5 NHL Expansion Draft selections the Seattle Kraken got wrong 

The Seattle Kraken built their team through the NHL Expansion Draft a few weeks ago, but some of their decisions left fans with questions.

While the team ditched some notable players like Carey Price to keep the cap flexible, other decisions seemed unfounded. On several occasions, the Kraken appears to have missed the opportunity to get assets back and went away with nothing from certain teams.

While the team made some questionable decisions, like Morgan Geekie of the Carolina Hurricanes or Dennis Cholowski of the Detroit Red Wings versus other available players, they picked at least one young player to feed into long-term plans.

However, below we take a look at five picks that the Kraken was clearly wrong about.

Kraken Draft is missing:

John Quenneville (Chicago Blackhawks)

The Kraken had some decent options from the Chicago Blackhawks. The list of available players on the team included striker Adam Gaudette as well as defender Nikita Zadorov.

However, Seattle opted for striker John Quenneville instead. Quenneville, a former first-round pick, has yet to earn a full-time role in the NHL at the age of 25. The Kraken then didn’t sign him and Quenneville is currently a free agent.

While Zadorov needed a new contract and the Kraken likely didn’t want to pay the price, the defender was later turned over for a third round election, a move that could have been made by Seattle. Gaudette was another solid option, and later signed with Chicago for under $ 1 million. Instead, the Kraken walked away from the Blackhawks with no assets.

Gavin Bayreuther (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Max Domi seemed to be the clear choice among the blue jackets. While the striker had a bad year, he was only two years away from scoring 28 goals and 72 points for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Kraken instead opted for defender Gavin Bayreuther, who was on the verge of becoming an unreserved free agent. The Kraken then decided not to sign him and Bayreuth went straight back to the Blue Jackets on a two-year deal.

Even if the Kraken weren’t too interested in Domi, they almost certainly could have picked him and then exchanged him for assets. Considering he only had one year left on his contract, the Kraken would have had the option to keep some salary if needed, with no long-term implications.

As with the Blackhawks, Seattle ended up with absolutely nothing from the Blue Jackets.

Kurtis MacDermid (Los Angeles Kings)

This was another one of the decisions that left everyone scratching their heads. MacDermid is 27 and still couldn’t earn a full-time position on a relatively thin blue line of Kings. He clearly wouldn’t fit the Kraken in the long run and the team passed on better players to select him. As other options available, the Kraken could have chosen Andreas Athanasiou, Carl Grundstrom, or the ideal choice, Kale Clague.

John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor had reported that there was a “great respect” between Kraken’s general manager, Ron Francis, and his former teammate, Paul MacDermid, the father of Kurtis.

If it did, however, why was MacDermid turned to the Colorado Avalanche for a fourth-round selection soon after the Expansion Draft? At this point, the Kraken should have gone with Clague instead, who could have been a quality young defender for the team. None of that made sense.

Carsen Twarynski (Philadelphia Flyers)

If you look at Seattle’s roster, the top six strikers are arguably the only area where they’re noticeably weak. This could have helped at least in part through the Flyers who took either James van Riemsdyk or Jakub Voracek.

While one player’s cap hit wasn’t overly appealing, both strikers were on the right track last season with around 65 points per 82 games. Both would have been a great addition to the top six group. In addition, neither of them had a large remaining term of their contract. Van Riemsdyk had two years left while Voracek had three years left, which was a pretty sensible option.

With this selection, you can see that the Kraken clearly just wanted to avoid a big contract. While it is logical to pass the two strikers on, Seattle now has some cap wiggle room and a weak top six group that could have been partially resolved by taking over van Riemsdyk or Voracek.

Vitek Vanecek (capitals of Washington)

On the surface, it made sense to choose goalkeeper Vitek Vanecek. He’s only 25 and has had a pretty decent rookie season with the Washington Capitals, where he did most of the work on the net. Even if Seattle intended to target Philipp Grubauer in the free hand, it made sense to have Vanecek as a trading chip.

However, it was not the ideal choice as Kraken defender Brenden Dillon should have taken.

While the Kraken got Vanecek back into the Capitals for a second-round pick, we watched Brenden Dillon take two second-round picks from the Winnipeg Jets. Essentially, if Seattle had picked Dillon over Vanecek, they would have got an additional second-round pick back in another deal. It’s another scenario where the team missed the opportunity to add more free assets.