It’s fair to say this offseason has so far felt underwhelming for the Seattle Kraken. An offseason headlined Jason Robertson denying a trade to Seattle, with only small tweaking to the roster, hasn’t exactly instilled confidence that things will be much different heading into Opening Night.
Now that we’re deep into the summer, the window for the Kraken to acquire any big fish this offseason seems all but shut. However, there is still an intriguing possibility out there.
The Columbus Blue Jackets and 21-year-old center Adam Fantilli, as of now, have not officially reached an extension. While it seems a deal with the restricted free agent will ultimately get done, according to Adam Portzline of The Athletic, this amount of waiting has left many to wonder how Fantilli’s future will look.
If this were a year or two ago, it would have been hard to envision a scenario where Fantilli could be pried away. But this is a new era. If the Leo Carlsson offer sheet by Philadelphia taught us anything, it’s that there’s always a price.
Fantilli is reportedly seeking a deal that gets into the same realm as his 2023 NHL Draft counterparts, with Carlsson having signed for $18 million over five years, and Connor Bedard for $15 million over the same term.
If the figure is $15 million, only three teams currently have the cap space to even give that to Fantilli: Detroit, Vancouver and… Seattle.
With the clock ticking for the Kraken to make this offseason more “prolific” as promised, luring away Fantilli could be one of the few avenues left to deliver that.
While the cost to acquire him would likely end up being too high for the Kraken to stomach, it’s still fun to think about what it would take to bring in the potential young star Seattle has been seeking. So, let’s entertain the idea for a few minutes. Here are the risks and rewards of a Kraken offer sheet for Adam Fantilli.
The risks: The costs would be insane
With Columbus’ current cap situation, it’s still a challenge to get Fantilli signed to a reasonable number without some financial gymnastics. The fact that he has remained unsigned this far into the offseason has raised alarm bells across the league, and the Kraken are definitely one of the teams that could use his services.
Estimates for a Fantilli extension have him earning around $13-14 million AAV. Columbus has a projected $14.5 million in cap space after extending Jet Greaves and Cole Sillinger. So, they can afford him if he signs in that area, but that all but maxes them out.
This is where Seattle could come in, offering an amount that would put the Blue Jackets over the cap, assuming they were to match.
If the Kraken offered a deal similar to the one they were reportedly willing to give Jason Robertson — $15 million per season — it would leave them with roughly $3 million in cap space for the coming year. Similar to Carlsson’s contract, much of that money would likely have to come in the form of signing bonuses.
But there’s a reason why offer sheets rarely ever happen: they aren’t cheap. In addition to the dollar amount on the contract, the Kraken would also have to pay a hefty draft-capital price — four first-round picks over the next four drafts.
Plus, it’s not like Fantilli is a completely finished product. He is still developing. Considering how things have gone with Shane Wright, Matty Beniers, and Berkly Catton, it’s hard to believe expectations for immediate production would be any different.
Plus, Seattle and Columbus seem to be in similar situations right now, and even with the right offer, Fantilli would still have to choose the Kraken if an offer sheet became a reality.
The Kraken would likely have to oversell both the market and the organization’s vision, something that has proven to be a tall task considering what happened with previous pursuits of stars over the last few months.
The reward: A renewed offense
But what if it works?
Even though he’s only 21 years old, Fantilli would immediately become one of the faces of the franchise and a centerpiece of the next decade of Kraken hockey. He brings a multidimensional approach to creating offense and attacking defenders.
He would have led the Kraken in assists, points, and shots on goal in 2025-26, while finishing second in goals. Having a shoot-first mentality like his would help to electrify the offense as a whole.
Seattle needs a boost in its collective offense again. They have ranked in the NHL’s bottom five in expected goals for over the past two seasons. Fantilli is the type of player who could provide sustained offensive pressure for years to come.
It’s worth noting too that he also shares the same agent as Beniers, Catton, and Freddie Gaudreau in Pat Brisson of CAA Sports.
Conclusion: Too big a risk
While it’s enticing to imagine a skilled, young player like Fantilli in a Kraken sweater, the cost of doing business here is really high.
Not only would Seattle likely be committing more than $15 million per season in cap space, making Fantilli a top-five highest-paid player in the league, but it would also sacrifice four first-round picks (that could end up being high picks) while still building and trying to strengthen the prospect pool.
There’s no doubt Fantilli would provide an immediate spark to the Kraken offense and help make Seattle a more attractive destination for future talent. But the long-term ramifications make the move difficult to justify.
Instead, Seattle should wait to see how this plays out between Fantilli and the Blue Jackets, and then figure out how they can “help” in alleviating their cap crunch.
What do you think? Should Seattle go after Adam Fantilli, or is the cost simply too high?
Fantilli is 21years old. The cost is high but he would struggle here with Lambert. Just like Wright does. You need a coach that can relate to these younger guys on the ice and not hold them back in the name of development. That’s when you’ll see a change in this team.
Do you feel like old man Lambert held back young Catton last season?
Not really, no. Catton has been in “golden” status since he came here. As he should be. He did give a couple other young guys some ice time. Although Melonson did get some ice time but he should have had more in my opinion along with Cale Flurry who played a very solid, textbook game while Vince Dunn was constantly turning over the puck in the O zone. Wright has a lot of talent and I just think Lambert is the weak link in this whole thing. Hopefully his new assistants will help him out and make him look good. Every coach in the league knows his strategy and he isn’t fooling any of them. Just us I guess.
..
.
If you honestly think Fleury deserved ice time over Dunn, that at least gives context for why the rest of your comments make no sense.
Back to being a troll. Keep it up.
Do you think Catton excelled because of Lambert’s coaching?
I think Catton belonged in the AHL – but since that wasn’t an option I think Lambert did a good job of giving him opportunity. Expecting him to “excel” under any coach at the NHL level last season would seem a bit much to me.
Honestly, for me, I don’t know enough about it to really feel comfortable speculating all that much about coaching and development. I’m ok giving “observations” like my rants about what happens when they try and “shoot the puck” more. But when it comes to determining whether it’s the coach or the player, I’m with Jim Mora, I don’t know. Furthermore, I think that’s most people.
David Aldridge, a sports journalist for 40 years said…
“This might be the truest thing ever said on a podium.”
https://youtu.be/NHipzGL4dwM?is=bcR9fPQWcKpwB2N9
he definitely belonged in the AHL last year, but there was no point in him returning to the WHL. they made the best of a tricky situation. ive said multiple times i wouldnt be surprised if he spent time there this year but i hope hes put enough weight on to stay, he had some really fantastic flashes last year (1/1 shoot out hero)
No kraken forward excelled under LL
Bobby McMann did. So did Jordan Eberle. McMann caught fire the moment he arrived in Seattle, and Eberle potted more goals than he had since 2013-14.
We have very different views of excelling… Ebs had 55 points last season, I do not qualify that as excelling. McMann had 46 points last season. Yes 14 of those with Seattle but the sample size is way too small to say he excelled.
Yeah, I don’t know what definition you’re using, but Eberle scoring more goals in a season at age thirty-five than he had in over a decade–and five more than he pervious had as a Kraken–certainly meets my criteria for “excelling.” And McMann’s fourteen points came in a very small sample indeed: eighteen games, and those eighteen games happened during the post-Olympic Break skid into oblivion. That is a much different pace than the thirty-two points he scored in sixty games in Lambert-less Toronto. Another interesting thing I noticed about the split between McMann’s most-of-a-season in Toronto and his fraction of a season in Seattle is that he had forty penalty minutes in sixty games with Toronto and two total penalty minutes in Seattle. Just based on numbers it is insane how differently Toronto was deploying Bobby than Seattle was. Lambert had him playing a completely different role, one he was better suited to. With that in mind it is no wonder that he re-signed here.
Although, to be fair, I do wonder how much of the success those two guys had here last season was due to Lambert and how much was due to their center Matty Beniers. For some reason I cannot begin to understand, his linemates always look significantly better than they do playing elsewhere.
Yeah I like matty as well and agree that players play better with him but nobody was elite.
Ebs was 103 on the nhl scoring list, very far from elite. McMann had the highest shooting percentage in his career during the short period with the Kraken… almost double his career shooting percentage. The sample size isn’t long enough as he most certainly would not keep scoring at the percentage he was. I’d like to be wrong there let’s see how he performs next season, probably somewhere between Seattle and Toronto.
Huh? The only prospect struggling is the one who’s not putting in the work. Winterton, Matty, Melanson and even Catton are doing just fine. No one is getting held back. One player is not stepping up.
I repeat… no kraken forward excelled under LL.
Fantilli is younger than Shane, but has scored 54 points (31G 23A) and 59 points (24G 35A) in the past 2 seasons while playing top line minutes, and already has an NHL body. He’s just a much better young player than Shane is, and I don’t think Lambert would struggle with trusting him at all.
I tend to agree that the price is too high, while Fantilli would fill an immediate need of bringing in what looks like a developing 1C, the Kraken prospect pool is still a year or two away from being at a place where I think taking the swing with x4 first round picks is thinkable. It’s a tempting thought though, Fantilli’s 2nd and 3rd seasons are both consistent and promising.
I do think the Kraken should be all over helping Columbus make a little more room, I wonder if they would be willing to part with a different former Wolverine in Kent Johnson considering he’s only signed for 1 more year. He’d fit the theme of a young winger with upside, and I’m sure it would Matty and Mackie would be pretty happy about reuniting with their former teammate. Otherwise, I guess I’d settle for taking Zach Werenski.
I could see Fantilli signing an offer sheet, but I just don’t see the scenario where Columbus doesn’t match. Even a team like Seattle, with very appealing firsts, I still think they keep the player. Columbus is only showing $13.5m, but they have moveable dumps in Miles Wood and Elvis Merzlikins that could free up another $8m. Realistically, I think Seattle would be better served to take advantage of the cap crunch and turmoil in Columbus by working a deal.
“…with only small tweaking to the roster, hasn’t exactly instilled confidence that things will be much different heading into Opening Night.”
I still don’t understand how moving off Schwartz, Tolvanen and Oleksiak, three regulars in past years, and adding McMann and Samoskevich (I’m including McMann in the offseason, since he wasn’t here very long last season and he re-signed) is considered “small tweaking of the roster”, but whatever.
I did feel very strongly the Kraken should offer sheet Fantilli, but now I’m thinking no. The cost would be very high, and CBJ would almost certainly match it anyway. They have a couple of pieces they could move or put on LTIR, and they can exceed the cap by 10% at this stage. While Fantilli is a decent player, we can’t forget we need to build a hockey “team”, and one guy out of a 23-man roster making 2.5-3x what other solid players make is disproportional and sets the wrong tone and culture.
I will say that losing Schwartz, Tolvannen, and Oleksiak does not feel like much of a win. Yeah, it opens up space, but they are good players whose replacements are unlikely to be as good.
The kraken desperately need to be different then they were, those three were the easiest options.
It’s a big W. We actually need the roster spots for younger players. At worst on the F lines you’re down Schwartz’s board tenacity but you’re ahead on having a younger player who’s way more likely to play a full season. Tolvy is more or less a straight swap for Mackie but with higher upside and speed which this team so desperately needs. Oleksiak is the one thing we need to see hot it plays out but he was unlikely to factor into the long term plans on this team so it was probably best to let him go even if it causes one season of pain. Those three also freed up a ton of cap space which they’ve been trying to use for players like Robertson.
Just looking at the situation in Columbus, SEA and CBJ could really help each other right now. SEA has cap room and CBJ has players. If Fantilli gets signed for anything above, say, $13m, that really throws a wrench into extending Marchenko, Voronkov, Johnson, Mateychuk, Lundestrom AND Del Bel Belluz, who at 22 had 58 pts in 55 AHL games and probably plays regular minutes in the NHL this season. All in Seattle’s timeline age-wise. There are probably several flavors of potential deals between these two teams.
I don’t think Columbus is in quite the quandary folks think they might be capwise. Just the other day, Aaron Portzline of the Athletic was saying how surprised he was Elvis Merzlikins was still on the team. With only one season left on his contract he’d be another $2.82m if they buy him out. That alone would get them to $16.315m. Going with 12 forwards and 7 defensemen could make his replacement cost neutral. All those names other than Fantilli are for next season and I think the $45m they have gets most of that done.
I think the bigger opportunity in Columbus is the discontent. If Marchenko isn’t going to extend there, is Seattle going to spend assets to get him AND give him $15m x 5? It seems like a huge investment but right now that’s what it feels like it would take. The way they’ve been throwing money around, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Even if they did go that route, they’d still be sitting on a pile of cap dollars this season and next.
Apparently no one wants to come to Seattle. 🙂
I just don’t see how this would help us more than the 4 first round picks we’d be giving up, good picks at that. I could see this type of strategy working for us in three to four years if we get something built by then, maybe if it’s the extra part we need and the picks we would be giving up aren’t projected to be as nice.
Problem is we probably wouldn’t have the cap space in 3/4 years to make it happen, and there lies the problem with offer sheets.
Maybe this is a good destination for Wright, if we could pry a young forward away with a higher cap hit in exchange for a promising lower cap hit in Wright it could be a win for both teams.
A young forward with a high cap hit that a team is willing to trade? Who does that describe except Elias Petterson? Hard pass there. Let’s not do the Canucks any favors.
Marchenko and Kent Johnson both fit that bill…. Was referring to the CBJ not Vancouver, although I would not be surprised if EP looks good after joining a new team. He’s very much a gamble but what other NHL player that has finished so high in league scoring be has for so little? It’s kinda like throwing all your chips on black and spinning the wheel though.
Not saying the trade would be 1 for 1…. Back to CBJ talk.
Johnson only makes five and a half mil, and Marchenko is not going anywhere without a comparable player coming back. That ain’t underperforming Shane Wright.
The problem as I see it with a Marchenko deal is it likely has to be at least dollar-in-dollar-out and they’re gonna want something for right now. With Kirill only making $3.85m there’s going to be a lot involved.
I could see something like Wright/McCann for Marchenko/Wood but I still think Seattle would have to add a bit… maybe they swallow Merzlikins as well, they certainly have the cap. And then on top of that they’re going to need a commit from the player to extend. The way the market has been and the position the Kraken are in, it seems like that’s going to have to be a huge number like $14m x 5… for a winger. The other Kirill makes $17m, but then Robertson, Marner, Connor and Rantanen are all at $12m.
Boy, I just don’t know. I like a top line of McMann, Beniers, Marchenko and I think in a weak Pacific they’d be closer to a playoff spot – which makes it easier to find the next piece… but it sure seems expensive.
I clearly stated that a trade would not necessarily be one for one to avoid this type of response… oh well. 😝
I will start the chant right now. Fire LL now before its too late. We may lose Shane because he cannot provide a lineup that can score and give talent minutes. Puttin Catton over Shane is so disrespectful but if Shane goes to Vancouver, then so do I.Losing talent over a bad coaches decisions is not a team I want to support. My heart is in Seattle but my brain says this organization is lost.
lol no. Shane needs to actually deserve the respect. Catton showed he had the drive to get better in weeks. Shane has had over two years as a pro and has shown almost none. Don’t look at Shane’s stats unless you want to prove yourself wrong. He couldn’t hit the net to save his life despite getting more offensive zone starts than any forward. The team desperately trying to get him going has also caused other players to have down offensive production. The problem isn’t that Shane isn’t giving the chances, it’s exactly the opposite. The team is worse for having to try and coddle him.
who is really being coddled. a player playing on 3 or 4th line with lower quality players or a new under age player playing on the 1st or 2nd line with tiop players on the team? Shane has gotten a raw deal the whole time here in seattle
Catton was 19 coming into the season and belonged in the AHL. Shane was 21 with two professional season under his belt, one in the AHL and one in the NHL.
Both players were given advantageous deployments. One of them did about what you could expect, one of them didn’t.
Who is being coddled is the center who gets nothing but offensive zone deployments against weak opponents as opposed to the winger who was often playing the most brutal shifts beside Chandler Stephenson. Now before you bring up linemates, Wright shared a line with McCann and Eberle the year before last when Beniers was playing with Kakko and Schwartz. Every single one of those guys has played noticibly and significantly better with Matty Beniers than he has with Shane Wright. Speaking of which, Berkley Catton himself looked a lot better playing with Stephenson than he did with Wright despite the radical difference in deployment and quality of opponents.
Shane. I was quite clear in that paragraph. He’s being given the majority of his starts in the O zone to make up for the deficiencies in this game. I’m beginning to wonder if you actually listen to the pod. This has also been gone over repeatedly in the comments. Easy Street gave your more details below as well.
He was given O starts because he was a better face off guy and is better on the boards than Catton
Your dogged determination to ignore reality is impressive. He is given predominantly O starts because he’s god awful in the faceoff dot and makes brutal turn overs in the D zone. Catton is irrelevant here as he was playing wing.
Ignoring the fair weather fandom of this comment, I find it equally mind boggling and hilarious that the idea of the Kraken losing talent over bad management decisions makes you want to support……Vancouver.
I’m trying to imagine a Bruins fan threatening to become a Leafs fan because their coach with 13 years experience behind an NHL bench has a defense first philosophy and isn’t making it a priority to help a 22 year old get more points. We have an interesting fanbase in Seattle for sure.
I spent 35 years living in Vancouver and all my kids still live there. I support both teas ATM. Both teams have terrible management. I like to support my favorite players as well.
Trading Wright makes no sense because he’s only 22 with a decade of hockey ahead of him. Centers are the foundation of a team, but the real issue lies behind the bench…
The real issue lies between Shane’s ears. If he’s not going to put in the work and act like a brat, he can go. Catton improved more over the one year than Shane has in multiple professional years with multiple coaches. The problem is not behind the bench, it’s between Shane’s ears.
You can’t say that for certain unless you are at every single practice and game. If not for that Rule change, Catton may not even be on the team where Shane was buried in the AHL and bounced around from league to league. This does not improve skills.
Not everyone takes the same path. Good players adjust. As someone pointed out, he’s only 22 and has been playing one of the most difficult positions in all of sports. A center in the NHL. There are lots of examples of players who didn’t hit their stride until their 4th or 5th season, but somehow you think he should be killing it by now, and you are blaming the team, which is very odd. Shane will probably end up being a good player whether he stays with Seattle or not.
Shane had a whole season to annihilate players in the AHL and show he is a true NHL 1C. Instead he put up a very meh season. You really need to start paying attention. He just isn’t the player you think he is. Chris Peters even threw cold water on your take. He may end up being a solid 2C but he has struggled to put the pieces together and show the work ethic and drive needed to be a truly elite player.
I will say for Shane that he looked seriously good in the AHL playoffs. He and Winterton balled out, and, despite being one of the young prospect lines, Bylsma had them playing more minutes against tougher opponents than the veterans line drew. Damn, the future of the Kraken looked bright from Coachella Valley right then and there.
The cap math is the part people keep skipping in this debate. An offer sheet at the tier that actually scares Columbus costs two firsts and a second, and the Kraken are not deep enough in prospect capital to shrug that off if he underperforms in year one. I would rather see that money go toward a top-four right shot D. That said, the argument that Seattle needs a legitimate 1C is fair – they have been patching that hole since expansion. I make short highlight edits with Ravvi AI and Fantilli’s zone entries are genuinely fun to cut together. Good breakdown.
Agreed. The blue line is a much more immediate and potentially catastrophic concern. Finding an eventual Adam Larsson replacement and re-signing Vince Dunn need to be the team’s top priorities. Fantilli would be great to have here, but Beniers and Stephenson are good enough and will be here for a long while. The draft picks needed to sign Fantilli would not help the blue line situation anyway, so both are possible. However, the money spent on a big contract may be needed to land a top-pairing defenseman.
@A Left-Handed Center. Just a heads up, you’re replying to a bot. I’m pretty sure these random posts with links in them are AI generated. The part about “two firsts and a second” is much too ignorant to be an actual person.
On your point, however, I completely agree. The backend is now becoming a concern and maybe as soon as this season. For all the Fantilli talk, I think Nikishin in Carolina could be a real opportunity and I think they’d have interest in Wright.
you think trading Canner for Nikishin moves the needle or do we need to sweeten that deal? 2nd rounder?
it looks like they want a top 6 winger and we dont have many of those that are expendable. mccann isnt really expendable but in this situation youre getting a young top 4 dman (projected) in return. i also want them to get logan stanley but his ask is too high imo and the term hes looking for is too long.
Boy, I just don’t know on McCann. I feel like if they move him out they’d want to add back in the top six. Plenty of folks don’t like it, but it seems pretty obvious they’re going to try and make the playoffs again. That being the case, I’d expect McCann in a Marchenko deal more than a Nikishin trade. Ever since the Canes offersheeted Kotkaniemi they’ve been looking for middle six center help and I don’t think that’s changed even after adding Stankoven. Staal will be 39 at the beginning of the season and only has one year left on his contract. Wright, to me, seems like the more likely option there. I could see them wanting a little more, maybe a pick or Ottavainen.
Maybe it is bogus, but I am pretty sure I have posted dumber things before. I had assumed that he was just confusing the offer sheet tiers, which can be a bit confusing.
Getting Nikishin would solve a glaring issue and leave me at least feeling a bit more confident about the team’s future. I would even say that the acquisition would qualify as the “prolific” offseason we were promised. The $8mil AAV he is reportedly asking for would not be a problem for the team with all the cap space it has. He is young enough that a lot of term, while very risky, would not necessarily be a poor chance to take. My concern is that Carolina would want far more than just Shane Wright in return.
Pick a name.
im actually surprised carolina hasnt picked up tolvanen but maybe hes more middle bottom 6 for a team like carolina. i dont honestly know who (besides the irishmen and matty) have the motor carolina tends to look for while being top 6. wints has it but like eeli is further down the depth chart. also, nikishin is a nice player and i wouldnt sneeze at having him on the kraken but i dont know how much further to leverage shane plus a player (winterton i guess?) and a pic unless we make the trade bigger and attempt to pull svech or one of the other young forwards like blake or stanky and i just dont see the incentive for carolina to move their cup winning pieces for our non cup winning pieces. apparently wed have to take kotkieniemi too which is fine, but i dont exactly know how this deal gets done. wright gaudreau and wints? i dont know that that does it for them.
the other problem with a carolina trade, tulsky is a data driven GM and shanes numbers are…. lets just say not glowing. now, rod the bod is a fantastic coach (was really hoping francis was going to get him here 2 years ago when his contract was up) and maybe that does something but with the way tulsky obsesses over metrics i dont know how shane fits their culture/system, i honestly dont see wright going to the hurricanes. they need fast, intense high compete guys for their game to work the way it does.
No thanks, Daryl. I have no interest in being an internet personality.
Wrath, I am not overly keen to move either Winterton or Gaudreau. Winterton may still take another step, and Gaudreau was just about the only forward on the team who was good on the penalty kill last season. He also plays effective defense and can win draws, which is pretty ideal for a third line center. Of course, prying away someone like Stankoven would require painful sacrifice, but would it be worth it? Stankoven would score more goals than Gaudreau, certainly, but he could not fill the penalty kill role. The Kraken would get stuck using Ben Meyers or Matty Beniers on one of the penalty kill lines. I don’t know what to expect from Meyers on special teams, and it would really be a lot of ice time to give Beniers if he were to play on both the power play and the penalty kill, especially with the STUPID new 84-game season. It didn’t work before, and it will not work again. But that’s another subject.
matty said on chiclets he wanted to be on the kill, which i wouldnt be upset about at all. canner and matty would make a nice dangerous PK. carolina would def want more than wright in return, no way thats a 1 for 1 swap. although… this is one of those situations where maybe a third team is involved. nikishin to seattle (maybe kotkaniemi as well) shane and (insert) to team 3, top 6 center to canes from team 3? actually, vancouver may be a good third team here. debrusk and petterson are more than likely leaving at some point this season (could be wrong pettersons been in the rumor mill for years now) and shane wants to go to van for reasons i cant fathom other than 0 competition for a spot he wants and wont have to try as hard to earn there. maybe wright and kotkaniemi to van, nikishin to seattle and petterson and a seattle pic to the cans. does that math or have i spent too much time playing make believe GM with the difficulty sliders turned to easy mode?