Washington Capitals: Top 10 best players heading into the Expansion Draft

This has been an NHL offseason like no other and this is indeed the nuttiest time of the year. Whatever the Seattle Kraken will do tonight, it’ll impact the next steps in the Washington Capitals offseason retool plan.

We’ve already looked at potential options for the Seattle Kraken to take. Now let’s rank the top 10 best players available. You can catch the Seattle Expansion Draft tonight at 8 p.m. on ESPN 2. Over these next 10 slides we’ll show you who would be a good fit for the Kraken and what they could bring to the table.

#10 Zdeno Chara

This is highly unlikely to happen but if Zdeno Chara decides to end up playing for one more season he could bring two decades plus worth of leadership to the Kraken. Chara had two goals and eight assists for 10 points with the Caps last season and is an unrestricted free agent who controls his hockey future. He is right now pondering retirement or running it back for another season, though if he came back it would be highly unlikely he re-signs with the Caps.

The Caps basically got him last season after the Boston Bruins didn’t see a fit for him on the team anymore. He helped make the locker room better and he would do the same thing with the Kraken.

#9 Michal Kempny

Michal Kempny missed all of last season with an Achilles injury that required surgery but did appear in some Hershey Bears games in the AHL until a freak accident sidelined him again. Still, Kempny is ready to return to the ice this season and if he were to get taken by the Kraken, the Caps would lose a quality left handed defensemen.

Kempny was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2018 NHL trade deadline and played top pairing minutes with John Carlson. It was this trade that helped the Caps shut it down on the way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Kempny had three points in 22 games during that 2018 regular season home stretch with two goals and one assist and was re-signed that offseason. Kempny followed that up with a six goal and 19 assist season in 2018-19 before finishing the second to last season with three goals and 15 assists for 18 points.

The Caps were able to load up on defense last offseason by putting Kempny’s contract on long term injured reserve. Now he looks to come back into the Caps lineup next season if the Kraken don’t select him. Like Chara, this is highly unlikely too but as the slides go on it’ll start getting more and more likely.

#8 Carl Hagelin

Carl Hagelin was brought on to the Caps from the Los Angeles Kings during the 2019 NHL trade deadline. The Caps liked his play and his effectiveness on the penalty kill that they decided to re up his contract that summer.

Hagelin had three goals and eight assists for 11 points in the final 20 games of the 2018-19 season. He followed that up by recording 25 points the next season with eight goals and 17 assists. Last season he finished with six goals and 10 assists for 16 points but was very effective on the Caps nearly perfect fourth line. The Kraken offense would benefit if they took any of the fourth liners.

Like Chara, Hagelin brings both veteran and Stanley Cup winning experience and the Kraken would benefit in that department. Hagelin had a 49.19 percent Corsi For percentage, a 53.45 percent Scoring Chances For percentage and a 56.46 High Danger Chances For percentage.

It is highly unlikely the Kraken would select him. They would probably select younger forwards maybe even someone from Washington’s fourth line that is one of the podcast bros. We hope not but no matter who we lose, it will either help or hurt us. But early leaks aren’t looking good…

#7 Conor Sheary

The Caps re-signed Conor Sheary because they enjoyed his play in his lone season with the Caps. Losing him would be a big blow to the Caps offense as Sheary represents one of the key pieces of the future. Though it is also highly unlikely the Caps will lose Sheary. There was a reason they unloaded a lot of big dawgs on defense but leaving Sheary exposed did surprise me a little bit.

Sheary had 14 goals and eight assists for 22 points. He was a spark plug for the bottom six who mostly spent time on the third line. Sheary would impact a Kraken offense looking to follow the steps of the Vegas Golden Knights which set the bar ridiculously high.

Sheary carries a cap hit of $1.5 million which would be a bargain for the Kraken. He had a 53.77 percent Corsi For percentage.

#6 Nick Jensen

Nick Jensen had a bounce back 2021 season thanks to being paired at the bottom with Zdeno Chara. Chara helped improve his game and the results speak for themselves. The Kraken messed up by not selecting Jensen according to all the rumors that are floating around right now.

Jensen had two goals and 12 assists for 14 points. He also had a 50.24 Corsi For percentage. Jensen was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings at the 2019 trade deadline and was signed to a contract extension immediately after. He will be part of the Caps blue line for the next few seasons unless the following rumor we’ll talk about is false.

But if the rumors are true the Kraken made a terrible mistake by not selecting Jensen. He carries a cap hit of $2.5 million.

#5 Nic Dowd

Nic Dowd centers the effective fourth line with the Caps. The Kraken made a mistake by not taking him but we will gladly have him back for another season in D.C. Dowd carries a cap hit of $750,000 so having an effective center for that cheap of a price is an effective bargain.

Dowd had a career high 11 goals and four assists for 15 points last season. He had a 46.79 Corsi For percentage and won 56.3 percent of his face offs.

#4 Brenden Dillon

Dilly Dilly! I protected Brenden Dillon on my list but the Caps ultimately went with protecting Trevor van Riemsdyk. Their strategy was challenging the Kraken to take one of their defensemen but you’ll find out in the next few slides who the Kraken apparently took instead.

Dillon had two goals and 17 assists for 19 points and a 50.40 Corsi For percentage. The Caps acquired him at the trade deadline before the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic hit. Despite the short time, he found a home in D.C. and the Caps extended him to a contract with a cap hit of $3.9 million.

#2 Justin Schultz

We’ve written a lot about Justin Schultz and why he would be a good fit on the Kraken which is puzzling as to why they didn’t select him according to the rumors. CJ Witt had a good hypothetical question as to whether Schultz was brought on last offseason to leave him exposed and selected in the Seattle Expansion Draft.

Schultz finished with three goals and 24 assists for 27 points and a 49.14 percent Corsi For percentage. He mostly played on the second line with Dmitry Orlov and if the reports are true it looks like he’ll be back next season barring a trade.

You might be wondering about all these rumors. Well number one on this list is the player that the Seattle Kraken apparently already taken…

#1 Vitek Vanecek

We’ve been talking about these leaks the last several slides and of course by the power of Murphy’s law, the leaks happened right as we were writing this article! But we shall dissect this on this final slide and then talk more about it in a new article coming out soon.

In a report from NHL insider Frank Servalli which sounds like he already got his hands on the draft list which was submitted at 10 a.m. eastern one of the goaltenders the Seattle Kraken selected was indeed Vitek Vanecek.

What does this mean for the future of the Caps in the crease? Well now a lot of moves are about to be made because only $716,667 is coming off the books to the already $9 million the Caps have to spend this offseason. And they need to extend the contracts of both Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Samsonov now.

Vanecek had a solid rookie season with a 21-10-4 record with a 2.69 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. He stepped in when Ilya Samsonov missed time with COVID and filled in nicely. This was thrown onto him after Henrik Lundqvist missed the season with heart surgery.

Vanecek will compete for the starters job and the Kraken will be lucky to have him. More on this report in a moment.