Team: 2020-21 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 22, 2020

Published: Dec. 24, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Anaheim Ducks - Silfverberg, Rakell, Heinen, Lundestrom, Terry, Jones, Steel Fowler, Lindholm, Manson Gibson. Defensemen were easy, Gibson was easy and Silfverberg, Rakell, Heinen, Terry, Jones and Steel were easy. The hard pick was Henrique vs Lundestrom and for me, Henrique is no use to this team any more. Lundestrom had a great start in Sweden, is in d+3 and still has potential. May be an unpopular decision, but for me, this team doesn't need Henrique and can at least see what happens with Lundestrom
Seattle Kraken - Adam Henrique. Now you have a good forward because these drafts are very defenseman heavy.
Arizona Coyotes - Keller, Kessel (NMC), Schmaltz, Dvorak, Crouse, Fischer, Garland Ekman-Larsson (NMC), Chychrun, Capobianco. Kuemper. The Capobianco pick was more process of elimination than anything else. Most of the Coyotes D are UFAs in 2021 and Capobianco wasn't. The only hard decision was Kuemper vs Adin Hill as Adin Hill in 24 and Kuemper could leave in 2022 but I opted for Kuemper as I think this team wants to contend in 2 years (delusional) and you can't do that unless you have someone like Kuemper.
Seattle Kraken - Adin Hill. Pretty promising goalie prospect with good NHL play in the past few years and still 24, which for goalies is like being 19.
Boston Bruins - Bergeron (NMC), Pastrnak, Marchand (NMC), Coyle (NMC), DeBrusk, Smith, Kase. McAvoy, Grzelcyk, Carlo. Vladar. Rask is a UFA as was Halak and Krejci so they weren't going to be picked. Forwards were pretty obvious and D. Only options were Bjork, Ritchie and Senyshyn but Boston wants to win another Cup, not wait around for prospects so I just took their current guys.
Seattle Kraken - Nick Ritchie. 30 point player, pretty good 3rd liner and has been in the NHL for a while. Pretty good pick and these were the kinds of guys that thrived in Vegas.
Buffalo Sabres - Eichel, Skinner (NMC), Reinhart, Olofsson, Girgensons, Thompson, Mittelstadt. Miller, Jokiharju, Dahlin. Johansson. Johansson is the only team controlled goalie so an easy pick there. Up front, the only other choices Asplund and Eakin and Eakin is 29 and won't be too much help to the Sabres ever again and Girgensons, Thompson and Mittelstadt have way more promise than Asplund. The defence picks were easy as everybody else is either a UFA or just bad.
Seattle Kraken - Rasmus Asplund. Not too much choices here. Youngest guy with most potential so I guess he's a Kraken now.
Calgary Flames - Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Monahan, Backlund, Lindholm, Mangiapane, Dube. Hanifin, Andersson, Tanev. Markstrom (NMC). Lucic waived. Only hard decision was to expose Bennett and to take Tanev over Kylington. I think that at this point Kylington peaks at being a worse TJ Brodie but we don't really need him with guys like Kinvall, Yelesin, Valimaki and Mackey waiting in the winds. I took Backlund over Bennett as he is still useful at 31 with no signs of regressing and I think they'll take Giordano anyways and he'll be the Kraken's Deryk Engelland who also came from Calgary, just better this time.
Seattle Kraken - Mark Giordano. You could take Kylington or Bennett but if you can get a Mark Giordano, I think you have to take that opportunity. His impact on a team can't be underestimated and I think he'll really help out a young team of misfits like he once was. So long Captain.
Carolina Hurricanes - Aho, Teravainen, Svechnikov, Geekie. Slavin, Pesce, Fleury, Bean. Nedeljkovic. Staal waives. I think for this team, you got to go 4 and 4 as they'll pick a D-man for sure and you have to make sure that you keep whoever you want with very little threat of picking forward as I think they'll follow a Vegas model of picking and trading D-men. I decided to protect Geekie because he has torn up the AHL and looked good in his NHL games and I expect a good season this year. I took Bean over Skjei because of age and potential.
Seattle Kraken - Brady Skjei. Like I said you have to take as many d-man as possible for trading pieces and Skjei is a good d-man and you can decide if you want to trade or keep later.
Chicago Blackhawks - Toews (NMC), Kane (NMC), DeBrincat, Shaw, Carpenter, Nylander, Strome. Seabrook, Keith, Murphy. Subban. Only decision was De Haan vs Murphy. I took Murphy based on age. Not too hard for Chicago to decide on protection mostly thanks to Stan Bowman trading all their good players for scraps.
Seattle Kraken - Calvin De Haan. Good defence man, probably a trading piece due to contract and age. Not old but exiting his prime so he'll be expendable. Like I said, do what Vegas did. Draft D, trade D for forwards, go to Cup Final but actually win.
Colorado Avalanche - Rantanen, MacKinnon, Burakovsky, Kadri. Johnson (NMC), Makar, Girard, Toews. Francouz. Hard decisions were leaving Compher, Donskoi and Jost unprotected plus Toews vs Graves. Landeskog and Saad are UFAs so your good there but Colorado is going to lose a good player for sure. Sakic might be able to convince them to take Jayson Megna for only. a 7th but that may even be beyond his ability.
Seattle Kraken - JT Compher. It's Compher vs Graves and with you already having 3 good d-men through 7 picks and no good forwards, you need to take some forwards and not leave the entire f core to good trade offers.
Columbus Blue Jackets - Atkinson, Nyquist, Domi, Jenner, Bjorkstrand, Robinson, Dubois. Jones, Werenski, Gavrikov. Korpisalo. This team is deprived of talent. They really don't have to worry about much. No hard decisions at all, mostly process of elimination.
Seattle Kraken - Scott Harrington. I'm not sure, can they skip this pick?
Dallas Stars - Seguin (NMC), Benn (NMC), Pavelski, Radulov (NMC), Faksa, Hintz, Gurianov. Lindell, Klingberg, Heiskanen. Bishop (NMC). Hurts leaving Khudobin unprotected but he's pretty solid expansion draft bait. Pretty sure fire bet to be picked based on a recent hot streak but in all honesty, how many more years of useful does he have left. 1? 2? He might not even succeed considering the reason everybody thinks he's the second coming of Christ because he was good for two months. If I were the Stars, I wouldn't give this a second thought. The fan base will pretend like their team is being destroyed before their eyes.
Seattle Kraken - Anton Khudobin. He's hot, they'll hope he can carry it through. I give it one year before it all falls apart but we'll see.
Detroit Red Wings - Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, Rasmussen, Svechnikov, Erne. Stetcher, Cholowski, Hronek. Greiss. Not too many hard decisions. Only notable exposed player is Vladislav Namestnikov and he doesn't hurt to lose in the expansion draft. Especially being a 28 year old third liner on a rebuilding team
Seattle Kraken - Vladislav Namestnikov. Who else would they take. There really sin't another option.
Edmonton Oilers - McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto. Nurse, Klefbom, Jones, Bear. Koskinen. Not too many hard decisions. Only Puljujarvi vs Kahun and Puljujarvi has ceiling so I think they take him. You'd like to protect Kassian of course but you can't. I don't think it matters because the'll just take Kahun
Seattle Kraken - Dominik Kahun. This is a pretty good pick. A good middle six winger for your team and a pretty easy pick as well.
Florida Panthers - Huberdeau (NMC), Barkov, Vatrano, Duclair. Ekblad, Yandle (NMC), Weegar, Nutivaara. Bobrovsky (NMC). Hard decision was to leave Saarela unprotected but he's very unproven and everybody you protect is a guarantee. It also hurts to leave Hornqvist and Connolly unprotected but they are of minimal use at best to this team. They won't go contend and Connolly and Hornqvist are just a waste of space.
Seattle Kraken - Aleksi Saarela. He has a lot of potential and is worth a flyer from Seattle. I think he'll pan out as it was these kind of guys that became superstars for Vegas.
Los Angeles Kings - Kopitar, Kempe, Lizotte, Andersson. Doughty (NMC), Maatta, Walker, Roy. Petersen. The only decision was Andersson> a bunch of other people. Everybody else was a lock. Petersen>Quick was close as well but Petersen is so much longer and has a cheaper contract so I took him.
Seattle Kraken - Austin Wagner. Young player with NHL experience. Not a lot of options and you can see what he becomes. It's a flyer but a decent pick.
Minnesota Wild - Parise (NMC), Zuccarello (NMC), Fiala, Greenway. Spurgeon (NMC), Suter (NMC), Dumba, Brodin (NMC). Kahkonen. Hurts leaving Soucy unprotected and you have to take Kahkonen>Talbot based on potential. Other than that it was pretty easy
Seattle Kraken - Carson Soucy. It was between Soucy and Talbot but I took Soucy as there will be better goalies available later and Khudobin can be a good bridge for a year if you can get a tandem guy.
Montreal Canadiens - Anderson, Drouin, Toffoli, Gallagher (NMC), Byron, Lehkonen, Kotkaniemi Weber, Petry (NMC), Mete Price (NMC) No hard decisions except for D3 between Chiarot, Kulak, Mete and Fleury. I took Mete based on age and production so far but we'll see what happens. Not too many options for Seattle. They probably need a forward, they don't need a goalie with Braden Holtby approaching and don't need a D with endless picked and more to come.
Seattle Kraken - Cale Fleury. 22 years old with NHL experience and plays D with no good forward options and an overpriced backup as his competitors. Sounds obvious to me.
Nashville Predators - Duchene, Forsberg, Johansen, Arvidsson. Josi (NMC), Ellis, Ekholm, Fabbro. Saros. Only hard decision was Fabbro>Kunin, Sissons, Grimaldi, blah blah blah. I took Fabbro as he is the youngest and a defence man and with Ekholm, Josi and Ellis getting older, they need a new D. I think you bribe Seattle to stay away from Kunin because I think he has great season. He'll be Seattle's Jonathan Marchessault. They bet on an outlier.
Seattle Kraken - Luke Kunin. Like I said, great season is my prediction, only 23, still has a ceiling but D>F for Nashville and they had to let him go
New Jersey Devils - Hischier, Johnsson, Woods, Zacha, Merkley, McLeod, Bratt. Subban, Severson, Butcher. Blackwood. Not really any hard decisions, not too much talent here. Not too many options for Seattle either. I don't know who I'd pick.
Seattle Kraken - Corey Crawford. Not too many picks here. At least you get an NHL goalie and a good one at that.
New York Islanders - Lee, Nelson, Eberle, Bailey, Pageau, Beauvillier, Barzal. Pulock, Pelech, Leddy. Varlamov. No hard decisions here. Would like to protect Bellows but you just can't. Not too much depth on D so picks were easy.
Seattle Kraken - Kieffer Bellows. Good young forward with NHL experience and a high ceiling at 22. Sounds good to me.
New York Rangers - Panarin (NMC), Kreider (NMC), Zibanejad (NMC), Strome, Buchnevich, Chytil, Howden. Trouba (NMC), DeAngelo, Lindgren. Georgiev. No hard decisions here. You'd like to protect guys like Lemieux, Hajek and Gauthier but there is no room and to be honest, they are bottom 6 guys and bottom pair. Who cares if they leave. They're a dime a dozen.
Seattle Kraken - Libor Hajek. Youngest, a defence man, most potential of Lemieux, Gauthier, Hajek. Obvious pick of the 3. Hopefully he turns into something. It's possible but unlikely.
Ottawa Senators - Dadonov, White, Brown, Tkachuk, Brown, Batherson, Chlapik. Chabot, Jaros, Lajoie. Murray. Surpisingly lots of hard decisions and choices for both Seattle and Ottawa. Murray was obvious, Chabot was obvious but you'd like to protect Brown and Wolanin and unfortunately you can only take Jaros and Lajoie because of age and experience thus far. Up front, you'd like to protect Tierney, Watson, Paul, Balcers, Davidsson and Abramov but there is just no room. I don't have a great grasp on who Ottawa likes and who they don't but this is my best guess.
Seattle Kraken - Chris Tierney. 26 with good NHL production at 0.5 ppg average. I think that sounds good for Seattle.
Philadelphia Flyers - Giroux (NMC), Voracek, Hayes (NMC), Konecny, Couturier, Lindblom, Patrick. Provorov, Sanheim, Myers. Hart. Protection list is pretty obvious except for Patrick and Lindblom. I'd protect both because of age and potential. The hard choices here are Seattle. They can take that god awful JVR contract and get a good player but I wouldn't. You could take Scott Laughton, he's a good option. Your other picks are Ghost and Brian Elliott. To me, Ghost sounds the best. High skill, bad fit, you may be able to recapture his old success
Seattle Kraken - Shayne Gostisbehere. Good d-man with a bad fit in Philly. I'd take him and see what he becomes in a new situation
Pittsburgh Penguins - Malkin (NMC), Crosby (NMC), Guentzel, Zucker, Rust, Kapanen, McCann. Letang (NMC), Dumoulin, Petterson. Jarry. Not too may hard picks here. Only McCann>Tanev but any chance to get rid of that contract you have to take. Seattle will likely be bribed to take either Matheson or Tanev.
Seattle Kraken - Brandon Tanev. You might get a bribe but even if you don't you get a good NHL player. Terrible contract but cap space isn't too valuable for a team with a cap hit $0 as of today
San Jose Sharks - Couture, Hertl, Meier, Kane, Labanc, Donato, True. Karlsson (NMC), Vlasic (NMC), Simek. Korenar. Pretty easily list. Hard picks are True>Gambrell but he's younger and has better production to this point. Simek>Burns might be unpopular but who tf wants that contract. As for Korenar, he's under team control and it's more about exposing Jones. Seattle will have some big bribe offers for Burns or Jones. I wouldn't handicap myself with either of those. Not too many good choices here to be honest.
Seattle Kraken - Jonathan Dahlen. Great start in Sweden and he's better to take a shot on than to take on Burns or Jones. Unless you get a hefty bribe.
St. Louis Blues - O'Reilly, Tarasenko, Schenn, Perron, Sundqvist, Thomas, Kyrou. Krug, Parayko, Dunn. Husso. Pretty easy list. Only decisions were to leave Barbashev and Blais available and I don't think they're anything too special so not too big of a hit. D were obvious and Binnington is a UFA so basically exempt. Only choices for Seattle are Barbashev, Blais and Faulk. Faulk's contract is pretty and so I'd stay away unless bribed.
Seattle Kraken - Ivan Barbashev. Way better production than Blais and still 25, only one year older. Easy pick for me.
Tampa Bay Lightning - Kucherov (NMC), Stamkos (NMC), Palat, Point, Killorn, Gourde, Cirelli. Hedman (NMC), Sergachev, Cernak. Vasilevskiy. Pretty easy list. By the power of God himself they protect all core forwards. Only hard picks are leaving McDonagh available but that's because of age. Cernak is on his way up, McDonagh is on his way down.
Seattle Kraken - Mathieu Joseph. Only young player with experience. McDonagh's contract is a no-go and Foote has no experience
Toronto Maple Leafs - Matthews, Tavares (NMC), Marner, Nylander, Kerfoot, Engvall, Anderson. Muzzin, Rielly, Dermott. Campbell. Easy list again. Unpopular opinion, Brodie won't be protected. Travis Dermott is good and Brodie is a bad fit in Toronto and they'll let him go. We've seen this movie before, come on Dubas, learn from your mistakes
Seattle Kraken - TJ Brodie. Great fit in Seattle, no media and Mark Giordano. Sounds like a TJ Brodie heaven. You might even get a bribe after the media loses their **** and begs Dubas to get rid of him.
Vancouver Canucks - Boeser, Horvat, Miller, Roussell, Gaudette, Virtanen, Pettersson. Myers, Schmidt, Juolevi. Demko. Most of Vancouver's guys go to UFA so another easy list. Hardest choice was Roussell over nobody. Only option for Seattle is Holtby
Seattle Kraken - Braden Holtby. Only option, at least now you have a secure goalie for a few years. Khudobin could fall off at any moment and Crawford has what, one, maybe two years left.
Washington Capitals - Backstrom (NMC), Kuznetsov, Oshie, Wilson, Eller, Vrana, Hagelin. Carlson, Schultz, Siegenthaler. Samsonov. Only real decision was Hagelin>Sprong and at the moment Hagelin is better. Washington is at the end of the road and talent>age right now.
Seattle Kraken - Daniel Sprong. Easy choice given the options were overpaid, aging defensemen. He's 23, has NHL games and potential so it's a good pick.
Winnipeg Jets - Wheeler (NMC), Connor, Laine, Scheifele, Ehlers, Copp, Roslovic. Morrissey, Pionk, DeMelo. Hellebuyck. Another easy list. It was hard to protect Copp over just not protecting anyone but it had to be done. Not a lot of options for Seattle. Maybe Sami Niku?
Seattle Kraken - Sami Niku. 24 and has NHL experience. Only good option


You have some good trade pieces on LD if you want and you also can trade Khudobin. Overall, this team has pieces that can succeed but limited star power up front unlike Vegas who got Marchessault and Neal off the bat. They have good depth but need star power. That can happen through trades and in UFA. Maybe Hall would come. He went to Buffalo.