Quoting: Terry_AkiSauce
Unrelated to who would get taken in expansion though
Holtby and Allen come with picks to be Seattle's 1a/1b, and have each been to the Finals. Adin Hill is almost as good as Vanecek at press box goalie, and will be cheaper to extend because he hasn't accomplished anything yet. An Ullmark or Drieger signing could complicate things. I think Driger might be excited to find a spot where he has a clear shot as a starter, but Ullmark probably feels the love in Buffalo already.
Schultz is the highest scoring defenseman who could be available that is under 30 and under $4M. He's 2nd pair behind Carlson but played a year as the #1 offensive defenseman in Pitt with Letang injured and did fine. Dillon had the most hits this year of any defenseman who could be available, and can play top pairing in a shutdown role. Doesn't keep Carlson from scoring a ton of points.
Seattle's in Washington State. The highest-scoring Washington-state born player in NHL history is TJ Oshie. Seattle just hired Oshie's college coach, Dave Hakstol. Oshie tied for 49th in points by a forward this year, and is good at both special teams, so he's a legit top line player for any team, but especially for an expansion team in his home state that just hired his old coach.
While Vanecek is a decent starting goalie, WSH can decide to expose a couple of top pairing defensemen and a top line center/right wing who could interest Seattle more. In an ordinary year, WSH would just lose Vanecek, but the cap is flat and WSH wants to sign Ovechkin, so losing a 4-5M player might make more sense to the Caps than losing a guy around league minimum.
If WSH sees Samsonov as their definite starter, they could listen to good offers on Vanecek, but as good as Mikheyev is, the Caps have depth on wings. They need depth/prospects at C, RHD, and G. Vanecek for Mikheyev thins them out at a thin spot, while adding to a strength. Tor has tons of prospects at C, RHD, and G, and could easily put together a compelling offer for Vanecek. Since Nolan Patrick isn't signing at 900k with a 30 point season under his belt, why not offer Abramov, after expansion, if WSH manages to protect Vanecek?