If Kadri is Available I’d take him, Unless Guys Like Chytil, Henrique end up Available
I’d take Jost for Age, Francouz If he keeps up his Backup Record, GAA and S%

And that tittle is kinda confusing(atleast for me)

Ya I'd take Naz he's a great 2C. I wonder if they leave Graves available instead.

Isn’t Makar exempt from the draft?

It has to be 7/3/1. I would try to convince EJ to waive his NMC - Sakic could even give up picks to ensure EJ isnt selected. Worst case scenario is that he doesnt waive and Sakic has to let Seattle take Graves, Trade Graves, or give Seattle picks to make them take someone else.

Grubauer is a UFA that offseason so theres a real possibility that Francouz is protected and Grubauer just signs as a UFA after the draft

To me, this screams the need for a trade... or to make a deal with Seattle.
Unless, all 30 teams handshake an agreement not to do so (in the hopes of not creating a Vegas 2.0).
Either way, there'll still be some really interesting COL players made available.

Nope. Played in 2019 playoffs.

...

I think Graves would be exposed over Kadri. They’ve got Bryan and Timmins coming up and it’s not like Graves is really that great a player. His success was largely driven by on-ice shooting which defenseman typically have no control of.

They'll go 7 F, 3 D, 1 G

Kaut, Bowers, Newhook, Timmins, Byram will probably on the team by then, and all 5 are exempt from the expansion draft.

Landeskog - Mackinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Nichushkin
??? - Newhook - Kaut
??? - Bowers - Calvert

Expose Compher, Donskoi, Bellemare, Jost, Kamenev

Girard - Johnson
Byram - Makar
??? - Timmins

Expose Graves, Zadorov, Cole

Grabauer or Francouz .. depends how they play this post-season/next season.

But making agreements to take certain players was how Vegas managed to snag draft picks or players they actually liked.


The bigger question is, have GMs learned what they are willing to part with vs just handing over a pick or player GMs may not want to hand over.

I think if EJ waives, Seattle wont take him. So thats a real possibility.

Think he is.

Actually nvm.

Trading Graves before the ED would be a solid alternative. But we still need to make sure that we expose 1 Dman who's played 40 games in 2020/21 and is under contract for 2021/22.

Byram and Timmins will be exempt, and in this scenario we'd protect Makar, Girard, and Johnson. But that leaves us without a Dman under contract for 2021/22, unless we just pick someone up in a pre-ED trade to make up the numbers and then trade them again later. Or if we sign a 7D this offseason on a 2 year contract who gets 40+ games in 2020/21.

Another sneaky strategy to use would be to sign Graves to only a 1 year contract to make him an RFA again next offseason, as that would slightly reduce the chances of him getting picked since Seattle will need at least 20 players they select to be under contract for 2021/22, meaning that they can only pick 10 RFA's. For example, if William Karlsson had been an RFA instead of having 1 year extra term it's possible that Vegas would have passed on him for contract reasons.

The 8 skater route is an interesting idea, but I don't think we'll go that route as it would mean exposing Burakovsky instead of a lesser Dman. We certainly will not be exposing Kadri either, he's a 30+30 C who has way too much value to be losing for free like that.

We'll go with 7+3+1:

- Mackinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, Kadri, Burakovsky, Top 6 forward (acquired in 2020 offseason), Nichuskin
- Makar, Girard, Graves
- Francouz
Exposed: Compher, Donskoi, Johnson (waives NMC), Grubauer (resigned by Colorado as an UFA)

Jost and Zadorov will be off the team by then so won't be factors.

It'll be a decision between Compher and Nichuskin as to who to protect with the 7th forward slot, but I think Nichuskin might get the edge simply for cap reasons as he should be easier to fit into the roster at a lower caphit than Compher/Donskoi (assuming that he signs at a reasonable AAV/term this offseason).

Sakic may well decide that he can expose Graves, but I think he'll take more of a calculated approach with asking Johnson to waive so that we can keep Graves. Maybe send a pick to Seattle to avoid Johnson, but they probably won't pick him anyways.

The most interesting part though is the goalie situation. Francouz at $2m is insane value and would be extremely difficult to replace at that cap hit. Grubauer is an UFA. To keep both goalies Sakic could use the UFA-loophole with Grubauer, though that would certainly be a bit of a risk. Worth keeping an eye on Annunen as he might be a factor in deciding who to keep.

COL is going 7/3/1 any talk of of 8-1 is ridiculous.
MacKinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, Kadri, Burakovsky, Nichushkin, Compher/Donskoi
Makar, Girard, Johnson (Graves if they get him to waive which they should)
Grubauer

COL is going to lose a good player. Sakic just needs to accept it and move on, don’t be cute and make a stupid trade. I’ve seen some suggest they leave Landeskog and Grubauer exposed as UFA’s and re-sign them just don’t see that happening.