Seattle Kraken Could Draft, Then Flip Players Like Dumba, Giordano

As per Elliotte Friedman, there has been some trade talk, but little action thanks to what the Seattle Kraken might do this summer. With a clean slate of salary cap room to play with and some teams having little choice but to leave some interesting names exposed, there’s talk that a couple of franchises might not be ready to pull the trigger on trades because the Kraken may make those same players available after the draft at a discount.

Teams that have to make a move because they are at risk of losing a player for nothing to the Kraken may try to trade a valuable piece versus losing it for nothing. Case in point, the Minnesota Wild might feel the need to move Matt Dumba, while the Calgary Flames may not protect Mark Giordano. But, the question other teams are asking is, why would we trade for those players now, if Seattle is going to put them on the market minutes after they get drafted?

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Friedman writes:

I do think some trade discussions are stalled because teams want to make sure they don’t run into expansion protection trouble. You aren’t making a move without making sure it means you don’t get chewed up by the Kraken. And Seattle is leveraging its position.

He adds, “There are definitely teams concerned that the Kraken will draft exposed players and flip them elsewhere.” Saying both Dumba and Giordano could make sense for a team like Edmonton, the idea is that the Oilers would rather trade with Seattle who can afford to retain some salary in any deal. From Ken Holland’s perspective, why pay $6 million for a player like Matt Dumba when you can pay $4 or $5 million and keep your overall cap hit down.

Seattle Already Making Things Interesting

The fact that teams are already worried the Kraken might not just draft some of their better players, but have plans in place to move some of those players right after the draft makes things very interesting. It’s no wonder teams are gun-shy about making moves at this stage in the game.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the Vegas Golden Knights draft though, it’s that teams shouldn’t overthink this. Just leave a player exposed and try to make your deals after. So many teams wound up making poor decisions ahead of the Golden Knights expansion draft, these teams virtually gifted the first-year team into the Stanley Cup Final.

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