NHL Trade Freeze starts tomorrow; except for the Seattle Kraken
Anthony Scultore
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The NHL Trade Freeze will go into effect tomorrow. That also coincides with the deadline to submit protected lists for the upcoming Seattle Expansion Draft on July 21st. Those lists go public on Sunday.
However; if you are the Seattle Kraken that freeze does not apply. Ron Francis can continue to field and make trades up until the expansion draft.
Trade Freeze and the Seattle Kraken
Starting on July 17th at 3 PM ET until July 22nd, only the Kraken can make trades with any team they want in the NHL. Teams will not be permitted to make deals with one another but can with Seattle.
Recently, the Nashville Predators tried to make a deal to protect Viktor Arvidsson. They could not come to an agreement so GM David Poile shipped him to the Kings rather than lose him for nothing.
The believed asking price set by Ron Francis for any such deal starts with a first round pick. A price no team appears willing to pay.
Teams already making expansion based moves
Already this week, there’s been a number of teams making moves to protect players from the Kraken.
The Avalanche traded away Ryan Graves to the Devils for forward Mikhail Maltsev and their second-round pick in this month’s NHL draft. That’s because they knew they were losing one of their defenseman.
In Minnesota, they bought out two big contracts. Due to no-move clause for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, they were forced to protect them. Now Bill Guerin can protect Matt Dumba and Jordan Greenway.
Same with the Florida Panthers who bought out Keith Yandle in order to protect Gustav Forsling.
Is there another big move coming? The Devils may be trying to move PK Subban, otherwise he could be a member of the Kraken next Wednesday.
