Is this Colin Blackwell’s last day with the New York Rangers? Sure looks it.

Rather than do a mock Seattle expansion draft to try to figure out who the New York Rangers will lose to the Kraken, we are going to take a look at what everyone is predicting.  One thing is for certain, the Seattle Kraken are going to be loaded.   The days of the expansion 1974-75 Capitals winning all of eight games are long over.

The other almost sure thing is that Colin Blackwell be the player the Rangers lose in the expansion draft.  We looked at 12 mock drafts conducted after the final protected lists were released and Colin Blackwell is predicted to be the Kraken’s pick on nine of them.

Julien Gauthier’s name showed up on two lists while one writer predicted that the Kraken would select the newest Ranger, Barclay Goodrow.

There were surprising names on the exposed list and we still don’t have any idea what kind of side deals Seattle GM Ron Francis  has cut, something we will find out when the names are called out on Wednesday night.

The Blackwell voters

NHL.COM – The staff of nhl.com came up with their draft list and Colin Blackwell was one of 16 forwards they predict that the Kraken will pick. They saw him  as a bottom six forward fighting for ice time with players like Mason Appleton (Winnipeg), Brandon Tanev (Pittsburgh) and Blake Comeau (Dallas).

THE SPORTING NEWS – Jackie Speigel of the Sporting News had Colin Blackwell as the Seattle selection, listed 11th overall on the forward depth chart.  Speigel also has ex-Ranger Kevin Shattenkirk leaving Anaheim to join the Kraken.

USA TODAY –USA Today’s Mary Clark also jumped on the Blackwell bandwagon though with no justification.

THE WASHINGTON POST – Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post called Blackwell “a diamond in the rough” and cited his offensive production when he made Blackwell the Post’s prediction for who will be taken from the Rangers.

But it wasn’t all Blackwell, there were a couple other names mentioned.