Welcome to My Brain Cells Yanni Gourde, Goodbye Greg Briley?

Time to make room for new Seattle sports names in my brain. But who?

The Kraken drafted 30 players yesterday, but that doesn't mean all 30 will actually suit up as Kraken.

As NHL.com's outstanding Kraken writer Bob Condor reminds us:

10 players drafted by Vegas in 2017 never played an NHL game for the Golden Knights. Another five played 60 NHL games or less.

Already, the Kraken have traded away one expansion draftee. Forward Tyler Pitlick and his $1.75M salary went to Calgary in return for a 4th round pick. 

NHL 4th round picks are not particularly valuable, fewer than half ever make the league. So this is can be read as a salary dump...but it did inspire this all-timer of a tweet from the Kraken SM team.



And the New York Post reports that the Kraken may trade Mark Giordano, the highest-salaried player on the roster at $6.75M. (Though Giordano's appearance at the expansion draft suggests that the Kraken aren't for sure going to flip him.)

The Defensive Core Seems Like A Lock

The three locks would seem to be the players who the Kraken drafted and, at the same time, signed to long-term deals:
  • Left defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, signed to a 5 year, $23M/year deal
  • Right defenseman Adam Larsson, signed to a 4 year, $16M/year deal
  • Goaltender Chris Driedger, signed to a 3 year, $10.5M/year deal
Basically, the Kraken have locked in the core of their defense. Communication on defense being as important in the NHL as any other sport, you'd see how they'd want to lock in their top defensive players for multiple seasons. 

So Do These Three Forwards

The Kraken did not sign Yanni Gourde, a center who was their selection from Tampa Bay, but he's signed for the next four seasons so they might as well have. He was the 2nd-leading goal-scorer on the Stanley Cup champions. 

Two other players who showed up in-person for the draft seem likely to stick as well: Jordan Eberle, a first-line right-winger for the Eastern Conference finalist New York Islander, and Brandon Tanev, a workmanlike forward from perennial contenders Pittsburgh.

And These Two Former Ron Francis Draft Picks

Kraken GM Ron Francis drafted F Morgan Geekie and D Haydn Fleury when he was GM at Carolina, both are have cap-friendly contracts. Stands to reason they'll be getting an extended look in Seattle.

SO! My brain's job is now to find room for these 8 boldface names ... among the hundreds of names of ex-Mariners, ex-Seahawks, ex-Sonics, and ex-Sounders, not to mention many ex-Husky basketballers and footballers that now populate my neurons. Apologies in advance, perhaps, to Greg Briley, Pete Metzelaars, Sedale Threatt, Mike Fucito, Jan Wooten, and Vince Weathersby.

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