The Seattle Kraken are set to sign Brandon Montour, one of the top defensemen on the free agent market, to a seven-year, $50 million contract, as reported by Pierre Lebrun of The Athletic.
Montour, 30, had a career year in 2022-23 with the Florida Panthers, racking up an impressive 73 points (16 goals, 57 assists) in 80 games. He missed the beginning of the 2023-24 season after offseason shoulder surgery, but still posted 33 points (8-25=33) in 66 games and added three goals and eight assists in the postseason, helping the Panthers win the Stanley Cup. Despite the injury and late start, he maintained a significant role, averaging over 23 minutes of ice time.
Originally from Ohsweken, Ontario, and a member of the Mohawk First Nations of the Grand River community, Montour was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in the second round of the 2014 NHL Draft. After stints with Anaheim and Buffalo, he was traded to the Panthers in April 2021, where he became a key cog and a power play quarterback.
Montour is known for his offensive prowess, compete level, speed, and ability to creatively distribute with the manpower advantage, which addresses several areas of need for Seattle.
How Montour fits
I did surmise a while back on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast that the Kraken might consider looking to improve offensively by adding an offensive defenseman. But after plenty of discussion about it, we decided they would focus on adding scoring forwards, so admittedly, we did not see this signing coming.
This acquisition dramatically changes the look of Seattle’s defense corps. It does bring right-shot/left-shot balance again, but it also creates several new questions. Does Montour box out Ryker Evans from a full-time role next season? Does Brian Dumoulin get pushed out of the lineup? Or, is there another move coming that would make the existing pieces fit?
Here’s how things could theoretically shape up, if there isn’t a subsequent defense move coming.
Vince Dunn // Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak // Brandon Montour
Brian Dumoulin // Will Borgen
Ryker Evans
I only put Montour on the second pairing because I’m not a fan of having two offensive defensemen playing together, hence why I would leave Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson together.
Cap situation
In terms of salary cap management, Montour becomes the second-highest-paid player on the team after Vince Dunn’s $7.35 million AAV. By total dollars, it is the biggest contract on the Kraken and the largest deal ever signed by general manager Ron Francis.
According to Cap Friendly, the Kraken currently have $16.28 million in cap space before factoring in new deals for Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen, who both received qualifying offers on Sunday. If those two take up, say, $10-$11 million (that’s a total guess) of the remaining space, that leaves Seattle with approximately $5-$6 million to strengthen its forward group. That’s not nearly enough to upgrade up front, so we have to think there’s a trade or two coming to create some additional room.
This is a huge deal for the Kraken to dish out, no question, especially considering that Montour will be 37 years old when this contract ends, and it more than doubles his previous $3.5 million cap hit. But, that’s the cost of doing business in unrestricted free agency. If you want to make a splash, you have to overpay.
Stay tuned. This could be an exciting day.
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.