The Seattle Expansion Draft is happening very soon, and Montreal Canadiens will have some hard decisions to make about who to expose to the Kraken.
As Marc Bergevin goes on a well-deserved vacation after an inspiring offseason, Montreal Canadiens writers like me get to sit at home and speculate on the impending Seattle expansion draft. Though Bergevin will likely also be sitting at home, I’m sure his days will be spent drinking Molson Drys and doing bicep curls rather than ruminating over which of his players he’ll have to expose at the expansion draft.
With the expansion draft still one year away, the Habs GM needs to focus on the team’s immediate future – like figuring out Phillip Danault‘s contract – instead of focusing on drafts.
Looking at the Montreal Canadiens today, it’s hard to argue that the team will likely go with protecting seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie. Crucially, important future core players like Nick Suzuki, Alexander Romanov, and Cayden Primeau are exempt from the expansion draft.
The Habs are lucky in that regard, as only Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jake Evans, and Cale Fleury are the only standout young players to potentially get exposed.
To make things easier on everyone (including me) these projections are based on the assumption that all impending UFAs will get re-upped. This means that in this scenario, Danault, Tomas Tatar, Joel Armia, and Jordan Weal are still on the team in summer 2021.
So, while we try to forget about the fact that we’d be watching the start of the new season if it weren’t for a global catastrophe, let’s look ahead to next summer where we’ll be stressing about the Seattle Kraken and whether they’ll be even better than the Golden Knights.
Who will the Habs protect? I believe they will choose to keep 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and a goaltender and protect the following:
The Montreal Canadiens protect Carey Price, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmunson, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, and Paul Byron.
That leaves several options for the Seattle Kraken. Here are eight players that I believe the Montreal Canadiens will leave exposed in the expansion draft and the Kraken will be keeping a close eye on this season.