Along with Kraken fans, we here at Sound Of Hockey continue to wait on any late-breaking news regarding NHL-level roster moves. We will cover it here whenever any additional transactions are announced.
In the meantime, however, we wanted to revisit Seattle’s crucial 2022 NHL Draft one more time. Last week I wrote about the players drafted by the Kraken. Today, I will offer some perspective that compares Seattle’s draft class with the rest of the league.
What are public draft analysts and scouting services saying about the Kraken’s draft picks? Looking at history, what can we expect from this class? And how do Seattle’s assembled prospects project relative to the field? We will consider these questions and more, and also offer some takeaways pertaining to other teams along the way.
We should note that it is wise to be guarded in the immediate aftermath of a draft. We do not even know what Shane Wright will be in the NHL, must less Seattle’s later picks. But, generally speaking, how does Seattle’s group project? Let’s dive in.
The Kraken accumulated a deep class of high-end talent
In case you missed it, before the draft, we gathered rankings from 19 public draft analysts and scouting services and developed a composite draft ranking: The Sound Of Hockey Big Board.
Seattle was the only team to select five players within the top-50 on the Sound Of Hockey Big Board. Buffalo and Montreal selected four such players each, and no other team drafted more than three. With long odds facing any prospect outside the top half of the first round, accumulating this depth of highly ranked prospects in a single draft is impressive. For context, nine teams left the draft with no players ranked within the top 50.
Public draft analysts praised Seattle’s work
Public analysts were generally complimentary of Seattle’s draft, frequently referencing it among the strongest draft classes assembled:
Chris Peters of Flo Hockey (link): Seattle Kraken: A
Corey Pronman of The Athletic (link): Seattle Kraken: A
Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (link): Seattle Kraken: “No. 2 winner” of day one; “No. 1 winner” of day two
Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN (link): Seattle Kraken: “Winner”
Peter Baracchini of The Hockey Writers (link): Seattle Kraken: “Winner”
Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News (link): Seattle Kraken: “perfect draft”
Mark Schieg of The Hockey Writers (link): Seattle Kraken: “Winner”
Mike Morreale of NHL.com (link): Seattle Kraken: Best draft (discussion starts at 25:00)
Projecting future contributions from Seattle’s draft class
Byron Bader of Hockey Prospecting has studied the likelihood of a player becoming a contributor at the NHL level based on draft position. He researched two thresholds: (1) the likelihood of being a “star” performer who produces at a high-end, point-per-game threshold and (2) the likelihood of being an “NHL” player, which he defines as playing at least 200 games in the NHL.
I like this approach to interpreting the projected impact of a draft class because it is less abstract than Wins Above Replacement (WAR) or similar metrics. As Josh Horton’s investigation demonstrated historically, even the largest draft classes can be counted as a success if they produce just a few NHL-level performers. Bader’s work quantifies those probabilities and helps us make projections.
Bader delivered his results in tiers. For example, he reported that a second-round pick has a 29.5 percent chance of becoming an NHL player and a 2.4 percent chance of becoming a star. Yet, we also know from other studies that high-second-round picks yield significantly more value than late-second-round picks, as one might expect.
Bader’s public findings are also a bit quirky in a few areas. For example, his results suggest a higher likelihood of finding a star performer in the late-first round than in the mid-first round. This is very likely an issue with small sample size.
For these reasons, I reverse engineered a smoothed model from his public findings that projects “likelihood” of being a star performer or NHLer based on draft position. Graphically, the models look like this:
I applied this model to the picks in the 2022 NHL Draft and created a projection of how many NHL lineup players and star performers each team can expect from its draft class.
(Note that some scouts have suggested this was a mediocre draft class. If so, all of the probabilities listed above could be downgraded, but the expectations of each team relative to the others should remain consistent.)
Based on pick position alone, the Kraken project to generate the fourth-most NHL players from the their draft class, with approximately three NHL regulars being an expected outcome. Only the Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Buffalo Sabres project to generate more such players.
When it comes to probable star power, again, the Kraken have the fourth-best odds of turning up a star player based on Bader’s model. In this measure, they rank behind only the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, and New Jersey Devils.
This should serve as something of a reality check on our expectations. A player picked at No. 4 overall is not a certainty to be a high-end performer. If Shane Wright becomes a 65-to-70-point producer on an annual basis, the Kraken will have out-performed their “star” expectations in this draft, even before considering the rest of this class.
Projecting future contributions using the Sound Of Hockey Big Board
The expectations set forth above assume historical average draft performance at each draft position. The results do not tell us anything about whether a draft class could be expected to over-perform or under-perform its draft position.
In an effort to gain some perspective on this question, I also applied Bader’s work to the players drafted in the 2022 NHL Draft based on their Big Board rank, rather than draft order. In other words, I engaged in a thought experiment: What if the Sound Of Hockey Big Board represented the “correct” order in which players would have ideally been drafted? In that scenario, the first player on the Big Board would be ascribed the highest likelihood of becoming a star or NHL player under Bader’s analysis, and so forth down the line.
To be clear, this is not how Bader’s work was intended to be used. This alternative view is simply meant to give some perspective on how each draft class could expect to turn out if the 19 public scouting services we compiled were “right” about the proper ordering of this class.
By this metric, the Seattle Kraken fare even better relative to the competition, projecting to produce both the most NHL lineup regulars and star performers from this draft.
In terms of raw figures, the Kraken project to generate slightly fewer lineup regulars than expected based on their draft position alone (3.03). This is due in large part to Seattle “reaching” far down the Big Board to draft goalie Niklas Kokko at No. 58. And, while the Kraken are No. 1 overall, Montreal, Buffalo, Arizona, and Chicago all closely trail Seattle, each projecting to produce just under three NHLers.
The Kraken take by far the biggest leap up in terms of likelihood of generating a star player, however. This is largely due to the fact that Seattle procured the No. 1 overall player on the Big Board, Shane Wright, at the fourth pick. Conversely, Montreal and New Jersey tumble down in their “star” probabilities because, in the eyes of the Big Board, those teams reached for Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec, respectively.
Other draft classes stood out, for better or worse
The Carolina Hurricanes project to exceed draft expectations because they employed a very specific strategy. The Big Board study suggests that the Carolina Hurricanes produced the most NHL-level talent relative to the team’s draft capital. Carolina turned picks projected to generate the 20th-most value in the league and procured the 12th-most value according to the Big Board. How did Carolina accomplish this? The strategy was clear: target Russian players that other teams were reticent to select. Of course, it remains to be seen if global events create a long-term impediment to those players joining the NHL. But “on paper,” the draft looks good.
The Minnesota Wild had a good draft too. The Wild also drafted very well based on the Big Board, projecting to have acquired the sixth-most lineup regulars despite draft capital worth only the ninth-most in the league. Minnesota selected Liam Ohgren (No. 17 on the Big Board) at No. 19 overall and then followed that up with Russian Danila Yurov (No. 12 on the Big Board) at No. 24 overall. Couple those two early value picks with a late value pick of Servac Petrovsky (No. 106 on the Big Board) at No. 185 overall and the Wild could very well look back on this draft fondly.
The Detroit Red Wings characteristically underperformed according to public draft boards. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Big Board was not a fan of Detroit’s draft. Steve Yzerman-managed teams have notoriously veered away from consensus in their draft decision making, yet they still seem to uncover stars (remember, Detroit went “off the board” with the No. 6 pick in 2019 and selected now-rising-superstar Moritz Seider). Detroit utilized the eighth-most valuable draft capital, but produced just the 16th-most value according to the Big Board.
The Chicago Blackhawks may have also left value on the table. To add insult to the injury that has been Chicago’s NHL-level offseason moves, the Big Board did not like Chicago’s draft either, relative to the the draft capital utilized. According to the Big Board, Chicago reached on every single one of its picks except for its second first-round pick Frank Nazar. For similar reasons, the Big Board downgrades the Arizona Coyotes’ draft too.
Takeaways from Seattle’s draft
The Kraken had a productive draft. Needing to build out the team’s prospect pool, volume was a focus: the team made 11 draft picks overall. But the Kraken did not sacrifice high-end quality either, generally winning rave reviews from draft analysts for their ability to find highly ranked prospects with their six picks in the top 68.
According to Hockey Prospecting’s historical work, Seattle fans can reasonably expect three-or-more of the team’s picks to emerge as NHL regulars down the road, with a 50-50 chance that one of those regulars develops into a star player.
If the Big Board is to be believed, Seattle’s draft may over-perform even those lofty expectations. This Kraken class may project as the best in the NHL, and the team’s chances of finding a star player could rate significantly higher than expected based on draft pick value alone.
Now we wait and watch. With rookie development camp in the rearview mirror, preseason training camp will be our next opportunity to check in on the development of this class.
Who said hockey season was over?! What a wild and crazy week this has been for Kraken fans, who have been on quite the roller coaster ride.
After watching Seattle crush it in last week’s NHL Entry Draft, they got to see the team’s future take the ice at Kraken Community Iceplex for the first time at this week’s development camp, then sit on pins and needles as the team somewhat cautiously dipped its toe into free agency.
It hasn’t quite been the headlong dive into free agency that we expected, but we have some theories on that, which you’ll read about in this edition of Weekly One-Timers.
Seattle Kraken development camp takeaways
Matty Beniers dominates
Development camp was an interesting experience. We got our first look at all the players selected by Seattle in the draft in Montreal, plus some young players that were selected and/or signed last year.
Predictably, Matty Beniers (who showed up remarkably tan, by the way) was the star of the show and dominated the three-on-three scrimmage tournament on Wednesday. He looked like a man amongst boys and seemed to have the puck on a string, making confident and sometimes borderline cheeky moves against his fellow youth.
While we’re still bracing for an adjustment period from the 19-year-old center, Beniers demonstrated again that he is a cornerstone for this franchise for many years to come.
Matty Beniers was outstanding in Wednesday’s scrimmage at Kraken development camp. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Wright debuts, signs contract
Speaking of cornerstone centers, No. 4 overall pick Shane Wright made his first appearance in Seattle. His best play of the three-on-three tournament came toward the end of the last game, when he fired a perfect 100-foot pass through the neutral zone right onto the tape of a breaking Luke Henman. Henman went in alone and scored, helping lead the light blue team to a tournament championship.
Throughout the camp, Wright looked as advertised — strong, swift on his skates, and frankly ready for NHL competition. At the close of the three-on-three scrimmage, general manager Ron Francis came onto the ice and announced to the crowd in attendance that Wright was going to sign his entry-level contract right then and there. It was a memorable moment that ended with a huge cheer from the fans and Wright’s first ceremonial fish yeeting.
Looking ahead to the 2022-23 season, our expectation is that Wright will break training camp with the Kraken. The Kraken have the option to either keep him in the NHL for the full season or send him back to the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. Due to an agreement between the NHL and CHL, Wright cannot play in the AHL. If he goes back to Kingston, he would not burn the first year of his entry-level contract, but we are of the mindset that he has nothing left to prove at the OHL level. The Kraken can play Wright in nine games before deciding to keep him or send him back down to juniors, per the aforementioned agreement.
We think he will stay even if he has a slow start, but we shall see.
Kraken prospects Nelson, Kartye, and Firkus impress
Aside from Beniers and Wright, Ty Nelson, Tye Kartye, and Jagger Firkus were the three players that stood out to us the most at development camp.
Nelson, an 18-year-old defenseman selected No. 68 overall, is built like a sparkplug. He’s swift on his feet and positions his body in a way that makes it impossible for opposing players to take the puck off his stick. He also has a downright infectious personality, so we will be rooting for this kid.
Here’s the very affable Ty Nelson on how special it is to be in development camp with his North Bay teammate, Kyle Jackson. pic.twitter.com/S6qqFcMIJJ
Speaking of infectious personalities, Jagger Firkus really did bring the Firkus Circus to town. He looks very small on the ice — which makes sense, since he is currently only 158 pounds — but when he adds weight to his body, there is NHL-level skill there. Heads were spinning at the scrimmage when he slipped the puck between Jacob Melanson’s legs, then shot from between his own legs.
.@BrianLiesse captured perfectly the moment when the crowd made the loudest "ooh's and ahh's" in today's scrimmage. Jagger Firkus slipped the puck between Jacob Melanson's legs, and then shot from between his own legs.
We should also note, Melanson and Ryan Winterton (who was not on the ice at camp) also signed their respective entry-level contracts this week.
Kraken free agency not much of a frenzy… so far
We have a hard time believing this is what Francis meant when he said months ago that the Kraken would be “aggressive” in free agency. Though the team has signed a lot of players since Wednesday, most of the signings are clearly to build out the Coachella Valley Firebirds roster.
We do think Seattle has marginally improved by shoring up the right defense position with Justin Schultz and upgrading on the wing with Andre Burakovsky. But neither of those players are “needle movers” that will individually catapult the team into the playoffs next season. Of course, Wright could also help, but it is hard to project how much an 18-year-old player can contribute to an NHL club.
There are still some big names out there, like Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg, plus some second-tier forward options like Nino Niederreiter, Sonny Milano, and Evan Rodrigues. The Kraken still have north of $9.8 million in cap space and could go over the cap if they put Chris Driedger on long-term injured reserve.
By no means do we think the team is done improving its roster, and we also do not see it as a coincidence that Seattle still has that much space, considering there are guys like Kadri and Klingberg still available. If things remain quiet on the free agency front for the Kraken, then expect trades in the coming weeks.
Johnny Hockey signs with… Columbus?
The biggest story of free agency was undoubtedly Johnny Gaudreau’s shocking decision to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It became clear just a day before the opening of free agency that Gaudreau was turning down an eight-figure-per-year offer from the Calgary Flames and would hit the market.
The Philadelphia Flyers— widely rumored to be Gaudreau’s preferred destination — did not make the star center an offer, citing a lack of cap space and further infuriating their fanbase.
As for the Kraken, we haven’t officially heard that Seattle ever had a chance at landing Gaudreau, but we did ask Francis if the team was interested. Here’s what he said: “Yeah, we were interested in everybody coming to play here.” [Smattering of laughs from assembled media.] “Sometimes players want to play in certain markets or closer to home or different things. So, there’s a lot of factors that go into those final decisions.”
That indicates to us that Seattle at least reached out to Gaudreau’s camp.
Winners of the week
There were a few teams around the league that really improved themselves this week. Columbus jumps out, thanks to Gaudreau, but look out for the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings next season, two teams that have languished near the bottom of the standings for a long time.
The Senators followed up their draft-day trade for Alex DeBrincat by signing Claude Giroux and trading for a previously disgruntled Cam Talbot. They also inked young stud Josh Norris to a long-term contract extension. GM Pierre Dorion’s rebuild took some enormous steps over the last nine days.
Meanwhile, the Yzerplan in Detroit jumped ahead a few spaces on the game board, when the Red Wings traded for and signed Ville Husso, then landed Ben Chiarot, Dominik Kubalik, Andrew Copp, and David Perron on the open market.
SEATTLE – Shane Wright said it best this week when describing how hearing his name called at the NHL Draft fulfilled a childhood dream. He’s right, and most of the players participating in the Seattle Kraken’s first development camp lived that dream out in some way. They heard their names called, and those in attendance at the draft got to pull an NHL jersey over their heads and pose for pictures.
Kraken prospect Tye Kartye didn’t get to live out that dream, but the forward was at camp this week with an NHL contract in his back pocket.
“There’s a lot of different paths,” Kartye said after the final day of development camp.
He was passed up by the NHL, first in 2019 after scoring four goals and 24 points for the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds. The following season he scored 26 goals but was passed up again as well as in 2021 when the OHL shut down due to the COVID pandemic.
“The first year I went through it, I don’t think I deserved to get drafted. So obviously it’s disappointing, but I kind of saw it coming,” Kartye, 21, said. “Then got passed up again and that was after a good season. That was a little more disappointing.”
While they didn’t draft him, the Kraken were interested enough and invited him to their training camp last fall. He said it didn’t take long to say yes to the invite.
Kartye gets Kraken camp invite
He played well in camp before last season, just hoping to expose the Kraken to his skill and leave an impression. Eventually he was returned to the Greyhounds for his final year of junior with no promises of where he would play in 2022-23.
“It was kind of like ‘you did a good job, and we’ll keep watching you,’” he said about the message Seattle gave him. “That obviously gave a boost to your confidence after a good camp. So, I kept that going through the start of the year.”
Armed with renewed confidence and positive encouragement from his coaches with the Greyhounds, Kartye had a good 2021-22 season. His coaches reminded him to keep grinding, knowing that his path to pro hockey was far from over.
He responded with a monster season, scoring 45 goals with 34 assists for 79 points in 63 games, good for fourth in the league scoring race.
“Everything came together for me, and the hard work for the first four years really paid off in that year,” Kartye said. “Just being older doesn’t mean you’re gonna have a good year. You look at the league and there’s guys throughout the league who are 20 and don’t live up to expectations. I definitely think that part of it was having the experience, but there’s a lot of other factors that went into that as well.”
It turns out that the Kraken were watching and started checking in with him around the holidays.
Signing his first NHL contract
Impressed, Seattle offered him an entry-level contract in early March.
“I was just ecstatic because this is what you’ve been trying to do for your whole junior career and you never know if it’s gonna happen,” Kartye said. “When you finally get that call with the offer. It’s a pretty special day.”
Getting signed is exciting enough, but when it comes from a hall-of-famer like Kraken general manager Ron Francis, who just happened to play his junior hockey for the same Soo Greyhounds franchise, it’s a little extra special.
“He’s a legend in the Soo,” Kartye said with a smile. “The rink is on Ron Francis Way.”
Kartye, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 199 pounds, had a good showing at development camp. It was highlighted by him scoring a goal during the team’s midweek scrimmage.
He likely will start the season in the American Hockey League with the Coachella Valley Firebirds for his first pro hockey experience. Growing up in Ontario, he’s not familiar with the Valley but has heard about the weather and, as a golfer, is going to bring his clubs with him.
Expect to see Kartye at Kraken training camp in the fall, and since the Firebirds are starting their season in Seattle, he’ll be around one way or another. Even though he has a signed contract, Kartye isn’t taking things like development camp for granted.
“I’m just taking all the things I learned here and trying to implement them throughout the summer,” he said. “Just trying to be the best player I can be for training camp.”
It remains to be seen how much NHL time he’ll get, but Kartye is an example for younger players. He’s proved that even if you’re overlooked and passed up in the draft, that doesn’t mean giving up on pro hockey dreams.
“I would always tell the younger guys on my team in their draft year this is what happened to me,” Kartye said. “I had a good year and was one of the leaders on the team, so I tried to just implement to the young guys that the draft is not the be-all end-all. Obviously, everyone wants to get drafted and that’s your first option. But if it doesn’t work out, it’s definitely not the end of the road. There’s a lot of different paths.”
Day one of free agency promises a frenzy of activity around the NHL, and in Seattle we were not disappointed. It is true that some of the higher profile names did not end up with the Kraken (at least not yet). Johnny Gaudreau opted to sign elsewhere and defenseman John Klingberg went through the day without an agreement.
But the Kraken were nonetheless heavily involved in free agency, signing a total of nine free agents to contracts within the first eight hours. In addition to reshaping the NHL roster, general manager Ron Francis and his staff were hard at work building up a depth chart of players to man the inaugural season of the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
So, what happened on day one? Where do we stand? And what might be next for Seattle? Let’s dive in.
Recapping day one of free agency
The Kraken signed the following free agents within hours of the opening bell of NHL free agency:
C Andrew Poturalski, 28, signed a two-year, $762,500 AAV deal. The right-shot forward had 28 goals and 73 assists in 71 regular season games for the Chicago Wolves (AHL) last year, becoming the first player to score more than 100 points in the AHL in 12 years. Poturalski scored another 23 points in 18 post-season games en route to a Calder Cup with the Wolves. His deal is a one-way deal, meaning he will make NHL dollars even if he is sent to the AHL.
G Magnus Hellberg, 31, signed a one-year, $750,000 AAV contract. Hellberg played for a few club teams last year, but most of his time came with Sochi (KHL). He posted a 2.42 GAA and 0.917 save percentage in Sochi. Hellberg has appeared in five NHL games with the Rangers, Predators, and Red Wings. His contract is also a one-way deal.
C/LW Cameron Hughes, 25, signed a two-year, two-way contract. Hughes had 14 goals and 21 assists in 2021-22 with the Providence Bruins (AHL).
RW Austin Poganski, 26, signed a one-year, two-way contract. Poganski appeared in 16 games for the Winnipeg Jets last year but did not record a point. He scored nine goals and 21 assists during the remainder of his 2021-22 season with the Manitoba Moose (AHL).
And that wasn’t all the Kraken accomplished on a busy July 13. The team also signed draftees Shane Wright, Ryan Winterton, and Jacob Melanson to entry-level contracts.
Stacking the depth chart
After the aforementioned moves, here is a quick snapshot of the organizational depth chart (names in italics signed to AHL contracts):
Roles are not yet defined. For example, I have not heard one member of the Kraken organization suggest that Shane Wright could play on the wing this year if he sticks with Seattle. This is just my speculation, in part inspired by the depth at center, (lack of) depth on the right side, and scouting reports on Wright’s defense.
And there is certainly more work that needs to get done to round out these depth charts. (More on this below.) But this is a tremendous amount of roster building achieved in just one day, especially for the new team in Coachella Valley. Impressive work by the Seattle staff.
Resetting Seattle’s needs and opportunities going into day two
After these first-day moves, the Kraken have $10.61 million in cap space. And restricted free agents Cale Fleury, Morgan Geekie, Kole Lind, and Carsen Twarynski remain to be signed. Assuming Fleury, Geekie, and Lind make the NHL team, I will allocate $3 million of cap space to those players, leaving $7.61 million to spend.
The team could theoretically spend even more than that by moving Chris Driedger’s $3.5 million cap hit onto Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) before the season starts. But I doubt the team will want to hamstring its flexibility in that way. In fact, I expect they probably wouldn’t want to get closer than $3 million or so under the cap. Still, this leaves a good chunk of change for additional business.
The team has a vacancy on the NHL roster for at least one more forward, and perhaps more than one forward if Kole Lind is sent through waivers to the AHL or Joonas Donskoi is bought out or traded. On the blue line, the team could add another piece and waive Cale Fleury after camp, or stand pat.
Returning to my pre-free-agency team needs, I identified five NHL-level needs. Four of those needs have been addressed, at least in some form:
Top-nine LW: Andre Burakovsky signed
Top-nine RW: Not addressed
Top-four RD: Justin Schultz signed
backup goalie: Martin Jones signed
Depth center: Andrew Poturalski signed
So, the team could still use a winger that can score from the right side. Who fits the profile and Seattle’s remaining budget? Let’s run down a few options.
Evan Rodrigues. The former Penguin’s days are likely over in Pittsburgh given the cap crunch there. Rodrigues, 28, tallied 18 goals and 43 points in his breakout 2021-22 campaign. His underlying analytics are sound, and I liked what I saw in the few viewing opportunities I had last season. Evolving Hockey projects a three-year, $3 million deal for Rodrigues. If his ask comes down into this range, that contract is a quick and easy “yes” for me as (mock) Kraken general manager.
Jesse Puljujarvi. Puljujarvi is a restricted free agent qualified by Edmonton. But a trade remains likely here. I think he would be a strong compliment to the other members the Kraken top nine who play more of skill-oriented game. Puljujarvi’s ability to drive play as a power forward would be a boon for the Kraken. Evolving Hockey projects his AAV on a new contract above $4 million. Even if he hits that number, the Kraken can handle it with their remaining cap space.
Calle Jarnkrok. Old friend Jarnkrok struggled early on in his Kraken tenure for various reasons, but there was a long stretch last winter when he played like the best Kraken forward. Evolving Hockey projects a four-year, $4 million AAV deal. I would not encourage the Kraken to go to that number, but on a shorter term, modest AAV deal, I would welcome the reunion.
Instead the Kraken could target one of several intriguing left wingers that remain on the market with the plan of playing Burakovsky (or another player) on his off wing. Notable left wings remaining on the market include Dylan Strome (though he may be better at center), Sonny Milano, and Danton Heinen.
Alternatively, or in addition, the Kraken could use some of their remaining cap space to target another puck-moving defenseman. If, for example, RD John Klingberg could be signed to a two year, $5 million AAV contract because his high-end market did not materialize, I would be interested in that. I would also continue to entertain the prospect of bringing RD Ethan Bear back to Seattle in a trade with Carolina. With Adam Larsson and Justin Schultz ahead of him on the depth chart, Bear could take on low-stress third-pair minutes to start.
What did you think of day one of free agency? Anything you would like to see on day two? Let us know in the comments below or reach out to us on Twitter.
Before the opening bell of free agency, it was reported that Seattle was linked to goalie Martin Jones, and then quickly confirmed by some sources. The Kraken later confirmed the signing.
What is the deal?
Martin Jones signed a one-year deal with the Kraken worth $2 million.
Player profile
Age: 32 Birthdate; Jan. 10, 1990 Birthplace: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Height: 6’4″ Weight: 190 lbs Catches: Left Experience: 396 games played in the NHL; 327 games played with the Sharks where he was the primary starter from 2015-2019.
Recent statistics
Seson
Team
Games Played
Goals Against Average
Save Percentage
2019-20
San Jose Sharks
41
3
0.896
2020-21
San Jose Sharks
34
3.28
0.896
2021-22
Philadelphia Flyers
35
3.42
0.900
What do the analytics say?
In 2021-22, Martin Joes saved -11.25 goals above expected, per Evolving Hockey, and -9.4 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Chris Driedger (IR/expected back in February or March 2023)
With Chris Driedger starting the season on IR and with Coachella Valley starting play this year, the Kraken need to add (at least) two goaltenders that could hypothetically perform at the NHL level in order to fill out their NHL-AHL depth chart. Martin Jones would seem to fill one of those spots. Whether it is at the NHL level or AHL level remains to be seen, but the contract suggests it would be at the NHL level.
Seattle also announced it had signed Magnus Hellberg on Wednesday, who will surely be bound for the Firebirds.
Where do the Kraken go from here?
I identified five needs before the draft: (1) left wing, (2) right wing, (3) right defense, (4) backup goalie, (5) depth center. This checks box number 4. The Kraken have also addressed defense with right-shot blueliner Justin Schultz and a need on the wing with Andre Burakovksy. The Kraken’s focus will be on adding skaters in the remaining need areas.
Media reaction
Immediate reaction about the signing from media-types was less than enthusiastic about the signing. I would caution against jumping to any conclusions without knowing how everything fits together. Martin Jones is just one piece of the puzzle.
Jones, 32, has a .897 SV% over 172 games across the last four seasons.
It appears he is still considered a credible candidate for regular NHL work. https://t.co/3JrURksjLP
UPDATE: This signing was confirmed by the Seattle Kraken at 2:00 pm PT on July 13, 2022.
What is the deal?
Andre Burakovsky has reportedly agreed to sign a five-year deal with the Kraken worth $5.5 million AAV.
Player profile
Age: 27 Born:Feb. 9, 1995 Birthplace: Klagenfurt, Austria Nationality:Sweden/Austria Height: 6’3″ Weight: 201 lbs Shoots: Left
Recent statistics
Year
Team
GP
G
A
TP
PIM
Plus-minus
2019-20
Colorado Avalanche
58
20
25
45
22
11
2020-21
Colorado Avalanche
53
19
25
44
10
4
2021-22
Colorado Avalanche
80
22
39
61
18
12
What do the analytics say?
I have written about Andre Burakovsky’s analytics profile in the past, particularly as a comparable for Jared McCann. The offensive contributions he will bring may be similar to McCann, though the defense is not quite as strong.
The Kraken’s NHL left wing depth chart looks like this:
Jared McCann
Jaden Schwartz
Brandon Tanev
If slotted on the left side, Burakovsky would fall somewhere in the top-nine, likely on the second line. It is also possible he could factor into the top-nine on the right side, his off wing, depending on other moves. Our own John Barr identified Andre Burakovsky as a fit. Burakovsky was my number one forward target after Johnny Gaudreau. This has been my view for a while.
Where do the Kraken go from here?
I identified five needs before the draft: (1) left wing, (2) right wing, (3) right defense, (4) backup goalie, (5) depth center. This checks box number 1. The Kraken have also reportedly addressed defense with right-shot blueliner Justin Schultz and backup goalie with Martin Jones.
