Connect with us

Vegas Golden Knights

Updated: Seattle Kraken Expansion Picks, All 30 Selections

Published

on

Carey Price Montreal Canadiens Vegas Golden Knights

The picks are official, but nearly all Seattle Kraken expansion draft picks were leaked via Twitter hours before the bland national broadcast. Former TSN reporter turned Daily Faceoff lead Frank Seravalli did most of the damage to the Wednesday night ESPN broadcast. The usual suspects from TSN and Sportsnet did some heavy lifting, too.

While Vegas Golden Knights and their fans watched the drama from afar, teams and fanbases puckered through the day, picks were leaked, one by one until 29 of the 30 picks were known. Seattle GM Ron Francis had a clear design. Many of the names below you will not recognize or know much about.

The only drama was the Detroit Red Wings pick, Dennis Cholowski and if former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch was even going to try to get Calle Jarnkrok’s name correct.

Spoiler. He didn’t.

Fortunately, none of the hockey novices who announced the picks had to announce Brady Skjei.

Seattle bypassed the big names like Vladimir Tarasenko and Carey Price. They instead opted for nearly two dozen players who are either not established NHL players or secondary skaters on their team. By preliminary math, Seattle’s payroll will be about $52 million, plus contract to Vince Dunn.

The team signed defensemen Adam Larsson (four years, $16 million) and Jamie Oleksiak (five years, $23 million) to UFA deals, but that counted as their pick from Edmonton and Dallas as Seattle used their exclusive negotiating window.

Seattle, if Francis chooses, will have a boatload of cash for free agents on July 28.

Seattle won’t be nearly as good as the inaugural Vegas Golden Knights, who were led by an All-Star Stanley Cup-winning goalie and were plied with talented players to select more talented players.

Here are the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft picks. Our apologies to ESPN’s broadcast at 5 p.m. tonight.

Metro Division:

  1. PIT: Brandon Tanev
  2. WSH: Vitek Vanecek
  3. NYR: Collin Blackwell
  4. NYI Jordan Eberle
  5. PHI: Carsen Twarynski
  6. NJD: Nathan Bastian
  7. CBJ: Gavin Bayreuther
  8. CAR: Morgan Geekie

Atlantic Division

  1. OTT: Joey Daccord
  2. TOR: Jared McCann
  3. TBL: Yanni Gourde
  4. BUF: William Borgen
  5. MTL: Cale Fleury
  6. BOS: Jeremy Lauzon
  7. FLA: Chris Driedger
  8. DET: Dennis Cholowski

Central Division

  1. COL: Joonas Donskoi
  2. WPG: Mason Appleton
  3. MIN: Carson Soucy
  4. NSH: Calle Järnkrok
  5. STL: Vince Dunn
  6. DAL: Jamie Oleksiak (Signed via UFA window)
  7. AZ: Tyler Pitlick
  8. CHI: John Quenneville

Pacific Division

  1. LAK: Kurtis MacDermid
  2. VAN: Kole Lind
  3. CGY: Mark Giordano
  4. ANA: Haydn Fleury
  5. SJS: Alexander True
  6. EDM: Adam Larsson (Signed via UFA window)
  7. VGK: Exempt