Avalanche’s Gabe Landeskog left unprotected from Seattle expansion draft. Here’s what that means – The Denver Post

According to a league source, the avalanche will remove the left wing and team captain Gabe Landeskog from their protection list for the expansion draft when it is released on Sunday morning. The move gives the Seattle Kraken exclusive rights to recruit the outstanding unrestricted free agent long before the Free Agency opens on July 28th.

It will also allow the Avalanche to protect another striker.

Any potential free agents who remain unprotected for the draft expansion can exclusively interview the draft expansion between Sunday morning and Wednesday evening and possibly sign a contract with the Kraken. If Seattle and Landeskog agree to a deal before the draft, Landeskog would be considered the Kraken’s only pick from the avalanche.

Landeskog, 28, is likely looking for a long-term deal with an annual cap hit of more than $ 7 million – and $ 49 million over seven years is likely what he wants. The Avs are now getting closer to around $ 30 million over five years ($ 6 million annual cap hit) – in the hopes that their nine-year-old captain and 10-year-old gamer will accept a hometown discount.

The $ 1 million difference and the shorter term could lead Landeskog to listen to Seattle’s offer – which could be a “C” on his chest and $ 56 million over seven years ($ 8 million annual cap) .

If Seattle does not elect the Landeskog in Wednesday’s draft enlargement, the parties can return to the negotiating table the following Wednesday when the free agency opens.

Saturday marked the NHL’s trading cessation prior to the draft expansion, so Landeskog’s rights cannot be sold during that time. If the Avalanche try to sign Landeskog again the following week, it could be too late for the player.

“I can’t help but be honest with you that I’m a bit disappointed that it has come this far and it had to come this far,” Landeskog recently told The Athletic. “Let’s see what happens. I still hope that we can agree on something and agree, but if it were up to me I would have liked to have done it eight months ago, ten months ago.”

On Saturday night, amid rumors of Landeskog’s omission from Colorado’s protection list, the player and his agent failed to return texts asking for comments. And a spokesman for Avalanche said he could neither confirm nor deny.

If the Landeskog is not protected, the Avalanche could still lose one of the following strikers: JT Compher, Valeri Nichushkin or Tyson Jost, the latter of which is a restricted free agent.

Colorado will use the seven forwards, three defenders and one goalkeeper protection format and shield forwards Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri and Joonas Donskoi, as well as defenders Cale Makar, Sam Girard and Devon Toews vom Kraken. Goalie Philipp Grubauer is also an upcoming UFA and either he or Jonas Johansson will be protected.

The protection lists for each team were submitted on Saturday at 3pm MT and will be published on Sunday at 8am MT.