With about two weeks remaining before the March 8 NHL trade deadline, the Kraken playoff picture remains murky. After picking up one point on Monday in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings, Seattle now sits three points behind the St. Louis Blues for the last wild card spot in the Western Conference, very much within striking distance of its second postseason berth in a row.
But the Los Angeles Kings have started running away with the top wild spot since replacing coach Todd McLellan with interim coach Jim Hiller, and as of the writing of this story, two teams—the Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators—sit between the Kraken and the Blues. Jumping over teams at this time of the year gets harder and harder the deeper into the season you go, so clearing that three-team logjam ahead of the Kraken is daunting.
Whether you believe the team can make the playoffs or not, the Seattle front office is reaching the end of its runway for some difficult decisions. Our general belief (and this is just conjecture) is that the team is deciding to either sell off the players it doesn’t think will back in 2024-25, or—if Ron Francis and his staff expect the team to compete to qualify for the playoffs—keep the group together for the rest of the season and risk unrestricted free agents walking for nothing in July.
It’s a tricky spot for all involved, and it certainly leaves some uneasiness in the Kraken dressing room, especially for those that could be on the trade block if Seattle doesn’t win the bulk of its next seven games.
“We all have a good level of trust in one another, and there’s the reality that the business side of the game is always there,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “It becomes more of a spotlight as you come towards the trade deadline because, obviously, the questions start to be asked about it. And it comes a little bit more to the forefront, but at the end of the day, our trust level is very good.”
If the Kraken go into full sell mode, two players to keep an eye on will be defenseman Justin Schultz and forward Tomas Tatar. But the two biggest decisions revolve around key veterans Jordan Eberle and Alex Wennberg.
Eberle and Wennberg have been central pieces for this franchise since its inception, but will they remain in Seattle beyond this season? Are we watching our last two weeks of these players in Kraken uniforms?
Decisions hinge on future fit in Seattle
We see two layers of decisions that need to get made on Eberle and Wennberg.
The obvious first question is, Will the Kraken make the playoffs? If team brass believes the Kraken are destined for the postseason, then we envision both players sticking around for the remainder of the season. So, that’s the first layer of decision making, simply choosing to show confidence in the group or not.
The second layer, though, is more complex because it will hinge on whether the Kraken see either or both players signing extensions beyond 2023-24.
Jordan Eberle
Sound Of Hockey asked both Wennberg and Eberle about their respective mindsets over the weekend to try to gauge if there is real interest in a return to Seattle next season and (maybe) beyond.
Eberle’s tone has not changed since training camp, when he publicly stated in no uncertain terms that he wanted to stay.
“I think my sole focus right now is just to be here,” Eberle reiterated on Saturday. “I want to get this team into a playoff spot and be a part of that. I think from Day 1, it’s kind of been fun to be here and build it and have a lot of guys come in and see us trending in the right direction.”
Most players will say the “right thing” when asked these questions, but there’s a kind of sincerity in Eberle’s words that make us truly believe he wants to stay.
“My family loves it here, and I think my sole purpose right now and my goal is to try and help this team get in,” Eberle said. “And at this point, I’m sure— hopefully, we’ll get something done. But I think more importantly, we’ve got to try and get this team into the playoffs.”
‘Hopefully, we’ll get something done’ refers to a contract extension. Players don’t say things like that unless they want to remain with a club.
Again, mostly conjecture here, but we also think there’s interest from the Kraken in bringing the 33-year-old winger back beyond this season. That doesn’t mean they will necessarily sign Eberle to an extension before the deadline, but we do think he will be here for the remainder of the season and at least one or two more years, regardless of how the next two weeks go.
Alex Wennberg
As for Wennberg, we aren’t so convinced that a mutual desire for a reunion is there for next season and beyond, even though he had nothing but positive things to say about his three seasons in Seattle.
“It’s great,” Wennberg said. “Obviously, we had our first kid here, so the whole thing, it’s [been] a great time. We’ve got great memories coming in, and obviously hockey-wise, it’s been good as well… [Seattle is] similar to Sweden, so you get that feeling as well. There’s a lot of good things.”
Wennberg’s situation is different from Eberle’s, though. At 29 years old, the center remains in his prime and has one more opportunity to cash in on a big free-agent contract this summer. He has played every scenario and every role for Seattle and leads all Kraken forwards by almost a minute in time on ice per game this season.
“It feels like every year, [my role] might change a little bit, but right now, I kind of get the role a little bit more defensively, taking a lot of draws and working all over the ice,” Wennberg said. “But I feel like it’s fit me pretty good. I feel like right now, with the team we have, we have whatever it takes to succeed. So for me to kind of chip in and do my part, it’s been a great fit, for sure.”
Still, despite all those positive comments about his time in the Pacific Northwest, we still get the sense Wennberg will want to test the market this summer. Perhaps we’re reading into this too much, but when we asked Wennberg more directly about his contract situation, he was a lot more cagey than Eberle.
“I actually have nothing I can share on that,” Wennberg said. “I feel like that’s personal, and right now, all I’m focused about is hockey. So for me, rather than look at the situation—it’s a stressful thing—I’d rather just leave that on the other side, let that way come all natural, and just play the game of hockey.
“If you’re poking around the extension part of that, it just— it is what it is. Obviously, there’s a business side of it as well, but for me, I’ve got nothing bad to say [about Seattle]. There’s a lot of good things with Seattle, and I like the city a lot. That’s all I can say.”
Trade rumors percolating
With all this in mind, we were not surprised to see Wennberg’s name pop up in a trade rumor article by the New York Post’s Larry Brooks on Tuesday.
Rental centers can earn premium returns this time of year, when true contenders like the Rangers and Bruins look to shore themselves up down the middle before a push for the Stanley Cup.
If Francis doesn’t see the team making the playoffs, and he doesn’t see Wennberg returning beyond this season, then getting everything he can in a deadline deal (and bringing up Shane Wright from AHL Coachella Valley to replace Wennberg) is the way to go.
Staying the course for now
As for what’s happening in the Kraken dressing room, the team and its coach are trying to ignore the distractions of the trade deadline and stay focused on the task at hand, which is reaching the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
“I felt like early on, we really gave up a lot of points,” Eberle said. “I look at our record, and I kind of grit my teeth. I feel like we should have been a lot better. But at the same time, we’re in the mix. We found a way to get some wins that were big and kept us in it, and I think, obviously we’re a healthy team—knock on wood—right now. And we need to continue to keep growing and building our game because I still think there’s another level that we can get to.”
Added Hakstol, “Everybody that’s in that scenario [with an expiring contract], is a really good veteran player, and they’re all very intelligent, good teammates. So, we’re gonna make sure that we keep doing the job in the dressing room and on the ice together, and the business area will take care of itself.”
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Shane Wright’s concussion might complicate this a bit but for sure, market Wennberg now and see if you can get an auction going for his services and squeeze a 1R pick out of it and if not, two 2R picks. The team needs to be different next season and having Wright start his NHL career now is part of it.
Beyond Wennberg, is Francis going to dump Schultz, Bellemare, and Yamamoto soon?
Schultz should go we don’t need him I don’t even think he’s an upgrade on Evans, hopefully get a second round pick for him?
Wennberg should be traded regardless of our playoff situation, futures are more valuable to us. I can’t see us getting two second round picks for him but that would be great, no way we get a 1st. We need to open up a center spot at some point if we ever intend on bringing Wright up.
If Eb’s is willing sign him, hopefully before the deadline but if intent is there from both sides it probably doesn’t matter that much. Same with Tuna, he’s worth another look for a year.
I don’t think Bellemare or Yamamoto have any real value and I wouldn’t think we bring them back next season, I think both of them were off-season mistakes. We would have been in a much better situation signing Geekie and Sprong, you could argue that we didn’t have the cap space to sign them but we didn’t need to sign a D man in the offseason with Evans looking ready to move up. That money would have been much better spent on players we let walk.
Nothing to do with deadline player movement but….. 🔥H
Is there precedence of a team trading a UFA at the deadline and then resigning that traded player the following year?
I remember hearing that was the intent for Jarnkrok but he chose the Leafs instead.
Keith Tkachuk was traded by the Blues to the Atlanta Thrashers and resigned with the Blues in the off-season.
The team isn’t competitive enough to make a run at the playoffs. Can’t afford to get sentimental. Sell Wennberg, Schultz, and Eberle if there’s a market. Make room for Wright, Evans, and a free market asset and get some picks or prospects.
I’d send Ebs packing. 5mil isn’t worth what we’re getting out of him. At 2mil and less time on ice Sprong is out performing him.
Obviously, all this depends on how Francis views building the team, the culture and the locker room. It’s still early days, despite success in the playoffs last season. It’s a big decision to give up good vets making good contributions at this stage, playoffs or not. If you can’t resign them, you get the cap space to get someone else, but “who?” is the question. I think Francis wants to try to make the playoffs every season while we wait for our existing prospects to develop. You have to assume any prospect we draft this year is 5-6 years out from playing in the NHL, and we actually already have some good prospects in our system. Sure, we might get better ones in up coming drafts, but I would also look at more developed prospects with other teams and who are excellent players, but will become UFA’s because there’s no roster space with their existing franchise.
Although I somewhat agree with you I think the important line to consider is this, are we keeping and resigning _____ in the offseason. If not they are basically a rental player for us as well. We are not a team that should be taking on rentals to try and make the playoffs…. Think of it this way we are forfeiting possibly as much as three second round picks to “try” and make the playoffs, is it worth that? Now if it’s a player that we can sign and want to sign then sure do it. Not all our free agents though, our roster is over full as it stands and we have players in the valley that are ready to take an NHL spot to continue development. We NEED to clear at least one forward spot and one D stop at the minimum.
Also it doesn’t take 5/6 years before most players make the NHL, the odd fringe player possibly but most players on the right track take around three years.
Good points, Nino. But it does usually take more than 3 years for a prospect to meaningfully contribute on an NHL roster. 5-6 years they are 23-24 years old. There aren’t many spots for 21-22 year olds. Not on teams legitimately trying to make the playoffs every season. They have to be a pretty special prospect.
Yes Seattle G, I was just referring to “playing in the NHL” your right it’s more like 5/6 before they are an impact player.