Kraken Expansion Draft

[LordKOTL]

Not bad at all on the back end. As it stands they would not score much, but they are big and tough. Course, long way to go still.....

VVV

I was surprised they went that young. Seems like they picked a shit ton of d-men. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on my part that they would pick better players and screw other teams over, but it almost felt like Francis went out of his way to accommodate the grand majority of teams with his picks.

Some have been reporting that the Kraken effectively went as cheap as possible in expansion to give themselves a lot of leverage in the FA/UFA market--especially with the stagnant cap. From what I gather they have nearly $29M in cap space (vs. the 10 the 'hawks have). That puts them in a lot of the UFA sweepstakes around the league...not to mention the ability to offersheet guys.

John Quinnville?

Really? I mean I can agree with them after they did their homework that it wasn't worth taking any of the contracts we left exposed...but I don't think that was the best they could do from the farm of minimum salary players.

I guess we got lucky because they had interest in D they could get elsewhere. This was a non-event for the Hawks, though I'm not sure Stan didn't clusterfuck his team three times over just to "out smart" this thing.

Assuming what I said above is true, I don't think there were many pieces Stan could have dangled to Seattle that would actually help the 'hawks. All of our expensive guys dangled suck, and the rest of the cheap players had automatic protection or were not much better than Quenneville.

Either way no favors were done. We're still stuck with DeHaan for now.

 

[Raskolnikov]

They seemed so enamored with size that Q2 over Hino was philosophy over scouting. I think Hino would have helped them more given what they have and what they lack.

 

[MassHavoc]

Buddy, it wouldn't have been "wasting the pick." They could have essentially signed him (during those talks) before they actually drafted him. Do you not know how this works? They did the same thing with Oleksiak and Larsson. You come to an agreement before actually "picking" the player.

Anyways, they tried and he wanted too much. So they knew not to pick him. The end.

Again, all you did was confirm it would have been a wasted pick. He wasn't going to sign there before he hit the open market. No reason in even consider picking him.

 

[ruprecht]

VVV

Some have been reporting that the Kraken effectively went as cheap as possible in expansion to give themselves a lot of leverage in the FA/UFA market--especially with the stagnant cap. From what I gather they have nearly $29M in cap space (vs. the 10 the 'hawks have). That puts them in a lot of the UFA sweepstakes around the league...not to mention the ability to offersheet guys.

Assuming what I said above is true, I don't think there were many pieces Stan could have dangled to Seattle that would actually help the 'hawks. All of our expensive guys dangled suck, and the rest of the cheap players had automatic protection or were not much better than Quenneville.

Either way no favors were done. We're still stuck with DeHaan for now.

Don't know about you but I'm glad there will be NHL games close-ish by

 

[ruprecht]

They seemed so enamored with size that Q2 over Hino was philosophy over scouting. I think Hino would have helped them more given what they have and what they lack.

That was an odd one

 

[HSBOB]

That host with Moore (forget his name now) was fucking awful. Awkward, horrid jokes, and on top of it, he says "Carolina Panthers" when the Hurricane pick came up, lol.

The best part was trying to watch Shawn Kemp pronounce Donskoi.

They both went outta their way to kick the Buffalo and Toronto fan bases around too.........I'm sure they all know how long their streaks are.....LOL

 

[HSBOB]

John Quinnville?

Really? I mean I can agree with them after they did their homework that it wasn't worth taking any of the contracts we left exposed...but I don't think that was the best they could do from the farm of minimum salary players.

I guess we got lucky because they had interest in D they could get elsewhere. This was a non-event for the Hawks, though I'm not sure Stan didn't clusterfuck his team three times over just to "out smart" this thing.

Wouldn't you rather have a 30pt,hard working Hinostroza on your team instead of a career AHL guy? I'm sure VH woulda signed for 1-1.5M.

 

[Granada]

Again, all you did was confirm it would have been a wasted pick. He wasn't going to sign there before he hit the open market. No reason in even consider picking him.

Your first post simply said Seattle wouldn't "pick" him "because he's a UFA." As if they wouldn't pick any UFA's. Oleksiak and Larsson were also slated to be UFAs this year.

Of course they're not going to pick the guy after they realized they couldn't sign him beforehand -- I never said they would or should. Seattle had a window to talk with Landeskog before other teams and before the draft itself-- just like they did with Oleksiak and Larsson. Why you have an issue with this, I really don't know.

 

[Granada]

They seemed so enamored with size that Q2 over Hino was philosophy over scouting. I think Hino would have helped them more given what they have and what they lack.

Fair point but I feel like Francis favors defensive-minded forwards over skilled/offensive, so maybe that's why he went with Quenneville. Either way, I'm glad they didn't pick Hino, as I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing him back.

 

[LordKOTL]

Don't know about you but I'm glad there will be NHL games close-ish by

On one hand, yes. It'll be better to drive 3.5 hours to see some pro hockey vs. 7 hours and a border crossing to the north or 10 hours to the south...even though my wife wants us to catch a Knights game sometime

The flipside though is, having lived in Seattle for a number of years...I would hate to try to get to and from games in a car.

I'm also curious to see if they turned that arena into something where hockey is watchable or if it's still a more run-down version of Barklay's.

Wouldn't you rather have a 30pt,hard working Hinostroza on your team instead of a career AHL guy? I'm sure VH woulda signed for 1-1.5M.

Going off of the assumption that Seattle's trying to corner the UFA market, a guy who looks like a career AHL'er gives them more cash to play with. On the surface I agree; I'm surprised they didn't go for Hino...but if their plan was just to take as much good as they could from the rest of the league's midden heaps and meet the cap-from-expansion number, then troll the FA market and possibly offersheet a few players...the move does make sense. Still with they would have done us a solid and taken DeHann off our our hands.

 

[greg23]

On one hand, yes. It'll be better to drive 3.5 hours to see some pro hockey vs. 7 hours and a border crossing to the north or 10 hours to the south...even though my wife wants us to catch a Knights game sometime

The flipside though is, having lived in Seattle for a number of years...I would hate to try to get to and from games in a car.

I'm also curious to see if they turned that arena into something where hockey is watchable or if it's still a more run-down version of Barklay's.

Going off of the assumption that Seattle's trying to corner the UFA market, a guy who looks like a career AHL'er gives them more cash to play with. On the surface I agree; I'm surprised they didn't go for Hino...but if their plan was just to take as much good as they could from the rest of the league's midden heaps and meet the cap-from-expansion number, then troll the FA market and possibly offersheet a few players...the move does make sense. Still with they would have done us a solid and taken DeHann off our our hands.

Not sure DeHann even makes their top 6 defense.....they're pretty good back there....and their two goaltenders are all better than our 3 and affordable.

Have a few pieces up front but need more punch.

I think they actually have a more realistic shot at the playoffs than the hawks as the pacific sucks (la-ana-sj stink, van and cal are? But likely bounceback team with only vegas and Edmonton as likely playoff teams).....while the hawks and az look to be the class of the cellar in the central

 

[blackpep72]

I think they drafted wisely. Not any huge long term contracts and good size overall.

 

[LordKOTL]

Not sure DeHann even makes their top 6 defense.....they're pretty good back there....and their two goaltenders are all better than our 3 and affordable.

Have a few pieces up front but need more punch.

I think they actually have a more realistic shot at the playoffs than the hawks as the pacific sucks (la-ana-sj stink, van and cal are? But likely bounceback team with only vegas and Edmonton as likely playoff teams).....while the hawks and az look to be the class of the cellar in the central

I don't think he would, either. They drafted well in the back end...I never expected them to take a bloated contract D-man off of our hands, but hope springs eternal.

I think Seattle lives and dies by the O-power they get in the FA market. If they can pull together some scoring and win a major sweepstakes (i.e. Landeskog) they can do some damage. Their D is at least middle-of-the-pack and I think that's where their goaltending will sit as well.

I also think that yeah, the 'hawks will be in the cellar barring any moves to the contrary, but I'm okay with that. At this point I think the best way for the 'hawks to get back to relevance is if they build from within, not from paying for expensive UFAs with zero supporting cast (especially on the back end).

 

[Raskolnikov]

The Kings are on the upswing after being the youngest for a while. They started playing teams pretty even this year and are set to take the next step into competitive hockey.

Anaheim is a year or two behind them in rebuild. San Jose needs to finish a dismantle.

I doubt they are good enough to do much in the division or finish top 3 or displace a central wildcard team.
Edmonton and Vegas, and then Calgary, Vancouver, Kings and Seattle will likely be fighting for one spot.

For sure the weakest Division but I can't see them getting out of it. They are taking a long term approach and I think partially here, Vegas got too many sweet deals and teams learned from it.