minnesota)

Chris Driedger (Florida)

 

On the goalie front, Price is the face of the franchise. He has ties to the pacific northwest and is a great ambassador for the team. Injuries and cap hit aren't an issue for me. He provides so much more than just manning the crease. Chris Driedger is the number one goalie heading into the season, with the caveat that Price takes the mantle when he's healthy and the two form a tandem that allows Price to mentor the younger goalie and give him time to properly develop at the NHL level.

Wedgewood and Daccord, I'm flipping to other teams.

Giordano, DeMelo and Bean are all absolute no-brainer's for me on the back-end. Either Klefbom or Dillon provide insurance as a second pairing defender in case Giordano needs to be moved away from first-pairing minutes. On the right side, first-pairing minutes are DeMelo's to lose. Julius Honka always played the Flames hard, and I like his potential. Everyone else can be used to acquire other players or picks/prospects if the right opportunities come along.

Tarasenko is a draft and trade, completely. While someone with his elite level skill is always nice to have, his value is better used in retaining half his cap hit and starting a bidding war with teams that are looking to get someone of his calibre at $3.75 a year. In a flat cap world, that return is huge.

Landeskog, if he'll sign with Seattle knowing that there just isn't room with the Avalanche for him anymore, would be my leader up front. The rest of the forward group, I am happy enough with to head into the season as-is, but outside of Landeskog, nobody is untouchable if a good enough deal shows up.

[gunnar hendershow]

Swap Price for Holtby and a couple other switches and you basically have what I drafted. I think I grabbed Danault from Montreal under the assumption Seattle would give him the 8-year deal. Good 2-way forward who would slot easily on one of the lines. Not sure if they commit themselves to him though given they can avoid long-term contracts right now to make moves to build a much better team. Kulak would be their other choice in my eyes.

Gourde, Dreidger, Kahkonen, Giordano, Klefbom, and Eakin feel like the total locks. Trasenko is highly likely with the caveat that a trade is already being hammered out. Landeskog is probably going to be one of their centerpieces for the early years of the franchise. But definitely a lot of questions, none bigger than if they go with Carey Price.

[Ruki]

While I was originally on board with Seattle taking Price, just for the full chaos, taking him would be a mistake. While he is a huge name and can still steal games, for the most part the past few years, he hasn't been great... and I doubt he'll be much better after his surgery that is taking him out. That's way too much cap just to have a face of the franchise. 

 

Also doubt that Domi gets taken, as I heard he is having surgery and will be out a good chunk of the year and is a UFA. 

[gunnar hendershow]

The Edmonton Oilers, everybody!

 

And in other goaltender news

 

[Ruki]

And Kraken get Adam Larsson 4x4. Great day for the Oilers, along with the Smith news!

[Gabriel]

9 minutes ago, Ruki Returns said:

And Kraken get Adam Larsson 4x4. Great day for the Oilers, along with the Smith news!

Signing Smith is only a good move if they know they can move Koskinen, or buy him out. They absolutely cannot go into next year with the same tandem. When Smith is good, he's great... but he's also become more prone to prolonged periods of time where he's the drizzling shits... and Koskinen is not the guy you want trying to break those cold streaks.

Either they know that Koskinen won't be wearing the jersey next year, or they've just made critical error number one of the off-season by taking themselves out of the running for any number of the other, younger, goalies on the market.

[gunnar hendershow]

11 minutes ago, Ruki Returns said:

And Kraken get Adam Larsson 4x4. Great day for the Oilers, along with the Smith news!

Didn't they sell the Duncan Keith trade as a way to complement Adam Larsson once they re-signed him? Or was that just beat writers assuming Edmonton couldn't possibly be *that* dumb?

[Ruki]

 

[Ruki]

 

[The Buscher]

Man I’m gonna miss Eberle  

Lots of cap space though between his contract leaving and the Nick Leddy trade the other day 

[gunnar hendershow]

Based on a lot of the leaks I think it's relatively assured Seattle has multiple trades already lined up and, while these aren't binding and carry a risk, some handshake agreements with FAs. They're giving themselves a ton of flexibility. Not to mention they will likely get Beniers in the entry draft who is a fantastic player to build around.

Playoffs off the bat for this squad with young pieces to develop over the next 3-4 when they might start competing for Stanley Cups with regularity.

[caucasianheat]

Clearly no eagerness to take on a lot of term or money with their picks. Francis had said cap flexibility was going to be their strength and you can already see that playing out in how they've picked. Locking down Larsson and Oleksiak as free agents gives them some solid defensive stability and will help to shelter guys like Lauzon, Dunn, and the Fleurys.

Spoiler

 

• I like Eberle, but I took Josh Bailey when mock drafting. They were going to be getting one of their better roster players from NYI either way, though.
• Appleton was a no-brainer. Ready for a bigger role than Winnipeg could provide him and could be one of the breakout guys on this team.
• Would have taken Kerfoot over McCann from TOR because he can play in any forward spot through the middle six and they are going to be hard pressed to find centermen.
• Jarnkrok is the right pick from Nashville. Versatile and not going to punish you long-term with salary commitments like Johansen or Duchene.
• Ottawa didn't leave much exposed and Daccord can go down to the minors without needing waivers, so that's a smart pick.
• Something must be cooking between Seattle and Columbus, as the Kraken took bubble UFA defenseman Gavin Bayreuther instead of Domi or Kukan. 

 

 

[The Buscher]

The poor Kraken social media manager, having to hype up the draft making posts like “who’s excited for tonight?” followed by a bunch of responses like “no because the picks are all leaked”

[gunnar hendershow]

Not Detroit's! Plus I think they're announcing trades tonight, no? And there should be a ton of those. 

[Ruki]

22 minutes ago, damshow said:

Not Detroit's! Plus I think they're announcing trades tonight, no? And there should be a ton of those. 

I'm always excited for trades. I want full chaos, please.

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, Ruki Returns said:

I'm always excited for trades. I want full chaos, please.

Where's my gosh darn trades!?

[gunnar hendershow]

Apparently they're not announcing the trade chaos until tomorrow. Sad.

[Ruki]

And it's not even going to be chaos, just a couple of trades