the Cunning Linguist wrote:
It's too bad that Vancouver can't lose more than 1 player in the expansion draft.
lol, I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday. I'm hoping they lose one, they might not.
I'm assuming Sutter will be let go at the end of his contract. Edler if he resigns will get a NMC so he won't be eligible, Holtby they could resign and leave open and depending on his season might be a decent choice. Or perhaps the Kraken just take a pass, they can find 20 better players from the other 30 teams. Although I'd guess there are some other really horrible choices out there.
Forwards: 7 protection spots
Protect: Boeser, Horvat, Miller, Virtanen, Motte, Gaudette, Pettersson.
Available: Beagle, Roussel, Eriksson
FA: Pearson and Sutter
Unavailable: Hoglander, MacEwen
Defence: 3 protection spots
Protect: Hughes; Schmidt;
Available: Myers
FA: Benn, Edler, Hamonic
Unavailable: Joulevi; Chatfield
Goalie: 1 protection spot
Demko protected of course
FA: Holtby (FA goalies require a qualifying offer before expansion and team must make a goalie available not sure how this works for a UFA, he probably needs to be signed first)
I doubt they resign either Edler, Hamonic or Pearson until after expansion. Too much chance of losing them or in Pearson's case having to open up Motte for nothing. And there is a really good chance Edler would rather retire than move, he seems to be that married to the city so maybe a safe bet to leave him unrestricted. It's interesting they'd have a spot open on defence, perhaps a discounted trade if some team is loaded on D and wants to get a little rather than give them away for nothing?
So its hard to say what options Seattle has and how desperate for Dmen they will be, but if I was Seattle I'd rather have one year of Roussel at $3 mil than 3 years of Myers at $6 mil, unless the Canucks throw in a sweetener, or Holtby for a year, hell I'd take Beagle for one year at $3 mil before I took Myers for 3 years. Or the Kraken will find 20 players better than these. Looks like we'll be stuck with Beagle for another season. FU Benning and your ridiculous contracts.