Flames will let Seattle take whoever they want IMO

The Flames aren’t gonna give up a pick for y’all to take Giordano, since everyone else we want to keep is either already protected or too young to be eligible

Nashville won’t give that much to dump Johansen, maybe a 2nd Rounder and a prospect like Pitlick or Davies. I don’t see Nash giving a 1st and Ingram in this

Boston protects Smith over Ritchie. And they take Lauzon or Ritchie, dark horse Zboril. Could be a trade to take Moore as Seattle is not getting a difference maker from Boston anyway, better off adding picks or moving up in the draft and take Moore.

flames won’t pay anything extra to seattle, least of all to take the only impact player they’re leaving exposed

Hey now, dont BM Looch like that. i've watched him impact into opposing players really hard

The pick isn't so much to guarantee the Kraken pick Giordano, more than it is for some added security in case Giordano is only in Seattle for a year. He's basically to Seattle what Marc-Andre Fleury was to Vegas: a franchise legend that's a logical choice, but isn't firmly in the long-term plans of their new team. Does Giordano decide to finish his career in Seattle, like Fleury will likely do in Vegas? Does he head back to Calgary or sign with a Cup contender next offseason? Does Seattle go down the tubes and move him at the deadline? You could argue that the pick should be in 2023 instead of 2022, but I think Seattle would feel a lot better about going the Giordano route if they can at least guarantee something out of the deal.

Besides, if the Flames move Gaudreau and/or Monahan this offseason (and I think they should), they'll get at least one or two pieces more valuable than the pick they give Seattle, so it balances out.

If seattle doesn’t take gio, the flames are more than happy to keep their captain and top pair blueliner lol, not losing him is a fine outcome. The cap flexibility is nice, but we can with around one more year of gio and it fits valimaki’s developmental timeline better

I think Nashville is in the same boat as Philadelphia where they come out alright in the expansion draft is if one of their big contracts is off the books. A 1st and Ingram looks like a lot, but context makes it a bit more understandable. This year's draft class is one of the thinner ones in recent years, and the guaranteed impact talent will likely be gone by the time Nashville would be on the clock. Ingram's a solid young goaltender, but I'm not sure where he fits in Nashville anymore. Saros is the obvious goaltender for now while Askarov is the future franchise goaltender, leaving Ingram in a strange position within the organization. It might not be the worst idea to let Ingram find a long-term home, have the Preds sign competent backup goaltenders to Saros (or re-sign Rinne if he doesn't retire), and then have Askarov fill the spot when he can be signed. Pitlick and the 4th are sweeteners, and adding them allows me to be consistent with how I approached Philly.

Seattle could choose to for someone like Gawdin or Kylington if they decide to go another route with their bigger cap hits. Gawdin has the more upside of the two imo, so if Giordano isn't moving, he'd make for a nice Plan B.

That would be unfortunate because I like gawdin, but honestly gawdin’s upside is limited to a bottom six role (likely 4C, maybe 3RW on a real top heavy team) and we have Ruzicka/Froese who can fill in on the 4th line, and kylington’s a 3rd pair D at best at this point. Neither of those are as impactful as gio, and calgary would move on just fine if seattle goes that route. Gio being selected or not definitely changes how we do business this summer, but both scenarios have advantages the flames can exploit (that either lose a fringe guy to seattle and escape expansion unscathed, or lose their captain but gain 6.75mil cap room to play with, both work for calgary).