2021 NHL Expansion Draft

The 2021 NHL Expansion Draft was an expansion draft that was conducted by the National Hockey League on July 21, 2021, to fill the roster of the league's expansion team for the 2021–22 season, the Seattle Kraken.
==Background==
On December 4, 2017, the Seattle City Council voted 7–1 to approve a memorandum of understanding between the city of Seattle and the Los Angeles–based Oak View Group, co-founded by Tim Leiweke, for renovations of KeyArena. On December 7, the NHL's board of governors agreed to consider an expansion application from Seattle, with an expansion fee set at US$650 million. The Seattle ownership group was represented by David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer, who conducted a preliminary season ticket drive to gauge interest in Seattle.
On February 13, 2018, the Oak View Group filed an application with the NHL for an expansion team and paid a US$10 million application fee. At the time, the earliest the team could have begun playing was the 2020–21 season, pending the completion of arena renovations.
On October 2, 2018, the NHL Executive Committee unanimously agreed to recommend the expansion bid to a vote of the Board of Governors in December. The NHL Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve Seattle's expansion team on December 4, 2018.
==Rules==
Seattle followed the same rules for the draft as the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, with the provision that Vegas was exempted from losing a player in exchange for forgoing a share of the Kraken's expansion fee. The 30 other teams submitted their lists of protected players on July 17, and they had to expose at least two forwards and one defenseman who were under contract for the 2021–22 season and played in at least 27 games in the 2020–21 season, or more than 54 games in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons combined. Teams also had to expose a goaltender under contract for the 2021–22 season or who would be a restricted free agent (with a qualifying offer received) in 2021. Players who made their professional debuts in North America in the 2019–20 or 2020–21 seasons werere not eligible to be picked, and such players were not needed be protected from expansion.
At least twenty of the thirty players selected by Seattle had to be under contract for the 2021–22 season, and the team was required to select a minimum of fourteen forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders. Furthermore, the 2021–22 salaries of the thirty players selected (as measured in terms of what is counted against the salary cap, otherwise colloquially known as the "cap hit") had to add up to between 60% and 100% of the 2020–21 salary cap (i.e., the full nominal cap, not the prorated cap for the shortened 56-game season that was played). Seattle was granted a 48-hour window prior to the draft to sign any unprotected pending free agent (restricted or unrestricted, one per team). Teams that lost a player to Seattle during the signing window did not have a player selected from its roster during this draft as the signed player counted as Seattle's selection.
Teams were required to protect any contracted players with no move clauses (NMCs) with one of the team's slots for protected players, unless:
#The contract expired on July 28, 2021, in which case the NMC was considered void for the draft.
#The player with an NMC continuing past July 28, 2021, was deemed to have a career-threatening injury and is thus declared exempt from selection and use of a protection slot.
#The player with an NMC waived his no-movement clause for the expansion draft.
Any player picked in the expansion draft cannot have his contract bought out until after the completion of the 2021–22 season.
== Protected players ==
The protected players' list was published on July 18, 2021.
=== Eastern Conference ===
Italics: Players protected for contractual reasons.
Atlantic Division
Position 	Boston 	Buffalo 	Detroit 	Florida 	Montreal 	Ottawa 	Tampa Bay 	Toronto
Forwards 	Patrice Bergeron	Rasmus Asplund 	Tyler Bertuzzi 	Aleksander Barkov 	Josh Anderson 	Drake Batherson 	Anthony Cirelli 	Mitch Marner
Forwards 	Charlie Coyle 	Anders Bjork 	Adam Erne 	Sam Bennett 	Joel Armia 	Connor Brown 	Nikita Kucherov 	Auston Matthews
Forwards 	Jake DeBrusk 	Jack Eichel 	Robby Fabbri 	Anthony Duclair 	Jake Evans 	Logan Brown 	Brayden Point 	William Nylander
Forwards 	Trent Frederic 	Casey Mittelstadt 	Dylan Larkin 	Patric Hornqvist 	Brendan Gallagher 	Nick Paul 	Steven Stamkos 	John Tavares
Forwards 	Brad Marchand 	Victor Olofsson 	Michael Rasmussen	Jonathan Huberdeau	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	Brady Tkachuk 	 	
Forwards 	David Pastrnak 	Sam Reinhart 	Givani Smith 	Mason Marchment 	Artturi Lehkonen 	Austin Watson 	 	
Forwards 	Craig Smith 	Tage Thompson 	Jakub Vrana 	Carter Verhaeghe 	Tyler Toffoli 	Colin White 	 	
Defensemen	Brandon Carlo 	Rasmus Dahlin 	Filip Hronek 	Aaron Ekblad 	Ben Chiarot 	Thomas Chabot 	Erik Cernak 	T. J. Brodie
Defensemen	Matt Grzelcyk 	Henri Jokiharju 	Nick Leddy 	Gustav Forsling 	Joel Edmundson 	Victor Mete 	Victor Hedman 	Justin Holl
Defensemen	Charlie McAvoy 	Rasmus Ristolainen	Gustav Lindstrom 	MacKenzie Weegar 	Jeff Petry 	Nikita Zaitsev 	Ryan McDonagh 	Jake Muzzin
Defensemen	 	 	 	 	 	 	Mikhail Sergachev 	Morgan Rielly
Goaltender	Daniel Vladar 	Linus Ullmark 	Thomas Greiss 	Sergei Bobrovsky 	Jake Allen 	Filip Gustavsson	Andrei Vasilevskiy	Jack Campbell
Metropolitan Division
Position 	Carolina 	Columbus 	New Jersey 	NY Islanders 	NY Rangers 	Philadelphia 	Pittsburgh 	Washington
Forwards 	Sebastian Aho 	Cam Atkinson 	Jesper Bratt 	Mathew Barzal 	Pavel Buchnevich 	Nicolas Aube-Kubel	Teddy Blueger 	Nicklas Backstrom
Forwards 	Jesper Fast 	Oliver Bjorkstrand	Nico Hischier 	Anthony Beauvillier	Filip Chytil 	Sean Couturier 	Jeff Carter 	Lars Eller
Forwards 	Warren Foegele 	Boone Jenner 	Janne Kuokkanen 	Cal Clutterbuck 	Chris Kreider 	Claude Giroux 	Sidney Crosby 	Evgeny Kuznetsov
Forwards 	Jordan Staal 	Patrik Laine 	Michael McLeod 	Anders Lee 	Artemi Panarin 	Kevin Hayes 	Jake Guentzel 	Anthony Mantha
Forwards 	Andrei Svechnikov	Gustav Nyquist 	Yegor Sharangovich 	Matt Martin 	Kevin Rooney 	Travis Konecny 	Kasperi Kapanen	T. J. Oshie
Forwards 	Teuvo Teravainen 	Eric Robinson 	Miles Wood 	Brock Nelson 	Ryan Strome 	Scott Laughton 	Evgeni Malkin 	Daniel Sprong
Forwards 	Vincent Trocheck 	Jack Roslovic 	Pavel Zacha 	Jean-Gabriel Pageau	Mika Zibanejad 	Oskar Lindblom 	Bryan Rust 	Tom Wilson
Defensemen	Brett Pesce 	Vladislav Gavrikov	Ryan Graves 	Adam Pelech 	Libor Hajek 	Ryan Ellis 	Brian Dumoulin 	John Carlson
Defensemen	Brady Skjei 	Seth Jones 	Damon Severson 	Ryan Pulock 	Ryan Lindgren 	Ivan Provorov 	Kris Letang 	Dmitry Orlov
Defensemen	Jaccob Slavin 	Zach Werenski 	Jonas Siegenthaler 	Scott Mayfield 	Jacob Trouba 	Travis Sanheim 	Mike Matheson 	Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltender	Alex Nedeljkovic 	Joonas Korpisalo 	Mackenzie Blackwood	Semyon Varlamov 	Alexandar Georgiev	Carter Hart 	Tristan Jarry 	Ilya Samsonov
=== Western Conference ===
Central Division
Position 	Arizona 	Chicago 	Colorado 	Dallas 	Minnesota 	Nashville 	St. Louis 	Winnipeg
Forwards 	Lawson Crouse 	Henrik Borgstrom	Andre Burakovsky 	Jamie Benn 	Joel Eriksson Ek	Filip Forsberg 	Ivan Barbashev 	Kyle Connor
Forwards 	Christian Dvorak 	Alex DeBrincat 	Tyson Jost 	Radek Faksa 	Kevin Fiala 	Tanner Jeannot 	Jordan Kyrou 	Andrew Copp
Forwards 	Conor Garland 	Brandon Hagel 	Nazem Kadri 	Denis Gurianov 	Marcus Foligno 	Luke Kunin 	Ryan O'Reilly 	Pierre-Luc Dubois
Forwards 	Clayton Keller 	David Kampf 	Nathan MacKinnon 	Roope Hintz 	Jordan Greenway 	 	David Perron 	Nikolaj Ehlers
Forwards 	Phil Kessel 	Patrick Kane 	Valeri Nichushkin	Joe Pavelski 	Ryan Hartman 	 	Brayden Schenn 	Adam Lowry
Forwards 	Johan Larsson 	Dylan Strome 	Logan O'Connor 	Alexander Radulov	Nico Sturm 	 	Oskar Sundqvist 	Mark Scheifele
Forwards 	Nick Schmaltz 	Jonathan Toews 	Mikko Rantanen 	Tyler Seguin 	Mats Zuccarello 	 	Robert Thomas 	Blake Wheeler
Defensemen	Kyle Capobianco 	Caleb Jones 	Sam Girard 	Miro Heiskanen 	Jonas Brodin 	Alexandre Carrier	Justin Faulk 	Josh Morrissey
Defensemen	Jakob Chychrun 	Connor Murphy 	Cale Makar 	John Klingberg 	Matt Dumba 	Mattias Ekholm 	Torey Krug 	Neal Pionk
Defensemen	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	Riley Stillman 	Devon Toews 	Esa Lindell 	Jared Spurgeon 	Dante Fabbro 	Colton Parayko 	Logan Stanley
Defensemen	 	 	 	 	 	Roman Josi 	 	
Defensemen	 	 	 	 	 	Philippe Myers 	 	
Goaltender	Darcy Kuemper 	Kevin Lankinen 	Philipp Grubauer 	Anton Khudobin 	Cam Talbot 	Juuse Saros 	Jordan Binnington	Connor Hellebuyck
Pacific Division
Position 	Anaheim 	Calgary 	Edmonton 	Los Angeles 	San Jose 	Seattle 	Vancouver 	Vegas
Forwards 	Nicolas Deslauriers	Mikael Backlund 	Josh Archibald 	Lias Andersson 	Rudolfs Balcers 	Drafting	Brock Boeser 	Exempt
Forwards 	Max Jones 	Dillon Dube 	Leon Draisaitl 	Viktor Arvidsson	Logan Couture 	Drafting	Jason Dickinson 	Exempt
Forwards 	Isac Lundestrom 	Johnny Gaudreau 	Zack Kassian 	Dustin Brown 	Jonathan Dahlen 	Drafting	Bo Horvat 	Exempt
Forwards 	Rickard Rakell 	Elias Lindholm 	Connor McDavid 	Alex Iafallo 	Tomas Hertl 	Drafting	J. T. Miller 	Exempt
Forwards 	Jakob Silfverberg 	Andrew Mangiapane	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	Adrian Kempe 	Evander Kane 	Drafting	Tyler Motte 	Exempt
Forwards 	Sam Steel 	Sean Monahan 	Jesse Puljujarvi 	Anze Kopitar 	Kevin Labanc 	Drafting	Tanner Pearson 	Exempt
Forwards 	Troy Terry 	Matthew Tkachuk 	Kailer Yamamoto 	Trevor Moore 	Timo Meier 	Drafting	Elias Pettersson	Exempt
Defensemen	Cam Fowler 	Rasmus Andersson 	Ethan Bear 	Drew Doughty 	Brent Burns 	Drafting	Olli Juolevi 	Exempt
Defensemen	Hampus Lindholm 	Noah Hanifin 	Duncan Keith 	Matt Roy 	Erik Karlsson 	Drafting	Tyler Myers 	Exempt
Defensemen	Josh Manson 	Christopher Tanev	Darnell Nurse 	Sean Walker 	Marc-Edouard Vlasic	Drafting	Nate Schmidt 	Exempt
Goaltender	John Gibson 	Jacob Markstrom 	Stuart Skinner 	Cal Petersen 	Adin Hill 	Drafting	Thatcher Demko 	Exempt
== Draft results ==
All 30 draft picks were submitted at once; they were announced in alphabetical order of teams in each division from east to west.
# 	Player	Pos 	Drafted from
1 	 	D 	Boston Bruins
2 	 	D 	Buffalo Sabres
3 	 	D 	Detroit Red Wings
4 	 	G 	Florida Panthers
5 	 	D 	Montreal Canadiens
6 	 	G 	Ottawa Senators
7 	 	C/LW	Tampa Bay Lightning
8 	 	LW/C	Toronto Maple Leafs
9 	 	RW/C	Carolina Hurricanes
10	 	D 	Columbus Blue Jackets
11	 	RW 	New Jersey Devils
12	 	RW 	New York Islanders
13	 	C 	New York Rangers
14	 	LW 	Philadelphia Flyers
15	 	LW 	Pittsburgh Penguins
16	 	G 	Washington Capitals
17	 	C 	Arizona Coyotes
18	 	C 	Chicago Blackhawks
19	 	RW 	Colorado Avalanche
20	 	D 	Dallas Stars
21	 	D 	Minnesota Wild
22	 	RW 	Nashville Predators
23	 	D 	St. Louis Blues
24	 	C 	Winnipeg Jets
25	 	D 	Anaheim Ducks
26	 	D 	Calgary Flames
27	 	D 	Edmonton Oilers
28	 	D 	Los Angeles Kings
29	 	C 	San Jose Sharks
30	 	RW 	Vancouver Canucks
== Trades ==
The Seattle Kraken made no trades for concessions in exchange for selecting certain players.https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1418021781554843656?s=19
== See also ==
*2020–21 NHL transactions
*2021–22 NHL transactions
*2021 NHL Entry Draft	
*2021–22 NHL season
==References==
Category:National Hockey League expansion drafts
NHL Expansion Draft
Category:Seattle Kraken
Expansion Draft