The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Opinion

Who the Seattle Kraken should select in net for the expansion draft

Roar Rookie
20th July, 2021
0

There is serious talent in goal for the Kraken to consider – more so than were available for the Vegas Golden Knights during their expansion draft – from top veterans to breakout stars who helped push their teams to the playoffs this past season.

The major names that Seattle should seriously consider drafting are Carey Price, Ben Bishop, Braden Holtby, Jonathan Quick, Matt Murray, Chris Driedger, Vitek Vanecek, and Kaapo Kähkönen.

Veterans
Seattle is going to really take their time in deciding whether or not they select Price from Montreal. In the end, the money is too steep for a goalie past his prime, despite what he just did in the playoffs.

There are also some options upfront with Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron available.

There is the same situation in LA with Quick as well – a good goalie in his prime, but now the contract he has doesn’t look good. With all the young talent left unprotected, there’s no conceivable way the Kraken would select Quick over one of the young players.

The last viable veteran available is Holtby, but he falls in the category of past his prime, this time with less term left.

Sports opinion delivered daily 

   

Advertisement

Young guns
These three goalies really stepped up at the perfect time for their teams, with their projected number one goalies either injured or not performing.

Though Driedger is the only goalie on this list that is an unlisted free agent, there is speculation around Seattle and Driedger’s camp coming to a deal.

Vanecek put up good numbers at the start of the season while Ilya Samsonov was sidelined, but Washington eventually went back to Samsonov.

Kahkonen was in a similar spot as Vanecek, as he played well at times, but Minnesota seems to trust Cam Talbot more. The Wild may be thinking that Talbot is more enticing of a choice over Soucy rather than Kahkonen, and hope to see what they have as a tandem after the expansion draft is over.

Seattle has to select at least three goalies from the 30 teams and they would be wise to go with one veteran and hope that the rest of the young goalies they select will push each other to new levels.

The best group in net would be Bishop and Driedger, with Vanecek and Kahkonen used as trade bait or waiting for their shot.

close