NHL General Managers may have actually learned a lesson from their experience with the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft a few years ago.
We haven’t yet heard of teams trading assets to make side deals so the Seattle Kraken don’t select a player they left unprotected.
The Golden Knights loaded up on draft picks and prospects as teams were trading pieces to Vegas to pretty well buy control over who Vegas was picking.
Right now, it appears teams are a lot more willing to just say goodbye to a player and lose one asset.
This could mean the Kraken do start with a much more talented roster from the draft, but with less assets moving forward the Kraken won’t have the same pieces to move for later deals.
But Seattle is getting ready to put on a show on Wednesday night and with the NHL’s expansion rules, the Kraken will be extremely competitive – even if opposing managers aren’t going to make the same mistakes they did four years ago.