As we saw with Vegas, the expansion process in the 2010s has been very kind to teams. I’m not going to deny that George McPhee did an incredible job making his roster, I’m just saying that there were a lot of quality players exposed(Jonathan Marchessault, M-A Fleury, etc.)
IMO it’s likely that the Seattle Kraken come out of the gates flying. The NHL wants it’s expansion teams successful early, as to lure as many fans as possible as quickly as possible. I think Seattle will make the playoffs, but eventually fall short since it’s likely they:e going to be in the Pacific Division and they’ll be competing against the Oilers, Flames, Canucks, and maybe the Knights(it makes sense that one Pacific team will move to the Central division to even them out, and it’s not going to be Seattle since they’re literally on the ocean)

So, what do you think? Will the Kraken make the playoffs in their inaugural season?

I'd say let's wait to see their roster, but nobody would've picked Vegas to make the playoffs after seeing their roster. I'm gonna say No, they will not make the playoffs in their 1st season. The Pacific is gonna be much tougher in 2 years. Vegas will still be good, most likely. VAN will be stacked. EDM has McDavid and Draisaitl. And LAK and ANA are gonna be much further along in their rebuilds by then. Both could be playoff teams.

I think ARI will be the team that moves to the Central. Moving CGY would hurt the EDM/CGY rivalry.

Pretty sure it was confirmed Arizona is the one moving to the central

Don’t think they make it, what happened w Vegas was the perfect storm. Who knows, maybe Seattle could, but I highly doubt it

Yeah William Karlsson came out of nowhere to score 40G. No chance Seattle gets a top tier Center in the expansion draft. Obviously Karlsson wasn't a top Center when they picked him, but he was probably the team MVP in their 1st season. I would place the odds of Seattle making the playoffs right now at around 2-1 (33%). I thought Vegas was gonna be like 10-1, but the competitive balance is more apparent now than ever, especially with a flat cap.

I don't think they will. With the money looking quite scarce around the league do this covid sh*t, I think Seattle will be gaining a load of future assets and eating bad contracts. To the point that their actual roster will probably look fairly short.

Also now that teams have more knowledge regarding the expansion draft after seeing how things happened with VGK, I think there will be less good options to be picked from each team. Because let's face it, VGK has an insanely good team while also having a load of future assets to build.

I think teams are not likely to make the same mistakes with Seattle.

How many teams are in a similar position to what the Blue Jackets and Panthers were in 2017?

(too many guys to protect)

Tampa must have a ton of off-loading to do, especially if the re-sign Killarney or replace him with someone. At best, a guy like Verhaeghe goes to Seattle

Quite many actually, considering how many Expansion Draft Considerations trades VGK did back then.