Ron Hextall still isn't certain who will be on the Penguins' protected list for the NHL's Seattle expansion draft July 21.
It stands to reason, then, that he also has no idea who the Kraken might claim from his team.
"I can't say I have a hunch," Hextall said Wednesday. "Our list isn't totally finalized. Obviously, we have some idea, and we've gone through it numerous times, but I don't have any hunch who they'll take. It appears that there's quite a few goalies and quite a few (defensemen) out there, but things can change, too. (The Kraken) can make deals with teams (to select or pass on a specific player) and stuff, so it's really hard to say."
The Penguins have two options for their protected list: Eight skaters at any position and a goalie or seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie. Barring a radical change in philosophy, they will go with the latter.
While a few players are certain to be protected -- the no-movement clauses Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have in their contracts assure them of spots on the list -- and a number of others are virtual locks, several could go either way, depending on the strategy Hextall and his staff decide to employ.
Should they protect Jeff Carter, who was excellent after being acquired at the trade deadline, or gamble that a first-year team wouldn't be inclined to invest in a 36-year-old? Expose Jared McCann, and hope that his streaky production history scares off the Kraken? And what of capable blue-collar forwards such as Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese?
Hextall is resigned to losing a quality player to Seattle; he just doesn't have a feel yet for who that might be, in part because Kraken GM Ron Francis will be trying to construct a team, not simply select the most talented player that each of the 30 teams taking part in the draft makes available.
"They'll be looking, probably, at fit," Hextall said. "If they get a shot at five of our guys, (the selection) might come down to who else is on the board with other teams, and we don't know that for sure, either. It's kind of a work-in-progress, for sure, for everybody."
A lot of things are these days for Hextall, as he tries to rejigger his roster to make a serious run at the franchise's sixth Stanley Cup.
Working out trades -- something Hextall might have to do a few times in coming months -- rarely is easy in the salary-cap era, and the expansion draft is a short-term deterrent to deals, a complication that doesn't exist in most years.
"It's holding things up, I think, to some degree," he said. "Teams don't necessarily want to make trades; you trade for a guy, and then he (conceivably) gets picked up by Seattle. It's frozen things a little bit, and I expect that to continue until probably after the expansion draft."
Free agency in the NHL will begin a week after the Kraken makes its choices, but unless Hextall is able to open significant salary-cap space by then, it's far from certain that the Penguins will be active in that market.
"Your guess is probably as good as mine right now," Hextall said. "We're pretty much capped up here. Something has to shake loose. We have to have cap space to make a move. I don't have an answer for you right now. Obviously, the expansion thing for everybody is up in the air. Who are you going to lose? How much cap space is (created by that player's departure)? There are a lot of questions at this point. We'll see if we can make some moves and certainly, moving player-for-player, if we get a fit, isn't out of the question, either."
Many such trades have their roots in face-to-face meetings between GMs, but a setting at which some of those seeds can be planted -- the in-person meeting usually held during the Stanley Cup final -- apparently has been stricken from the league's calendar for the second year in a row because of the pandemic.
Whatever prospects there might have been for such a gathering took a big hit earlier this week, when Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon tested positive for COVID-19.
"I haven't heard a word about it, so I'm guessing -- especially with the development about Kelly McCrimmon the other day -- that it's not (happening)," Hextall said. "No. 1, because of (McCrimmon) and No. 2, because I haven't heard a word about it."
What's more, for the second consecutive year, GMs won't have an opportunity to talk about possible trades before and during the annual draft, either, since it again will be conducted remotely.
"At the (typical) draft, you're there before the draft and you can talk," Hextall said. "It's so easy with the phones, the way they have them set up at the draft tables. In person, you just have more exposure to the managers and you can have a 10-second conversation. It definitely enhances your chances."