Washington Capitals: Top 3 takeaways of the NHL Expansion Draft
The NHL Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft has come and gone. The Kraken have taken all of our favorite players including our very own Vitek Vanecek. We’ve broken down more about it including how it affects the Washington Capitals salary cap. Read on for our top 3 takeaways of the Seattle Expansion Draft.
The TV spectacle overall was pretty neat as the draft took place on a lake with boats in the background with fans on hand to welcome the members of their brand new team. Overall though, it could have been better. We’re about to explain why.
#3 Leaks ruin the fun
The Kraken’s draft picks were submitted on Wednesday at 10 a.m. eastern time. The Expansion Draft was to be televised revealing all the picks at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. What the league and perhaps ESPN learned, through the hard way, is a 10 hour gap in between the picks allowed the draft list to be leaked.
One reporter decided to get his moment of fame by tweeting out the picks. It was at that point in the afternoon that we learned that the Kraken not only passed on Carey Price but selected Vitek Vanecek from the Caps. There was honestly no point in even watching the draft with us already knowing who the Kraken would take.
#2 Vitek Vanecek’s loss was the worst case scenario
Yes touching any member of the fourth line would’ve been bad. Losing a Nic Dowd, or Garnet Hathaway or Carl Hagelin was my initial thought of a worst case scenario. When the leak came out and things became a reality that night knowing that Vitek Vanecek was a new member of the Kraken, this loss would hurt the Caps mostly off the ice than on the ice.
On the ice, the Caps lose a young rookie netminder for nothing. That is bad enough. To make matters worse, Vanecek doesn’t make a lot of money so one of the cheaper contracts imaginable now comes off the books for the Caps.
The 25 year old goalie from the Czech Republic was an integral part in the Caps pandemic shortened 2021 season. He went from third on the depth chart to challenging Ilya Samsonov for the starter’s job. He was named the starting goaltender in the playoffs before suffering a season ending injury.
Vanecek will become a restricted free agent in 2022 and has a cap hit of $716,667. He was a second round pick by the Caps in 2014 and went 21-10-4 with a .908 save percentage and 2.69 goals against average in his rookie season.
#1 The Caps offseason just got more interesting
Nobody wants to lose young talent for nothing. It’s even worse when the young talent that enters the door doesn’t have a big enough cap hit to help your offseason spending. Now the Caps need to make a move and a trade could be on the horizon not just for Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The Caps set up their protected list to invite the Kraken to take a high priced defensemen. They didn’t despite the Caps exposing Justin Schultz ($4 million cap hit), Brenden Dillon ($3.9 million) and Nick Jensen ($2.5 million cap hit). Vanecek’s cap hit was the lowest on the team.
Now the Caps have to not only re-sign Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Samsonov but have to look for a number two goalie on the market as well. The Caps have been rumored to trade away Kuznetsov’s $7.8 million cap hit.
The Caps have just $9,735,407 money in cap space according to Cap Friendly. The rosters unfroze at 1 p.m. on Thursday and there’s been a flurry of NHL trades yet none involving the Capitals as of this writing.
Must Read. Washington Capitals: Breaking down loss of Vitek Vanecek in NHL Expansion Draft. light
With the first round of the NHL Draft hours away, things are going to get very busy in Brian MacLellan’s office this weekend.