Francis explains why his picks left many fans scratching their heads
PUBLICATION
T. Tadi
July 22, 2021 (8:50)
After the Seattle Expansion Draft concluded on Wednesday night, many people were left scratching their heads. For the time being, we'll ignore the NHL and ESPN's poor presentation and focus on the picks themselves. The roster appeared underwhelming at best once GM Ron Francis had his 30 picks lined up. The defence core appears to be adequate, but the forward core appears to be mediocre. Francis said things were different this time compared to the Vegas Expansion Draft four years ago after the draft.
"We talked about it before we started. This was going to be nothing like what Vegas had gone through "Francis stated. "It had been 17 years since there had been an expansion draft. Vegas did a good job of exploiting the rules and everyone's lack of experience in that type of situation. They knew we were coming in the second that one was finished. It was supposed to be three years, but it ended up being four. As a result, they had much more time to prepare for us "Francis stated.
"General managers were more willing to overpay last time to protect specific assets. They had learned from their mistakes the previous time and were not willing to repeat them this time "Francis stated his opinion.
In the meantime, most people assumed that any draft pick trades would be announced Wednesday night. That did not appear to be the case. Once the roster freeze ends on Thursday at 1 p.m. EST, trades will begin. Francis, on the other hand, warned that there won't be many.
He told ESPN, "Probably a lot less than you guys think there might be."
Carey Price, James van Riemsdyk, P.K. Subban, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ben Bishop, and others are among the more well-known names Francis left behind. Francis now has $28 million in cap space to work with as a result of his actions.
"We believe that is a valuable asset to have at this time, particularly given the COVID environment and the flat cap. We considered our options. There are some good players out there for whom the cap hit on some of them was too high for us "Francis stated his opinion. "We tried to put together the best team we could while still keeping our cap space open. As a result, as we progress, we will be able to do some things."
The Kraken appear to be major players in the upcoming free agency period, which begins on July 28th.
Previously on HockeyPatrol
| POLL |
22 JUILLET | 108 ANSWERS Francis explains why his picks left many fans scratching their heads Do you like the Seattle team? |
| Yes | 50 | 46.3 % |
| No | 58 | 53.7 % |
| LIST OF POLLS |
Latest 10 stories
