The Inside Story Of 2021 Kraken Expansion Draft

Seattle Assistant GM Alexandra Mandrycky Helped Crunch Data

Above: A non googly-eyed Brandon Tanev at the Seattle Kraken 2021 Draft Party.

The players who would form the first Seattle Kraken team were revealed at a 2021 outdoor event televised by ESPN. As assistant general manager Alexandra Mandrycky told the Expected by Whom? podcast, that day was the culmination of two years work.

The Kraken prepared mock-up after mock-up of expansion drafts during the COVID bubble. "We were all stuck at home," Mandrycky said. "It wasn't until like a month before the expansion draft that we all met for the first time in real life.

"We created a tool to be able to do expansion drafts. But there's so many different elements to it. You have to pretend to know the motivations of all the other teams, and who they're going to protect and not protect.

"When we did our first mock expansion draft in January of 2020, we flew in some of our pro scouts. We didn't have any amateur scouts. We had some pro scouts doing part-time work for us.

"I believe there was like one player that we selected in our mock draft in January 2020 that actually was selected by us. It mostly was around availability of the players. Everyone else had been traded or re-signed."

When it comes to assessing amateur talent, data-specialist Mandrycky still finds a place for scouts' non-analytical assessments. "I think a lot of times it's the knowledge they have of years past. When you're talking about, 'Why did or did not this player make it to the NHL?' Even if, let's say, he produced a lot in the WHL, why didn't he make it?

"Kind of getting to have those conversations is really valuable. As much as we have data on players now in the amateur draft, it can be harder to get a sense for maybe what players were like ten years ago."

There's one other set of circumstances which no set of analytics has yet to master. "Who knows what happens once you get into the playoffs," Mandrycky admits.

Since husband Christian, a medical researcher at the University of Washington, is from Buffalo, Alexandra was asked if they had a local go-to place for hot wings.  "Actually, I would say the best place to get wings in Seattle is our fryer in our kitchen."