Vanacek taken by the Kraken. Not sure how to feel about that. Probably their starter. Can't think there is much depth behind Samsonov since they kicked the tires on Lundquvist and Anderson.
Worst case scenario for us. We couldn't protect both, and with Samsonov being in and out of the lineup being a knucklehead we didn't have a chance to deal one of them. Would have helped us much more had they taken one of the D and saved us some cap space.
I'm still not convinced Samsonov is better than VV. Kinda reminds me of Varly versus Grubauer. One was spectacular but inconsistent. Shutout one night, 4 goals the next. The other was more consistent but more like 2 goals every game. Same result in the end, 2.0 GAA but if you're scoring 3 a game, you are 2-0 with one and 1-1 with the other.
Dreidger from FLA will be their starter, but even he said today it's not really a #1 and #2 in the NHL it's more of a 1a and 1b cause the load is too much to survive the playoffs after playing 70 games in the regular season like old school workhorses.
It was an interesting strategy for SEA. We will start seeing what side deals they had now, couldn't announce them til after 1pm today. But if it were me, I would have taken all of the big names, ate some of each of their salaries and then traded them all for picks and prospects. You wouldn't compete this year, but you'd be scary deep and ready in 2-3 years. They coulda got 5 first round picks had they took/traded Price/Tarasenko/Giorandino. Hell, I was wondering if WAS would have done Kuzy/Samsonov for Price and some salary. Would have relied a lot on McMichael to be the 1st/2nd C but Price is about as good as it gets in net.