The Seattle Kraken have decided to take Mason Appleton from the Winnipeg Jets in anticipation of them joining the league for the 2021-2022 season. The Jets dodged a bullet in Seattle leaving Dylan DeMelo who is probably their best defenceman and certainly their best bang for their buck.
Losing Appleton does hurt the Jets depth a bit, but they have enough good, young forwards that they can easily slot someone like Kristian Vesalainen or Jansen Harkins into his spot without missing a beat. The Jets should be fine with losing Appleton outside of losing a player with cost-controlled years, but you take the wins you can.
No side deals were announced at the expansion draft which is a real shame because we could have seen the Seattle crowd boo Gary Bettman like the sports fans they are. Instead we see Seattle’s team and wonder what it cost other to end up with the team they had instead of the team they could have had. On the other hand they hired Dave Hakstol which is like -10 points on the Smart Hockey Decisions board.
Whatever, NHL Entry Draft starts on Friday and I don’t know anything about that either. It has been a year.
