One of the lingering questions about what the Seattle Kraken would do after this season has already been answered. General manager Ron Francis got ahead of the game and signed goalie Joey Daccord to a five-year, $25 million contract extension (a “Daccord Accord” if you will) on Wednesday, locking the netminder in with the organization.
“Joey stepped up last season and proved his ability to handle an increased workload,” Francis said. “We’re confident he can take his game to another level, and we’re excited to have him under contract long term.”
Indeed, the Kraken are betting that Daccord will continue his upward trajectory, which elevated him to borderline No. 1 goalie status last season. The 28-year-old from Boston posted a solid .916 save percentage and a 2.46 goals-against average in his first full NHL season, while recording a 19-18-11 record for a team that finished well outside the playoff picture.
The new Daccord contract kicks in next season, following the conclusion of his current two-year deal that pays him $1.2 million annually. So, Daccord will theoretically remain with Seattle through the 2029-30 season, and he will hit unrestricted free agency at age 33.
Lots of money in the goal crease
On its own, this is a solid deal for both player and team. It’s a massive and well-deserved pay raise for Daccord, who is widely regarded as one of the best to work with in the game and has endeared himself to fans in both Seattle and Coachella Valley, where he previously starred for the Firebirds. He emerged onto the national stage last season when he pitched a shutout in the Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park on New Year’s Day, an unforgettable experience for all involved.
If you haven’t listened to our recent podcast interview with Daccord, you can check that out here, and you’ll get a feel for how he is as a person. If you didn’t love Joey before, you will after you listen to that interview.
On the ice, Daccord has developed into the player Seattle hoped for when they selected him from the Ottawa Senators in the Expansion Draft.
If Daccord were the only goaltender under contract for next season and beyond, we would be doing cartwheels in celebration of the signing. The one concern, though, is that Philipp Grubauer still has this season plus two more left on his deal at $5.9 million average annual value. So, for next season and the season after, the Kraken will be on the hook for roughly $10.9 million in cap hit dedicated to their netminders.
Now, the good news on this front is that A.) the cap is projected to go up next season, and B.) Seattle has some contracts set to come off the books, such as those of Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev. Will Borgen will also be a UFA after this season, but we have to think there’s mutual interest for him to stick around.
As of today, without increasing the cap, Seattle projects to have around $8 million in cap space before (potentially) re-signing Borgen and backfilling for Gourde and Tanev, who we assume will move on after this season. If the cap goes up, say, five percent, then the Kraken would project to have closer to $12 million in space.
Betting on Daccord
We know the organization thinks very highly of Joey, and this deal proves that out. Clearly, the team believes he has not reached his full potential yet, and that he will begin to take over as a true No. 1 in the next season or two.
IF he does reach the level of consistency that the front office is hoping he will, then this could prove to be a great deal. Heck, if Daccord can reach Juuse Saros-level performance, which he already statistically exceeded last season (Saros had a 2.86 GAA and .906 save percentage in 64 appearances), then this could prove to be a steal. Saros, by the way, starts a new contract next season that will pay him $7.74 million for eight years.
The fact of the matter is that the sample size of NHL experience remains small for Daccord, though, and that makes this deal a bit risky.
What do you think, folks? Do you like the five-year Daccord contract extension?
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.
Ron Francis gets up every day looking to overpay somebody?
I would assume Grubauer is getting a buyout after this year.
Kokko is probably the backup to Daccord next season
I don’t know about Kokko… but I agree a buyout is a real possibility.
I also don’t think $10.9m is crushing if Grubauer could get on track and Joey can continue on his trajectory.
I completely agree with the two commenters above. Francis clearly sees the handwriting on the wall, he was fired in Carolina after 4 seasons and the same pattern seems to be reasserting itself. So he is throwing money everywhere. I wish the team had a president of hockey operations to oversee his actions.
$5m for a goalie with only one productive season. That is just not in line with the league spending. Another highly risky move, that makes 4 in a row (Montour, Stephenson, Beniers, Daccord). They better do something before he spends what is left and cash-straps the team for a decade.
Also agree this is the final season of mediocre play from Grubauer. Good riddance. Would be nice if they could dump him on some goalie desperate team at TDL. I really hope Kokko develops quickly.
Extending Beniers isn’t what I would classify as risky, he’s a #2 draft pick who won the Calder and has demonstrated excellent 2-way ability. He actually came in cheaper than a lot of his peers signing their first extensions. You would be hard pressed to find a GM in the league wouldn’t have made the same move.
Really? The guy has one good, although not outstanding year, and one lesser year (37 points), and he is worth a $7 million AAV? That is the definition of risky. It may pay off but it may not and both Wright and Catton may very well pass him on the depth chart, as they have more offense in their games. Then you have a $7 million 3C.
Of course Francis brought all of this on himself by allowing Beniers to play 10 games instead of 9 games at the end of the first Kraken season, for absolutely no good reason. Really starting to think Francis is losing his mind on some of these contracts. Pay top money to proven top talent. As Seattle has none of that right now in their forwards, they should not be paying top money to anyone except proven goal scorers, of which they have none except maybe McCann and possibly Bjorkstrand.
As soon as Beniers stepped on the ice he burned a year as an under 20 college player. There was no 10 game rule there. It’s also not something to pin on Francis. It’s very common for teams to go this route with highly drafted college players as an incentive to not return to college.
The Flyers are very familiar with the alternative.
That is not true. I remember clearly someone, think it might have been Geoff Baker, asking Francis at the time why he was throwing away a whole cheap ELC contract year by allowing Beniers to play one extra game. Francis’ response was “we have an arrangement with the agents of top draft picks to let them burn a year so they get to their [bigger money faster].”
Sorry Chuck, it is true.
And I’m having a hard time reconciling that quote and the fact that Wright is now draft plus three… and in year one of his ELC.
I feel too lazy to pull out the CBA to prove you wrong. You are mixing up two different things, the impact of contracts on NCAA eligibility and the first year sliding of ELCs for players who play 9 games or less. To make it easy on me, I will just refer to a Hockey News article from last year and tell me if you see any former NCAA players mentioned: https://thehockeynews.com/news/when-will-the-nhls-top-rookies-break-the-nine-game-threshold
It’s in Article 9 of the CBA and it doesn’t specify “college” players; however, the slide exception functionally only ends up being applied to college players.
I’m lazy also but…
In the event that an 18 year old or 19 year old Player signs an SPC with a
Club but does not play at least ten (10) NHL Games in the first season
under that SPC, the term of his SPC and his number of years in the Entry
Level System shall be extended for a period of one (1) year, EXCEPT that this automatic extension will not apply to a Player who is 19 according to
Section 9.2 by virtue of turning 20 between September 16 and December
31 in the year in which he first signs an SPC.
(Beniers)
This is the circumstance when most college player complete their freshman year.
The choice for a club at the end of that season is to sign him, thus activating the slide exemption and burning a year OR not signing him and the player then goes back to college.
The Flyers chose the latter with Cutter Gauthier… who now plays for the Ducks.
There is risk to every contract you sign. With Beniers, you pay him with the expectation that continues his development with what you’ve seen and he grows into the value. The plus side of Beniers having a down year is it dragged the number down to 7 million, which I think will translate to his contract being a tremendous value on the back half of his contract.
Of course there is risk he doesn’t meet the expectations and you’re overpaying, but I (and most GMs I think) would argue that if you give him a shorter bridge, and he progresses the way you want and becomes that young $7 million player, now he’s asking for +$10 million a year because the cap has gone up and you’re actually running a higher risk of giving him a deal he can’t live up to. “Pay top money to proven top talent” may sound good in theory, but if you’re only paying for established talent you’re always either going to be in a bidding war, or dealing with an agent looking to reset market value.
Congrats to Joey! I was thinking the Kraken might extend him, but believed it would be a mid-season move, just so they could make sure his success from last season carried over before paying him. Regardless of timing, Joey’s net presence and stickhandling have been a boon to this team, and now I’ll be rooting extra hard for him to continue to excel and solidify the Kraken crease!
This article was well worth the time just for the “Daccord Accord”. Well done.
I think there are a couple things to consider about this deal.
First, I think Jeremy Swayman has very much done what he said he intended to do and that’s reset the goalie market. This isn’t comparing Daccord to Swayman directly, rather, this is simply pointing out that fans perception of prices tend to trail the reality… hence the oft pronounced, “sounds like an overpay to me.”
Second, he was going to be a UFA at the end of the season… again. They already did the “let’s give him a year and see how he looks” thing last year… and he looked good. Does anyone think he puts up another .916 and they get him for anything close to 5×5? Between Coachella and the Kraken he’s appeared in 115 games over the past two seasons. It seems to me they’ve seen enough of him to conclude the cost of second guessing their evaluation is much higher than signing him now.
I have no problem with this deal.
Go Kraken!!!
I am very glad we signed him and should hopefully put this Grubauer experiment to an end. Would be fantastic if he could be moved this season ideally sooner than later it would take care of our cap issues. Very risky move if no plan exists to move Gru. They obviously feel they have a pretty good read on who Joey is and feel he’s the real deal. Had they waited until later in the season I’d definitely feel more comfortable about the deal but another year of Grubauer playing like he has and Joey cleaning up his mess might have raised his value significantly. To be determined….
I do feel like Francis is spending money like it’s going out of style although the Chandler deal is the only one I absolutely hate.
I totally 100% agree with your take.
Does anyone think that Daccord will not be worth this money? I would be shocked if he does not play up to it. Also, can you imagine what Daccord would have been able to ask for if Francis had waited until the trade deadline and Daccord was playing well? Getting this done early was smart on Francis’ part. He bet on Joey, and that is a bet I would take. And, hey, now those #35 sweaters are going to sell.
I think Jack LaFontaine, as a short-term backup to Daccord, would be a better “bridge” than Kokko. Goalies DO mature later, as Joey has proven, and LaFontaine is about the same age as Daccord and has just about the same amount of experience between the pipes. This will allow Kokko to mature and advance as THE Coachella Valley wunderkind that he appears capable of becoming. Just my $.02. GO KRAKEN!!
I like LaFontaine too.
Hey Darren, John and Curtis,
I know this is an “old” thread and I don’t know if any of you will see it… but I had to say… I just caught the latest pod…
I was stopped in my tracks when I heard Curtis say, “Have the Kraken lost any player they wanted to keep?” (18:00)
The argument here was a counter to the increased cost to the Kraken if Joey had another “stellar” season and the idea that they wouldn’t necessarily be competing against the market. Now… John and Darren immediately jumped in with the obvious answer, “Yes, Wennberg.” But even asking the question caused my jaw to drop. The cold, analytical eye of Curtis Isacke is reduced to “vibes” in order to have it both ways with this signing. I think hypocrisy gets a bad wrap. This surely sounds odd, but anyone who has kids probably knows exactly what I’m talking about… sometimes it has a place. But it doesn’t fit here…
They already did the “prove it” season. I’ve seen multiple folks – on the Athletic for instance – report that Joey was going to be an RFA (yes, with an R) at the end of this season. He wasn’t even an RFA when he signed his current contract. He was a Group 6 UFA.
The “good feelings” Curtis is talking about were when he signed for two years at $1.5m with the Kraken as a UFA after appearing in 65 games with the Firebirds… and being “lights out”!
The prove it year was last season… and he proved it. You want one more season? Don’t try and tell me it isn’t gonna cost anything because of “vibes”. And if you want to talk about “hometown discounts”… tell me all about Jeremy Swayman.
Go Kraken!!!