The Seattle Kraken officially unveiled their first 30 players in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft on Wednesday night.

If you slept from 8 a.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday and didn’t check your phone until the names were announced, you were in for at least a couple of surprises.

For the first time ever, an NHL team drafted Mark Giordano.

Former Edmonton Oilers’ defenceman Adam Larsson will join the former Calgary Flames’ captain in Seattle.

Jared McCann is headed to his second team in a week.

Meanwhile, Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde and Joonas Donskoi are the highest-paid forwards selected by the Kraken.

Seattle selected one player from every team except the Vegas Golden Knights.

While their roster isn’t complete yet, we now have a pretty good idea of what the Kraken might look like on opening night.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Thursday July 22, 2021.

Kraken complete expansion draft

It’s clear that Seattle GM Ron Francis wanted to build from the back, with a focus on his defence core and goaltending.

Giordano, Larsson, Jamie Oleksiak, Vince Dunn, Carson Soucy and Haydn Fleury make up a solid defence stable.

Chris Driedger and Vitek Vanecek have the potential to be a solid goaltending tandem.

The Kraken still have holes up front.

Francis will have a full arsenal of draft picks and approximately $29 million in cap space to work with as he adds to his group.

The expectation is that Seattle could announce at least a couple of deals when the NHL trade freeze is lifted at 1 p.m. ET this afternoon.

After that, the Kraken will have the NHL Entry Draft on Friday night and free agency beginning next Wednesday to fill out their roster.

Seattle opened at +4000 to win the Stanley Cup in its inaugural season.

While the Kraken are considered a long shot, they are listed at the same price as the Flames and Winnipeg Jets, and have shorter odds to win the Cup than 12 other teams.

Blue Jays’ division struggles continue

The Boston Red Sox (+180) extended their lead on the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East with a 7-4 win on Wednesday night.

Boston has won seven of the 11 head-to-head meetings this season.

Toronto is 48-44 overall this season – 21-24 against AL East opponents.

With the MLB trade deadline right around the corner, the Blue Jays are staring up at the Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees in their division.

Toronto is currently +1000 to win the AL East.

Boston (+100) remains the favourite ahead of Tampa Bay (+145) and New York (+850).

Evian Championship, 3M Open underway

The Evian Championship and 3M Open both got underway this morning.

Brooke Henderson entered the final major of the LPGA season at +3000 to win it outright.

Henderson shot a two-under 69 opening round.

Meanwhile, the 3M Open got underway just before 8 a.m. ET this morning.

You can check out who the guys from Golf Talk Canada like to win the tournament outright below.