Tough decisions have to be made.

Seattle Kraken is the NHL's latest expansion team and during the night until Thursday Swedish time, the expansion draft will take place where they can choose a player from all other NHL teams, except the Vegas Golden Knights who are excluded.

A Vegas that during its debut season 2017–2018 made it to the Stanley Cup final but lost to Washington.

In the expansion draft, Seattle can not take any players.

The other 31 teams have had to protect a number of players.

Either a goalkeeper, three defenders, and seven forwards or a goalkeeper and eight outfielders.

Despite this, most of the stars are available for Kraken.

On Sunday, the lists of the team's protected players became public and names such as Gabriel Landeskog, Alexander Ovetchkin, Mark Giordano, Carey Price, Vladimir Tarasenko and others were left unprotected.

Not obvious

"There will be many options for Kraken ahead of the expansion draft," Seattle Kraken reporter Ryan S Clarke wrote in The Athletic.

But that does not mean that there are obvious choices for the NHL's newest team.

Alexander Ovetchkin and Gabriel Landeskog are, like many other stars, so-called UFA's, non-contract players who have the right to negotiate with all clubs after the expansion draft and can thus leave Seattle if they do not agree.

But Seattle gets a 72-hour lead over everyone else to negotiate with these players before the expansion draft.

Unlike Landeskog, it is seen as a formality that Ovetchkin was left unprotected.

It is considered highly unlikely that he will leave Washington.

Several Swedes available

In addition to Landeskog, a handful of other Swedish players are also exposed to the expansion draft.

Nashville's Calle Järnkrok (contract until 2022), Pittsburgh's Marcus Pettersson (2025), Anaheim's Jacob Larsson (2022), Minnesota's Victor Rask (2022), New Jersey's Andreas Johnsson (2023) are some who can become a Kraken.

Several players, who would otherwise not be available for selection, who are drafted by Seattle are expected to be traded to other teams immediately for some form of compensation, either in player or draft selection.

In other words, Seattle can choose players that other clubs want to earn even more from it.