The Shane Wright Era in Seattle has come to an end. The Kraken traded the 22-year-old former No. 4 overall pick to the Nashville Predators on Sunday in a 1-for-1 trade for 21-year-old winger Matthew Wood.
Wright, whose agent, Kurt Overhardt, publicly requested a trade for his client over the offseason, was off to a solid start to the season and showing good chemistry with 20-year-old budding star Berkly Catton. Despite that, and despite Wright and his agent indicating that he was committed to the Kraken at the start of the season, we could still sense that the issue was not resolved.
Now it’s resolved, and Wright has received the fresh start he desired.
What Matthew Wood brings
Seattle’s return in the deal, Matthew Wood—born in Lethbridge, Alberta, but raised mostly in Nanaimo, British Columbia—was selected one year after Wright and is one year younger at 21 years old. He also was a deeper pick in the NHL Draft at No. 15 overall, playing at the time for the University of Connecticut before transferring to the University of Minnesota for his junior year, where he racked up 39 points (17-22—39) in 39 games for the Gophers. He then turned pro and played six games down the stretch for the Predators at the end of the 2024-25 season.
“Matthew is a young forward who adds size and an elite shot to our group,” general manager Jason Botterill said. “He’s a skilled player, with high hockey sense, who demonstrated his offensive potential last season as a rookie in the National Hockey League. We’re thrilled to welcome Matthew to Seattle and excited to see his impact on our team.”
As a rookie in 2025-26, Wood posted an impressive 17 goals and 13 assists in 71 games, plus a goal and three assists in five AHL games for the Milwaukee Admirals.
This season, however, has not started the way Nashville—or Wood—likely would have wanted. While many expected a big breakout season for Wood, he’s gotten off to a very slow start with just one goal and two assists in 14 games while averaging just over 14 minutes per game of time on ice.
How Matthew Wood fits in Seattle
Wood brings more size than Wright at 6-foot-4, 202 pounds, and he is viewed as a true winger and power forward. Wright, on the other hand, is a center at heart and had been moved to the wing as coach Lane Lambert’s trust in him to win face-offs and play a full 200-foot game eroded over the last two seasons.
In the immediate, Wood could slide directly into the spot vacated by Wright on the line with Catton and Kaapo Kakko, though it remains to be seen how he will be utilized. Surely, Seattle is hoping that a change of scenery and role will give Wood a needed boost to avoid a season-long sophomore slump and get him back to producing the way he was last season.
As a prospect, Wood was known more for his size, shooting ability, and hockey IQ than his speed, which was noted by Elite Prospects as an area for improvement. From watching highlights, he still does not look particularly fleet of foot, but the Kraken do have a lot of speedy players already, so they must have felt they could sacrifice a little in this area, close out the Shane Wright drama once and for all, and get better in other ways.
The Shane Wright Era ends
It is a Shane… I mean a shame… that things went the way they did for Shane Wright in Seattle. The expectations for him were so high after he slipped from consensus No. 1 overall pick to Seattle at No. 4 in the 2022 NHL Draft. His 19 goals and 25 assists in 2024-25 made many believe he was on the path toward stardom, but in a more defensive system under Lambert, Wright took a step backward in production in 2025-26.
Then came the summer trade request and everything that went with it. When a deal did not come to fruition in the offseason, and Wright showed up at Training Camp looking like he had made improvements to his game, it briefly seemed like his career had gotten back on track, and that he could—after all that—still grow into a keystone in the Kraken organization for many years to come.
But apparently the toothpaste was not put back in the tube, so to speak, and Seattle still saw a need to get this deal done.
“We thank Shane for his contributions to our organization and the city of Seattle, and we wish him all the best in Nashville,” Botterill said.
We will have more analysis and reaction in the coming days, so stay tuned to our various Sound Of Hockey channels.
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.
Thanks for the quick article to give us some information about Wood.
Would have thought Shane to be part of a bigger pkg in a move to get a more established player. Regardless, this seems like a decent move.
I get the impression they tried and couldn’t get it to come together. And with early success in the season they might be less willing to break up the band more than they have to.
I don’t think his play justified getting much more. Wood is a year younger and pretty much put up the same production Shane did in his comparable season post draft.
I think McCann getting hurt was the reason this was the deal we got and why it happened now too. McCann is our best forward when healthy in terms of production and on an expiring contract. With him on LTIR no way he could be part of a package deal to try to get something bigger done.
Shane hasn’t exactly been producing even while Catton has looked like he has taken a massive step this year. So if anything his value would be going down as the year progressed if he hadn’t seen a sharp uptick.
I think you touched on it at the end there. He has one goal a secondary assist in his last 10 games. I think they gave him a look this season and what they saw meant the longer they waited the worse it was going to get
He looked good this year and showed up ready to play. Too bad the damage to the relationship was irreparable. I wish him the best of luck and I hope he has a long fruitful career.
Sounds like both players needed a change of scenery.
Hope this works out for us, but damn. I still remember losing my mind when we drafted Wright four years ago and thought we had a legitimate superstar in the making. Oh well….
Minor fact check: Wood is 6’4″, 202 lbs per NHL.com.
I’m a little concerned about saddling Catton with two slower players in Kakko (who isn’t super slow), and now Wood. The speed in transition was what really seemed to be working for that line.
According to the NHL edge stats, Wood’s speed bursts are similar to Wright’s so far this season. Wood’s top speed is actually faster.
Looking through some of the lineups for Nashville, Wood has actually been centering their third line recently, despite being listed as a winger. He’s another righty, which keeps Seattle with both a lefty (Catton) and righty on that line capable of taking faceoffs.
I stand corrected. Seems like a good fit. Hopefully the chemistry is there!
Thanks! Fixed it.
Under 25 and named Matthew, so he’ll obviously be a perfect fit.
Dobber Prospects thinks he has 1st line and PP1 upside if he can overcome his poor skating. It’s a shame that Jessica Campbell is no longer with the org. “Skating coach” is one of her strong areas.
https://dobberprospects.com/player/matthew-wood/
Young, great shot, big, but struggles with skating? Did we just trade for Jani Nyman?
Hot Take: Shane Wright will FOREVER be the Kraken franchise leader in shooting percentage (17.3%). Shame they wouldn’t give him more minutes (thus more shots, thus more goals) than his counterparts.
He’s dead last among forwards in points per sixty so far this season (1.2) in spite of being on a line with the two guys that lead the team in points per sixty. Kappo (3.3) and Catton (3.12). He doesn’t have a single primary assist in 14 games… 199 minutes!
Shame he didn’t earn more minutes…
Really wished it could have worked out with Shane, but despite the oft-repeated narrative that the Kraken can’t develop, (Matty or Catton or Ryker or Winterton don’t seem to be talked about this way) at some point it’s on the player to demonstrate they deserve more of a role. Shane seemed to demonstrate that his trajectory was somewhere on the middle 6. Unfortunately the Kraken don’t need any more of those.
ah the good old minutes argument… SoH and many others have debunked this nonsense. He’s been given favorable ice time the last two seasons with majority of draws in the O zone. They’ve sheltered him from all his problem areas and he STILL can’t put it together, at a certain point you need to accept the player just isn’t that good.
One aspect of this trade has me feeling optimistic. Getting a bigger true power forward to create consistent net front presence might be a boost for that line.
Wood looks very comfortable net front.
Finally. Glad this saga is over. I wanted it to work out for Shane but his ceiling looked like middle 6 and he was never going to be satisfied with that assessment from us. I like that we traded him for a similar player who can slot right in his spot without messing up the chemistry we have going right now.
I wonder if there was any urgency to get a deal done because of McCann’s injury and lack of wing depth beyond Nyman. He’s big and could work with Beniers and Samoskevich.
I wonder if this wasn’t two organizations with depreciating assets both realizing it was only going to get worse. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the opinion of Wright around the league wasn’t nearly what we thought it was here in Seattle.
I wonder how much more depreciated he could have gotten given the production of his linemates.
If he was driving his linemates he’d have more than one assist… a secondary.
I think the production of his linemates was accelerating his depreciation.
He’s a passenger on that line, no doubt about it but he’s improved. That’s visually apparent. Could they have waited is all I’m asking.
I’m no scout but I’m not so sure he’s improved. The numbers don’t bear that out and this deal doesn’t seem to reflect that either.
Those “buffoons” in the national media, the ones I’m always complaining about, I banter back and forth with one of them and when he asked me to make the case when I declared Seattle would make the playoffs here’s what I said to him about Wright on September 28th:
“Shane Wright. You know the story here. To be honest, I’ve been watching him this preseason and I haven’t been impressed. I’m beginning to think he may just be what he is, but I think he’s motivated and he has a chip on his shoulder…”
I still think all of that is true, but I also think a lot of folks opinions about his improvement have been wishful thinking. I haven’t seen it, not in preseason and not since. Again, I’m no scout and I really can’t speak to the subtleties of elite player performance, but to me there have been players that have impressed this season and he has not been one of them.
This trade seems, to me, consistent with that opinion.
Thought the same thing. Guessing his value was declining and a one for one swap with Wood was the best Botterill could get. Should have moved him at last season’s trade deadline or during the off season when his value was higher. Probably were asking too much and that is on the GM.
Hope Wright does well in Nashville as was pulling for him to succeed in Seattle.
What im alluding to is an urgency to win now. Not sure if that’s the right approach given the talent on this team. Yes there are few prospects but only 2 standout. One is freshman in college and one is a 19 year old playing against 29 year olds.
What im interested in is knowing what this organization is trying to do.
I’ve gone into this before at length (5000 words) so I’ll keep it short. You can disagree with it, but follks who don’t understand it or think they’re just “casting about” are being less than thoughtful and I know you to be sharp, Brett.
As a new franchise they weren’t in a position to go full tank. You can’t build a fan base from scratch that way.
They have been trying to be competitive while also moving out players when it’s clear they do not have a chance to make the playoffs.
They have now collected top eight picks in five of six years with a playoff appearances accounting for the one miss. They are drafting and developing while also trying to be competitive. It’s a difficult balance but it’s kind of what they’re limited to.
They haven’t been lucky in the lottery, but they have a well stocked cupboard and the resources (cap, picks, prospects) to be in on the “elite talent” they need to take the next step… and that’s just it, it’s steps.
As we’ve seen, if you want to bring those players here you need to be a playoff team. Folks also need to realize, you don’t go from being out of the playoffs to contender. There was an excellent article by Paul Pidutti of DFO pointing out the teams who win a Cup spend a lot of time in the playoffs first. When folks complain about teams getting into the playoffs just to lose in the first round they are, I think, being dismissive of the process it actually takes.
So trimming this down by 4600 words or so, what they are trying to do is draft and develop and be positioned to add elite talent when the opportunity arises so they can grow into a consistent playoff team and eventually a contender. They have a young team and right now find them at the point where adding that “elite” player is most readily advanced by being competitive and making the playoffs.
You can disagree with it – and I can appreciate that skepticism – or you can prefer the alternatives and that’s completely defensible, but it’s not as if they don’t “have a plan”… it’s not really that hard to understand.
I also think unless you’re talking about turning into Vancouver, I believe there’s too much young talent on this team to absolutely suck but that talent alone is not going to carry you to the playoffs. Not only do I think “just play the young guys” is bad for their development, I think it would result in a dreaded “mushy middle” team for sure.
Just my thoughts…
I think people who say they’re trying to win now seem to have issues with things being binary. They’re done sucking and they’re building towards being a competitor. That starts with winning and continuing to improve while your prospects cook.
I hope the other team isn’t aware of something driving Wood’s production down this year that the Kraken aren’t.
Seems like a fair trade from what little I know. That extra year seems pretty important. Nice to be adding a wing with a large frame, it seems like we are shy on that type of player.
The moved him to Center because they have a deficit. May just be that simple.
You may be right. A guy playing out of position often struggles until he returns to his natural position. Take Kaapo Kakko for example. Since he moved back to his natural spot on the left he has been the driving force behind the Catton line’s success. It should be fun to watch Kakko on the left, Wood back on the right, and Catton at center where he belongs if that is how the lines shake out.
Nice article. You articulated the mood and circumstances very well.
It was a big deal for this team and the fans when Shane dropped to 4th and Ron basically ran to the podium. I won’t forget that very easily. I think I watched it on replay 3-4 times. I’m one of those who felt the team did their absolute best to develop Shane, despite complicated circumstances. Eventually, Shane could have worked out here, and hopefully he will find success in his career. Now I am excited to give Matthew a warm Kraken welcome. It’s great to get a kid from “the neighborhood.”
did we just trade wright for Nyman? The player profiles are very similar it’s strange.
Big players that don’t use their size.
Slow skaters that have trouble keeping up with the NHL pace.
Very good shots but not good defensively.
They have almost identical points per minute though their nhl career but woods was getting more power play time.
Maybe we could have just traded Wright for picks and maybe played Nyman in a role that suited him? On the positive LL will need to get woods on the ice or this just looks incredibly bad so there is that.
It seems odd we traded for a player basically already in our system but we’re not using. It will be interesting to compare this trade in a few years, I don’t think we will win this one but maybe?
That was my take after reading some of the tweets earlier today. I hope Nyman is back in the lineup after we play our final game against Calgary.
Wood is better than Nyman. Just watch some highlight reels. Nyman isn’t getting a hat trick in the NHL anytime soon.
Yeah I watched the highlights and he just kinda stands there and shoots, seems like Nyman as well. He did get power play time in Nashville… that helps and even with that hat trick the points per minute are basically exactly the same and that’s with Nyman playing on a much more defensive team and not getting power play time.
It would be nice if he was better but it seems like they are pretty much the same.
Yeah, but look at where Wood stands. Over and over again, even on his assists, he goes right to the front of the net and stops. He is an actual power forward! At least he looks like that in highlights. Man, I hope that is who he really is, because the Kraken have been in desperate need of one of those since Jaden Schwartz left.
I wish I had as much faith in Jani as you do.
Maybe not so much about the confidence in Nyman as much about the comparison of the two and that we already had one of them….
Just the notion that you think because two players are the same size and have a good shot are “the same”, even after seeing them play, says a lot.
The comparison doesn’t stop there…. And woods has been given the better opportunities.
I’m just saying I don’t think we got much here.
“Better opportunities?” Wood has a minute less ATOI than Wright.
@Scotch, No Ice… Yeah, but Wood was getting 60% of his draws and 68%starts in the o-zone. Shane was having to suffer through 68% and 84% respectively. He won’t be saddled with having to start in the goal-scoring end of the ice so often.
Although I am tempted to keep up the ironic joke at the expense of the “they didn’t develop Shane Wright” crowd, those stats that you posted raise an interesting question. Is Wood a more reliable forward on defense than Wright is? Wood’s Corsi is just a little over even, and he was a -3 last year. It’s not much of anything to go by. I wish I knew some Nashville fans who I could ask about his defensive game.
It would sure be nice for the coaches to not have to shelter the Catton line anymore. I mean, we know that Kaapo Kakko is good without the puck, and from Lambert’s press conferences, he seems to think that Berkley Catton has gotten better in that regard. Having three or four “all-situations” lines would be a massive help for the team especially in away games where they don’t get last change.
Like the trade. Both skaters needed a reset. I like Wood’s size, reach, and shot. Good luck to Wright. Hope trade is successful for both teams.
What the Kraken management did today is not really the main issue. It is what they did in the past.
As I said back then, it was a mistake to draft Wright instead of Gauthier. He was just a guy who developed really early (note the early stage full beard). When a Kent Hughes passes on a prospect, lesser GMs should try to understand why.
The second mistake Kraken management made was not projecting Wright’s future as soon as they had him. They should have been able to see what he would top out as and so traded him during this best NHL season two years ago, when he still had value.
Whether people wish to blame the team for lack of his development or not is not really here nor there. It is how they reacted as soon as the realized he was not going to approach his hype. Recognition and early action are not traits of Kraken management.
This is typical Chuck Holmes…
‘I said it before… not actually at the time of the draft because nobody was saying Gauthier should be the pick at No.4… but I said it before after the fact.’
And then they should have polished up that crystal ball and seen the error of their ways immediately… fools.
Welcome back Chuck… I needed a good laugh. Now tell us about what a mistake it was to take Catton rather than Buium. I thought it was, but I realize I’m just some idiot on a couch rather than some hockey savant with amazing powers of hindsight.
I wanted Buium over Catton 😂. I really do like Catton now though.
Yep, I am also guilty of that one. Buium looked good in the scouting videos, and the team really needed a defenseman prospect, I thought. It turns out Catton was the right choice.
I was so excited when Buium was still there… and then I couldn’t believe it.
There’s still a long way to go but right now, if we had Buium rather than Catton there’d be even more folks talking about ‘you know who’ and his terrible draft picks.
Can’t wait until Wednesday.
Never mind the team that drafted Gauthier didn’t actually get him.
This must, OBVIOUSLY, mean that the same thing invariably would have happened to the Kraken right?
Personally, I feel confident Francis would have burned his first year and brought him in at the end of his draft plus one college season… just like he did with Beniers. I would point out, however, the same guy who said they should have taken Gauthier also came on here and called Ron Francis stupid for burning Matty’s first year…
So I’d say you can’t have it both ways. Saying they should have drafted Gauthier is just as ridiculous as saying he wouldn’t have signed here. Any honest and detached observation would disregard both these opinions and this whole conversation is bogus.
The reason for Wright’s slip at the draft was related to the interviews he gave at the draft combine. I often wonder if his inability to take advantage of his opportunity is related.
What happened?
First I’ve ever heard of this. John, can you elaborate?
Do you think same for Nyman?
Good move for Wright. He gets a shot into Nashville’s top six with two good wingers. Wood and Nyman are very similar players.
Goodness I sure hope not
Nah, all the best to Wright. Apart from this thing with his agent going public with trade talk–which was perfectly understandable from a financial perspective–Shane was never a problem here. It was just a bad situation. I hope he lights it up in Nashville.
What a laughably bad trade. Botterill strikes again. The Kraken got a dime a dozen reclamation project winger for a young C, a 4OA pick even. That’s weak by any measure. Wood was worth maybe a 4th round pick. Tells you a lot about how badly the Kraken messed Shane’s entire Kraken tenure and this trade.
Also I do not believe it was only bad interviews that dropped Shane’s stock at the time of the draft. Teams did their homework and saw red flags. I agree with those that say the Kraken messed up picking him. This was the idea of mindlessly drafting the highest ranked available C backfiring badly.
Given how public this has been, the minimal cap hit, and the lack of Seattle actually needing to move this guy, I think the return is a pretty solid statement of the entire league’s opinion of the player. There is not a single team out there that couldn’t have been in on this guy and this was what they got.
Folks can point the finger all they want, but I see a lot of Kraken prospects (but not all) outperforming their draft position. Sometimes it’s on the player.
No doubt Shane is nothing like the player he was drafted to be. But that is on the scouting department and Francis too. You simply cannot flub top 5 picks. Yes, it was not an easy draft year, but they went with a guy in free fall and that is on them.
In hindsight sure, but I also remember at the time most folks – myself included – thought we were getting Nemec because Wright would be gone. I remember reading a bunch of articles about Nemec and Jiricek because we were almost certainly going to take one of those two d-men. How are they doing?
Nailing those top five picks is a must, but even geniuses like Kent Huges – who lesser GMs need to learn from – take a David Reinbacher at No.5 sometimes. And then there’s brainbox – and GM on the hot seat – Pat Gillis, who turned No.3 overall Mason McTavish into a No.15 and a No.29.
Teams miss , pretty much everyone.
All of the experts are looking at this as a fair trade and yet here we are. Ya really gotta wonder what it’s gonna take for people to challenge themselves and question their hit takes. At least they’re good for a laugh.
Wright didn’t get traded because he couldn’t win faceoffs, he got traded because he plateaued as a player and because it is also clear that Berkley Catton can stick at center (and likely still has move development left).
He was able to rack up some points playing under Bylsma, which makes sense since there was no structure at all in that system and Dan didn’t care about his centers playing any defense. If he’s put into a role where he only has to play offense, then he’ll be able to put up some points, but the likelihood he’s ever a 1C, or even a 2C, is pretty much out the door.
Beware drafting the kid that develops physically faster than everyone else but has no where to go after the age of 18.
Oh, what a relief. There is no reason to believe that Shane Wright is anything other than a good teammate, but that drama needed to end. I honestly would have prefered a left-handed forward or a right-handed defenseman to come back the other way, but this works as a straight swap that requires no roster juggling. In the middle of a season, that is a good thing. I just hope that Wood does not expect top-six minutes, because Eberle and Samoskevich are unlikely to make way this season.
In fact, I wonder if Wood is going to play with Catton and Kakko to start off with. It might be better to bump Winterton up to that line and let Wood get his feet wet on the Gaudreau line at least until we know where Wood fits in. It would cost the Gaudreau line Winterton’s speed, but Ben Meyers has jets as well. They will figure it out.
With the future in mind, I am picturing a line centered by Chandler Stephenson with Wood on one wing and Jani Nyman on the other. If Wood has the finish, he and Nyman would theoretically make for a dangerous double threat on the receiving end of Stephenson’s play-making ability. Of course, Jared McCann would be better in the role than Nyman due to his defensive chops, but we will see how McCann’s contract situation shakes out. Pay the man.