In a year that was expected to be a major step forward for Seattle Kraken center Shane Wright, the 22-year-old took a noticeable step back, at least statistically.
Once touted as one of the next faces of hockey during his junior days in the Ontario Hockey League, Wright’s name came up throughout this season in trade rumors, while he’s seen reduced responsibilities and has been stuck in bottom-six roles.
Given it was his second full season, you could chalk it up to a sophomore slump. But there are underlying concerns with his contributions.
Correlation isn’t always causation, but with the Kraken missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season, there is speculation that a change of scenery could happen as soon as this offseason.
So let’s take a look at Wright’s tenure in Seattle so far and consider whether Wright is a player the Kraken should keep.
Development and early returns
It was consensus for months that Wright would be the No. 1 pick to Montreal in the 2022 NHL Draft. He himself, in interviews, believed he “deserved to be taken first overall.”
But then, one thing led to another, and Montreal came to the podium and selected… Juraj Slafkovsky. Whoa.
No one could have guessed Wright would be available at all, let alone at No. 4. Seattle took him, and quickly had to come up with a plan for such a highly touted prospect.
Ineligible for the American Hockey League because of his age, Wright tried to quickly make the jump to the NHL but looked out of place initially and only got eight games in each of 2022-23 and 2023-24. And for as ceremonious as his entrance into the NHL was, his early career since has lacked the same luster.
The first few years in the organization were adventurous to say the least. In that 2022-23 season, he split time between the Kraken, a conditioning stint in Coachella Valley, Team Canada at the World Juniors, and eventually joined the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.
In 2023–24, he joined the Firebirds full time, beginning to adjust to the pro level before brief call-ups to Seattle. By 2024–25, Wright became a regular in the Kraken lineup. His first full season is when he began to show glimpses of the player he could be.
With 19 goals and 25 assists in 78 games, he spent most of the season centering knowledgeable and consistent veterans. For the majority of the season, he was with Oliver Bjorkstrand, who had 16 goals in 61 games in 2024-25 before being traded, as well as Eeli Tolvanen who had 23 goals.
This past season, Wright’s totals dipped to 12 goals and 15 assists in 74 games. The team around him didn’t do him as many favors. Ranking 28th in team goals for, Wright spent a good chunk of the year on a youthful line with Berkly Catton and Kaapo Kakko, who each had their share of inconsistencies.
Wright’s utilization
Taking a closer look at Wright’s offensive production, he was more focused on attacking near the front of the net this season compared with 2024-25, when his production was more sprawled out in the zone and unpredictable.
While his shot production and offensive heat maps remained largely similar to his output in 2024-25, his shooting percentage dropped from 20.9 percent to 12.4 percent.
In 2024-25, he was a little more sporadic with his shot attempts. He had five goals from beyond the hash marks and spread his production throughout the offensive zone. To his credit, although he didn’t score as much, Wright was focused on getting to the high-danger areas of the ice this season.
The situations Wright was utilized in shifted. He was used 4.5 percent more in the offensive zone by the Kraken this year compared to 2024-25. He wasn’t relied upon as much in the defensive zone, taking 107, or 5.2 percent, fewer defensive-zone draws.
Despite the lessened role in defensive situations, Kraken head coach Lane Lambert still has hope for Wright and his future, whether it be for Seattle or elsewhere. He liked the improvements that he’s shown throughout the year as a 200-foot player, even if the offensive results haven’t been there.
But still, incremental improvement isn’t exactly what’s envisioned from a top-five talent. It’s becoming increasingly evident Wright doesn’t have the same draw like he once did.
During Jason Botterill’s postseason press conference, Wright was referred to only once, and that was in passing when talking about all of the young players on the team.
Trade value and comparable cases
It’s tough to gauge Wright’s value, given the uniqueness of his situation. Again, he’s still only 22 years old.
There’s the obvious worry that if Seattle were to trade him, he would land elsewhere and immediately find the offensive dynamic the Kraken had been hoping to unlock. Sometimes though, it’s just best for a player and an organization to go their separate ways. Are we at that point with Wright and the Kraken?
While the majority of the players drafted in the top five between 2011 and 2021 have stayed with their original teams, 36 percent of them were moved within the first five seasons.
One comparable situation is when the former Arizona Coyotes traded Dylan Strome. Like Wright, Strome was a former top-five pick who wasn’t living up to his lofty expectations right away, regardless of whether they were fair or not. Still, people were impatient with him.
The Coyotes dealt Strome to the Chicago Blackhawks after only 48 games in the NHL. Since being dealt, Strome has become a consistent player in the NHL for the Blackhawks and now the Washington Capitals. While the Coyotes—now the Utah Mammoth—would have loved if Strome panned out for them, they still received a valuable and consistent player in Nick Schmaltz, who has been a core player for the Arizona/Utah organization since.
It’s a difficult conversation to avoid. There are many factors to consider when moving on from a player as young as Wright. There’s lots of risk and lots of potential reward.
Do you think the Kraken should trade Wright? And if so, what could they potentially get in a return for him?
Rooting for Shane to get it figured out next season, it feels like he has a tendency to be his own worst enemy at times. Once he understands his ceiling is probabaly 20-30 goals and pushing a point per game maybe he can settle down and play to those numbers.
Yeah I’ve always wondered if his problems were more on the mental side whether a that’s confidence or something else.
The comments section should be totally chill and not full of hot takes.
Good write up overall but I’ve seen that comment about Shane being mentioned only once parroted a lot and yet people don’t mention the other dozen+ players that weren’t even mentioned. It was most a consequence of the questions than any nefarious thing going on.
We’re going to need to trade players of value to improve this team. Solid has proven to be an NHL player and is probably one of the more valuable assets we have because of his age and potential. The other assets are Dunn and McCann. If we get a good scoring winger, something we desperately need, we shouldn’t care if he does well on the other side.
Obviously depends on what they would get in return. Personally, I like Shane, and I don’t see much downside to keeping him around. He seems very coachable, tries to play responsibly, and does have some good offensive instincts. He certainly doesn’t look out of place in the NHL. With another 15-20 lbs plus more strength and confidence, he will likely be a solid asset on any team. The challenge may be if he doesn’t earn more minutes, he may not want to stay, but that would be as much his fault for not playing his way into a better situation. The pressure to always “get something in return” is something fans are more interested in than management.
I also think it’s important who Shane plays with. They have to be ready to get a pass in the slot with their stick on the ice.
Is it Shane or is it his development/coaching?
It just feels like he’s exactly the player that we’re trying to get, not sell away.
We need scoring wingers. He’s neither. We also need more grit which he hasn’t shown any desire or ability to do. We could also use some size which he doesn’t have so I’m more sure how he’s exactly what we’re trying to get.
No one wants to sell him, but you have to give to get in a trade and Shane is an obvious piece that has value to a league starved for centers.
At least provide the data:
13:28 avg time on ice. Behind the likes of Gaudreau and Marchment, etc
Leading PP goal scorer the year before, shunted to PP2.
Near identical stats to Gauthier the year before.
They mucked it up, shouldn’t be concerned with whether he breaks out elsewhere (he will, a la Sam Bennett another 4th overall pick terribly utilized by the team that drafted him). They should be concerned that he was the first, highest drafted prospect they actually developed (Beniers went straight up and they never cut back his toi despite obvious regression) and they messed it up to play mediocre mid-tier vets in order to “contend”. Bodes very poorly for those in the queue behind him even if they clear him out.
Heads ought to roll, more heads. Developing the young guys is the #1 issue with this team for the long term.
Exactly. Trading Wright away only for him to succeed elsewhere would clinch this team’s status as “Buffalo West.” They need Wright to figure it out in Seattle. They can’t be trading him at his lowest value.
shane should only be traded in a package that brings something big, immediate and long term to the team. id have no problem trading shane and a 1st or 3 for robertson if he would sign an 6+ year deal, but absolutely not for another middle 6 player. needs to be top producing (no petterson for the love of god though) top line player that will have term for us.
…or maybe he’s like draft classmate Rutger McGroarty and the change of scenery didn’t seem to make a difference?
I feel it would be a horrible mistake to trade him now and feel like his value is as low as it’s ever going to be. We have a coach I’d prefer to dump and long term we’d be much better off with Wright than LL. We should not be letting a Dino coach chase out our offensive players we desperately need.
Hhhh
Blame coaching and management for Shanes downward stats. He is a fan favorite and he is doing exactly what his coaches wanted. Losing shane would not bode well for the future of this team. They made Shane a follower and not a leader of which difined his early hockey career.
in 2019 Kaapo Kakko was selected 2nd overall. in 2024 he was traded for Will Borgen who at the time has a -13 +/- over 33 games.