The protected lists are out. And if the Seattle Kraken are so inclined, they can make like a real NHL team and launch themselves straight into Cap Hell like everybody else at Wednesday's expansion draft, given the players that are available to them.
If you want to peruse the full list of protected and exposed players from all 30 teams, you can do that
here.
On
CapFriendly, you can scan a sortable list of active NHL players. By cap hit, I'm going to try to pick out the most expensive players available and see how quickly I can get to the expansion draft floor ($48.9 million) and ceiling ($81.5 million).
Carey Price - G - $10.5 million
Jeff Skinner - LW - $9 million
P.K. Subban - D - $9 million
Jakub Voracek - LW - $8.25 million
Ryan Johansen - C - $8 million / Matt Duchene - C - $8 million
That passes the floor: $52.75 million for six players. But since the last two are from Nashville, Seattle couldn't pick both.
So, I'm going to establish some conditions going forward here. Only one player per team (I'll only count one of Johansen or Duchene). And no players on LTIR, such as Kesler or Seabrook, or likely to go on LTIR, such as Shea Weber or Erik Johnson.
Onwards...
Vladimir Tarasenko - RW - $7.5 million.
That brings us to $52.25 million, over the floor.
Mark Giordano - D - $6.75 million
Matt Murray - G - $6.25 million
Loui Eriksson - RW - $6 million
Adam Henrique - C - $5.85 million
Jonathan Quick - G - $5.8 million
That'll do it. That's $82.9 million for 11 players — three goalies, two defensemen, two centres and four wingers.
I think that makes it crystal clear that Ron Francis won't be spending all his time shopping in the luxury aisle as he builds his list for Wednesday's expansion draft announcement. He has to pick 30 players; at least 20 must be under contract for next season, and the value of those contracts must be under the $81.5 million ceiling.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if Carey Price is the exception to the rule. Given his ties to the west coast, I was hearing whispers a couple of years ago that he'd be open to joining Seattle. And given the fact that he just came off a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, he'd be a heckuva piece to build a franchise around from a marketing point of view, even if he does come with a big cap hit.
I follow his wife Angela on Instagram. Earlier this week, she ran a series of posts on her Stories about how the family, which now includes three young children, had originally been planning to stay in Montreal for the short offseason. But on 24 hours' notice, they suddenly decamped for their usual summer home in Kelowna — flying commercial, and now staying in an AirBnB.
Word didn't leak out until Saturday night that Price had agreed to waive his no-move clause — for expansion draft purposes only, he can't be flipped. But the deadline for those decisions was actually earlier in the week. Once he waived, it makes sense that he'd want to get the family out of Montreal until after the expansion draft. But does it mean that he's never going back?
Of course, Seattle's decision on Price could have a direct impact on the Canucks — whose buzziest exposed player is Braden Holtby.
Thomas Drance reported earlier in the week that Seattle did express interest in selecting Holtby — if the Canucks retained salary. He also reported that multiple other teams were also interested in Holtby.
There is a pretty decent selection of goaltending talent available for the Kraken to choose from. There's still a chance that they'd select Holtby. They could keep him, or deal him on to another team in exchange for a draft pick or prospect. Remember how Vegas did that with defensemen?
Because he's on an expiring contract, Holtby could also be a flippable asset at next year's trade deadline.
Otherwise, I'd expect that the Kraken will grab one of Vancouver's inexpensive young players. Defensemen seem to be at more of a premium — would they go after someone like Guillaume Brisebois? Or would they use their Vancouver pick on someone like Lukas Jasek, under contract in Europe and not needing an immediate contract or roster spot?
I can't wait to see how the Kraken go about their business. Wednesday's expansion draft telecast will be fascinating — and the first production for ESPN under their new contract. The event, broadcast live from Gas Works Park in Seattle, will be hosted by Chris Fowler — who I know best from ESPN's tennis coverage. He'll be assisted by Dominic Moore and Kevin Weekes.
Here's the Canucks' official protected list:
F: Brock Boeser, Jason Dickinson, Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, Tyler Motte, Tanner Pearson, Elias Pettersson
D: Olli Juolevi, Tyler Myers, Nate Schmidt
G: Thatcher Demko
I'm happy for Motte that he made the protected list.
And — oh yeah — there's a new name. Jason Dickinson.
The Canucks acquired him from Dallas on Saturday, just before the roster freeze, in exchange for this year's third-round draft pick. (The third-rounder they gave up for Schmidt last year, by the way, is for 2022, so that price has not yet been paid).
I got to see quite a bit of Dickinson in the bubble last year, with the Stars. He's a 26-year-old natural centre, who was drafted 29th overall in 2013. He can also play wing, but should be a natural fit in Vancouver's vacant third-line centre spot.
He won't deliver a ton of points — he's been hovering around 20 for the last three seasons, if you pro-rate this year — but he's strong on the defensive side of the puck, something the Canucks need very much.
His faceoff numbers aren't great, although he has been improving. He won 46.3 percent of his draws last season, raising his career average to 44.3. His average ice time increased to a career high of 16:12 last year, and he saw lots of time on the penalty kill — although at 79.1 percent efficiency, the Stars were just a shade worse than the Canucks in that regard. All things considered, I'm rather impressed that the Canucks finished 17th overall on the penalty kill, at 79.8 percent — even if they did tie for second-most times shorthanded in the season, which meant they finished tied for fifth-worst with 37 power-play goals allowed while Dallas gave up just 32.
Dickinson has good size at 6'2" and 200 pounds and has some physicality in his game. His 78 hits in 51 games last season were fourth among Stars forwards, just ahead of Jamie Benn's 73, and would have also ranked him fourth on the Canucks behind Motte (100 in just 24 games!), Miller (90) and Jake Virtanen (83).
Dickinson's also a good dude. He and Tyler Seguin were the Dallas players who knelt for the national anthems alongside Ryan Reaves and Robin Lehner of Vegas during their game in the Edmonton bubble, and he was front and centre when the players gathered to announce their decision to suspend the playoffs for two days later in the month.
Dickinson became available because the Stars were squeezed on their protection list. Even after Ben Bishop agreed to waive his no-move clause, the team still had four others in Benn, Seguin, Alexander Radulov and Esa Lindell.
Because he's an Ontario kid who was drafted the same year as Horvat, I went back to take a look at his junior history with the Guelph Storm. And whaddaya know? Working as an assistant coach under Scott Walker for Dickinson's last two years was none other than the Canucks' new head of amateur scouting, Todd Harvey.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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