With the Seattle Kraken ready to pick three goaltenders as part of the expansion draft in July, the Washington Capitals have an interesting choice in which goaltender to protect. With Henrik Lundqvist ineligible for the draft and Pheonix Copley unlikely to be selected since there would be plenty of other candidates around the league for
Seattle Expansion Draft
On Monday, the NHL announced that 18 players would be exempt from the upcoming Seattle Kraken expansion draft due to injury. Noticeably absent from the list is Edmonton Oilers defenceman Oscar Klefbom, who missed the entire 2020-21 season with a shoulder injury that was operated on in late March. The problem is that this isn’t
What’s The Grind Line? Apart from the once-famous line of Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, and either Joe Kocur or Darren McCarty, The Grind Line is also The Hockey Writers’ weekly column about the Detroit Red Wings. This week Tony Wolak, Devin Little, Patrick Brown, and Kyle Knopp are the muckers who make up THW’s forechecking
With the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full swing and the offseason underway for other remaining teams, uncertainty and questions linger in Glendale this offseason. General manager Bill Armstrong has a lot of areas that he needs to deal with, including finding a new coach, determining who he is going to protect
The playoffs have begun. The now summer showdown between four teams in every division means that the end is near. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that represents the offseason. With the offseason comes expansion. It isn’t an expansion of the rules or expansion of the nets, but instead, expansion of teams.
On July 21, the Seattle Kraken will take the stage for the first time in franchise history and kick off the much-anticipated expansion draft. Fans have debated over who will be protected and who will be left exposed ever since Seattle was granted the 32nd franchise back in December 2018, and while some teams will
The Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft is set to take place on July 21, 2021, and the St. Louis Blues will likely lose a quality player, similar to when they lost David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. With the amount of money that expansion franchises spend to enter the NHL these days, they
The Seattle Kraken, like all NHL organizations, are going to need a quality leadership group next season if they are going to be successful in their inaugural year. When looking back on the Carolina Hurricanes team that general manager Ron Francis had managed, they always consisted of a well-respected leadership group. Whether it was the
With a week out from the NHL Trade Deadline and the San Jose Sharks on a current four-game winning streak, I figured this would be a great time to engage with Sharks fans on Twitter and provide any commentary on questions on the team’s current state. Currently, the Sharks sit three points out of a
The National Hockey League’s playoffs are rapidly approaching, and things could look very different this season. Not only do teams need to consider their own strengths and weaknesses as they relate to potential playoff runs, but COVID-related quarantine periods will also factor in, as will the thought that a piece they gain for the remainder
I recently wrote an article highlighting young players or prospects that the Seattle Kraken could target in the Expansion Draft. While this is a worthwhile approach that I believe they should use, it is not very conducive to Stanley Cup contention in the short term. If Seattle hopes to contend from its inception, as I
The debut of the NHL’s 32nd franchise, the Seattle Kraken, is approaching quickly, and once again the San Jose Sharks will have to give one of their players away in yet another expansion draft. They got away lucky last time with the last team, the Vegas Golden Knights, with them selecting David Schlemko, who was
This past National Hockey League season was interrupted by COVID-19. With the virus continuing to limit travel and likely shortening the 2020-21 season as well, the Seattle Kraken will be faced with a problem they likely didn’t expect when the league’s board of governors originally granted them a franchise. Not only will they have difficulty
Pretty soon the NHL will have its 32nd franchise in the Seattle Kraken. It’s an exciting time for fans and pundits alike as we get to project what their roster will look like once the expansion draft is over at the end of the 2020-21 season. Just like when the Vegas Golden Knights drafted their
The Seattle Kraken have a realistic shot to snag former 30-goal scorer James van Riemsdyk in next summer’s NHL Expansion Draft. Though currently a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, he will likely be unprotected in the draft. This is because the Flyers simply have too many young stars who they need to protect. That makes
At the end of the 2020-21 season, the NHL will welcome its 32nd franchise, the Seattle Kraken. With a new team comes another expansion draft just like with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. In the Vegas expansion draft, the Washington Capitals lost defenseman Nate Schmidt, who turned out to have a vital role in
I noted in my post yesterday that, for the first time since early October, the Toronto Maple Leafs roster seems to be set for the upcoming season. Actually, from my perspective, it’s a pretty solid lineup. Given that current roster solidarity, other than the beginning of the 2020-21 season – whenever that might be –
Could the Detroit Red Wings have a new rival soon? Now that the Seattle Kraken have officially revealed their team name, the NHL suddenly has two octopus-affiliated franchises. There are two schools of thought on a potential Red Wings-Kraken rivalry: “Sure, why not” and “please don’t force this.” Personally, I’m with the former, because that