We’ve reached the dog days of the hockey summer, when general managers and other members of NHL front offices pack up and head to their respective cottages. During this period between the quieting of free-agent signings and the start of training camps in September, very little—like, practically zero—business historically gets done between franchises. It’s a time when teams begin to look relatively “set” as they head into the next season.
Much like last summer around this time, I find myself still waiting for news of the big offseason acquisition from the Seattle Kraken, realizing that with every passing day, such a blockbuster becomes less and less likely. I recall asking my co-hosts on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, John Barr and Curtis Isacke, during this period last summer if it was possible the Kraken would actually head into the 2025-26 season with effectively the same roster as the year before. Surely, they wouldn’t run it back, right?
John predicted that was exactly what they would do, and indeed, that’s ultimately what Seattle did. Once this quiet pocket on the hockey calendar arrived, it became clear that Mason Marchment would remain the biggest get of last summer… and we all know how that turned out.
Now, following big promises being made at end-of-season press conferences, it’s looking like the Kraken—after acquiring Mackie Samoskevich, re-signing Bobby McMann, letting Jaden Schwartz, Jamie Oleksiak, and Eeli Tolvanen walk, and taking a painfully public rejection from Jason Robertson—could be all but done altering their roster for next season.
Seattle crumbled in spectacular fashion after the Olympic break in 2025-26 and finished well outside the playoff bubble. After that collapse, it was clear that personnel improvements were needed to get the Kraken into the postseason conversation for 2026-27. Has that happened? Or have they actually gotten worse this offseason?
Improvement or decline?
Whether general manager Jason Botterill has actually improved his club this offseason is hard to say. He was smart not to blow a bunch of his abundant cap space on marginal free agents, but the trade market didn’t work out the way many of us expected and hoped.
On paper, the Kraken lost three veteran players in Oleksiak, Schwartz, and Tolvanen, assuming Tolvanen’s time in Seattle is done. At this point, the 27-year-old Finn remains an unsigned, unrestricted free agent, so he could theoretically return if the Kraken wanted him back. But we will assume here that the Goodship Tolvy has sailed.
To backfill those departures, Seattle added only Samoskevich and 6-foot-9 depth forward Curtis Douglas. What all that amounts to is essentially a wash in terms of offensive production.
Now, Samoskevich could be a great fit. He played down the lineup in his first two full NHL seasons with the Florida Panthers and averaged just 14:28 of ice time last season. At 23 years old, a reunion with his old University of Michigan buddy, Matty Beniers, coupled with an opportunity to play true top-six minutes, could result in a nice boost from his 31 points (15-16—31) in 2024-25 and 32 points (12-20—32) in 2025-26. There is real upside there.
Is the young Samoskevich better than a 34-year-old Jaden Schwartz? I would say yes, although Schwartz was one of the few players in deep sea blue who was consistently willing to go to the dirty areas. Still, call it a slight upgrade from an older veteran to a younger, speedier winger just reaching his prime.
The other piece to remember is that after McMann’s acquisition at the NHL Trade Deadline, Schwartz ended up playing way down the lineup, dropping as low as the fourth line on some nights. Not only did he seem ready to move on, but his fit in the lineup had also become muddied after his return from a scary facial injury—he was clipped in the face by a skate on March 7—that kept him out for a month late in the season.
Schwartz was a good soldier and an impactful player from Day 1 of the franchise, but it was time for the Kraken to let him walk.
As for a Tolvanen replacement, that will almost surely have to come from within. Assuming no other trades before the start of the season, Botterill is banking on young players like Ryan Winterton, Jacob Melanson, Berkly Catton, and others in the system to take additional steps. He has said publicly that he does not want to add a bunch of depth players to block the youngsters out of the lineup.
On the back end, Oleksiak certainly had his fair share of detractors within the Kraken fanbase, so many folks were fine to see him head across the border to sign with the Vancouver Canucks. I, too, got frustrated with Oleksiak’s long stretches of non-physically imposing play—he could truly be a dominant and scary defensive force if he wanted to—but I always thought he was a bit underappreciated by fans. He played hard minutes, blocked shots, and used his long reach to make it difficult for opponents to get to the front of Seattle’s net.
Oleksiak’s role and Lane Lambert’s trust in him certainly eroded as last season went on, though, so it was time for him to move on. What concerns me is that there isn’t an obvious “shutdown” defensive replacement waiting in the wings. It looks like one of Cale Fleury or Josh Mahura will get a more regular role in 2026-27, after each played 23 games for the Kraken last season.
The Bobby McMann X-factor
McMann’s impact on this team’s outlook is perplexing. He ended up being an incredible acquisition for Botterill, potting 10 goals in just 18 games as a Kraken and totaling 29 goals in 78 games between Toronto and Seattle. Botterill said his main priority this offseason was extending McMann, and he was able to bring the speedy winger back for six years at a reasonable $5.75 million annual cap hit.
But why did the Kraken spiral into a pit of misery after McMann arrived? It certainly wasn’t his fault, but something happened after the Olympic break that caused nearly every other player in the room to lose confidence.
Perhaps the summer will give those players an opportunity to reset and clear the negative vibes that were permeating through the dressing room in the closing weeks of the season. And perhaps having McMann around from the start will give him a chance to play some winning hockey in Seattle for a change, something he has yet to experience.
Outstanding business
There are still rumors floating around that the Kraken could be looking to add a player before the start of the season, and let’s not forget that the Shane Wright situation has not been resolved. He has requested a trade and remains on the Kraken roster at this point. Meanwhile, we’re heading into the final seasons of Jared McCann’s and Vince Dunn’s respective contracts. Trading either or both still makes sense, but it feels like we’re past that point in the offseason.
By the way, McCann still posted 20 goals despite ongoing injury woes that limited him to just 52 games in 2025-26. Assuming he is here for the full season (and he did have a procedure done immediately following the end of the season, so perhaps he gets back to full health), could we see a bounce-back campaign from him as he looks for one more big payday?
I say all this as a reminder that it is not set in stone that this is how the Kraken will begin the season. But if I had to guess, this is how the lineup will look on Opening Night.
How to feel about Seattle’s chances
I’ve mostly felt pessimistic about the way things have gone for the Kraken front office this offseason, most notably with Robertson’s rebuff and Wright’s trade request. But I also remember that this team was firmly in a playoff spot at the beginning of February before faceplanting down the stretch.
So, while that pessimism gnaws away at the front of my mind, I also can’t help feeling little tinges of optimism in the back of my mind that perhaps this young group will learn from what caused things to go sideways late in the year. Maybe Lambert can get them to believe in themselves again, and those painful lessons of 2025-26 will help the players see it through and reach the postseason.
That does feel like a long shot, though, doesn’t it?
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.
This team is still in the process of figuring out what the core of players is around which to build and improve. We probably thought Shane Wright was a piece, but he may not be. Adding Mackie Samoskevich is probably a bigger deal than most fans realize, because he could be a very key piece. Just find the video of Sam Bennett gushing about how much he likes playing with him. Also looking like a steal for the Kraken after Sillinger signed for 3 x 4.6m. Who are the others? Obviously Matty is in there. Catton looks promising. Kakko? Evans? O’Brien? Miettinen?Obviously, the team is trying to make room for another young player to step up and prove themselves, or maybe anticipates bringing in someone else like Samoskevich. Maybe a Kent Johnson? We are probably in a 5-year window before really being competitive. Kakko would be 30. Matty will be 28. Catton will be 24. McCann would be 35, which isn’t crazy on a contending team if he stayed. Reid and anyone we draft after this point will only be 23 or younger. There aren’t many championship caliber teams with more than one 23 or under player.
Adding McMann and Samoskevich (and maybe even Douglas) while moving on from Oleksiak, Tolvi and Schwartz are actually fairly significant changes. Next wave out are Eberle, Larsson, Lindgren and Gaudreau. Possibly also Dunn. Who is replacing them? it’s interesting Kraken still have $18m+ cap space and there could still be some big moves coming around the league in the offseason. What are Fantilli and Gauthier getting, and how do ANA and CBJ accommodate?
I agree with you on everything but the window. 5 years would be a full rebuild, not a steadily improving prospect pool which is where we’re at. Unless your definition for competitive is one of the 6 teams realistically challenging for a cup. If so, I think that’s a poor metric to use overall
This team is, unfortunately, lost at sea. I find it funny to listen to the SoH podcast these days because John in particular is so incredibly optimistic about this team and it’s chances. Indeed just looking at this article it was easy to predict how it turned out – if Curtis wrote it, it would have been “No, they’re not better”. If John wrote it it would have been “Hey they have a great chance to be better!” and Darren wrote it with the predictable “Maybe, let’s wait and see”.
Why do no free agents want to come here? Because it’s pretty blindly obvious that nothing is going to happen in this market for at least a decade. It’ll take another 3 or 4 years for current management to be washed out, another 3 or 4 years after that to truly bottom out and attain top end talent from some top 3 picks in the draft, and then a final 3 or 4 years to actually build into something resembling a contender. If you’re a free agent chasing a cup now, would you want to come here and live through that? I’m actually impressed that Shane stuck it out as long as he did – I hope he does leave and finds better success elsewhere. I can see why somebody like Matty doesn’t ask out – he’s a first line center here! Do we think he’s even a second line center on an actual good team? Probably just a third liner?
We’re not “one player” away. Managing to actually sign a big name player (whether it was Panarin, Robertson, or the current name-du-jour Fantilli) is not going to appreciably move the needle. I think the players know that. Ownership seemingly doesn’t. At least not yet anyway. Maybe in another 3 or 4 years…
I would change your name to “EnjoysBeingPessimistic.” Just because Panarin only wants to play in a big name market to impress his Russian friends back home (and thank goodness that didn’t work out) and Robertson obviously only wants to play in Dallas, doesn’t mean free agents don’t want to sign in Seattle. In fact, the opposite is true. McMann, McCann, Eberle, Larsson, Dunn, Montour, Stephenson, Daccord all signed contracts to play here, and Tolvi, Schwartz and Oleksiak probably would have if offered. You will probably argue something stupid like “oh, but they all suck!” But of course you would be ignoring a bunch of other facts, like other teams wanted these players, the GM of EDM was shocked Larsson signed a deal to play in Seattle, assuming he would just want to re-sign in EDM, etc etc.
Most people have never built anything meaningful or valuable in their lives, so I don’t blame them for not understanding the challenges. The small percentage of people who do it like the challenge, but unfortunately take a lot of shit from the vast majority of losers who for some reason try to convince themselves they know better.
Seattle G did a good job of picking apart a lot of this but I’ll add some more.
Your assertion that signing a 30 goal scorer doesn’t move the needle is, frankly, idiotic. You’re instantly a playoff team which ties into your other comment about FAs… they aren’t rolling into the team because we’re not winning. Winning solves everything. It’s also not true that FAs don’t want to sign. Your examples of Robertson and Panarin were both players who had no intention of going anywhere but where they ended up.
Your comments about Shane also seem to show ignorance to Shane’s actual situation. His entire problem is between his ears. The pod has already given you all the data you should need to invalidate your world view (the team giving him all the opportunities they can).
As for Matty, cmon man. Third liner?
I belive there’s still time this offseason for one more move.
For example, Darren Ferris was recently on the PuckPedia podcast talking about the Philip Broberg offer sheet. He pointed out that didn’t get signed until August because they needed to wait for the second buyout window to close so they could limit Edmonton’s options for matching.
With all the smoke still swirling around Columbus, it’s hard to be sure exactly what could happen there. As I understand it, with Cole Sillinger having filed for arbitration, even though he reached an agreement the Bluejackets they will still have a second 48 hour buyout window. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some movement following that… Krill Marchenko’s name keeps getting floated out there.
53 days until puck drop.
Go Kraken!!!
I think the biggest issue is whether their systems will be better this year, they were abysmal on the PK which was shocking considering Lambert was known for his excellent PK systems as n assistant coach, and their PP wasn’t very good either. I think if we can see Lambert implement the core defensive systems he is known for that in itself will go a long way towards improving their chances. And Joey Daccord had a really off year last season, if he returns to form that will be big as well, but he needs defensive support and the team to come together to play a full 200 foot game.
Your D pairs definitely sound like what we expect to see, they have a nice balance between offensive and defensive partners in the Top 4, although we are still hoping Evans will make the jump into the Top 4, but it is hard to compete with a veteran like Lindgren. And Fleury of course can swap into the 3rd pairing as needed, another right shot, he is just a bit inconsistent.
Up front I really like when they had Kakko (and Nyman) with Beniers in the spring two seasons ago, so I wouldn’t mind seeing them reunited (or Catton in place of Nyman since he may be back in the AHL), but I can understand if they want him to have more veteran linemates. But I think they should go with Samoskevich as the top line, as you said he has familiarity playing with Beniers and potential to shine in a top 6 role. This would allow McCann and Eberle to stay together, they are probably the most defensively responsible two-way wingers so they would work well as and 2nd pairing shutdown unit. One would expect Stephenson to center them, but he has struggled a bit defensively in a top 6 role, and part of Wright wanting to be traded is that he wants top 6 minutes, so maybe swap them allowing Stephenson to play slightly easier 3rd line minutes while mentoring the youngsters. The 4th line is pretty much as expected, although we are still waiting for Melanson to re-sign, so if he doesn’t then Nyman would end up being the extra. And Douglas, I don’t understand why they felt they needed an enforcer type on the roster…
Stephenson’s “struggles” are being distorted by him having to take so many D draws because Shane just can’t. I still think you’d rather someone else center a second line but I don’t think it’s as bad as the stats would make it look.
Last season only one forward in the entire league, Chandler Stephenson, was on the ice for more than 800 combined 5v5 d-zone starts and faceoffs (848). Michael Backlund was secomd at 763. Only four forwards in the entire league had over 700 combined and third on the list, at 746, was Kraken teammate Freddie Gaudreau.
It’s really hard to overstate just how sheltered Wright’s minutes have been. In all situations last season, of the 374 forwards who played 600+ minutes, no one had a lower goals against per 60 than Shane Wright at 1.64. Is he that good defensively, or maybe getting 70% and 80% of his draws and starts, respectively, in the o-zone helped.
Back to Stephenson…
In all situations only three forwards in the entire league were on the ice for more goals against than Chandler Stephenson’s 100… Kyle Connor (109), Alex Wennberg (107), and Mika Zibanejad (102). At 5v5, however, his 47 goals against is tied for 76th in the league. Almost half of the on-ice goals against Stephenson (46/100) came either on the PK or with an empty net.
You’re truly the best kind of nerd. Im way too lazy to do stat pulls for people.
An as yet unmentioned point, I think we really need to find Matty a long term wingmate and allow Eberle to age out. Kakko showed promise when acquired tho was then injured to start the season and never got a look. Mackie could be that piece, especially given they have history too.
That then frees Eberle to mentor Wright. He has done so with Beniers to great effect and I really think the lack of an equivalent veteran mainstay on his wing has been detrimental for Shane.
So I largely agree with TKNoodle’s lines, tho not the same deployment pattern, at least not to start the season.
My hesitation is that leaves a combo of Catton-Stephenson-Kakko who were not effective last season.
Aside from our musings, the fact we have no settled line combos entering the 6th season is perhaps the most concerning part of the way the roster has developed thus far. Truly effective top lines gel together over multiple years, and we haven’t even taken the first step down that path.