Given the staggering $650 million expansion fee paid out by David Bonderman, Jerry Bruckheimer and others members of the new NHL Seattle team’s ownership group, the expectations are there for the league’s 32nd franchise to hit the ground running when the Emerald City starts hosting hockey in 2021.
Similar to the favorable roster-building incentives gifted to the Vegas Golden Knights after shelling out $500 million in fees, Seattle will be able to secure some solid talent right out of the gate with an expansion draft ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.
The rules remain unchanged from the format that allowed Vegas General Manager George McPhee to piece together a team that punched a ticket to the Stanley Cup Final in its first year of existence.
Seattle will select one player from each team for a total of 30 — constituting 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies. The only team exempt is Vegas.
NHL teams in the draft can opt to either protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goalie. Players exempt from the draft include all first and second-year NHL players, all unsigned draft selections with their respective team and all players with no-movement clauses that choose to not waive those clauses.
With this format intact, Seattle is in a better position than most NHL expansion teams over the years — with clubs like Nashville and Columbus taking five and seven seasons, respectively, just to make their postseason debuts.
But Seattle still has a tough act to follow, especially in wake of Vegas’ instant success after some low expectations out of the gate.
Now, give credit where credit is due — McPhee did a masterful job assembling the Golden Knights’ roster, both in terms of maxing out the players available in the draft and capitalizing on a number of trades with teams either fearful of losing a key cog in their lineup or desperate to rid a contract off of their payroll.
Look no further than Vegas’ dealings with the Panthers. Wanting to clear Reilly Smith’s $5 million cap hit off the books after a 37-point season in 2016-17, Florida agreed to trade 30-goal scorer Jonathan Marchessault to Vegas — on the condition that the Golden Knights agreed to draft Smith.
What followed? A combined 135 points between the two wingers in 2017-18 as part of one of the top lines in the NHL.
The man in the middle of that line? William Karlsson — who was picked up from the Blue Jackets after tallying 15 goals over his last two seasons in Columbus. In his first season with Vegas, Karlsson potted 43 goals, while Columbus also gifted Vegas with a first and second-round pick in order to pick up David Clarkson’s contract.
Now, given what teams know about the new format of the expansion draft and having a few years to prepare for it, it seems unlikely that Seattle’s management team could put together an instant contender like Vegas in such a short window.
And while teams might be less willing to do additional deals with Seattle knowing the toll it had on trading partners with Vegas, there’s always going to be a club desperately trying to rid itself of a contract, or looking for leverage in order to keep ahold of another talented forward or defenseman.
Plenty of things can change over the next couple of years — but odds are, Seattle will have plenty of options to build an intriguing roster right out of the gate.
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How Seattle’s arrival impacts Boston
It might be looking a bit too far ahead to project how Boston will handle the 2021 expansion draft, but if the 2017 event was any indication — the Bruins will have another tough decision on their hands.
While Boston crossed its fingers that Vegas would draft a player like Adam McQuaid or Matt Beleskey in order to create some cap room, the Golden Knights made the proactive move from their perspective and drafted Colin Miller — who notched 41 points from the blue line in his first season in Vegas.
By the time 2021 rolls around, Boston will already have players like David Krejci, David Backes and Tuukka Rask off the books, while it’s clearly a given that players like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron, Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand (NMC) are likely shoo-ins to be protected right out of the gate.
And while players either settling into a groove in the NHL or on the cusp of breaking through like Jack Studnicka and Jakub Lauko will likely be exempt from selection as first or second-year players, things could get dicey once again on Boston’s blue line.
John Moore is the only Bruins defenseman with a contract that runs through 2021, although it seems like a given that Boston will do everything in its power to keep its younger blueliners like McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Urho Vaakanainen and Matt Grzelcyk for the foreseeable future.
Rosters can always change (remember when Dougie Hamilton was the top-pairing defenseman of the future in Boston?) but given the current makeup of its roster, Boston might have another headache brewing on the blue line in terms of who to keep when Seattle comes knocking.
B’s well represented at World Juniors prelim camps
What’s not to like about the World Junior Championships? It has it all: a favorable post-holiday schedule, national bragging rights at stake, some solid parity at the top and plenty of future NHL stars to keep tabs on.
And for Bruins fans, the 2019 tournament should have a number of Bruins prospects in the thick of it — headlined by center Jack Studnicka with Team Canada.
One of the top players in Boston’s prospect pipeline, Studnicka is expected to be a sparkplug at the pivot for Canada, with the 19-year-old center up to 33 points in 29 games with the Oshawa Generals in the OHL.
Much like McAvoy’s emergence for Team USA during the 2017 World Juniors, Studnicka has a chance to really make a name for himself in the next month.
The Czech Republic currently has two Bruins prospects on its preliminary roster in Lauko and Daniel Bukac. A potential draft steal this past summer, Lauko will look to continue to raise his stock in the next month after tallying 25 points in his first 24 games with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL. Lauko played in the 2018 U-18 World Junior Championships, scoring three goals and recording three assists for six points in seven games.
Bukac, a seventh-round (204th overall) selection in the 2017 NHL Draft, he has two goals and four assists over 22 games in his first OHL campaign with the Niagara IceDogs.
Boston’s next promising goaltending prospect in Kyle Keyser has a chance to crack Team USA’s roster given his showing this season with Oshawa. The 19-year-old netminder currently has the highest save percentage (.931) and second-lowest goals against average (2.38) in the OHL, and has seen his profile rise after signing an ELC with the B’s back in October 2017.
#Gens "Save Of The Year" candidate 1: Kyle Keyser, Nov 18 vs Niagara pic.twitter.com/BjkWJmzLLP
— Generals Live (@GeneralsUpdates) November 19, 2018