Seattle expansion team gets a better roster thanks to the pandemic!

The 32nd NHL team cannot believe it!

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HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Seattle expansion team gets a better roster thanks to the pandemic!
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The NHL and NHLPA announced a signed memorandum of understanding on Monday to extend the collective bargaining agreement through the 2025-26 season and agree to Phases 3 and 4 of the Return-to-Play plan.

Under the new deal, the upper limit of the salary cap will be held flat at $81.5 million and remain there for the upcoming seasons. And that will be a major blow to teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Toronto Maple Leafs, who will be caught in many tough dilemmas. As a result, some teams will be forced to let go of key talented players that they would normally have kept on board, but will need to part ways with in order to respect the tight salary cap. 

This all comes at the same time as the 32nd expansion team will be making its way into the league, Seattle ready to put together one hell of a roster and it looks like the pandemic has given them a huge advantage. Other clubs will have no other choice but to sacrifice players ahead of the expansion draft, players they would have normally protected, but will instead pick to keep players with less expensive deals on board. 

According to the NHL insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Seattle squad will benefit from an enhanced expansion draft with talented players available, players who would, under normal conditions, be protected from the expansion process. 

All thanks to the pandemic and the money lost by the league! 

Suddenly, the 2021 expansion draft looks even more exciting. It would not be surprising to see the new Seattle club become a competitive team from their year of entry into the NHL, maybe pull off what the Vegas Golden Knights weren’t able to do in their inaugural season by winning the Stanley Cup. 

That would be crazy. 

Eric Duhatschek went big in his latest article for The Athletic and put together a Seattle mock draft, despite not knowing how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the National Hockey League’s calendar and the 2021 expansion draft.

Following the strict rules of the expansion draft (i.e. a team can either protect seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie; or eight skaters and a goalie), Duhatschek put together his updated projected roster for the 32nd NHL team, and placed the names of interesting members on there.

Seattle will have to take a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies, for a total of 26 players. The other four players they can select at any position and Duhatschek decided to give Seattle two extra forwards and two extra defensemen.

It’s a tough job to predict an expansion draft, especially in these unprecedented times, and it seems like it could be even better than what Duhatschek predicted last week. 


Source: Sportsnet