Seattle Kraken about to strike a deal before expansion draft

On July 21st, the expansion draft will take place and the Seattle Kraken will select one player from each team except the Vegas Golden Knights, who are exempt after entering the league in 2017-18. Teams can protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters (forwards or defensemen) and one goalie. But one club is looking to strike a deal with the Kraken first. 

That would be the Nashville Predators as GM David Poile admitted that he is hoping to work with the 32nd NHL franchise ahead of the expansion draft. 

“I’ve had a couple of conversations with them,” Predators general manger David Poile said on the “Darren, Daunic and Chase” podcast July 1. “Ideally, if we could strike a deal so there’s certainty as to who we would lose, I would probably do that.”

The work might already be in progress as it is believed that the recent trade of forward Viktor Arvidsson to the Los Angeles Kings on July 1 in return for a second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft took place rather than losing him to Seattle for nothing.

“In my conversations with Seattle, if Viktor Arvidsson was not protected, he would have been taken by Seattle, so that’s who we would have lost,” Poile said. “We now have a second and a third (draft picks), that’s pretty good compensation for Viktor that hopefully we can turn into some good players pretty soon.”

Discussions remains ongoing between Poile and Kraken GM Ron Francis, who could let the Predators know which player he will target. 

“A lot of teams are talking to each other and trying to have a little bit of makeover or changes to their team,” he said. “And we’re certainly one that wants to make a couple of changes to our team.”

This is a busy time for the Kraken even though it’s still working on putting together its inaugural roster.