Kraken Contracts Corner: Camp cuts and grades for the Douglas and Melanson signings

On Monday, Sep. 21, the Kraken announced the first wave of Training Camp cuts and reassignments. In today’s edition of Kraken Contracts Corner, we’ll break down those moves and then pick up with Part II of our two-part series grading the Seattle Kraken’s significant offseason signings. We’ll then conclude with a few other contract odds and ends you need to know as the Kraken continue preparing for the season.

Seattle Kraken trim camp roster to 27 players

After two preseason games that gave the coaching staff an opportunity to see several of the team’s prospects up close, the Kraken announced a number of transactions Monday morning that trimmed the NHL Training Camp roster.

Following those moves, there are 23 “veterans” still in camp, including “roster-bubble” veterans Curtis Douglas, Ben Meyers, Jacob Melanson, Cale Fleury, and Josh Mahura. There are also four younger players still with the NHL team: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, Jake O’Brien, Ville Ottavainen, and Nikke Kokko. I suspect that Mølgaard is the only player in the younger group who has a chance to stick around and displace a veteran on the initial roster, absent an injury.

Going through the transactions, the Kraken reassigned defensemen Finn Kearns, Rylan Singh, and Will Reynolds to their junior clubs, as expected. The team also released Brody Gillespie and Maks Corovic from their Rookie Camp tryouts. Gillespie and Corovic will rejoin their respective junior clubs, too, and again be draft eligible in 2027.

The Kraken’s other moves are intended to send players to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The following 16 players are waivers-exempt and were assigned to the AHL directly:

D Alexis Bernier	D Tyson Jugnauth	F Carson Rehkopf
D Lukas Dragicevic	F Andrei Loshko	F Lleyton Roed
F Ryden Evers	F Julius Miettinen	F Eduard Sale
F Jagger Firkus	D Ty Nelson	F Nathan Villeneuve
F David Goyette	F Jani Nyman
D Kaden Hammell	D Caden Price

It was surprising to see some of these players sent down so early, but this is a product of the shorter Training Camp this season.

The most interesting transactions are the players who, due to age and service time, require waivers to be assigned to the Firebirds:

F J.R. Avon	F Logan Morrison
F John Hayden	G Victor Ostman

Other teams have a 24-hour window to claim any one of these players off waivers. If unclaimed, the players will report to Firebirds camp. Ottavainen will also require waivers if he does not make the NHL team, as would any of the bubble “veterans” listed above. O’Brien, Mølgaard, and Kokko are waivers-exempt.

Finally, the following four players are signed to AHL contracts and will now report directly to Firebirds camp following their release from NHL camp agreements:

F Justin Janicke	D Gustav Olofsson
F Ian McKinnon	F Mitchell Stephens

Grading the offseason signings

Curtis Douglas signs a two-year, $1.25 million AAV UFA contract on signed Jul. 1, 2026

The takeaway

Rugged forward depth and roster competition at a bubble NHL-AHL rate.

Details

Market analysis

Douglas was a “Group Six” unrestricted free agent on Jul. 1. Most often, a player becomes an unrestricted free agent when his contract first expires after his 27th birthday. Douglas, 26, became a free agent earlier because he was over 25 years old, had played more than three “professional seasons,” and had accumulated fewer than 80 NHL games.

For our comparables, we looked at unrestricted free agents between 25 and 29 years old with at least 20 NHL games played but fewer than five goals and 10 points in their last season preceding free agency. Since much of what Douglas trades on is his physicality, we also required that the player have at least 30 hits in that season. (Douglas had 64 for the Canucks last season in 43 combined games between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks.)

This returned a list of 28 comparable contracts from the last four offseasons. The deals averaged 1.5 years in length and were valued near the league minimum at 1.1 percent of the Year 1 salary cap. The Kraken gave Douglas a two-year contract at 1.2 percent of the cap. Both figures are just slightly above average, meaning favorable to the player.

Context analysis

The Kraken clearly valued Douglas’s very specific physical profile. In a way, it’s hard to separate the Douglas signing from the next one we’ll discuss, Jacob Melanson. They will likely push each other for the same checking role, and the loser may find himself on the outside of the NHL roster looking in. I suspect the team would prefer that Melanson emerges victorious and Douglas is AHL depth, but Douglas at least protects against a “sophomore slump” for Melanson. Both players have the same marching orders (whether express or not): Play sound defensive hockey, but protect the team’s top young players when necessary.

If Douglas does not make the NHL team, Douglas would require waivers to go to the AHL. The two-year term could dissuade a potential claimant. If or when Douglas is in the AHL, he would only count $50,000 against the Year 1 NHL salary cap, with the remainder “buried” in the minors.

Grade: C+

Even if the term or value may be slightly high, it was likely necessary to secure the player. We are essentially talking about rounding errors in the big picture. And one could argue it’s really a one-year deal because Douglas’s contract could be fully buried in the AHL for the 2027-28 season without cap consequence.

Jacob Melanson signs a three-year, $1.45 million AAV RFA contract on Sep. 4, 2026

The takeaway

Finding precedents for this contract is difficult. It’s a unique contract for a uniquely physical player.

Details

Market analysis

Melanson has played in only 37 NHL games, with 36 of them coming last season. He has two goals and three assists at the NHL level, all during the 2025-26 season. At the AHL level, he has played parts of three seasons, never topping 19 points in any campaign.

Typically, when a 23-year-old restricted free-agent forward with this resume goes to the negotiating table, he is bargaining for guarantees on a two-way contract or maybe a multi-year term.

We know Melanson’s case is different. Scoring really isn’t his value proposition. He is a fourth-line forechecker, and his speed and physicality do create advantages for his team when he is out there. Teams rarely pay for that skill set, though. The player has to be special in his contributions. Brandon Tanev is a player who earned a big contract playing this way, but the examples are few and far between.

Over the last four seasons, there were 16 contracts for RFA forwards aged 21 to 26 with 20 or more NHL games but fewer than five goals and five assists in their last season before the contract. Until June 2026, none of those contracts were worth more than $1,000,000 annually or more than 1.02 percent of the cap. Only four players had received three-year contracts, with the rest two- or one-year terms.

Between June and Melanson’s signing in September, however, two interesting contracts were signed:

• Zach Ostapchuk signed with the Sharks in June for four years and 2.26 percent of the cap; he had four goals and three assists in 59 NHL games last season.
• Ville Koivunen signed with the Penguins in August for eight years and 3.85 percent of the cap; he had two goals and five assists in 39 NHL games last season.

Koivunen is a different kind of player; the Penguins are clearly betting long-term on middle-six scoring upside after the player posted 56 points in the AHL in 2024-25 and 41 points in 34 AHL games last season. Melanson is unlikely to score like that.

Ostapchuk may be a more revealing comparison, though. Similar in age to Melanson, he also fits more of a checking profile, with 140 hits in 2025-26. Though this falls well short of Melanson’s hit rate (more on this in a moment), it’s notable physicality. Beyond that, Ostapchuk has a longer track record than Melanson, with 122 total NHL games played.

All told, even when accounting for Koivunen and Ostapchuk, Melanson’s comparable contracts were for 2.4 years and 1.18 percent of the cap. Melanson signed well above those marks, getting a three-year deal worth 1.39 percent of the cap.

Why? Melanson’s money-maker is his physicality. Melanson’s career mark of 33.2 hits per 60 minutes leads all NHL players with at least 10 games played going back at least 50 years. (I stopped looking at that point.) His 33.5 hits per 60 minutes last season led the league and would have led any individual season going back at least 10 years among all players with at least 10 games played. (I stopped looking at that point.) You get the idea.

This makes him such a unique case. How does the league value this type of physicality from a young restricted free agent? We just don’t have recent precedent for it. Ostapchuk is our best evidence that other teams are willing to pay for it like Seattle did here.

Melanson will still be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights when this deal expires in 2029.

Context analysis

Melanson’s value may ebb and flow depending on the matchup and flow of a game, but he has the ability to change a game’s course with a high-energy shift or bone-crunching hit. There’s no other forward on the roster (except for perhaps Douglas, now) who can do that. It makes him a good fit as the team’s 12th (or perhaps 13th) forward. His relative youth also works in his favor. The team surely hopes he’ll be able to hold up his physical play for at least the next three years.

While it is a “big” contract for the type of player Melanson is, it’s also a very modest sum in the grand scheme and won’t prevent the team from doing anything else it wants to do contract-wise.

Grade: C+

This deal seems like a concession by the Kraken in the direction of unique contract demands by a unique player. The Kraken didn’t “win” the deal, but it’s also not necessary to do so. Squeezing every penny on these restricted free-agent deals may not always be the right play—particularly so given the team’s ample cap space—when the downside is alienating the player.

Contract odds and ends

• Assuming he is not claimed, goalie Victor Ostman will play this season in Coachella Valley on a one-year contract. After the season ends, he will be a Group Six unrestricted free agent unless the Kraken re-sign him sooner or he plays in 26 NHL games this season (adding to his two previous NHL games).
• The rule change allowing 19-year-old first-round picks from the CHL to play in the AHL will be in effect for this coming season. Jake O’Brien is almost certain to be the Kraken’s first such assignment taking advantage of this rule.
• Teams had until 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 15 to sign players to contracts under the previous CBA. Since that time, certain deal structures are no longer allowed. The maximum term for re-signing a team’s own player is now seven years, not eight. And certain front-loaded and bonus-heavy deal structures are no longer permissible. Unlike several other teams around the league, the Kraken did not get any last contracts “under the wire.” The players who were technically eligible for such a deal included Jared McCann, Vince Dunn, Ryker Evans, Shane Wright, and Philipp Grubauer.