2021 NHL Expansion Draft: Notable Players Available for Seattle Kraken

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price, Colorado Avalanche winger Gabriel Landeskog and St. Louis Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko headline the group of players left available for potential selection by the Seattle Kraken during the 2021 NHL expansion draft Wednesday.

SiriusXM NHL Network Radio provided a look at some of the other high-profile names available for the Kraken:

The NHL published the complete list of protected players ahead of the draft.

Seattle is going to select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies during the expansion draft. The remaining selections can come from any position.

The Kraken also have an exclusive negotiation window with potential free agents through Wednesday. If they sign any players during that period, it will count toward their selection from the player's last team.

While there were a lot of marquee names left unprotected, it doesn't mean they will all be selected by Seattle general manager Ron Francis. He has a pretty good playbook to follow after the Vegas Golden Knights maximized their leverage in the 2017 expansion draft to become an immediate Stanley Cup contender.

One tactic used successfully by Vegas was accepting assets, mostly in the form of draft picks, in order to select specific players or to overlook certain players.

For example, the Winnipeg Jets traded the No. 13 overall pick in the 2017 draft and a third-round choice in 2019 in exchange for the Golden Knights taking Chris Thorburn and the No. 24 pick in the 2017 draft.

Vegas later flipped Nick Suzuki, the No. 13 selection in 2017, in a blockbuster deal for Max Pacioretty in 2018.

So there will be plenty of wheeling and dealing by the Kraken's front office ahead of Wednesday, and they probably have even more leverage than Vegas did because opposing NHL teams are dealing with roster issues related to the flat salary cap coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have $81.5 million of cap space to play with, so that's certainly something we want to make sure we try to take advantage of moving forward," Francis told Tracey Myers of NHL.com on Saturday.

Although names like Price ($10.5 million cap hit), Tarasenko ($7.5 million) and Landeskog (impending UFA due for a big deal) jump out at first glance, Seattle is unlikely to go all-in on high-priced veterans since its cap flexibility is such a major advantage.

Players like the Tampa Bay Lightning's Yanni Gourde ($5.2 million) and Toronto Maple Leafs' Alexander Kerfoot ($3.5 million) are the sort of cost-effective options who figure to attract attention.

As a whole, the Kraken were already in a promising position entering their debut offseason, and the protection lists appear to put them in an even stronger spot. They will either be able to select some high-impact players or obtain significant assets to accelerate their building process.

Vegas set a high standard by making the Stanley Cup Final in its first season, and while that's probably too lofty of an expectation, Seattle should at least be highly competitive out of the gate.