Sean Maloughney: Seattle Is A Normal Expansion Team and That's Okay.

Thanks Sean. While I’m not a Kraken fan necessarily, I do enjoy reading your articles. I kind of just follow along because Gio’s on the team.

Ya, it will take a few years, but hopefully they get hot soon!

There was no way Seattle would replicate what Vegas did.

I'm sure the people who laid out the 650000000 cover charge were expecting something a little more competitive for their investment.

I think the owners and fans have realistic expectations that things will not happen on a highly accelerated time line. They will show patience and have a grace period as long as they see steady progress.

There was no way Seattle would replicate what Vegas did.

The rest of the NHL learned from their mistakes during the Vegas expansion. GM's weren't going to be strong armed into gifting picks and prospects to Francis in exchange for a player not being selected. The end result was a lot of inflated contracts being exposed with little interest from Seattle in taking them

Except that they passed over better players in the expansion draft, and hired a head coach who is clueless.

The rest of the NHL learned from their mistakes during the Vegas expansion. GM's weren't going to be strong armed into gifting picks and prospects to Francis in exchange for a player not being selected. The end result was a lot of inflated contracts being exposed with little interest from Seattle in taking them
- habfanforever

This. Vegas was the first expansion team with the new protection list rules and some teams panicked and learned not to do the same. Francis tried to strong arm teams into doing the same and ended up with a team mostly comprised of bottom-6 players to save face.

avs will happily take donskoi back please!

I think there is reasonable expectation on the team. You expect some pain as the team grows. There was no way they were going to replicate the lightning in a bottle expansion success Vegas had. The one thing here now is they HAVE been good enough to win more. They are frustratingly inconsistent.

Francis did a very good job on some pick ups but some you look at who they could have, the year they are having and you scratch your head a bit. He also overplayed things trying to get things like vegas did overvaluing trades etc.

I am still not at all sold on Hakstol. Some of the team inconsistency falls on how they play, the structure. Some of his player usage is a bit confusing. That said he cant help covid, players not showing up, injuries, or goalies looking terrible handing out more soft serve than McDonalds.

Will be a long season but good pieces are in place and drafting well and developing well are going to be key for success here. In the words of Mike Babcock there will be pain🤣

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Krakheads.

Totally in withdrawal driving to California and unable to really get my usual team fix.

The rest of the NHL learned from their mistakes during the Vegas expansion. GM's weren't going to be strong armed into gifting picks and prospects to Francis in exchange for a player not being selected. The end result was a lot of inflated contracts being exposed with little interest from Seattle in taking them
- habfanforever

I had heard Francis also stuck to his guns a little too hard on wanting 1st round picks. We shall see if that works for him in the future.

Other than a team with some decent talent and in reality, just need some consistency, they have a good cap structure going into their first trade deadline in a few months. Plenty of space to pick up a few mid to late draft picks to use their cap space.

As well they don't really have long term contracts. A lot of flexibility going forward.