After the Vegas Golden Knights successfully gamed their 2017 expansion draft all the way to a Stanley Cup final appearance in their first season, NHL GMs vowed to be smarter when Seattle assembled its first roster four years later.
There were fewer trades and side deals. And while the Kraken have had some success, they’re still looking to find their footing as a franchise heading into Year 4.
But it’s not like Ron Francis squandered his expansion draft opportunity. He set different priorities, and some of the Kraken’s expansion draft selections have evolved into core pieces of Seattle’s team, both on and off the ice.
With the gift of 20/20 hindsight, here are four teams that might be eager to accept a do-over when it came to choosing which players to expose for expansion draft selection.
The full list of all players who were protected and exposed can be found here. As a reminder, clubs were allowed to protect either seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie or one goalie and eight skaters in any combination of forwards and defensemen.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Brandon Tanev (and Jared McCann)
In 2017, the Golden Knights earned plaudits for snagging Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith from the Florida Panthers. For agreeing to do the Panthers a favor and select Marchessault rather than another unprotected player, Florida GM Dale Tallon traded Smith and a fourth-round pick to Vegas, relieving himself of Smith’s $5-million cap hit.
In 2021, the Kraken feasted on the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were four months into Ron Hextall’s tenure as GM and deep with middle-six forwards.
Believing that Jared McCann might be targeted by Seattle if left unprotected, Hextall elected to trade him to Toronto rather than lose him for nothing.
Two pieces came back in return. Young forward Filip Hallander did not require expansion-draft protection. He played three NHL games with the Penguins over the next two seasons before returning to his native Sweden. The 2023 seventh-round pick was used on Emil Jarventie, a 19-year-old who is playing in Finland.
The Leafs then left McCann unprotected to shield Alexander Kerfoot from being selected by Seattle.
😉
From the @MapleLeafs, the @SeattleKraken select Jared McCann.#SeattleDraft | #SeaKraken https://t.co/w4sMwTh7AR pic.twitter.com/HS3R5UkXdD
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 22, 2021
Kerfoot spent the next two years in Toronto before signing as a free agent with Arizona. He put up a solid 83 points in 162 games playing mostly on the wing, so he was worth protecting.
But McCann broke out once he got to Seattle. He has led the Kraken in goals in all three of their seasons to date. His 70-point campaign in 2022-23 is the best in franchise history. And with 96 goals and 182 points in 233 games in Seattle, he’s the franchise leader in goals, points and power-play goals and points.
The only Penguins with more points over the last three years are Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin.
The only Maple Leafs are Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares.
Jared McCann with the OT winner!
And Dave Hakstol is loving it #SEAKraken pic.twitter.com/IKyxFBud1e
— Emerald City Hockey (@EmeraldCityHky) October 31, 2023
McCann just turned 28, with plenty of runway ahead. The Penguins could use a guy like that on their roster right about now — and he could have been protected if Pittsburgh had elected to expose Kasperi Kapanen.
On top of that, with McCann off Pittsburgh’s list, the Kraken selected Brandon Tanev, who had missed 24 games due to injury in the shortened 2020-21 season. Though a torn ACL limited him to just 30 games in his first year in Seattle, he quickly endeared himself to the new fan base with his ‘I’ve seen a ghost’ headshots and his crash-and-bang style.
Tanev is Seattle’s franchise leader for hits by a forward. And if you ever take in a game at Climate Pledge Arena, you’ll see that his jersey is a popular choice among the faithful in the stands.
St. Louis Blues: Vince Dunn
The St. Louis Blues could perhaps have thought a bit younger when choosing to protect Torey Krug (30), Justin Faulk (29) and Colton Parayko (28) on their blueline, while leaving 24-year-old Vince Dunn exposed.
Welcome to Seattle, @vince_dunn 👏
(also a much easier name for @Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner to announce 😅). #SeattleDraft | #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/mvji63WOUk
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 22, 2021
Perhaps Doug Armstrong assumed the Kraken wouldn’t look past Vladimir Tarasenko, at that time a five-time 30-goal scorer with two years left at a cap hit of $7.5 million.
A second-round pick in 2015, Dunn had four NHL seasons under his belt and had seen his ice time jump by three minutes a game in 2020-21. He looked poised for bigger things, especially on the offensive side of the puck, and his possession numbers were also decent.
In his second year in Seattle, he popped.
Vince Dunn, that’s the tweet. #NHLAllStarVote pic.twitter.com/qKABctygX2
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 10, 2024
Dunn led the team in ice time and plus-minus (plus-28) while setting a franchise record with 50 assists on his way to 64 points. He was a huge part of Seattle’s surge to their first playoff appearance and subsequent upset of the Colorado Avalanche and is now locked up for three more years at $7.35 million.
Dallas Stars: Jamie Oleksiak
At 6-foot-7, Oleksiak needed some time to get comfortable in his big body. When he returned to Dallas for his second tour of duty in 2019, he started to carve out a spot in the regular blueline rotation.
When the expansion draft took place in 2021, it wasn’t surprising to see the Stars protect power-play ace John Klingberg over the Big Rig. But in hindsight, Oleksiak might have been the better choice.
"It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up on."
Jamie Oleksiak on his decision to sign a five-year contract with the @SeattleKraken. #SeattleDraft | #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/knZCoo0FjS
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 22, 2021
Klingberg lasted only one more year with the team before leaving as a UFA, unable to come to terms on a long-term deal. Injury issues have now left his playing future in doubt.
Meanwhile, Oleksiak has played a steady role on the Kraken’s back end, providing a physical presence and chipping in a few points, all at a comfortable cap hit of $4.6 million.
Jamie Oleksiak hammers it home and it's all tied up in Seattle! 💪 pic.twitter.com/9jGDM0MlLm
— NHL (@NHL) December 10, 2023
If the Stars had kept Oleksiak, it’s also unlikely that they would have signed Ryan Suter to a four-year deal after he was bought out by the Minnesota Wild a month after Oleksiak left town. Dallas bought out the last year of Suter’s contract on June 28.
Ottawa Senators: Joey Daccord
When the Ottawa Senators released their protected list in 2021, the big news was that Matt Murray’s name wasn’t on it. Less than a year earlier, he’d been acquired from Pittsburgh and signed to a rich four-year deal.
GM Pierre Dorion elected to use his goalie-protection slot on Filip Gustavsson, who was back after having returned to Sweden in 2019-20.
In 2020-21, Gustavsson excelled in his first nine NHL games, looking like the Sens’ goalie of the future with a 5-1-2 record and .933 save percentage.
But rather than go after the pricey Murray or any other of the players Ottawa left unprotected, Francis settled on Joey Daccord — Ottawa’s seventh-round pick from 2015, who had gone 1-4-1 with an .894 save percentage in nine NHL appearances.
Seattle's own @macklemore welcomes Joey Daccord from the Ottawa Senators to the @SeattleKraken! 🙌#SeattleDraft | #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/54YBet4OUj
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 22, 2021
Fast-forward three years, and Daccord has worked his way up to Seattle’s starting job at age 27. The affable Bostonian logged 50 NHL games last year, posting a .916 save percentage and all but deposing Philipp Grubauer.
JOEY DACCORD GAME-SAVING STOP 🚫 pic.twitter.com/l73o4SwyMj
— NHL (@NHL) March 6, 2024
Meanwhile, Gustavsson found himself back in the minors for a stretch in 2021-22. He was flipped to Minnesota in exchange for Cam Talbot, who lasted one underwhelming year in Canada’s capital before moving on to Los Angeles as a free agent. Gustavsson is a starter in Minnesota, but perhaps Daccord would have worked out better for Ottawa.
As The Hockey News’ Ottawa Senators site editor Steve Warne mentioned in May, the Senators also protected Logan Brown, Colin White, Nikita Zaitsev, Austin Watson and Victor Mete. None of them are still with the Senators, and Zaitsev played the most NHL games last season of the bunch, with 38.
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News Summary:
- Re-Examining the Protected Lists for the Seattle Kraken's 2021 NHL Expansion Draft
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.