WEDNESDAY COMMENTARY – WELCOME TO THE FLEA MARKET

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98 FM & Rock 98.5 FM)

TODAY’S THE DAY!

THE NHL’S EXPANSION SEATTLE KRAKEN WILL BE MORE THAN JUST A NAME AFTER TONIGHT. BEGINNING AT 6 PM MT, THE KRAKEN WILL BE FEATURED IN THE FIRST NHL EXPANSION DRAFT SINCE THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS IN 2017.

YOU CAN SEE WHY THE HOCKEY WORLD IS SO EXCITED. EXPANSION DRAFTS ARE PRETTY RARE AND NOW IN THIS DAY AND AGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FANTASY, IT’S EN VOGUE TO PICK YOUR OWN TEAM!

WE AT THE ROD PEDERSEN SHOW DID THE SAME AND ARE UNVEILING OUR SQUADS ON WEDNESDAY’S SHOW, AHEAD OF TONIGHT’S DRAFT.

AND AFTER PERUSING THE PROTECTED LISTS, I CAN SEE WHY KRAKEN G-M RON FRANCIS HAS GRAY HAIR. THERE ARE SOME ENTICING NAMES ON THERE, BUT THEY COME AT A PRICE. IT’S LIKE THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL FLEA MARKET.

AND AFTER MAKING MY FIRST RUN-THROUGH OF SELECTIONS, THE SALARIES TOTALLED JUST OVER $100-MILLION DOLLARS. WELL, THE SALARY CAP IS JUST OVER $80-MILLION SO I HAD TO GET OUT MY PENCIL AND WHITTLE THE LIST DOWN.

THEN, I FELT LIKE THE TORONTO ARGONAUTS. I GOT ROUGHLY CLOSE TO THE CAP, AND DECIDED I’D FIGURE IT ALL OUT LATER (I.E. AFTER TRAINING CAMP). I ALSO SELECTED WAY MORE DEFENCEMEN THAN A NORMAL PERSON WOULD, BUT FIGURED THEY’RE ASSETS THAT CAN BE TRADED AT A LATER DATE.

BUT SOME BIG NAME GUYS HAD TO GO OVERBOARD; BY NAME, MARK GIORDANO, VLADIMIR TARASENKO AND JAKUB VORACEK.

HOWEVER MY TEAM FEATURES BRADY HOLTBY AND KAAPO KAHKONEN IN GOAL, WHL ALUM HAYDN FLEURY, CURTIS LAZAR, CALVIN DE HAHN, KRIS RUSSELL, AUSTIN WAGNER, JORDAN EBERLE, TYLER JOHNSON AND NINO NIEDERREITER. THEN I PICKED A WHOLE BUNCH OF GUYS THAT AREN’T EVEN A HOUSEHOLD NAME IN THEIR OWN HOUSE.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST – AND MOST EXCITING – FLEA MARKET. AND IT ALL GOES DOWN TONIGHT.

THAT’S TODAY’S ROD PEDERSEN COMMENTARY