Big news from the Board of Governor’s meetings yesterday regarding salary cap, realignment and … oh yeah… expansion. Seattle has been approved as the 32nd NHL franchise and will begin play in the 2021-22 season. The creative names for the Seattle franchise have already begun on social media and the big questions are already being asked, the first one? What about Juuse Saros availability in the expansion draft? (ducks)
But seriously, the Seattle announcement does begin the expansion draft debates as the rules for this draft will be the same as the Vegas expansion draft in 2017. We don’t know who the GM of the new Seattle team will be… but you can imagine how much pressure will come down on that individual after the success in Vegas last season. It won’t be fair, and it may not be duplicated… but it is what it is.
Seattle does have some impressive hockey history. A few fun facts… Seattle was the first city in the US to win the Stanley Cup when the Seattle Metropolitans beat Montreal 101 years ago. Yes… it was before the formation of the NHL. The Metropolitans played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915-1924, making it to three Stanley Cup finals, winning once in 1917 and playing in three other PCHA championship series. Seattle also had the Totems of the WHL from 1944 – 1975 and junior hockey has always had a solid following with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips.
The expansion draft in 2021 will give the Predators some interesting choices. The team will have the option of protecting eight skaters and a goaltender or seven forwards, three defensemen and a goaltender. At the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, as current contracts stand, will have Ryan Johansen, Calle Jarnkrok, Filip Forsberg, Kyle Turris, Viktor Arvidsson, PK Subban, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis signed. Pekka Rinne’s just signed contract extension will have expired and Juuse Saros will be an RFA as things stand right now.
Other RFA’s heading into that expansion draft will be Eeli Tolvanen and several other members of the Milwaukee Admirals. Players not mentioned here on the current team hit UFA or RFA status before the 20/21 season, names like Roman Josi, Kevin Fiala, Ryan Hartman, Austin Watson, Miikka Salomaki and Freddie Gaudreau.
Expansion to Seattle also drives something else… realignment. Seattle will play in the Pacific Division and the lucky team that gets to come to the meat-grinder that is the Central Division is…
Drumroll…. The Arizona Coyotes! (CRASH!)
Man… who in the Coyotes front office pissed off the hockey gods? Arizona has struggled in the Pacific, now they get 1-2 more games against Central teams? Yikes! The good news is that half the current team used to play in Chicago so they are used to the time zone.
The other big piece of news was regarding the salary cap, which looks to be going up by about $4 million to the $83 million range next season. When the cap was first brought in it was at $39 million… hard to argue that it hasn’t worked well for the league and the players as it has more than doubled in the 13 seasons since it was initiated.
The NHL will be a nice, tidy 32 teams… balancing out the conferences and divisions with equal amounts of teams… and the bonus expansion money don’t hurt either…
We will be talking expansion and much more with ESPN.com’s Greg Wyshynski tonight on SlapShot Radio at 7pm on 102.5 the Game, listen online at thegamenashville.com
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Random Notes
- Milwaukee Update –The Admirals are back in action tonight and Friday night in Texas against the Stars, then Saturday night against San Antonio before coming home.
- In his “31 thoughts” column last week, Elliotte Friedman predicted that Kevin Fiala would catch fire and the Eeli Tolvanen would get called up and score his first NHL goal. I need to ask him about lottery numbers soon.
- Adding more games in Arizona is not necessarily a good thing for Nashville if you look at past performance… they have lost six of their last nine in Glendale.
- There are quite a few “tin foil hat” theories running around on the Coyotes move to the Central, potentially portending a franchise move to Houston? Interesting thought…
- I’m sending some Listerine and throat lozenges to Greg Murray, PA Announcer for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had to announce 15 goals last night in Calgary’s 9-6 win over Columbus. All four goaltenders for the two teams played in the game, I think… not sure if you could call giving up 15 goals collectively "playing."
- Live by the sword… in last night’s game between the Caps and Vegas, Tom Wilson was blown up by a blindside hit from Ryan Reeves. Wilson left the game immediately after the hit and did not return. Reeves was whistled for a five-minute major and was ejected from the game. A lot of folks will say that this hit was a bit of poetic justice… not sure if the DoPS will feel the same way.
- The questions are already starting about the NHL impact on the major junior teams in the Seattle area. WHL teams have pretty strong followings, not sure there will be much, if any impact.
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