The Seattle Kraken officially rounded out their roster, in most regards, with the Expansion Draft on Wednesday night. The thing is, a lot of the picks were leaked all throughout the day on Twitter. Thanks to Frank Seravalli, formerly of TSN and now of DFO who seems to have a pretty good source inside Seattle, we got a lot of picks through the day. The official list is here:

 I want to talk about some of these selections because there were some intriguing ones.

Despite some potential leaks around social media, Seravalli confirmed that it wouldn't be Alex Kerfoot being taken by Seattle from Toronto, but rather Jared McCann. It always made more sense to take the better, younger, controlled player, and here we are.

Of course, this is a big loss for the Leafs, even if McCann wasn't in the lineup last year. He could have been an immediate replacement for Zach Hyman, could be used as a third-line centre, and is very good on the power play. These are all things the Leafs need, and they lost them all because they wanted to protect Justin Holl. We will see if it's worth it.

Seattle shored up what very well could be their top pair. It leaked that they had selected and signed Adam Larsson and Jamie Oleksiak, the latter to a five-year, $4.6M AAV deal and former to a 4x$4M. Both players are effectively the same guy: defence-first defencemen that can be relied upon for at least top-4 minutes. Neither is that old with Oleksiak and Larsson turning 29 in December and November, respectively. Having these guys around for a few years while the team rounds itself out isn't a bad idea. Keep in mind that Larsson put up nearly 300 hits+blocks in 56 games this year playing 19:39 a night, while Oleksiak was just under 260 in 56 games playing nearly 20:30 a night. What kind of peripherals do these guys have if they are each playing 22-23 minutes a night? Keep them in mind, multi-cat leaguers.  

Alex True was the selection from San Jose. I thought they might go with Dylan Gambrell, but I like the pick of True here. He is a 6-foot-5 centre with a good set of hands and that combination is rare. He needs more work on his game to round out, so maybe he has an outside shot at a regular roster spot this year. But honestly, I would wait another year. It just feels like he needs a bit more development.

Joonas Donskoi is the guy the Avalanche are going to lose, and while that hurts, he's replaceable. I am leery of a big fantasy increase with this acquisition. Donskoi has never been a shooter himself, and the Kraken are unlikely going to have much in the way of goal scoring. Donskoi putting up his first 40-point season feels unlikely unless he's a staple of the top line.

The Islanders are going to lose Jordan Eberle, and that feels like a big loss. Granted, Oliver Wahlstrom should be a big beneficiary here, but it's still a loss for the team. Eberle was either first or second on the team in goals and points in the regular season over the last two years at 5-on-5 and he had 25 points in 41 playoff contests in that span. Maybe Wahlstrom can do what he does, but is there someone readily available to replace Wahlstrom? That's the gambit.

Mark Giordano was the pick from Calgary. I think that makes sense. He is still a good player, he is an instant locker room leader for an expansion team, and he can be traded for a handsome return at the trade deadline. Like I mentioned in my Ramblings a couple days ago, this team is probably going to have a very good defence corps but a little thin up front. The trades over the next eight months will start to solidify the forward group.

Vince Dunn was the selection from St. Louis and was a player that was also mentioned in the Ramblings from a couple days ago. I think there may be some serious upside here but the latter part of his run in St. Louis made me a bit nervous. He didn't really break out as hoped, but it was a really tough season for a lot of people, and St. Louis endured a lot of injuries. Dunn has shown offensive skills in the past so I'm thinking it may have just been a transition season for him, as he added a more of a defensive dimension to his game. The bigger concern is likely the forwards that Dunn will have to play with. There just isn't a lot of scoring talent at the moment. They will need to develop some forwards, and that will take time.

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I am going to have a lot more on the expansion draft in tomorrow's Ramblings.

When looking at the potential roster over the last couple weeks, it looked as though they would be playoff-competitive If anything, they look like they're trying to strike a balance. Put out a competitive team that can make a first-round run this year while also building for the future. It gives them something to hang their hat on for this season while keeping the fanbase energized for seasons moving forward.

We look at the team's cap room, and they should be about $20M under the cap, near the cap floor, almost regardless of the player combinations in use here. That gives Seattle a tremendous amount of flexibility this summer, and it's an important offseason to have cap space. Sure, maybe the Kraken took Yanni Gourde from Tampa Bay, but do the Bolts still want to get rid of Tyler Johnson? And what would that cost be? Vince Dunn may be a Kraken player right now, but what's preventing them from trading for Vladimir Tarasenko at full freight, then off-loading him with half the cap hit retained to recoup futures? With all the cap space they have, the limited cap space most other teams have, and the desire for those teams to be more flexible, there could be a lot of movement going to Seattle in the next couple weeks.

This may not be the best roster Seattle could assemble, but they've given themselves a good balance of a competitive team in a weak division with a lot of flexibility for the future. Not a bad start to the franchise.

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As another aside, we didn't see any side deals. Not one. Remember the Vegas Expansion Draft? There was a lot of side deals, including some famous ones from Florida and Columbus. With some of the leaks that we saw – Carson Twarynski from Philadelphia instead of either Voracek or JvR and Morgan Geekie over Jake Bean. I find that all very strange.

Maybe we see something coming down the pipe. Down the line, some of these GMs will have to do the Kraken a favour. Seattle clearly sees something in the players they selected and are valuing as much cap space as they can.

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Some news on the St. Louis Blues winger front, and no, not the one you're probably thinking of:

This isn't really a huge surprise. The team has well under $20M in cap space for the summer, both Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou to sign, and if Vince Dunn isn't taken in expansion – I'm writing this Wednesday afternoon – they have to sign him too. And they have to replace guys like Mike Hoffman and Tyler Bozak. There is only so much money available to go around. We will see where Schwartz goes but he is a big bounce-back candidate for me.