Navigating to the Northwest - Seattle Navigators Expansion NHL 18 - Dsimp13's Dynasty

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Navigating to the Northwest - Seattle Navigators Expansion NHL 18

Posted on March 11, 2018 at 06:23 PM.

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"And with the 5th pick of the 2017 Draft, the Seattle Navigators select..."

Navs GM Dan Simpson went into the 2017 NHL Draft with a tough task...how can he improve the team as much as he can, without sacrificing the future? Well it was an eventful first round to say the least.

Keeping one eye on what rival Vegas was doing, GMDS swung two big deals in the first round that he hopes will be enough reward for the risk.

Seattle sent D-man Alec Martinez to the Boston Bruins for the 19th overall pick, but the biggest move saw the defensemen Tyler Myers and Brayden Coburn, along with the Navs 4th round pick, to Chicago for the Blackhawks' center Artem Anisimov and the 27th overall pick.

Seattle retained $3.35 million in the deal ($1.5m for Myers and $1.85m for Coburn), plus adding Anismov's $4.550m contract that runs through the 2021-22 season. When asked after the deal was official, GMDS was cautiously optimistic about the trade, saying "Anisimov is a legitimate top 6 centerman, and it was big for us to snag that third 1st round selection. We have a ton of cap space, so we'll just have to see what happens. I'm still just excited that the guy we wanted at 5 landed in our lap!"

Simpson was referring to the 5th overall selection Elias Pettersson. Sources say he was working the phones trying to bump to the 4th spot to pick him, and had just about given up hope when the Canucks denied offer after offer.

Also, the Navs were ecstatic that the man they wanted with the 35th pick in round 2 was still there, defenseman Timothy Liljegrin. Adding this talented (Low Elite) player eased the pain of losing two veteran d-men in the Blackhawks deal.

Here are the results for the rest of the draft:

Seattle Navigators 2017 Draft
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1 (5)	Seattle Navigators	Elias Pettersson	C	6'2"	161
1 (19)	Seattle Navigators (from Boston Bruins)	Pierre-Olivier Joseph	D	6'0"	150
1 (27)	Seattle Navigators (from Chicago Blackhawks)	Nick Henry	RW	6'0"	190
2 (35)	Seattle Navigators	Timothy Liljegren	D	5'11"	198
3 (67)	Seattle Navigators	Pavel Koltygin	LW	6'0"	192
5 (131)	Seattle Navigators	Matthew Ricci	D	6'3"	198
6 (163)	Seattle Navigators	Vladimir Kolosov	LW	6'1"	193
7 (195)	Seattle Navigators	Radek Koblizek	RW	5'9"	160