Sabres news: The 2021 Expansion Draft lists have been released
The Seattle Kraken now know who they will have to choose from to build their roster for their inaugural season. The Buffalo Sabres, along with the rest of the league, have released their expansion draft lists and announced who has been protected and who was left unprotected. Seattle now will have until Wednesday to look through the list of unprotected players, as the 2021 Expansion Draft is set for Wednesday night.
The entire list of unprotected players includes some big-name players that could make the Kraken an immediate contender, much like how the Vegas Golden Knights were so successful right away. Some of the most notable players available to Seattle include Carey Price, Vladimir Tarasenko, Gabriel Landeskog, and Max Domi.
The @NHL announced the Available and Protected Lists for the 30 teams who will provide players to the @SeattleKraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. #SeattleDraft
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) July 18, 2021
Details: https://t.co/Hniwg0kNhu pic.twitter.com/33ppRrAVOI
Looking at the Sabres list of protected and unprotected players did not include anything overly surprising. After the announcement earlier in the week of Jeff Skinner waiving his no-move clause, that confirmed he would be included on the list of unprotected players. This allowed Buffalo to protect another younger player that they hope to include in their rebuild plans.
Sabres players available to the Kraken include forwards Jeff Skinner, Cody Eakin, Zemgus Girgensons, Andrew Oglevie and Kyle Okposo and defensemen Will Borgen, Colin Miller.
— John Vogl (@BuffaloVogl) July 18, 2021
It will be interesting to see how things play out on Wednesday night. There is a lot of star power available for the Kraken, but the salary cap will prevent them from taking all of the stars. The biggest contract that was left unprotected by the Sabres was Skinner’s contract. Skinner has a cap hit of $9 million per year through the 2026-2027 season.
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The bar has been set extremely high for the expected performances of expansion teams right away. The Vegas Golden Knights have been a title contender each year that they have been a team, including making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year as a franchise, but fell at the hands of the Washington Capitals. We will see if the Kraken can match the Golden Knights’ immediate success.