Flyers leave some big names unprotected for Seattle expansion draft

Jake Voracek

      On Sunday, the Flyers released their protected list for the upcoming Seattle Kraken expansion draft and some high-profile players were not on it.

      Philadelphia chose the option of guarding seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender.

      The seven protected forwards (in alphabetical order): Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom. The three defensemen: Ryan Ellis, Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim. The one goaltender: Carter Hart.

      That means one of several veteran unprotected players could be taken by Seattle. Those individuals include either forwards Jake Voracek or James van Riemsdyk, or defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. One of those could be taken when the Kraken announce their roster on Wednesday night.

      During a media conference call last Tuesday, general manager Chuck Fletcher said he spent a lot of time deciding his list and put a great deal of thought into it.

      “Your goal is always to do the best thing for the organization,’’ he said. “We had pretty good unanimity of what we wanted to do. We had our pro scouts in town, so it’s a process. We had time to prepare. Our list is pretty straightforward.’’

      Voracek, JVR and Gostisbehere come with big salary hits.

      >Voracek: Three seasons of remaining term, $8.25 million average annual value (AAV), real-dollar salaries of $7.5 million in 2021-22, $6.25 million in 2022-23 ($5 million signing bonus installment on July 1, 2022, $1.25 million salary for the season), $7.5 million in 2023-24.

      >JVR: two seasons of remaining term, $7 million AAV, real dollar salaries of $7 million in 2021-22 ($1 million signing bonus installment this summer, $6 million for the season), and $5 million in 2022-23 ($1 million signing bonus installment on July 1, 2022, $4 million for the season).

      >Gostisbehere: two seasons of remaining term, $4.5 million AAV, real dollar salaries of $3.25 million in 2021-22 ($2.25 million signing bonus installment due this summer then $1 million base salary for the season), and $3.25 million in 2022-23 ($2.25 million signing bonus).

      Flyers prospects exempt from the draft include: Joel Farabee, Cam York, Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Egor Zamula, Tyson Foerster, Zayde Wisdom, Mason Millman, Wyatte Wylie, Linus Högberg, goalie prospects Samuel Ersson and KIrill Ustimenko, and unsigned collegiate player Jay O’Brien.

      Back in 2017, the Flyers lost forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to the Vegas Golden Knights when that expansion team was put together.

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About Wayne Fish 2374 Articles
Wayne Fish has been covering the Flyers since 1976, a stint which includes 18 Stanley Cup Finals, four Winter Olympics and numerous other international events.

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