Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Habs Could Use Seattle Kraken To Acquire
The Montreal Canadiens are coming off a lengthy playoff run but they have a fair bit of business to take care of in the near future.
Coming up first is going to be their protection list for the expansion draft which is due by Saturday. The list will be made public on Sunday and the Seattle Kraken expansion draft will take place on Wednesday, July 21.
Shortly after that, there is the NHL Draft. The first round will take place on Friday, July 23 with rounds 2-7 being hammered out the following day. The draft will be held online once again before the Canadiens have the chance to host in 2022. Then, it will be Free Agent Frenzy on July 28.
But first, the expansion draft. One was held just four years ago and Vegas took advantage of some nervous general managers around the league and were able to steal some real quality players. Shea Theodore should never have been made available, but the Anaheim Ducks had to protect Kevin Bieksa because of his no-trade clause and they didn’t want to lose Ryan Kesler, Antoine Vermette or Andrew Cogliano up front so they couldn’t protect a fourth defenceman.
They tried to get cute and offer up a great prospect in Theodore with the added bonus that Vegas would take Clayton Stoner and his hefty contract off the books.
It was trades like these that will lead to less wheeling and dealing leading up to this year’s draft, at least in my estimation. The Canadiens could offer up a good young prospect via trade to entice the Kraken to stay away from Jake Allen, but is it really worth it if that prospect is going to become an elite performer like Theodore did?
It’s not worth the risk. The Canadiens should just send in their protection list and if the Kraken want Allen or Ben Chiarot or Paul Byron, just let them take the player and move on to free agency to fill the void.
However, this doesn’t mean the Canadiens shouldn’t be talking about trades with the Kraken already. Just not for Canadiens players.
The Kraken have to select 30 players during the expansion draft. Teams are allowed to protect either 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and a goaltender or 8 skaters and a goaltender. Players in their first two years of pro hockey are exempt from being selected so they don’t even have to be protected.
What that rule results in is the Kraken unable to take anyone who they can send to the minors without passing through waivers next year. So, like Vegas did, the Kraken will make a bunch of trades shortly after the draft because they will have 30 NHL caliber players on their team. They don’t have room for them all, so they will need to ship them out.
This is what happened to Habs defenceman Alexei Emelin. He was selected by Vegas but quickly traded to the Nashville Predators for a 4th round pick because Vegas had taken 13 defenders and could not keep them all.
This is the type of trade the Canadiens should already be setting up with Vegas. Basically lose a player at a certain position and then acquire someone to fill the void immediately.