In the NHL expansion draft Wednesday, the first-year Kraken were allowed to take one player from each of the 30 teams (fellow expansionist Las Vegas was exempt) and had to select at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders.
General Manager Ron Francis, assistant GMs Ricky Olczyk and Jason Botterill and Director of Hockey Research and Strategy Alexandra Mandrycky spent the past two years planning for Monday’s release of each club’s list of unprotected players, and the past 72 hours making decisions.
Their 30 selections, which include Stanley Cup champions from each of the past three seasons (Vince Dunn, 2018-19 with St. Louis; Yanni Gourde, 2019-20 and 2020-21 with Tampa Bay) have combined for the following in their NHL regular-season careers: 6,264 games, 960 goals, 1,560 assists, 2,520 points, a 2.50 goals-against average and .916 save percentage.
Players from six countries are represented in their picks: Canada (19), USA (6), Sweden (2), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1) and Finland (1).
The first Kraken home game is Oct. 23 against the Vancouver Canucks. The road opener is Oct. 12 at Las Vegas. The NHL regular-season schedule will be released at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Here’s the alphabetical list of players by position:
