Canadiens expose Price in Kraken expansion draft after goalie waives no-move clause

The league released the protected lists of all 30 teams eligible for the expansion draft on Sunday morning. Seattle will pick one player from every team except Vegas — which just went through this process in 2017 — and announce those selections at the expansion draft on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

Price agreed to waive a clause in his contract to be exposed so Montreal could protect cheaper backup Jake Allen, but his goaltending ability, off-ice marketability and ties to the Pacific Northwest could make Price an attractive option even with a salary cap hit of $10.5 million US for five more years.

The 2015 MVP and Vezina Trophy winner is the biggest star left unprotected for the Kraken to select, but there’s plenty of other talent available.

St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko is an option two years removed from hoisting the Stanley Cup after asking the Blues for a trade. Calgary exposed captain and 2019 Norris Trophy-winning defenceman Mark Giordano. And Carolina surprisingly made forward Nino Niederreiter available.

Price is the most intriguing for Seattle, and the location likely helped convince the soon-to-be 34-year-old to waive his no-movement clause to be exposed. He played for the Western Hockey League’s Tri-City Americans a few hours’ drive away, and his wife, Angela, is from Kennewick, Wash.

Benefit of salary cap space

That could make Price a natural cornerstone for the Kraken to build around, like the Golden Knights did with goalie Marc-André Fleury, who was fresh off winning the Cup with Pittsburgh. Price and the Canadiens lost to Tampa Bay in five games in the final.

The back-to-back champion Lightning have easily the deepest pool of available players. Top-line winger Ondrej Palat, longtime forward Alex Killorn, third-line centre Yanni Gourde and young defenceman Cal Foote are all exposed. Squeezed by the cap that’s remaining flat at $81.5 million, they could also work out a side deal with the Kraken to take Spokane native Tyler Johnson and his $5-million price tag for three more seasons.

Seattle has all the leverage and the benefit of cap space.

“The one thing that we think is extremely, extremely valuable in this environment is cap space,” Francis said on Saturday. “We’ve got $81.5 million of cap space to play with, so that’s certainly something that we want to make sure we try and take advantage of moving forward.”

Seattle has certain minimums it must meet in the expansion draft, including selecting at least 20 players under contract for next season with salaries totalling at least $48 million. The Kraken must pick at least 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goaltenders.

There’s no shortage of options:

• Beyond Price, Dallas’s Ben Bishop, Florida’s Chris Driedger and Washington’s Vitek Vanecek are among the available goalies. Driedger is a pending free agent, but the Kraken have an exclusive negotiating window until Wednesday to sign him and others to a new contract.
• Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog, Toronto’s Alex Kerfoot and newly acquired Jared McCann, Pittsburgh’s Jason Zucker and Philadelphia’s James van Riemsdyk join the Lightning trio, Niederreiter and Tarasenko as the most productive forwards available.
• Tarasenko’s Blues teammate Vince Dunn, New Jersey’s personable P.K. Subban and Washington’s Justin Schultz are among the unprotected defencemen, a position not quite as deep in high-end talent. That’s by design.

“Teams knew we were coming, and they’ve had four years to prepare,” Francis said.

WATCH | Get ready for a wild NHL off-season: 

Thanks to the Seattle Kraken, hockey fans will have plenty to keep them busy over the next few weeks. 2:57

Calgary Flames

Available

• Byron Froese (F)
• Glenn Gawdin (F)
• Justin Kirkland (F)
• Josh Leivo (F)
• Milan Lucic (F)
• Joakim Nordstrom (F)
• Matthew Phillips (F)
• Zac Rinaldo (F)
• Brett Ritchie (F)
• Buddy Robinson (F)
• Derek Ryan (F)
• Dominik Simon (F)
• Mark Giordano (D)
• Oliver Kylington (D)
• Nikita Nesterov (D)
• Alexander Petrovic (D)
• Michael Stone (D)
• Louis Domingue (G)
• Tyler Parsons (G)

Protected

• Mikael Backlund (F)
• Dillon Dube (F)
• Johnny Gaudreau (F)
• Elias Lindholm (F)
• Andrew Mangiapane (F)
• Sean Monahan (F)
• Matthew Tkachuk (F)
• Rasmus Andersson (D)
• Noah Hanifin (D)
• Christopher Tanev (D)
• Jacob Markstrom (G)

Edmonton Oilers

Available

• Tyler Benson (F)
• Alex Chiasson (F)
• Adam Cracknell (F)
• Tyler Ennis (F)
• Joseph Gambardella (F)
• Seth Griffith (F)
• Dominik Kahun (F)
• Jujhar Khaira (F)
• Cooper Marody (F)
• James Neal (F)
• Alan Quine (F)
• Patrick Russell (F)
• Devin Shore (F)
• Anton Slepyshev (F)
• Kyle Turris (F)
• Bogdan Yakimov (F)
• Tyson Barrie (D)
• Oscar Klefbom (D)
• Slater Koekkoek (D)
• Dmitry Kulikov (D)
• William Lagesson (D)
• Adam Larsson (D)
• Kris Russell (D)
• Mikko Koskinen (G)
• Mike Smith (G)
• Alex Stalock (G)

Protected

• Josh Archibald (F)
• Leon Draisaitl (F)
• Zack Kassian (F)
• Connor McDavid (F)
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (F)
• Jesse Puljujarvi (F)
• Kailer Yamamoto (F)
• Ethan Bear (D)
• Duncan Keith (D)
• Darnell Nurse (D)
• Stuart Skinner (G)

Montreal Canadiens

Available

• Brandon Baddock (F)
• Joseph Blandisi (F)
• Paul Byron (F)
• Phillip Danault (F)
• Laurent Dauphin (F)
• Jonathan Drouin (F)
• Michael Frolik (F)
• Charles Hudon (F)
• Corey Perry (F)
• Michael Pezzetta (F)
• Eric Staal (F)
• Tomas Tatar (F)
• Lukas Vejdemo (F)
• Jordan Weal (F)
• Cale Fleury (D)
• Erik Gustafsson (D)
• Brett Kulak (D)
• Jon Merrill (D)
• Gustav Olofsson (D)
• Xavier Ouellet (D)
• Shea Weber (D)
• Charlie Lindgren (G)
• Michael McNiven (G)
• Carey Price (G)

Protected

• Josh Anderson (F)
• Joel Armia (F)
• Jake Evans (F)
• Brendan Gallagher (F)
• Jesperi Kotkaniemi (F)
• Artturi Lehkonen (F)
• Tyler Toffoli (F)
• Ben Chiarot (D)
• Joel Edmundson (D)
• Jeff Petry (D)
• Jake Allen (G)

Ottawa Senators

Available

• Vitaly Abramov (F)
• Michael Amadio (F)
• Artem Anisimov (F)
• J.C. Beaudin (F)
• Clark Bishop (F)
• Evgenii Dadonov (F)
• Jonathan Davidsson (F)
• Ryan Dzingel (F)
• Micheal Haley (F)
• Jack Kopacka (F)
• Zachary Magwood (F)
• Matthew Peca (F)
• Logan Shaw (F)
• Derek Stepan (F)
• Chris Tierney (F)
• Josh Brown (D)
• Cody Goloubef (D)
• Mikael Wikstrand (D)
• Joey Daccord (G)
• Anton Forsberg (G)
• Marcus Hogberg (G)
• Matt Murray (G)

Protected

• Drake Batherson (F)
• Connor Brown (F)
• Logan Brown (F)
• Nick Paul (F)
• Brady Tkachuk (F)
• Austin Watson (F)
• Colin White (F)
• Thomas Chabot (D)
• Victor Mete (D)
• Nikita Zaitsev (D)
• Filip Gustavsson (G)

Toronto Maple Leafs

Available

• Kenny Agostino (F)
• Joey Anderson (F)
• Adam Brooks (F)
• Pierre Engvall (F)
• Nick Foligno (F)
• Alex Galchenyuk (F)
• Zach Hyman (F)
• Alexander Kerfoot (F)
• Kalle Kossila (F)
• Denis Malgin (F)
• Jared McCann (F)
• Riley Nash (F)
• Stefan Noesen (F)
• Nic Petan (F)
• Scott Sabourin (F)
• Wayne Simmonds (F)
• Jason Spezza (F)
• Antti Suomela (F)
• Joe Thornton (F)
• Zach Bogosian (D)
• Travis Dermott (D)
• Ben Hutton (D)
• Martin Marincin (D)
• Calle Rosen (D)
• Frederik Andersen (G)
• Michael Hutchinson (G)
• David Rittich (G)

Protected

• Mitchell Marner (F)
• Auston Matthews (F)
• William Nylander (F)
• John Tavares (F)
• TJ Brodie (D)
• Justin Holl (D)
• Jake Muzzin (D)
• Morgan Rielly (D)
• Jack Campbell (G)

Vancouver Canucks

Available

• Sven Baertschi (F)
• Justin Bailey (F)
• Jay Beagle (F)
• Travis Boyd (F)
• Loui Eriksson (F)
• Jonah Gadjovich (F)
• Tyler Graovac (F)
• Jayce Hawryluk (F)
• Matthew Highmore (F)
• Lukas Jasek (F)
• Kole Lind (F)
• Zack MacEwen (F)
• Petrus Palmu (F)
• Antoine Roussel (F)
• Brandon Sutter (F)
• Jimmy Vesey (F)
• Jake Virtanen (F)
• Madison Bowey (D)
• Guillaume Brisebois (D)
• Jalen Chatfield (D)
• Alexander Edler (D)
• Travis Hamonic (D)
• Brogan Rafferty (D)
• Ashton Sautner (D)
• Josh Teves (D)
• Braden Holtby (G)

Protected

• Brock Boeser (F)
• Jason Dickinson (F)
• Bo Horvat (F)
• J.T. Miller (F)
• Tyler Motte (F)
• Tanner Pearson (F)
• Elias Pettersson (F)
• Olli Juolevi (D)
• Tyler Myers (D)
• Nate Schmidt (D)
• Thatcher Demko (G)

Winnipeg Jets

Available

• Mason Appleton (F)
• Marko Dano (F)
• Jansen Harkins (F)
• Trevor Lewis (F)
• Skyler McKenzie (F)
• Mathieu Perreault (F)
• Paul Stastny (F)
• CJ Suess (F)
• Nate Thompson (F)
• Dominic Toninato (F)
• Nathan Beaulieu (D)
• Jordie Benn (D)
• Dylan DeMelo (D)
• Derek Forbort (D)
• Luke Green (D)
• Sami Niku (D)
• Nelson Nogier (D)
• Tucker Poolman (D)
• Mikhail Berdin (G)
• Laurent Brossoit (G)
• Eric Comrie (G)
• Cole Kehler (G)

Protected

• Kyle Connor (F)
• Andrew Copp (F)
• Pierre-Luc Dubois (F)
• Nikolaj Ehlers (F)
• Adam Lowry (F)
• Mark Scheifele (F)
• Blake Wheeler (F)
• Josh Morrissey (D)
• Neal Pionk (D)
• Logan Stanley (D)
• Connor Hellebuyck (G)