Who from the St. Louis Blues maybe Seattle Kraken bait?
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: The St. Louis Blues underachieved this year and now have to protect certain players from the Seattle Kraken. It appears Doug Armstrong will go with the 7-3-1 strategy in protects.
One variable may be Vince Dunn. There are teams out there who want to make a trade with St. Louis. After that, Seattle will have few options so maybe a sweetener deal happens. Dunn remains an asset in that sense. As for the forwards, Ivan Barbashev, Sammy Blais, and Zach Sanford are pretty clear-cut candidates.
At that point, what does Ron Francis and company consider? Do not even look at the backup goalies from St. Louis because those should go unclaimed by Vegas. Defense and goaltending are positions that Seattle probably could poach from other teams.
St. Louis is one of those teams where their commodities are not all that worth losing. They are definitely one of the lucky ones — aside from Vince Dunn perhaps.
Nashville Predators and the protection list?
Adam Vingan of The Athletic: Inevitably, David Poile and the Nashville Predators are going to lose a good player. It is just a question of who. Nashville can protect up to five defensemen which solve the Dante Fabbro, Alexandre Carrier problem. However, does one make a deal for a Ryan Johanson or Matt Duchene?
That remains a burning question.
If that does not happen, and that is likely. It means players like Calle Jarnkrok and Viktor Arvidsson are likely exposed to Seattle. Injury concerns may worry Seattle but again, the Swede is a proven commodity when healthy. If not, Jarnkrok is the most likely another target.
Nashville will not get out of this one unscathed. Duchene and Johansen are too inconsistent and probably do not see eye to eye with John Hynes anyway. David Poile has until July 17th to come up with a plan. Stay tuned.