Before we get to the meat of this story, a bit of Kraken news, as Joonas Donskoi announced his retirement from professional hockey Sunday via his Instagram account. Donskoi, 31, cited multiple concussions in the post as the reason for his early departure from the game.
Joonas Donskoi has announced his retirement via his Instagram, citing multiple concussions.
Donskoi missed the whole 2022-23 season after getting hurt in preseason.
Selected from Colorado in the Expansion Draft, Donskoi had a tough inaugural season with the Kraken. Although he played 75 games, he scored just two goals and found himself scratched from the lineup on a few occasions. That came after four consecutive seasons of 14 goals or more, so it was a significant dropoff. He then got injured during a preseason game in the lead-up to the 2022-23 season and ended up missing the entire campaign.
Donskoi played seven NHL seasons in total; four with San Jose, two with Colorado, and one with Seattle. He had 80 career goals and added 128 assists in 474 games. He played in a Stanley Cup Final for the Sharks in 2016 and also won a Presidents’ Trophy with the Avalanche in 2021.
Most important, though, Donskoi is one of the nicest people you can encounter. We will very much miss his infectious smile, and we are still grateful for that time he rescued the press corps from a large spider that was crawling across the floor of the Kraken dressing room.
We wish Joonas and his family all the best as they move into the next chapter of their lives.
Training camp is coming
Shifting gears now, the hockey news abyss that is the month of August is almost over, and that means Seattle Kraken training camp is once again right around the corner. The offseason played out in a relatively quiet manner for the Seattle front office, and a lack of big splashes left several questions open as we head toward the third season in franchise history.
We ask those questions here and also try to answer them.
Question 1: Which forwards make the team out of camp?
The moves the Kraken made this offseason were mostly backfilling transactions to cover for players that departed via free agency, namely the team’s entire fourth line and its third-pair left defenseman.
Out went Daniel Sprong, Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, and Carson Soucy, and in came Kailer Yamamoto, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Brian Dumoulin. Yes, we’re naming more departures from the NHL roster than arrivals to the NHL roster, so there are lingering arguments to be had about who should snag the last couple spots when camp breaks.
Still, with Andre Burakovsky likely to return from a groin tear suffered in February, the forward lineup is mostly full.
Jared McCann // Matty Beniers // Jordan Eberle Andre Burakovsky // Alex Wennberg // Jaden Schwartz Oliver Bjorkstrand // Yanni Gourde // Eeli Tolvanen Brandon Tanev // Pierre-Edouard Bellemare // Kailer Yamamoto
Fighting for spots: Tye Kartye // Kole Lind // Shane Wright // John Hayden
Beyond the 12 forwards listed on lines above, Kartye, Lind, Wright, and Hayden will all be battling to make the Kraken. But if there aren’t injuries, we’re not sure where coach Dave Hakstol will be able to slot those players to get them consistent playing time; one would have to supplant a more veteran forward (could Bellemare, 38, spend time as a scratch this season?).
One would think Kartye has an inside track to the NHL roster after demonstrating during the playoffs that he can play in the Kraken’s top six. The AHL rookie of the year looked like a grizzled veteran in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and notched three goals and two assists in 10 games for Seattle. He then went back to Coachella Valley and picked up right where he left off, adding eight more points in 18 Calder Cup Playoff games. All of that points toward Kartye breaking camp with the big club.
BUT…
There’s a wrinkle here. Remember, Kartye does not require waivers to get to Coachella Valley, whereas Lind does require them. We thought Lind was right on the cusp of making the team last season, only to be sent to the Firebirds, where he too was one of the team’s stars and posted 30 goals and 32 assists in 72 regular-season games, then a whopping 31 points in 26 playoff games.
If Kartye ends up being the guy Seattle wants to keep in the NHL, that could mean the organization would again have to risk losing Lind by placing him on waivers.
These things tend to work themselves out, but it’s worth keeping an eye on how the forward lineup evolves through Seattle’s preseason.
Question 2: Where does Shane Wright play this season?
By the letter of the law, Wright is still technically ineligible to play in the AHL this season because of the rules of the CHL/NHL transfer agreement. Had he played just one more game in the OHL before his Windsor Spitfires were swept out of the playoffs, this would no longer be a topic of conversation, and the Coachella Valley Firebirds would be a viable option.
We know discussions have been happening behind the scenes to determine if the involved leagues will make an exception and allow Wright to play for the Firebirds. We expect he will be cleared to play in the AHL, but nothing has been stated officially on that yet.
Questions remain around Shane Wright’s AHL eligibility this season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
HOWEVER…
If it doesn’t work out in Seattle’s favor, and NHL or OHL end up being the only options, it will be interesting to see what kind of progress Wright has made this offseason. At the end of his playoff run with the Firebirds, he had started to show readiness for pro hockey and looked great in development camp. But is he ready for the NHL?
Going back to the OHL would be a waste of time for Wright, so if it ends up being NHL or juniors, we think he would stay with the NHL team and again be used sparingly.
That said, we still think the AHL is the best place for Wright at this point, and we think he will be allowed to play there.
Question 3: What happens with Ryker Evans this season?
On the back end, the decision by general manager Ron Francis to bring in Dumoulin on a two-year, $6.3 million deal effectively solidified that Ryker Evans will start the season in the AHL, unless there’s an injury to a left-shot defenseman.
21-year-old defenseman Ryker Evans could factor in on the Kraken blue line in the near future. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
The puck-moving 21-year-old is surely closing in on a spot with the NHL club, though, after he put up 44 points in 71 games for Coachella Valley in the regular season, then 26 in 26 playoff games. Evans is silky smooth and brings an offensive element from the blue line that Seattle lacks.
Meanwhile, with righties Adam Larsson, Justin Schultz, and Will Borgen all back, it does seem like Cale Fleury is destined for the seventh-defenseman role again, doesn’t it?
Question 4: Who will be the backup goalie?
The last two seasons have been turbulent for Chris Driedger, who originally signed his three-year, $10.5 million contract in 2021 expecting to be the starting goalie for the Kraken. Instead, Seattle also signed Philipp Grubauer before the inaugural season, putting Driedger into a true backup spot.
Driedger tore his ACL while representing Canada at the IIHF World Championship after the 2021-22 season ended, then spent the majority of 2022-23 rehabbing. When he came back, Martin Jones (now under contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs) had taken his backup spot, so Driedger was assigned to Coachella Valley.
Back fully healthy, Driedger also struggled to find playing time in the AHL, as Joey Daccord demanded the goal crease down the stretch and carried the Firebirds all the way to the Calder Cup Finals.
Was Daccord’s memorable performance—he had a 2.31 goals against average and .927 save percentage in 16 playoff games for the Firebirds—enough to earn him his first full-time NHL backup role?
Seattle showed loyalty to Daccord, a Group 6 unrestricted free agent, by signing him to a two-year, one-way contract worth $2.4 million this offseason. The front office clearly likes where he’s headed, so it could be Joey’s time.
Question 5: Did the Kraken improve this offseason?
If you’ve been listening to the Sound Of Hockey Podcastthis summer, you’ll know that somebody (not naming names) on that show thinks Seattle regressed this offseason by not adding a high-end scorer to the top of the lineup.
But now that we’ve done the exercise of writing out the depth chart above, that unnamed podcast host (ok, it was me, I admit it!) is starting to come around to the idea that maybe the Kraken will be about as good as they were last season.
Seattle’s success in 2023-24 will hinge on health. With Burakovsky theoretically returning, the Kraken do look deep again, at least on paper. We’re also seeing young players not named Matty Beniers knocking on the door for the first time, which is encouraging for the longer-term outlook of the franchise. And if a guy like Kartye or Lind can snag a spot higher in the lineup, that could be what pushes a more skilled player down, again giving Seattle four scary lines.
The team proved that its top three lines can roll against any lineup in the league, and all those players are back. So, really, the only concern is whether the fourth line—likely composed of some combination of under-the-radar acquisitions and youngsters—can produce in a similar manner to last season’s bottom trio. Again, assuming good health, there’s some potential for improvement there.
What other questions do you have about the Kraken as they head toward camp? Let us know in the comments section.
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.
On June 26, Matty Beniers took the stage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., to accept the Calder Trophy as the NHL rookie of the year. It was the culmination of a memorable first full pro season for the 20-year-old forward. Beniers scored more than any other rookie, totaling 24 goals and 33 assists in 80 regular-season games. He also played an impressive two-way game, checking difficult top-six forwards night in and night out.
Shortly after the awards ceremony, Kraken ownership and general manager Ron Francis met with Beniers and his agent Pat Brisson. The Kraken were in a busy period between the NHL Draft and free agency but made an appointment with Brisson to circle back on Beniers’s contract. “We said ‘let’s get through . . . a few days and then we’ll start talking,’” Francis recounted a few days later.
So, is the team interested in signing Beniers to a contract extension this summer? “We’d like to do that, for sure,” Francis said.
With Vince Dunn signed, Seattle’s focus may now be on Beniers. So, there is no better time to take a look at Beniers’s contract status, why the Kraken are interested in signing Beniers now, and what it might take to get pen to paper.
Beniers became eligible for a contract extension this summer
The 2023-24 season is the final year of Matty Beniers’s three-year entry-level contract (ELC). Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), a team and player can negotiate and agree to an extension of any multi-year contract, including an ELC, only in the last year of that deal. July 1, 2023, was the first day of the 2023-24 league year, and, as of that date, Beniers became eligible for a contract extension for the first time.
This is an important inflection point when the team and player must grapple with the player’s demonstrated value. Highly drafted players like Beniers have leverage to negotiate for extra performance bonuses in an ELC, but the base compensation package is a fixed amount near the league minimum. In contrast, a contract extension is not limited to any particular structure, except that (1) the term may not go beyond an upper limit of 8 years, and (2) the average annual value (AAV) must fall between an upper limit (20 percent of the salary cap) and lower limit ($775,000).
Upon expiration of the ELC, Beniers is scheduled to be a restricted free agent without arbitration rights. (Need an explainer on anything related to restricted free agency? Check out the appendix to this post.) In theory, if Beniers is not re-signed before next summer, he could talk with other teams and solicit an “offer sheet.” For all intents and purposes, though, this is a contract negotiation between two parties, Beniers and the Kraken.
Beniers and Seattle could be motivated to deal
Can the team and player reach an agreement on a long-term extension? Both sides are likely open to the concept.
From the team’s perspective, there are many positives to a long-term deal. Beniers is an early prime player, still on the upward trajectory of his anticipated aging curve. Securing his services long term based on his performance to date may yield surplus contract value down the road. Furthermore, the salary cap is likely to start escalating at (or almost) five percent per season starting next summer. Locking Beniers in now could look even better in four years when the salary cap is $100 million.
Speaking of which, if the team’s true “window” to compete is in the mid-to-late 2020’s–as I argued in a post earlier this week–minimizing Beniers’s cap hit in that timeframe should be the team’s priority. Signing a long-term deal now is the best way to accomplish that.
On the other hand, the team’s downside on a long-term extension is limited by a CBA rule that allows clubs to buy out remaining years on the contract of a player 25 years old or younger at one third of the remaining contract value. Beniers will not be 26 until Nov., 2028. This means that even in a disastrous scenario, the Kraken would still have flexibility for the majority of the contract term to move on from Beniers with limited salary cap consequences.
For Beniers’s part, a long-term deal also makes sense. Even after the 2023-24 season, he will still be at least five years from unrestricted free agency. A long-term extension would provide him with some security against performance regression or injury. The latter consideration is surely a factor for the slight-framed center. As I will detail below, similar dynamics have led to a spate of long-term deals for similarly positioned young forwards over the last couple years.
Therefore, the key to a successful long-term agreement will be finding common ground on contract AAV. If the sides can’t do that, they may defer further negotiations to next summer or agree to a “bridge” extension at a lower rate. Bridge deals are shorter contracts, in the range of one-to-four years, that cover some but not all of a player’s restricted free agent years. These agreements set up another contract negotiation between the team and player closer to unrestricted free agency.
Bridge deals make sense for mid-roster players or players with high uncertainty in their projections. For example, Seattle and Vince Dunn agreed to a two-year bridge deal after the Expansion Draft. That two-year contract set up this summer’s negotiation. The Dunn example underscores the risk of a bridge deal from the team’s perspective. The team may get a lower AAV for the term of the bridge deal itself, but, oftentimes, the player’s leverage is higher after the bridge deal expires because he is closer to unrestricted free agency. This could cause the team to pay more for less productive, post-peak seasons in order to keep the player. Seattle seemingly avoided that with Dunn by signing him to a deal that ends when he will be 30 years old.
Comparable contracts could guide the negotiations
I gathered contract information from CapFriendly. Matty Beniers has played 90 games and scored 66 points (.733 points per game). Using CapFriendly’s contract comparable tool, I compiled a long list of contracts signed by players as restricted free agents, at a similar age, and with similar games played and points totals at the time of signing.
From this long list I further filtered the results manually, looking for the players that were most similar in point-per-game production and in Evolving Hockey’s Goals Above Replacement (GAR) analytic, which accounts for gameplay contributions beyond point totals.
This process yielded a set of recent contracts with young forwards that will likely serve as a reference point for Beniers and the team. Beniers has less experience and total production than most of these comparables, which weighs against him, but his per-game point production and advanced analytics tend to be similar or better, which weighs in his favor.
For each of these contracts, CapFriendly supplied not only the dollar average annual value (AAV) of the deal, but also the percentage of the salary cap the AAV represented at the time the deal was signed. Using this percentage, I was able to adjust these contracts into a present value by multiplying the percentage by the current NHL salary cap ($83.5 million). This facilitates a fairer, direct comparison to a potential Beniers deal. I refer to this figure as the “cap-adjusted AAV” below.
Let’s dive in.
Reference player: Matty Beniers, Center Statistics at (potential) signing: 90 games played | 66 points | 20 years old
Comparable no. 1: Joshua Norris, Center Contract: 8 years, $7.95 million AAV ($8,049,000 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: July 14, 2022 Statistics at signing: 125 games played | 90 points | 23 years old
Contract comparable no. 2: Tim Stutzle, Center Contract: 8 years, $8.35 million AAV ($8,450,200 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: September 7, 2022 Statistics at signing: 132 games played | 87 points | 21 years old
Contract comparable no. 3: Nick Suzuki, Center Contract: 8 years, $7.875 million AAV ($8,066,100 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: October 12, 2021 Statistics at signing: 127 games played | 82 points | 22 years old
Contract comparable no. 4: Nico Hischier, Center Contract: 7 years, $7.25 million AAV ($7,431,500 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: October 18, 2019 Statistics at signing: 156 games played | 101 points | 21 years old
Contract comparable no. 5: John Tavares, Center Contract: 6 years, $5.50 million AAV ($7,139,250 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: September 14, 2011 Statistics at signing: 161 games played | 121 points | 20 years old
Contract comparable no. 6: Nazem Kadri, Center Contract: 2 years, $2.90 million AAV ($3,765,850 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: September 10, 2013 Statistics at signing: 99 games played | 63 points | 22 years old
Contract comparable no. 7: Logan Couture, Center Contract: 2 years, $2.875 million AAV ($3,732,450 cap-adjusted AAV) Signing date: August 30, 2011 Statistics at signing: 104 games played | 65 points | 22 years old
The comparable contracts above reveal a pretty tight range for a long-term deal between the team and the Calder Trophy winner–an eight-year term at somewhere between $7.15 million and $8.45 million AAV. Failing agreement in that range, a bridge deal might look something like a two-year deal around $3.75 million AAV.
Projecting a contract for Matty Beniers
Based on the comparables above, I’ll project that the Kraken and Matty Beniers agree to an eight-year extension this summer (or early in the 2023-24 season) worth approximately $8 million AAV, give or take a few hundred thousand dollars. This would make Beniers the team’s highest-paid player when the extension kicks in, but keeps him close enough within range of Dunn’s recent $7.35 million AAV contract that he will not carry undue pressure as the team’s singular star player. Any issues in the room with making a 20-year-old the team’s highest-paid player would be mitigated somewhat by the fact that Beniers would still play this coming season under his existing ELC that calls for a base salary of just $897,500.
That said, there are a few reasons to be skeptical that this type of deal will get done. Francis has never signed a player to an eight-year contract. He has also never signed a player to a contract worth more than $37.1 million in total value (Jaccob Slavin was the highest total contract), $7.35 million AAV (Dunn was the highest AAV), or 8.8 percent of total cap hit (Dunn again). It will likely require new highs in each of these measures to sign Beniers long term.
Further, one of Beniers’s closer comparable contracts not included in the above list is Elias Lindholm’s 2015 deal with Francis’s Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes and a 20-year-old Lindholm agreed to a two-year bridge deal worth $2.7 million AAV ($3,156,300 AAV in cap-adjusted terms). Lindholm’s point production at that time (.43 points per game) pales in comparison with Beniers’s pace (.72 points per game), however.
Finally, it is reasonable to point out that Francis resisted giving defenseman Vince Dunn a long-term deal earlier this summer. While many saw an eight-year deal as a foregone conclusion, Francis eventually signed Dunn for just four years.
Beniers’s case is different than Dunn’s case in several material respects, though. First, Beniers is much younger than Dunn, and it is much easier to project him to sustain or improve his performance level to date.
Second, while Beniers’s track record is shorter than Dunn’s, he has not fallen below an above-average performance level at any point in his hockey career. Dunn’s record has been more volatile. As recently as the 2021-22 season, Dunn looked like a talented but mistake-prone, second-pair defenseman.
Third, Beniers has a rare profile. He is a second overall pick and a Calder Trophy winner who plays a premium position and displays leadership qualities on and off the ice. He’s the type of player any team would like to have as a cornerstone. While there are risks, particularly given that Beniers has only one full season of NHL experience, I think the team and player will find common ground on an extension that keeps the young forward in the Pacific Northwest long term.
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
The deal means the team and player avoid a contentious arbitration hearing, which had been scheduled for July 24. With the contract signed, Dunn now becomes the highest-paid player on the Kraken.
Dunn, selected from the St. Louis Blues in Seattle’s Expansion Draft, blossomed into a top defenseman last season. The puck mover played on the top pair with Adam Larsson throughout the year and quarterbacked Seattle’s power play.
Coming off a two-year deal that paid him $4 million per season, Dunn was the last remaining restricted free agent for the Kraken to sign this offseason. The contract eats up most of Seattle’s remaining cap space, which CapFriendly now projects to be just $934,424.
The Kraken will surely create extra breathing room by placing either Chris Driedger or Joey Daccord on waivers after training camp, but still, if nothing changes between now and then, Seattle will be within spitting distance of the cap. So, this could mean the Kraken front office is close to finished with its offseason tinkering. At this point, any significant upgrades would likely have to come via player-for-player trade, as a futures-for-player trade wouldn’t fit.
A deal months in the making
It is no surprise to see this deal get done. From the day Seattle’s season ended, Francis and Dunn both expressed a desire to get a long-term deal consummated. Dunn told media on locker cleanout day that he was “all in” on the Kraken organization and had every intention of staying in Seattle for the foreseeable future. It was always his expectation that he would be here beyond the upcoming season.
While this contract took longer to get done than the smaller, less complicated ones signed by RFA’s Kole Lind, Will Borgen, and Cale Fleury earlier this summer, it was always going to happen. Kraken fans can breathe a sigh of relief, though, as the looming arbitration hearing would have resulted in a one-year deal being awarded.
What the Kraken have in Vince Dunn
Dunn, 26, had a nice breakout for Seattle last season, and at one point was hearing his name mentioned in Norris Trophy conversations. After his first five seasons in the NHL, he had never scored more than 35 points, but in 2022-23, he erupted for 64 points (14—50=64).
The career season was surely helped by his veteran, stay-at-home defense partner, Larsson, who allowed Dunn to roam more freely and make riskier stretch passes to send teammates on odd-man rushes. Larsson is under contract for two more seasons, so the top pair will likely remain intact at least through 2024-25. This new deal also means Dunn will remain in Seattle throughout the prime of his career, as he will be under contract with the Kraken until he turns 30 years old.
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.
The Seattle Kraken announced Wednesday they had given coach Dave Hakstol a two-year contract extension that will last through the 2025-26 season. The new deal is a vote of confidence from general manager Ron Francis—also contractually extended earlier this offseason—and Kraken ownership, who watched Hakstol lead a dramatic turnaround for the franchise from its first season to its second.
“It’s the next step for us,” Hakstol said. “Obviously, we’re going to try to work to build the foundation, and we did that a little bit year one and made progress in year two. So for myself and for our staff, we take pride in the opportunity to continue working towards continuing in the right direction. For that, I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”
The Kraken finished their inaugural season in last place in the Pacific Division with a measly 60 points in the standings. Yet, the team never quit on Hakstol during that campaign, even after the NHL Trade Deadline when several veteran players had been jettisoned for draft picks.
Seattle kept that never-say-die attitude in its second season, and the result was a shocking 40-point improvement, a playoff series win over the defending champion Colorado Avalanche, and a seven-game series loss to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the end, the Kraken came up just one goal short of the Western Conference Finals.
“We believe we are heading in the right direction with Dave as our head coach and it was important to show that confidence with this contract extension,” Francis said via a press release Thursday. “Dave and his staff have done a great job of creating a close-knit, team-first mindset in our locker room and their work ethic helps set the tone for our team.”
For his efforts behind the bench, Hakstol was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award but finished third behind Boston’s Jim Montgomery and New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff. The contract extension is a nice consolation prize, though, and a deserved one at that, as Hakstol proved this season that the Kraken got it right by hiring him as their first head coach.
Quieting the naysayers
The naysayers were plentiful as the Kraken sunk to the bottom of the standings in 2021-22, and those same social media pundits calling for Hakstol’s job were again very vocal when Seattle didn’t get out to the hottest start to 2022-23.
Kraken Twitter got downright painful at times early in the team’s second season, when seemingly every Sound Of Hockey tweet after a loss was met with some varietal of “Fire Hakstol.”
But the players persevered under Hakstol, showed they had fully bought into his systems and philosophy, and eventually got onto a couple massive hot streaks that propelled them into the postseason.
What struck us as most impressive about the job Hakstol did last season was the way the Kraken addressed problems on the fly. A great example was the penalty kill, which struggled mightily in the early going, then changed tactics and personnel and became one of the more consistent PK’s in the league for the second half of the season. We detailed those in-season changes here.
As improvements were made, little by little, and as the team started to solidify its position in the playoffs, Hakstol’s naysayers gradually went quiet.
A steady style and comfortability with the players
Whether he heard the critics or not, Hakstol never let it show, even in the worst moments of the inaugural season, when the coach himself had to be wondering about his job security. He took responsibility for losses when he could, rarely called out individual players directly, and was sure to give credit to everyone but himself if the team won.
That’s the thing with Hakstol, though; at least publicly, you almost always know exactly what you’re going to get. There’s no change in his demeanor from one game to the next, even after the biggest wins and the worst losses, and the team is much bigger than its coach.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors, Hakstol and his staff have fostered an environment of open and honest communication and formed close bonds with the players, something Hakstol said “didn’t happen overnight.”
“If you look at the members of our staff, we’ve got great communicators, you’ve got different personalities, different backgrounds,” Hakstol said. “And my true belief is inside of our coaches room, we care about our players and how we can connect with them.”
In true unselfish Hakstol fashion, he also made sure to directly credit associate coach Dave Lowry, assistant coaches Jay Leach and Paul McFarland, and goalie coach Steve Briere for their efforts.
Coming back with a clean slate
Whether the organization can replicate what it did in 2022-23 or even improve upon it remains to be seen. Either way, Hakstol will be the man at the helm of the Kraken ship for the foreseeable future.
In communicating with his returning players this summer, Hakstol says he likes what he’s hearing.
“I really want our guys to have a sense of pride in what they were able to accomplish last year and what we were able to build,” Hakstol said. “And I sense that. I feel that in the conversations with our players. But the other piece that I feel, the part that is really important is our guys are very disappointed in losing game seven in round two.”
Hakstol said he hopes the taste of success and the disappointment that followed will bring the players into training camp with extra motivation to reach the next level in 2023-24. Now, with his two-year extension, the coach can rest assured that Seattle’s ownership and front office believe in him as the right man to guide them there.
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.
Over the weekend, the Seattle Kraken announced deals with two of the team’s restricted free agents. First, on Saturday, Forward Kole Lind signed a one-year, two-way deal, worth $775,000 at the NHL level. Then, on Sunday, defenseman Cale Fleury signed a two-year, one-way deal worth $800,000 annually with the Kraken. Following a deal with defenseman Will Borgen on Friday, only one Kraken restricted free agent remains unsigned – Vince Dunn.
The Kraken sign Kole Lind to a one-year deal
Lind, 24, spent the entire 2022-23 season with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, appearing in all 72 games and 26 postseason games. He had a terrific scoring season in the AHL, recording 30 goals and 32 assists in the regular season. His 62 points were second on the team and tied for 16th in the entire AHL. Lind elevated his already lofty play in the postseason, leading all AHL skaters in points (31) and assists (22), and trailing only teammate Max McCormick in goals (9).
The 6-foot-1 right-handed winger has two goals and six assists in 30 career NHL games, most coming during the 2021-22 season with the Kraken.
Lind’s deal for the 2023-24 season is a two-way contract, meaning that while he is set to earn $775,000 at the NHL level, he will earn a lower minimum guaranteed salary of $345,000 if he returns to the AHL again this season.
An NHL role for Kole?
Lind has proven that he can be an elite playmaker and finisher at the AHL level. Since he pairs those skills with a willingness to play a physical game and serve as an agitator, there is plenty to like about Lind’s projection to the NHL level. In my mind, the questions with Lind are, first, whether he can keep pace at the NHL level, particularly defensively, given his below-average skating speed, and, second, whether he can keep the penalties under control.
I believe Lind should be a strong consideration for the fourth-line right wing or extra forward role in Seattle this coming season. I think Kailer Yamamoto likely has the edge over Lind for regular playing time to start, but Lind will have training camp to make his case. In the event of an injury to a winger, he and Tye Kartye are at the front of the line to fill in.
Kole Lind (Photo/Brian Liesse)
A mutually advantageous deal?
Seattle extended a qualifying offer to Lind for a one-year, two-way contract worth $892,500 at the NHL level. Even so, Lind negotiated and agreed to a deal with lower monetary upside in the NHL. Why? I can speculate at two potential explanations.
First, Lind may have agreed to a lower NHL salary in return for an increased AHL salary above the minimum that would have come with the qualifying offer. His minimum guaranteed salary last season was $175,000. That sum has almost doubled this year to $345,000. This is significant for a player whose estimated earnings to date are just over $1 million.
Second, Lind’s camp may have reached the conclusion that he had a greater chance to actually earn the higher NHL salary if he agreed to take a bit less. How so? With other potential end-of-the-roster players like John Hayden and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare carrying $775,000 cap numbers, taking a higher NHL number may have worked against Lind’s chances of staying on the NHL roster with the Kraken. With Seattle spending to the cap, every dollar matters and can be significant in weighing marginal pieces. Of course, this is true of other teams around the NHL too. Lind could be slightly more interesting on waivers at $775,000 than he would have been at $892,500 (or more).
This latter consideration may have also contributed to his decision to forego his right to request salary arbitration. Even if he was “successful” at arbitration, the contract would have been a two-way deal and a high NHL salary may have helped push him back to the AHL level for another season. Certainly, Lind would have preferred a one-way deal at or around the value of the qualifying offer, but Seattle wasn’t willing to offer it.
An unrestricted free agent at 25 years old next offseason?
As I have written about, a player who would otherwise be a restricted free agent qualifies as a “Group 6” unrestricted free agent if the player’s contract ends and he is (a) over 25 years old, (b) has played three or more professional seasons, and (c) has played in fewer than 80 NHL games.
Unless Lind appears in 50 regular-season or postseason NHL games this season, or is re-signed in the interim, Lind will meet each of these criteria next offseason. At 25 years old and boasting a prolific AHL scoring resume, he will likely have leverage and suitors on the open market. All of this makes it an important year for Lind and his future with the Kraken organization.
Fleury, 24, spent the 2022-23 season with the Kraken, but he rarely saw the ice as an extra defenseman on a relatively healthy blue line. He appeared in 12 games, totaled just under 160 minutes on the ice and recorded no goals and one assist. Overall, Fleury has appeared in 68 NHL games, with two points (one goal and last year’s assist).
In the press release announcing the signing to a two-year deal, the Kraken noted that Fleury’s 10.51 hits per sixty minutes led the 2022-23 Kraken, and his 4.88 blocked shots per sixty minutes ranked second among all skaters who played in more than 10 games.
Since his sample size is small, we can’t take too much from his on-ice shot analytics, but the information we do have doesn’t stand out positively or negatively. In my mind’s eye, Fleury was a capable sixth or seventh defender who swung back and forth between impressive and frustrating plays and reads on the defensive side and was fairly quiet offensively.
Was a two-year term the key to a compromise?
Similar to the offer extended to Lind, Seattle’s qualifying offer to Cale Fleury was a one-year, two-way deal worth $787,500 at the NHL level and less at the AHL level. Unlike Lind, though, Fleury has a longer NHL track record, more leverage, and requested arbitration to set his salary, absent a negotiated agreement. Seattle, recognizing that leverage, agreed to a one-way deal structure over two years to get the deal done.
On Fleury’s side, the two-year deal guarantees him $1.6 million no matter where he plays. On Seattle’s side, the term is also significant. Like Lind, Fleury had the chance to be a Group 6 unrestricted free agent after this upcoming season. With 62 NHL games under his belt, if the team had sent him through waivers to the AHL or he sat another year behind three healthy right-shot defensemen, he may not have gotten into 18 additional games.
The two-year deal avoids the potential Group 6 conundrum this coming offseason and locks Fleury in for the 2024-25 season as well. Assuming Fleury stays with Seattle for the full two years and gets in 18 games over those two seasons, he would again be a restricted free agent in the 2025 offseason.
Cale Fleury (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Could we see a Fleury in the desert?
The Kraken have eight defensemen on one-way contracts for this coming season: Dunn (when it gets finished, it will be a one-way deal), Adam Larsson, Jamie Oleksiak, Will Borgen, Brian Dumoulin, Justin Schultz, Jaycob Megna, and Fleury. Theoretically, the team could keep all eight in Seattle. The Kraken carried eight defenders for much of their inaugural season. Seven defenders is more typical, however.
Seattle didn’t send Fleury through waivers last year (a) because he was the best bet on the roster for the seventh defender role, and (b) they didn’t have the AHL depth on the right side to withstand losing him to a waiver claim. The dynamic is different this year. Megna can capably fill the seventh defender role, and Seattle has righty defender Connor Carrick, a veteran of 242 NHL games, signed to a one-year deal and bound for Coachella Valley.
If Carrick clears waivers earlier in camp, which he likely will, the Kraken might feel confident enough to test waivers on Fleury. Fleury is still a young player who needs ice time to develop. 160 minutes of ice time in an entire season is not doing him or Seattle any favors. If given the option, I think the team would rather see Fleury get a full slate of games in the AHL while the older Megna serves as the occasionally used NHL healthy scratch.
The two-year, one-way deal structure might also cause a team to hesitate claiming Fleury on waivers. This too could help him get through waivers and to Coachella Valley this year.
Performance and injuries, if any, in camp will be a significant factor. But, as it stands in early July, I could see Fleury with the Firebirds this coming season. In the desert he could start building chemistry with future Kraken teammate Ryker Evans.
A 2024-25 NHL role in mind?
Looking forward, Seattle has only two other right-side defensemen, Larsson and Borgen, signed for the 2024-25 season. This contract places Fleury squarely in the mix to compete for a full-time role then. If I am correct that Seattle may prefer to get Fleury reps in the AHL this season, could Evans and Fleury both join the NHL team next year, perhaps even as an occasional bottom-line pairing? I could see it.
Beyond Fleury, the team doesn’t have much in the way of NHL-caliber depth at right-handed defense coming up through the system just yet. Ville Ottavainen, Seattle’s fourth-round pick in the 2021 draft, is scheduled to play in North America for the first time this season with the Coachella Valley Firebirds. If he has an impressive season, he could be in the mix. But, typically, even successful prospects on his trajectory take two or more seasons in the minors before breaking through.
Where do the Kraken go from here?
All eyes turn to negotiations with the team’s last restricted free agent, Dunn. He now has an arbitration hearing date set for July 24, so Seattle will be looking to get an extension in place before that date. Aside from that, I suspect Seattle will keep working the phones to monitor opportunities for upgrades via trade.
A day after adding Brain Dumoulin to the blue line, the Seattle Kraken made another NHL level move, signing Spokane, Wash., native Kailer Yamamoto to bolster the team’s forward group.
When asked about Yamamoto after development camp that afternoon, head coach Dave Hakstol described the diminutive winger as “tenacious.” With that single word, Hakstol surely intended to compliment Yamamoto’s quick, grinding, and pesty game.
But the Kraken bench boss may as well have been contrasting the Kraken’s newest bottom-six right-handed winger with a player that filled that role last season, Daniel Sprong. Economics played a role in the swap—Yamamoto signed for less than Sprong received in Detroit. But Sprong was always a bit of a square peg in a round hole at the bottom of Seattle’s lineup. He cheated for offense and was routinely “hidden” against weaker competition to protect his defensive game.
Now, Yamamoto may not “look” like the round peg Seattle needs toward the bottom of their forward group either. He’s 5-foot-8 and maybe 160 pounds soaking wet. He also doesn’t have any real track record playing down lineup. He was always an offensive standout in junior and minor-league hockey, and he rarely fell out of a top-six role with Edmonton.
But, as I watched his shifts from the end of last season in Edmonton, I started to see a player I could envision producing down lineup—using his speed, forecheck, and net-front mentality to score, while also playing responsible hockey in his own end. Add to that his versatility to play higher in the lineup, as he showed in Edmonton, and the pieces started to fit together for me.
A bit undersized and underestimated, he is, as Hakstol succinctly stated, tenacious. Paired with a team full of like-minded skaters, he can wear out an opponent. This may make him a perfect Kraken.
What is the deal?
One week ago Kailer Yamamoto was an Edmonton Oiler entering the last year of a $3.1 million AAV contract. On June 29, Edmonton traded Yamamoto to Detroit, along with forward Klim Kostin, in a cap clearing move.
Detroit “strongly considered” keeping Yamamoto after the trade but reportedly “couldn’t make moves to make it work.” So the Red Wings bought out the winger’s contract on June 30; Detroit took some dead money on its cap, and Yamamoto became a free agent on July 1. (For an explainer on buy outs, look here.)
24 hours later Yamamoto was a Kraken, signing a one-year, one-way, $1.5 million contract with Seattle. The winger will play the entire 2023-24 season at 25 years old and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season. This means that, if the fit works, the Kraken are in position to retain Yamamoto going forward. On the other hand, if team and player don’t see eye to eye on value, the Kraken will face a similar conundrum to what it faced with Sprong and Morgan Geekie this offseason: Do you risk arbitration with a down-lineup forward?
Kailer Yamamoto player profile
Age: 24 Born: September 29, 1998 Birthplace: Spokane, Washington, United States Height: 5’8″ Weight: 153 lbs Shot: Right
Check out all of Yamamoto’s shifts from the Edmonton Oilers’ April 11, 2023, game against the Colorado Avalanche here: first period and second and third periods.
My two cents: The first thing that stands out about Yamamoto is his (lack of) size. Only one player in Capfriendly’s database of active players played even a single NHL game last season at less than Yamamoto’s listed weight of 153 pounds. That player is Matthew Phillips of the New York Islanders, and he played only two games. Only three players played a game last season while measuring in shorter than Yamamoto: Phillips, Blake Lizzotte, and Cole Caufield.
Lizzotte is a wrecking ball forechecker, weighing in at 175 pounds, and Caufield is an offensive sniper. Yamamoto doesn’t have a carrying trait like those players. He is quick on his feet and has above-average speed, but he is not a blazer. He has very good but not elite hands. His shot isn’t particularly hard. He’s willing to throw a check, but his hits are more disruptive than punishing.
Yamamoto’s physical and skill profile are quite literally without comparison in the NHL right now. How has he made it work? It’s with hockey sense and attention to detail.
Yamamoto is active in the defensive zone shadowing his check and pressuring the opponent at critical moments. His defensive stick is effective. While takeaways is an imperfect, subjective statistic, Scott Malone of ROOT Sportsnoted that Yamamoto was 14th in the NHL with 2.81 takeaways per sixty minutes of ice time, tied with Yanni Gourde.
Once he successfully tracks down a puck on defense he is highly efficient at getting the puck out of the defensive zone. As noted below, his defensive zone analytics have been consistently above average. Per HockeyViz, he suppressed opponent shots at a rate 4 percent better than average at even strength. These skills also serve him well on the penalty kill, where he has been an above-average second unit contributor for the Oilers.
In the offensive zone, his NHL role has been two-fold. First, he hunts pucks on the forecheck following uncontrolled entries. Second, after his team gets control, he uses his quickness and savvy to get to the net front for tips and re-directions while Edmonton’s stable of skilled shooters swarmed around the perimeter. His shot chart (see to the right) is essentially just a pile of dots in the slot. For a team like Seattle that generated more shots from the outside rather than in close, Yamamoto’s skill set fits. He’s not a traditional hulking presence at the net, but his ability there fills a Seattle need for an interior scorer.
In the below clip, he pressures the puck below the goal line, forces a turnover, drops the puck for Connor McDavid, and moves immediately to the net front to create chaos and look for a rebound.
In this clip, Yamamoto again pressures the puck carrier down low and contributes to an Edmonton takeaway. He then moves into the high slot and tips in a point shot.
This final clip from a game against Seattle is fairly typical of his offensive-zone positioning. He gets net-front position by his quickness and anticipation, rather than brute force. Then, when a lane opens, he is strong and skilled with his stick to redirect the puck into the back of the net.
Combine Yamamoto’s size with his fearless net drives and forechecking, and it is reasonable to be concerned whether he can hold up long term. Last season Yamamoto spent 41 days on injured reserve and missed 24 games. On the other hand, he was relatively healthy the previous two seasons, missing only five games total across those two years. Will he hold up moving forward? It’s a risk, but one that a team like Seattle, with its depth of forwards, can afford to take on.
Is there untapped potential in Yamamoto?
Since Yamamoto has been well-known in Washington State for a longtime, it is easy to forget he is not yet even 25 years old. In fact, he is two months younger than the recently departed Morgan Geekie. For those opining patience on Geekie’s skill game due to his age, the same argument can be made with respect to Yamamoto. And Yamamoto comes with a much stronger amateur pedigree than Geekie: Both drafted in 2017, Yamamoto went 22nd overall whereas Geekie went 67th.
Beyond that, I am intrigued by Yamamoto because his usage in Edmonton may have hidden some underlying skills that he should get a chance to display in Seattle. New responsibilities could be for the better or the worse, of course, but I see reasons for optimism that a new role will help him elevate his game.
1. Transition skill
In Edmonton, the Oilers transition game plan was clear: get the puck to elite puck possession forwards in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
An example comes at 3:24 in the video above. Yamamoto has the puck along the boards breaking out of the defensive zone with Draisaitl to his left. With just a single defender ahead, Yamamoto could have advanced the puck, skating wide while the German center drove the net. Instead, Yamamoto immediately deferred to Draisaitl to allow the superstar the opportunity to dictate the play in transition.
To be clear, this was probably the “correct” hockey play because Draisaitl can navigate zone entries like few in the NHL. Corey Sznajder’s AllThreeZones data tracking put Draistail in the 94th percentile in the NHL in total zone entries. (McDavid ranks even higher, in the 98th percentile.) But Edmonton’s approach forced Yamamoto into a very deferential and passive role through the middle of the ice. Sznajder had Yamamoto in just the 15th percentile among NHL forwards in total zone entries.
In Seattle, Yamamoto will get opportunities on the puck in the transition game. He won’t be paired with any transition game “monster” because Seattle doesn’t have one. This will require him—but also empower him—to seize control of plays more often and press an advantage when he sees it. I saw some evidence he has the skill to possess the puck under duress, press his advantage with speed, and dictate the play.
More opportunities like this should get him involved in transition scoring opportunities. In Edmonton, the large majority of his chances came off the forecheck or on net-front tips, which is a valuable role, but a very difficult way to generate volume offense.
2. Offensive-zone playmaker
I also see some untapped potential in Yamamoto as an offensive-zone distributor and shooter. This last year with Edmonton, he was most frequently paired with Draisaitl and one of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Evander Kane. All of those players are clear top-six caliber, skilled, puck-dominant players in the offensive zone. This left Yamamoto to assume a different role.
As mentioned above, he was the lead forechecker and drove to the front of the net when the team was established in the offensive zone. Except on cycles, he rarely possessed the puck in the offensive zone. If the puck hit his stick, it was most commonly followed by an immediate shot, tip, or pass.
Seattle’s forwards have various strengths, but the lines aren’t constructed quite so asymmetrically. I expect Yamamoto will have the opportunity to possess the puck a bit more offensively. When he does, he shows creativity and even flashes the ability to handle the puck and finish.
As a facilitator, the talent is there with increased opportunities. Even in his off-puck role, he was above average in a metric tracked by Corey Sznajder called “chance assists,” which are passes that lead to a scoring look. In this clip, Yamamoto has the skill and sense to find Kane with an accurate cross-slot pass for a tap-in goal. There is more in the tank for Yamamoto on plays like this.
3. Power-play scorer
Yamamoto was heralded during his time in juniors and the AHL for his power play skill. In Edmonton, he couldn’t break through and establish a role on the best unit in the NHL. Seattle is far from the best, and down a key right-handed cog after the loss of Daniel Sprong. Yamamoto won’t take Sprong’s role as a one-timer threat, but there could be opportunity as a bumper (if Oliver Bjorkstrand shifts out, for example) or net-front presence. In either position, his hand-eye coordination and hockey sense could be helpful attributes.
I am less confident in Yamamoto’s likelihood of breaking through on the man advantage, but the same passing and puck-handling skills mentioned above should play in this role. At least he’ll get a look on the power play in Seattle. He didn’t really have a chance in Edmonton.
What do the analytics say?
Yamamoto’s impacts on shot outcomes match the “eye test,” showing slightly above-average work on the defensive side, and approximately neutral impacts offensively. His contributions are average on the power play in limited playing time—though Seattle should welcome an “average” power play unit—and again slightly better than average on the penalty kill. This isn’t the profile of a “needle-mover,” but I doubt Seattle is looking to him to be a top-of-the-lineup player in any particular game situation. As a complimentary piece and a bet on untapped potential, he is a good addition.
Where does he project with the Kraken?
As we stand in early July, I think Yamamoto has an inside track to a roster spot and a role. Again, I should be clear again that Yamamoto is not, and doesn’t project as, an above-average top-six producer. I wouldn’t necessarily expect him to play to the level of recent under-appreciated additions Eeli Tolvanenen or Oliver Bjorkstrand either. He is more of a calculated gamble on mid-range upside.
Yamamoto has played mostly on the right wing. This past season, the Kraken deployed righty Jordan Eberle, lefty Andre Burakovsky, righty Bjorkstrand, and righty Sprong on the right side for the most part. With Sprong out the door, there is a vacancy at the bottom of the depth chart. Clearly, Yamamoto is a contender. But there are others.
Kole Lind, coming off a strong AHL regular season and an outstanding playoff run, is a right wing and in the conversation for the role. He doesn’t bring the same speed or possession skill Yamamoto does, but he is bigger, more physical, and has a a heavy, accurate shot.
Alternatively, lefty Tye Kartye could earn a role following his impressive playoff stint with the Kraken, which would mean he or (more likely) Brandon Tanev would slide over to the right side on the fourth line, playing the off wing.
As of July 6, this looks like a three-way competition for one wing role, with the runner up taking the thirteenth forward position and the other player likely destined for Coachella Valley (or another team on waivers). While Kartye projects best long term, I’d rate Yamamoto as the best bet to hold the winger role on opening day. Seeing value in keeping all three players, I’d also tentatively project Lind as the thirteenth forward with the waivers-exempt Kartye in Coachella Valley to start.
Where do the Kraken go from here?
The Kraken have filled out their NHL depth chart at wing and on the blue line. Any further additions in those areas are likely to be opportunistic rather than necessary. I do think the Kraken will strive for one more move if a top-tier talent becomes available, but it is by no means a sure thing. In the relatively unlikely event the team moves on from defensemen Vince Dunn or Will Borgen due to a contract impasse, a countermove would likely be necessary to fill the vacated blue line spot.
Beyond that, I think the Kraken have one more hole in the depth chart—fourth-line center. If Shane Wright is ready to seize a role, there is no issue. And John Hayden could play there if a better alternative is not forthcoming on the market. But I suspect the Kraken will look to add to their center depth. Pius Suter is the best center remaining on the market. Free agent Tomas Nosek might fit the team need best as a faceoff specialist and penalty killer.
More reading on Yamamoto
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic analyzed Yamamoto’s tenure with Edmonton after his trade to Detroit and explained why Yamamoto was a prime candidate to move out given Edmonton’s cap crunch.
