Trade for Bobby McMann addresses need but creates new questions for Kraken

Just when you thought the Seattle Kraken were standing pat at the NHL Trade Deadline, they swung an 11th-hour deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for Bobby McMann, sending a fourth-round pick in 2026 and a second-round pick in 2027 the other way.

“We wanted to look and try to add a piece to our group, someone who can play in our top nine,” general manager Jason Botterill said. “We look at Bobby as a player that brings speed to our lineup, gets pucks to the net, gets to the net, and I think can complement the rest of our group very well.”

McMann, 29, is a speedy 6-foot-2, 217-pound forward who can play wing or center, though the Kraken will almost certainly use him primarily on the wing. Following a four-year college career at Colgate University, the Wainwright, Alb., native worked his way up through the Leafs organization after initially signing a free-agent AHL deal with the Toronto Marlies in 2020.

While he has been (mostly) a full-time NHLer since the 2023-24 season, he did play six AHL games that year with the Marlies and appeared in only 56 NHL games.

He solidified himself as a full-time NHL player last season, scoring 20 goals and 14 assists in 74 games. This season, McMann has posted an impressive 19 goals and 13 assists in 60 games while averaging north of 15 minutes per night for Toronto, often in a top-six role.

“You look at Bobby’s history, he’s worked at every level to get his opportunity to be a successful story in the National Hockey League. His ability to play up and down the lineup, we just felt it was something that would fit very well with our group from a skill set standpoint.”

McMann also brings a history of working with Kraken head coach Lane Lambert, who was an associate coach with the Leafs before being hired by Seattle. Botterill said Lambert loved McMann’s work ethic and noted that when he’s not scoring goals—he has shown to be a streaky scorer—he still brings a strong “backup B game.

McMann’s contract situation

One perplexing angle of the trade is that McMann is on an expiring deal that carries a remarkably reasonable $1.35 million average annual value. That’s perplexing because we at Sound Of Hockey did not envision a move for a so-called rental player this season—someone who could theoretically finish the year here and then walk as an unrestricted free agent this summer.

There’s no doubt McMann improves the current Kraken roster, at least on paper. But we were anticipating a swing at a top-six player with term who could help the team both now and for years to come. While McMann could play on one of Seattle’s top two lines, he’s not a bona fide top-sixer, and there’s no guarantee he sticks around after this season.

“We’ll get him to Seattle, get him part of our mix, and just sort of see how he fits in,” Botterill said. “I think it’s a situation of seeing how he fits in with our group and making sure that he likes Seattle, he likes his role here, and then we’ll see where it goes in the offseason.”

Where McMann fits with the Kraken

Adding McMann without moving out a current player only makes the roster logjam more complicated.

Here were the Kraken forward lines in their last game against St. Louis, which also aligned with how they practiced on Thursday:

Jared McCann — Matty Beniers — Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz — Chandler Stephenson — Eeli Tolvanen
Berkly Catton — Shane Wright — Kaapo Kakko
Ben Meyers — Frederick Gaudreau — Jacob Melanson

Assuming Lambert moves a top-nine forward down to the fourth line to make room for McMann, who moves down? And which fourth-line player gets scratched when Ryan Winterton is already out of the lineup?

Botterill repeatedly stated that the Kraken do not want to block their young players from opportunities in the lineup, but getting everyone into games will be difficult if the roster remains healthy. McMann’s addition could also lead to some miscasting of a player like Catton or Wright onto the fourth line.

Due to immigration issues, McMann will not be in the lineup Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, so we won’t get a clear answer on how Lambert plans to deploy him for at least a few days.

Do we like it?

How McMann affects things going forward is difficult to predict. He brings a nice combination of size, speed, and skill, and he shoots the puck—something Seattle has often struggled to do. From that standpoint, he improves the current roster.

But his addition also raises new questions while only marginally addressing the team’s need for more scoring.

Had this been the lesser of two trades made by Seattle—with a bigger, splashier move for a star scorer serving as the primary transaction of the day—we would have loved the addition. But because it’s the only move the Kraken made, it likely isn’t enough to push this roster into a guaranteed playoff spot, and it certainly doesn’t vault them into contender status.

In short, it helps, but I would have liked to see a bigger swing than a (likely) third-line winger who could walk after the season.

Eberle re-ups for two more years

One of Seattle’s four pending unrestricted free agents, Jordan Eberle, signed a two-year extension on Friday just before the trade deadline.

The 35-year-old captain, who leads Seattle in goals this season with 22, received a pay raise from $4.75 million to $5.5 million and a full no-trade clause.

“We’re very excited, obviously, when you have an opportunity to sign your captain for another two years, your leading scorer, a player that exemplifies so much that the Seattle Kraken are about, we are just ecstatic to have Jordan part of our organization for two more years.”

With Eberle back in the fold and McMann added, the Kraken now still have four pending UFAs: McMann, Jamie Oleksiak, Eeli Tolvanen, and Jaden Schwartz.