A Canuck fan’s guide to the Seattle 2021 NHL expansion draft

Momentum towards peak depth in 2020-2021

With the Canucks poised to make some hay next season, the 2020–2021 season may turn out to be the best opportunity in the history of the franchise to pack the most talent onto the roster.

In other words, next season the Canucks could arguably boast its highest ever talent-to-cap ratio, the stuff Stanley Cup dreams are made of.

This is especially true because franchise players Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes are both proving to be elite talents early on in their careers, and will also be in the final year of their affordable, entry-level contracts next season. These two contracts alone are expected to increase the Canucks cap by another $18 million or so for 2021–2022. Luckily, both players are exempt from the NHL expansion draft.

Just because these two talents could suddenly get paid 10 times more, it doesn’t mean that they’ll suddenly become 10 times better. Therein lies the opportunity, the why and when to aim at maximizing the cap-to-talent ratio.

Luckily, there will be a lot of high-caliber, very-affordable cavalry arriving just in the nick of time. The Canucks will be flush with bargain-priced prospects like young talents Vasili Podkolzin, Olli Juolevi, Nils Hoeglander, Brogan Rafferty, and Kole Lind, all players who are NHL-worthy anytime now. Shortly thereafter, a second wave will begin to arrive — Jonah Gadjovich, Jett Woo, Jack Rathbone — earning injury call ups. It’s not clear how cheap Nikita Tryamkin will come but he’ll be there, too.

Thanks to Benning and his boys, there are now loads of fine prospects in the system padding the team for an extended dynasty run, and no doubt many more gems yet to be unearthed that will fill in down the road for any stars who become too expensive to fit with Benning’s internal-cap structure.

It’s almost as if, in anticipation of the NHL expansion draft, Benning had perfectly timed Henrik and Daniel Sedin‘s retirement, the subsequent rebuild of the Canucks, and all the expiring contracts on defence, allowing for only a very limited number of assets to be exposed. While the lion’s share of Benning’s key young talent is draft exempt, the few who are eligible can fit nicely onto his protected list.

While the most pressing question for the Canucks is obviously deciding which goaltender to protect, the list of skaters is also important. Understanding the rules for the Seattle expansion will help us decide who’s best to protect and expose.