George Richards, FHN Publisher
Wednesday night, Seattle will have the bones of its first roster as it will select 30 players in the NHL’s latest expansion draft. But, as we saw in 2017 with Vegas, the Kraken may end up with more than one player from the same team.
Remember when the Florida Panthers gave up both Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith?
Of course you do. Hard to forget.
It was a controversial decision by GM Dale Tallon in 2017 and it certainly has not aged well.
Smith and Marchessault have both excelled in Vegas. That first year in the desert, the expansion team led by fired Panthers coach Gerard Gallant played in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The question remains: Why did the Panthers give up two players when they only had to lose one?
As we watch the Kraken make side deals with teams in our current state of a flat salary cap, a similar crop of moves could be made.
Even the Panthers could lose two players to the Kraken.
WHY SMITH AND MARCHESSAULT?
When you look at why the Panthers — well, Tallon — was so willing to unload Smith in 2017, you have to go back to the summer of 2016.
The Panthers were fresh off their best regular season in franchise history, setting a record for points, wins and winning the Atlantic Division title in the process.
But there were changes coming to the team.
Changes had been bubbling under the surface of the Panthers throughout that 2015-16 season with angst over Tallon signing Dave Bolland to such a big contract being a boiling over point.
When the Panthers lost in six to the Islanders in the opening round of the 2016 postseason, the front office started to undergo changes pretty quickly.
Tallon, the team’s GM since 2010, was “promoted” to president of hockey operations.
Tom Rowe, the team’s associate GM who had been their AHL coach until being promoted to Florida in December of 2015, took over the day-to-day GM duties.
Rowe’s assistant GMs were Steve Werrier and Eric Joyce.
Tallon, the team said, would have final say on moves. That did not appear to be the case.
As the Panthers made sweeping changes throughout the organization that summer, they also opened up the checkbook.
Florida not only brought in new players (Keith Yandle, James Reimer, Mark Pysyk) but extended a few they already had (Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck).
Once free agency started, Florida locked down Ekblad on July 1 then extended Trocheck the following day.
On July 3, it was Reilly Smith’s turn.
Smith, who scored 25 goals in the Panthers’ playoff season after being acquired on the cheap from Boston, got a five-year extension with the Panthers worth $5 million per season.
When Tallon regained control of the front office, he unsuccessfully tried to trade Smith. So, he looked at the expansion draft as a way to get out of the contract.
More than a few teams will be trying to shed contracts onto the Kraken on Wednesday.
THE 2017 PROTECTED PANTHERS
As is the case with this year’s expansion draft, teams could protect 11 players (seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie) or nine (any mix of skaters, goalie).
Tallon surprisingly went the eight-skater route — four forwards (Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Trocheck and Nick Bjugstad) and four defensemen (Yandle, Ekblad, Pysyk and Alex Petrovic).
Among the unprotected: Marchessault and Smith.
“Defense and up the middle has been our model since we started building this team,” Tallon said at the time.
“We felt very confident we would keep our young core of defensemen and keep our young core up the middle.’’
Marchessault was one of the big success stories of the Florida offseason in 2016.
Buried in Tampa, the Panthers’ new front office identified him as a player who could excel if given a much bigger role.
As was the case with Carter Verhaeghe this past season, Marchessault did just that.
With Huberdeau hurt for the first half of the season due to an Achilles’ tendon injury sustained in the preseason, Marchessault got off to a hot start and didn’t slow down.
He ended the season leading the Panthers with 30 goals — all for the low, low price of $750,000.
Marchessault had one more season at that bargain rate which made his exclusion from the protected list all the more confusing.
Vegas, of course, knew ahead of time that Marchessault would be available — but only if it took Smith, too.
Knights GM George McPhee was not only looking to build his team but had to be financially at the cap floor, so, he jumped at getting two offensive players with some upside for not much more than the price of their contract.
As for Florida, Tallon knew former Panthers prospect Evgenii Dadonov was going to sign as a free agent after spending a few years playing in Russia. He figured Dadonov would help replace some of the scoring going back to Vegas. A year later, Tallon traded for Mike Hoffman to add some more.
FUN IN THE DESERT
Picking those two players worked out pretty well for the Knights, Smith and Marchessault.
Marchessault showed his breakout season in Florida was no fluke as he scored 27 goals with Smith putting up a career-high 60 points as the Knights rolled all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year.
Vegas then gave Marchessault the contract the Panthers did not.
Marchessault got six years at $5 million per season. He has scored an average of 23 goals and 56 points in his four years with the Knights.
“The Panthers made a decision and I was surprised by it,’’ Marchessault said later. “I thought I had a good year, was a young player just starting out. But life goes on.
“That decision was great for me. I found my home, a successful team. I could not be more happy. We have the best atmosphere, the best fans. The organization is first class and makes all of us feel great.”
Smith, who had 15 goals in 2016-17 after getting his big extension, said being left unprotected was an “eye opener.”
Playing, for the most part, on the same line with Marchessault these past four years has helped his bottom line as Smith has averaged just over 20 goals and 48 points per season in Vegas.
“I think it all worked out for the best, for all of us who ended up coming here,’’ Smith said a few years ago.
“There were mixed emotions when it happened. Everyone in the hockey world said we would not be very good, it would be a tough hockey market with all the distractions of Vegas. Blah, blah, blah. It turned out to be a very positive.
“This has become one of the hottest destinations for free agents. The perception of this market has changed. A lot of people want to play in Vegas.”
In the end, Tallon did not want to be stuck with Smith and a contract his replacements signed him to.
And, at least in the summer of 2017, Tallon was unwilling to make a similar financial offer to Marchessault and figured he might walk as a free agent anyway.
Tallon believed it was hard to come by defensemen and wanted to protect Pysyk (who was one of Florida’s top players in his first season here) and Petrovic, whom he thought could be a top-four guy.
Again, it was a decision that certainly has not aged well.
Petrovic was cut loose by the Panthers just over a year later and Pysyk was allowed to walk after he spent a big chunk of the 2019-20 season playing as a forward.
With goalie Chris Driedger already headed to Seattle, we will see if any other current Panthers join him on the NHL’s newest team on Wednesday.
Vegas took advantage of a few teams in its expansion draft with the Panthers being the ones everyone remembers because of what the Knights got out of it.
Seattle will probably pull off some big moves themselves.