In part I our Kraken roundtable discussion, we considered which restricted free agents will be back next season, as well as which players within the organization may make strides in 2022-23. In this second part, we make some wild predictions about who the Kraken might trade for and who they might target in free agency.
Do you anticipate the Kraken making any major trades in the offseason?
Darren Brown: Well, I wrote recently that I thought there was a chance Chris Driedger could be traded, due to Joey Daccord’s waiver exemption running out. GM Ron Francis more or less dispelled that during his end-of-season presser, though, implying that the team would bring all three of its goalies to training camp and risk putting Daccord on waivers if needed. So, a Driedger trade is probably out.
Since – as Curtis mentioned in part I – I’m back to covering the Wild full time, I might as well throw it out that Minnesota is going to have to trade an important player or two this offseason. Kevin Fiala is an RFA and the Wild do not have enough space to re-sign him, so they will have to trade either him or somebody like Matt Dumba. I would gladly take either of those two players on the Kraken roster, and Seattle has plenty of cap space and a gazillion draft picks to offer up. The Wild can’t take on salary, so draft picks may be the return they’re seeking in a deal for either player.
John Barr: It does not feel to me like the Kraken have enough bargaining chips in their existing talent pool to make any major trades this offseason. They might make some trades, but I doubt any of them will be “major.”
Andy Eide: The most likely time for a Kraken trade may be at the NHL Draft. Francis has made no secret he’d like to use the stockpile of picks he’s accumulated as trade assets. The problem is outside of that, he doesn’t have a great deal of trade bait when it comes to players. One thing he has is cap space, and if he can find a team looking to dump a player to free salary then maybe a trade is doable. You just wonder if second-round picks are attractive enough.
Unless he shocks us and trades a roster player, don’t expect any blockbusters coming.
Seattle might be able to use those picks to move up in July’s draft and could use them to jump into the mid-to-late first round if the right partner is there.
Curtis Isacke: I do expect the Kraken to target an offseason trade with a cap-strapped team for a top-nine capable forward or a top-four capable defender by leveraging their cap space and a second round pick or two. I’ll admit that the player I have thought the most about in this regard is skilled Maple Leafs winger William Nylander, but that’s quite a long shot.
I want to take a closer look at the cap situations of several teams, but a more realistic list of potential trade block players include guys like Jonathan Marchessault of the Golden Knights, Alex Killorn of the Lightning, or Jake Debrusk or Mike Reilly of the Bruins. None of those specific players stand out to me as obvious, must-adds at their current AAV. But sitting here today, I do expect a “major” trade in lieu of a true top-of-the-market free agent signing. More on that below.
Josh Horton: Curtis mentioned Jake Debrusk, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Debrusk, 25, requested a trade but is still relatively young and has been productive in Boston. Boston has held its position and hasn’t wavered in its asking price for Debrusk, but we’ll see if that changes at the NHL Draft and beyond.
Generally, I’m curious to see how active Francis is in the trade market. The Kraken are in a unique situation by having a limited prospect pool and a wealth of draft picks in the next two seasons to fill it. But if a player is available at the right price, the Kraken possess the ammo to facilitate some significant deals with its cavalcade of second-round picks in 2022 and 2023.
Generally, I don’t anticipate the Kraken to be too involved with the bigger fish who are rumored to be traded this offseason, like Patrick Kane, Mark Scheifele, and JT Miller.
What do you think the free agent strategy will be for Ron Francis and company? Any specific free agents you think could be a good fit in Seattle?
John:I said it on the podcast last week, but I anticipate the Kraken pursuing and hopefully landing one of the big free agents this offseason. Specifically Filip Forsberg, Johnny Gaudreau, or John Klingberg are the big three in this category. Even if they add one of those big-ticket free agents, they will still need to land some more depth scoring to really address the deficiency they have in that area. Bryan Rust, Nino Niederreiter, or Ondrej Palat could all fit that mold.
Darren: Though John didn’t mention this above, he’s recently gotten me to come around to the idea that it’s too early to make huge splashes for star players. For the long-term health of the organization, it’s probably better to continue to strengthen the core and wait until that group is competitive. Once that’s done, then you try to land a big fish or two.
However, there’s clearly some urgency for the Kraken to jumpstart their playoff chances, so with that, I’m fully on board the Filip Forsberg train.
Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Curtis: I’ve gone back and forth in my thinking on how aggressive the team should be in free agency. Part of me says: embrace the “build” for one more season and put yourself in position to pick one more time near the top of the stacked 2023 entry draft while developing players like Matty Beniers, Ryker Evans, and the team’s 2022 first-round pick.
But I’ve settled on this: the team is just too good to be so bad again next year. Even setting aside a rebound from Philipp Grubauer, the talent on this current team projects to something closer to a .500 team than a repeat cellar dweller. So, on the one hand, the benefits of poor performance (a top 2023 draft pick) are unlikely to be there. And, on the other hand, this is precisely the type of team that could benefit the most from an infusion of talent, since added talent could be the tipping point into playoff contention.
The question is: How do you add? Realistically, I don’t expect the team to sign the true top-of-the-class players. Johnny Gaudreau would be a good fit, but I don’t expect him to choose Seattle–and his term and AAV would be problematic long term. Same for Filip Forsberg. Those two aside, I have my reservations about the value other perceived top-of-market players like Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg would deliver.
With all that said, I do expect the team to target two top-nine forwards, probably with an emphasis on players who could slot on the right side since the depth chart behind Jordan Eberle is relatively sparse. I’ll predict one of these players arrives via trade, as mentioned above. The other will arrive via free agency.
I like John’s prediction of Bryan Rust. His style is a strong fit for the way the Kraken play offense. I also like his current Penguins teammate Evan Rodrigues as a fit. Andre Burakovsky has played more on the left side, but if he’s attainable on a reasonable AAV and term – perhaps a bit north of Jared McCann’s contract – he’d be number one on my offseason big board. I also expect the team to add a bottom-four right-shot defenseman, perhaps to replace Haydn Fleury’s current position on the roster.
Andy: Going after top-end free agents is entertaining and has a certain fantasy sports aspect that makes it fun for fans to be all in on throwing money at players. But there’s a reason fans and media aren’t general managers, and Francis has to thread the needle here. He has money to spend, but loading up on free agency is a double-edged sword. Big-time free agents get rewarded for past performances and will want term to go with it. The trick is trying to determine if the short-term pump they bring will be worth carrying hard-to-move, high-end contracts in the future.
Francis has said publicly on more than one occasion that he plans on being ‘aggressive’ in this summer’s free agency. Does that mean he goes after the Gaudreaus and Forsbergs out there? Don’t be surprised if Francis ends up landing one of those top targets and maybe a secondary player or two to fill in.
The Kraken roster is in need of offensive skill and finishers. The fastest way to add that is through free agency and Francis may be able to add those top guys while relying on the continuing development of Matty Beniers, his 2022 pick, and the Ryker Evans’ of the world to step up as the roster ages long term.
Like the ancient knight suggests at the end of the horrible Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade**, ‘choose wisely’.
**Editor’s note: Andy is incorrect. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is fantastic.
Josh: John Klingberg is my flag plant for the splashy free agent that is most likely to land in Seattle. The Kraken are in need of a right-shot defenseman and Klingberg, 30, would bring that, plus some offensive creativity to a blue line that could use it. Klingberg was productive this past season with 47 points and 8.47 individual expected goals (iXG), his highest in the past four seasons.
However, like any big-ticket free agent, Klingberg will expect a long-term deal, and the Kraken will be saddled with an albatross contract if his play swiftly declines into his mid-to-late 30’s.
It’s a risk the Kraken will have to assess this offseason with free agency. If Francis and company believe the team underperformed to expectations last year, and perhaps could contend next season if goaltending turns around, there’s no reason why Seattle shouldn’t swing for the top-flight free agents like Klingberg, Gaudreau, or Forsberg.
Seattle should be an attractive free agent destination with its close proximity to the Canadian border — especially for British Columbia natives wanting to play near home, and with Washington State not having state income tax. Attracting and wooing free agents shouldn’t be an issue.
But with the 2023 NHL Draft class projecting to be an all-time great crop of players, is a splashy offseason worth it? My gut feeling is no and that Seattle needs to grow with its current young core of players before layering in superstar contracts.
How aggressive Seattle is with free agency this offseason should indicate how the organization feels about the current state of the franchise.
In a year of firsts, we’re officially into the first “normal” offseason for the Seattle Kraken. What a ride it’s been. Thank you all for following along.
The offseason certainly gives the Sound Of Hockey team space to explore other topics in the hockey world, and we intend to do a little more of that. But I promise that this will not turn into a blog (entirely) about my six-year-old’s learn-to-skate lessons, which are going great, so thanks for asking. We have a litany of Kraken offseason topics that we just cannot wait to talk, write, and connect with you all about.
We thought we’d kick it off with a roundtable discussion on the state of the Kraken roster; which restricted free agents should come back and which marginal roster players might play a more significant role next season?
Later this week we’ll return with part II of this roundtable discussion, which will cover the work the Kraken could do in unrestricted free agency and on the trade market.
Which Kraken restricted free agents (RFA’s) will be coming back/qualified for next year?
Curtis Isacke: Generally speaking, a player is a restricted free agent if his previous contract has expired, but he is not yet 27 years old at the beginning of free agency and does not have seven accrued seasons of service time. An accrued season is one of at least 40 games at the NHL level for a skater or 30 games for a goaltender.
On June 25 the team must decide whether to extend qualifying offers to its restricted free agents. Of course, this decision should start with whether the team likes the player, but not all decisions are created equal. A few things to keep in mind:
When a team extends a qualifying offer, it has to be a one-year contract at somewhere between 100 percent and 120 percent of the player’s previous year base salary (with certain minimum thresholds based on how much the player was earning previously).
The qualifying offer can be a two-way contract, with a lower salary for play at the AHL level, if the player has played fewer than 60 NHL games in the previous year or 180 NHL games in the previous three years.
If the qualifying offer is rejected, the team maintains exclusive rights to negotiate a different contract with the player (absent an offer sheet from another team, which frankly will not happen for any of the Kraken players here).
Restricted free agents at a threshold of experience gain arbitration rights whereby the player can request that a neutral third party determine the average annual value (AAV) of a new contract. The team can also trigger arbitration with a restricted free agent.
For 2022-23, if the player’s contract is equal to or less than $1.125 million, the player can be waived or directly assigned off the NHL roster to the AHL without any NHL salary cap consequence.
Here are the Kraken’s restricted free agents:
Darren Brown: Thanks for setting all this up, Curtis. I personally don’t see much debate in qualifying all the RFA’s, except maybe Haydn Fleury, who has a bigger salary than the rest. AHL Coachella Valley needs to build out a team fast. So, keep all these guys in the system to create competition in training camp, then as some of them get pushed off the NHL roster, waive them and–assuming they clear waivers–let them help the Firebirds. I think Daniel Sprong showed enough offensive skill to keep him around, Ryan Donato and Karson Kuhlman proved that they belong in the Kraken lineup regularly, and Kole Lind and Morgan Geekie still have upside.
The reason I wonder about H. Fleury is because of what a rough season he had. He played just 36 games and was either health bombed or injured for the other 46.
Andy Eide: I agree, there is a strong case to be made for bringing everyone back. Donato had a career year, played up and down the lineup, and so far loves Seattle. He’s the biggest no-doubter of the group and while its very likely all of these guys get their qualifying offer, there are a couple questions.
Haydn Fleury probably will get an offer, but he had a tough season and was healthy scratched most nights. He had some tough games where he didn’t manage the puck well, and when he finally got a chance to play regularly at the end of the year, he immediately was injured. Rough timing, but he’s a guy who makes the most of all the RFA’s and could appear to be expendable on a crowded blue line.
When Seattle acquired Sprong at the NHL Trade Deadline it felt like he was a veteran body for the Kraken to finish out the season with. He played well, though, and showed that he did indeed have a heavy shot and scored six goals in 16 games. His underlying numbers are decent, but offensively he’s a bit one dimensional. He didn’t have any assists with Seattle and hasn’t been much of a playmaker throughout his career (46 career goals to 24 assists). Not a deal breaker by any stretch but one tiny flag that may get the Kraken thinking. All that being said, it would be a bit surprising if he didn’t get an offer.
John Barr: Of the forward group, Lind, Donato, Geekie, and Kuhlman seem like locks to be qualified and can probably be penciled onto the Kraken roster next year. I think Sprong is the wild card here. He had some moments down the stretch and has some goal scoring capabilities that the team lacked. He does have arbitration rights and can probably get more money than simply a qualifying offer, so the Kraken may pass on qualifying him. I can see Alex True and Carsen Twarynski getting qualified with the plan to start them with the AHL team in Coachella Valley.
On defense, the Kraken will likely qualify Dennis Cholowski and Cale Fleury. These are low-risk decisions for the Kraken since their contracts will be close to the league minimum. Haydn Fleury is the tricky one. He does belong in the NHL but could never get his footing this year and might benefit from a change of scenery.
Josh Horton: I agree with the rest of the Sound Of Hockey triumvirate in that the majority of the Kraken’s pending restricted free agents will re-sign with the team. The organization still needs depth, and it would behoove Ron Francis and company to see what they have in players like Sprong, Geekie, and Lind. Donato proved to be a useful player who can contribute up and down the lineup.
The trickiest one is Haydn Fleury, as was mentioned above. My gut feeling is he’ll be tendered a contract as well. Unless Ryker Evans is ready to contribute at the NHL level right away — or the Kraken make a big splash acquisition to the blue line this offseason — Fleury should be given a chance to prove to Dave Hakstol he’s worthy of staying on the ice and out of the press box as a healthy scratch.
Curtis: With the elder Fleury, I envision a situation where he declines the qualifying offer, and after invoking arbitration, ultimately gets awarded something like $1.75 million. This is well above the salary threshold that could be buried in the AHL. Perhaps the Kraken deem this sum too expensive for a player the coaching staff has treated as the seventh or sometimes eighth defenseman this year. Personally, I like Fleury as a fourth or fifth defenseman, but I don’t think Dave Hakstol agrees. I’ll predict a non-tender here.
I’ll also recklessly predict the team negotiates two-year contracts with Cale Fleury and Ryan Donato. I could imagine the team non-tendering Daniel Sprong, but I wouldn’t really see the logic in that from an asset management perspective, since there is little downside to tendering him.
Far too much consensus on that first offseason question. Let’s see if we can do better…
Setting aside Matty Beniers, is there another Kraken reserve list player that spent a majority of the 2021-22 season outside Seattle that you expect to be a 2022-23 Kraken regular or at least make significant contributions?
Andy: Of the forwards who played in the AHL this year, Kole Lind seems like he has the best shot of making the NHL roster in 2022-23. Lind was recalled late in the year, performed well, and this could be the year he becomes an NHL regular.
Defensively, Ryker Evans will get a legitimate shot at making the team in training camp. He’s inexperienced but is an older draft prospect, turning 21 this year. Evans was noticeable at last fall’s training camp and very well might have ended up in the AHL if the Kraken weren’t splitting their affiliation.
He played with poise, confidence, and has the offensive skill Seattle’s defense could use. There aren’t a lot of obvious open slots on defense, and that may end up costing him at the outset. While he may start in the AHL, it’s reasonable to expect he sees NHL games this season.
Additionally, while not a player already in the system, the team’s upcoming first-round draft pick may end up in the NHL. That is harder to project, unless they end up with the top pick and select Shane Wright, but Francis said he feels there is more than one NHL-ready prospect at the top of the draft.
Darren: I’ll join Andy with what I believe is the most obvious choice here in Evans. Francis said he will get every opportunity to make the team out of camp, and I believe that was genuine. Evans turned a lot of heads in Seattle’s first training camp, then went on to have an outstanding almost-point-per-game season with the WHL’s Regina Pats.
Curtis: I’m going a bit off the board here and will call out recent signee Peetro Seppälä as someone to watch. He’s a 21-year-old defenseman who tallied 8 goals and 21 assists, and was a plus-18, in 57 games for KooKoo in Finland’s Liiga.
By one analytical measure, Liiga is the sixth strongest professional league in the world, ranking above the AHL in terms of competition level. Accordingly, his back-of-the-napkin NHL point equivalency projections compare similarly to Dennis Cholowski’s NHL projections – despite being two-and-a-half years younger than Cholowski – and favorably to Cale Fleury’s projections. Seppälä’s offensive upside makes him an intriguing bottom-of-the-depth-chart complement to the current group.
Unless Seppälä simply dominates training camp, the young Finn will likely begin the year in Coachella Valley because he is waiver-exempt. But Seppälä has demonstrated a skill level that should draw him into the mix for blue line minutes if he can translate his game state-side.
John: Kole Lind seems primed to take a step. He had a good year with the Charlotte Checkers netting 17 goals and 18 assists over 46 games with the AHL club. When he was called up for the Kraken he seemed to get more and more comfortable playing at the NHL level as the season progressed.
Josh: Dennis Cholowski intrigues me quite a bit. The 24-year-old has 18 points in 31 games for AHL Charlotte this season, but has struggled to stick in the NHL with Detroit, Seattle, and Washington — the Capitals claimed him after Seattle initially waived him in October. People also forget that he has 115 games of NHL experience.
I don’t have grand expectations for Cholowski, but the offensive upside is something to monitor.
The feeling is back. It’s a really hard feeling to explain, but it’s like a combination of unbridled joy mixed with existential dread for what you know will likely happen. It’s trying to avoid getting your hopes up, but then something good happens, and suddenly you become primed to have your still-beating heart ripped right out of your chest like that poor fellow in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It’s a miserable but also incredible feeling.
That, my friends, is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That’s having a dog in the fight. That’s what Kraken fans have to look forward to in years to come.
Fandom for a middling team spells misery
On soundofhockey.com, I generally try to limit my “Minnutiae,” as we call it on the SOH Podcast, but I thought new hockey fans, spawned by the arrival of the Seattle Kraken, could get a taste of what it’s like to have a team you love fighting through the toughest tournament in sports. I also thought hardened hockey fans, who have grown up rooting for other teams around the NHL but have now seen their allegiances shift to the Kraken, could relate.
If you know me or you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you know that my pre-Kraken hockey fandom fell squarely on the shoulders of the Wild. I remember jumping, hugging, and crying actual tears of joy in a cold Minnesota basement with a group of high school buddies in 2003. That was when the Wild, just three years into their existence as a franchise, beat Vancouver in Game 7 to qualify for the Western Conference Final.
In that moment, the kid who was hosting our game-watching gathering ripped his shirt off, swung it around his head, and yelled, “We’re going streaking!” Hearing the post-win commotion, that kid’s dad had quietly appeared in the basement without us knowing, and surprised us all by calmly saying, “No you’re not. Put your shirt back on.” We all had a good laugh at that kid’s expense, but he didn’t care. The Wild had pulled off the unthinkable.
Those are the joys and the idiocy the playoffs can bring.
I also remember crying actual tears of sorrow a week later, when Jean-Sebastian Giguere, his enormous pads, and the Anaheim Ducks eliminated the Wild in a four-game sweep.
Those are the lows and the grief the playoffs can bring.
Since that improbable run, the Wild have caused incessant heartache for their fans (and for me), failing to advance beyond the second round for 18 years. Such mediocrity will make even the most optimistic fan actively try to maintain pessimism, even as this year’s team – with its high expectations – enters the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years.
An odd season for existing hockey fans in Seattle
This really has been an odd season for me as a fan, and I’m sure many of you have experienced this. I was such a diehard of the team from my home state, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I could root for another NHL team. But the Kraken are a loveable group, and being so close to them throughout the expansion process and feeling the energy night in and night out at Climate Pledge Arena has made me equally diehard for Seattle. When the Kraken reach the playoffs for the first time, I know that I’ll feel what I’m feeling currently, and perhaps on an even greater scale.
For now, I have the luxury (or the curse?) of finding myself fully back on the Minnesota bandwagon, watching every second of their series against the St. Louis Blues as if the next play could end my life. What will happen if any of the games go to overtime? What if this series goes to a Game 7? I almost can’t bear the thought of those things happening, and just writing this, I feel my palms sweating.
And this is only the first round, for f***’s sake.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a roller coaster of emotions
In Monday’s Game 1, the Wild got spanked 4-0 on home ice. Blues netminder Ville Husso looked cool as a cucumber in his first ever playoff game, becoming the first goalie all season to shutout Minnesota in its home arena. All I could picture for the next two days was Jake Allen backstopping these same Blues to an easy first-round series win over Minnesota in 2016-17. Here we go again, I kept thinking on Tuesday. This stupid team can’t score a goal to save its own life in the playoffs. Here comes another quick first-round exit. I hate this team.
My mood was noticeably rotten between Games 1 and 2. On Wednesday during the day, I was so lethargic and disinterested in doing anything, I didn’t even want to drag myself to the kitchen to serve myself lunch. Eventually I did eat lunch around 3pm but pulling that pre-mixed salad out of the fridge and putting it onto that plate felt like a herculean task.
That night, I was scheduled to watch the second game of the series at fellow SOH contributor John Barr’s house. With every mile I drove closer to John’s abode, I felt this growing sense of impending doom. Like I was heading into a surgery that the doctor had deemed “risky,” and I wasn’t sure if I would wake up on the other side.
The game started, and Minnesota jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. It was close to a no-doubter of a game, save for a few moments in the third period when the Blues had pulled within two goals. In the end, the Wild skated away with an easy 6-2 win and a series tied at 1-1.
Since Wednesday’s game, I’ve been as chipper as a rabbit in springtime. The improvement in my mood can be attributed only to Minnesota’s resounding Game 2 victory. In this moment, I’m completely unaware that these teams will play each other again on Friday night, which could easily send me right back into a spiral of despair. I simply will no longer allow myself to even consider that the end of Minnesota’s season could come as early as Tuesday. After one victory, I’ve gone from feeling ready for the death of my team to scoping out my spot on the Wild’s Stanley Cup victory parade route.
Is this normal? No, but it’s the playoffs. This is what you have to look forward to, Kraken fans.
Goaltending has been a fickle beast for the Seattle Kraken in their inaugural season, and it will remain a fickle beast for at least part of the upcoming offseason.
In the first couple months of play, starter Philipp Grubauer had a tough go, as did backup Chris Driedger, who was often injured and simply didn’t play enough to get into a rhythm. Thankfully for Seattle fans, things turned around for both goalies as the season went along, and in the second half, both backstops have shown much better. Now that they have gotten comfortable in their surroundings, Grubauer and Driedger have each demonstrated that they can provide the consistency needed if Seattle wants to be competitive in 2022-23.
Kraken goaltending has steadily improved since the start of the season. Source: NaturalStatTrick
Meanwhile, the Kraken have a third goalie in Joey Daccord who appears to have a bright future ahead of him. Daccord set a franchise record for the Charlotte Checkers this season with a .925 save percentage and was the AHL’s goaltender of the month in March. In all, he went 19-11-2 for Charlotte in the regular season and posted an impressive 2.28 goals against average in 34 games.
When Driedger was dealing with his early-season injuries, the Kraken had no problem recalling Daccord on several occasions. And while the results weren’t there for Daccord in limited NHL opportunities, he did show that he could be a player at the top level at some point in the next couple of years.
The Kraken were able to call Daccord up and send him back to the AHL at will this season because he did not require waivers. That is to say, Seattle did not need to expose him to other teams in order to assign him to Charlotte.
But here’s where the conundrum comes in. Because Daccord will have completed four pro seasons after 2021-22, his waiver exemption will run out. That means that if Seattle wants to send Daccord to their new AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley at any point next season—which they absolutely will have to do, assuming Grubauer and Driedger are both healthy—they will have to put Daccord up for grabs to the rest of the league.
So, what should the Kraken do with their goalies this offseason? Here are their three most obvious options (and no, we don’t foresee Grubauer and his $5.9 million cap hit and no-trade clause going anywhere).
Option 1: Trade Joey Daccord
You never want to lose an asset for nothing, and putting Daccord on waivers when the Kraken break training camp in early October could lead to that very thing happening. So, trading Daccord feels like a real possibility.
Does Daccord have trade value, though? He has been outstanding at the AHL level, especially this season, which makes us think there’s something there.
But we also think of Kaapo Kahkonen, who was traded from Minnesota to San Jose at the NHL Trade Deadline. In 2019-20, Kahkonen had a similar season to what Daccord is having now and was ultimately named the AHL’s goalie of the year. The difference is that when Kahkonen was dealt this season, he had already proven himself as a capable NHL goalie and had started 23 games for the Wild in 2021-22 alone. He went 12-8-3 and posted a .910 save percentage and 2.87 goals against average before the trade.
Packaged with a fifth-round pick, Kahkonen brought back Jacob Middleton, a depth defender who has played a fairly significant role for Minnesota.
Our point in talking about the Kahkonen trade is that we think Kahkonen is the closest recent comparable for Daccord in terms of determining trade value. But even that is not a perfect proxy, as Kahkonen has shown he’s fully NHL ready, while Daccord still appears to be about a year away.
So, would Daccord fetch any real value on the trade market? If anything, we could see him bringing back another mid-round draft pick, but until he starts to solidify himself as an NHL player, we think that’s about the ceiling.
Option 2: Trade Chris Driedger
Trading Driedger is another option and would bring more of a return for Seattle. After all, he is a proven NHL netminder and could even theoretically be a starter for a team in need. Remember, he was originally brought to the Kraken to be the starter before general manager Ron Francis learned he could get Grubauer as a free agent.
Of course, moving Driedger would indicate that the Kraken are prepared to go ahead with Grubauer playing the vast majority of games next season, while Daccord would serve as his backup. Thus, Francis and company would be anointing Daccord as an NHL-ready goalie, even though he still only has one win in 11 career NHL starts. If Grubauer gets injured for any significant stretch next season, that would be a ton of responsibility to thrust upon Daccord.
That may not be the best thing for Daccord’s development either, because at 25 years old, he needs to be playing plenty of games. Serving as a true backup doesn’t feel like the right fit.
Still, if the team thinks Daccord is ready for that kind of role, then Driedger and his $3.5 million cap hit could garner some interest on the market, especially after he righted his own personal ship in the last couple months of this season. Making this option a tad more challenging, Driedger has a modified no-trade clause that will allow him to submit a list of 10 teams for which he does not wish to play.
Option 3: Roll the dice
We don’t particularly like either of the first two options, but we especially don’t like the third option here, which is to roll the dice and enter training camp with all three netminders in the fold.
Here’s why this may end up being the route the Kraken take, though. If Seattle does not think Daccord is ready to be the full-time backup for Grubauer, they may opt to put him on waivers and try to get him to the AHL to start for the Firebirds. That of course exposes Daccord to other NHL teams, but any team that claims him would then theoretically have the same problem, unless that team is ready to keep him in the NHL.
As we saw this season with Dennis Cholowski, Austin Czarnik, and Alex Barre-Boulet, it is completely within the realm of possibility that Daccord gets claimed out of camp and spends some time on another NHL team but eventually gets waived again. In that scenario, the Kraken could theoretically re-claim him and put him back in the AHL without waivers.
There’s also the possibility that if the Kraken don’t view Daccord as being NHL ready, then the rest of the league would feel the same and simply allow him to clear waivers the first time.
Whether it’s Daccord or somebody else, the Kraken will need somebody to be their starter in the AHL, and it would make sense to continue to develop the guy they know. So maybe they just stay the course and hope they can keep Daccord, although this route feels like a pretty big gamble.
What should Seattle do?
This is tough. We love Daccord and Driedger and would hate to see either of them go. But we would especially hate to see Daccord go for nothing. None of these options are ideal, but we are of the mindset that Francis should put both Daccord and Driedger on the market over the summer and just see what types of offers come back. Then he can make an informed decision about how to proceed into next season.
Seattle Kraken coach Dave Hakstol walked into a packed media room at Kraken Community Iceplex on Monday, looked at the many reporters and cameras that had assembled there, and said wryly, “Looks like everyone is excited for Game 73.” When general manager Ron Francis walked into the room a few minutes later, he shared a similar sentiment to Hakstol, joking, “This is more media than [at the NHL Trade] Deadline.” Was anticipation for Tuesday’s largely meaningless game in Calgary the reason for all the media attention on this random Monday morning in April? Perhaps. But the more likely explanation for the sudden local sports spotlight was the arrival of No. 2 overall draft pick, Matty Beniers, who made his debut in Kraken colors at Monday’s practice.
The on-ice session, which was open to the public, had a different kind of buzz than most practices for the Kraken this season. Although open practices have always been well attended, the bleachers were filled to the brim for this one, as late-arriving fans wandered around trying to squeeze themselves into the few remaining spots on benches. Meanwhile, team employees assembled in bunches around the office windows that overlook the primary practice rink, hoping to get their first in-person glimpse of Seattle’s prized prospect.
When Beniers finally stepped on the ice, a loud cheer rose up through the crowd. He spent the next 45 minutes participating in line rushes and power play walkthroughs, and doing all the things that an NHL player does during an NHL practice.
In those rushes, Beniers centered a line between NHL All-Star Jordan Eberle and fellow Boston-area native, Ryan Donato, with whom Matty already has familiarity.
“[Eberle] is a great player. I was fortunate to be out there with him,” Beniers said with a chuckle. “It’s pretty cool, obviously, coming from college and you’re right out there… I also played with Ryan Donato too out there, and I kind of grew up with him a little bit. He was always around, and I’d work out with him, so it’s really nice to have him by my side too because he’s a familiar face, and I’m pretty comfortable with him.”
When will Beniers make his NHL debut?
Hakstol played it coy on whether Beniers would make his NHL debut during the team’s road trip to Calgary and Winnipeg and urged that expectations be tempered for the 19-year-old. “Let’s just slow down,” Hakstol said. “My big thing for [Beniers] is to be able to come into our dressing room, become comfortable in that environment with his teammates, work hard every day, and enjoy the process of adjusting to this level.”
Still, all signs seem to be pointing toward a debut on Tuesday against the Flames, as Beniers himself confirmed that his family will be in attendance for that contest.
Whether that first game does come on Tuesday or some other night, Beniers thinks he will be ready for the challenge and excitement of the moment. “I don’t think I’ll have a ton of nerves,” he said. “I think once the game starts, it’s hockey. I’ve been doing it for my whole life, so once you kind of get on the ice and the game starts to get going, you really forget about it.”
Francis recalled his own very hectic first week as an NHL player, in which he bounced back and forth between the OHL and the NHL, and confirmed the team has no intention of doing anything like that to their young blue chipper. “We want to make sure we give him every opportunity to be successful,” Francis said. “You grow up your whole life dreaming about playing in the National Hockey League, and you only get that one opportunity to play your first game, so I’m sure he’ll be excited about it. We’re looking forward to having him wearing that Kraken jersey No. 10 and seeing him out on the ice.”
Other practice tidbits
+ Haydn Fleury was present and accounted for at practice, but was wearing a red non-contact jersey and a tinted visor. Fleury has not played since Seattle’s March 22 win against the Arizona Coyotes.
+ Kraken team dog, Davy Jones, also came out to celebrate the arrival of Beniers. Davy has officially grown up way too fast.
+ Hakstol was asked about the play of Karson Kuhlman, who has carved out a consistent lineup spot for himself since returning from injury a month ago. The Kraken coach heaped high praise on the hard-working forward. “He’s the epitome of an every-dayer. And that’s the best compliment I can pay any player. He shows up and he works and he does his job and he does it very very well day in and day out. He’s a guy that you can play in a lot of different situations. He’s very reliable defensively, but not just because he’s defending. He’s a guy that can get you out of your zone and make the guys on the other side have to defend.”
Be Alison. That was the most useful piece of advice that Alison Lukan received before going on the air for the Seattle Kraken’s game against the Washington Capitals on March 5. It was so important, in fact, that she wrote it down in a notebook and made sure to review it before hitting the airwaves for the first time in her temporary capacity as color commentator.
Lukan had never done color commentary before that game, and as she looks back on the experience, it’s just another unexpected high point in a wild roller coaster of a season.
A meteoric rise
Eight months ago, Lukan was in Columbus, Ohio, doing freelance writing on a variety of topics. Hockey was one of those topics, but not the only one, and while she knew that she would be continuing her writing career in some way, she wasn’t sure if she would be doing much hockey work during the 2021-22 season.
Never in her wildest dreams did she think that by fall of 2021, she would be a regular on a TV broadcast in the Pacific Northwest. And yet, here she is, charming a wider audience than she ever could have imagined and doing so by simply being herself and using her own voice.
“It’s not something I had ever thought about,” Lukan said. “It’s not something I had ever put on my radar as being even possible. So, there has been a lot of learning on the fly, and there has been a lot of, ‘Holy crap! Did we just do that?’”
A whirlwind season
After spending ten years in the Columbus hockey scene demonstrating a unique ability to deliver advanced statistics in an easily digestible way, the Kraken came calling. That’s when Lukan’s world changed.
“It’s literally a dream,” Lukan said. “It is a dream to be part of a franchise from day one. It is a dream to be part of a franchise that is doing things differently.”
Kraken senior producer Bob Condor was the driving force in recruiting Lukan to join the team’s budding digital media department. She figured she’d come in, continue to provide her distinctive stats-driven commentary on Seattle’s digital platforms, and that would be the extent of her participation.
But Condor had bigger ideas for Lukan.
“It was Bob who said, ‘Hey, do you want to do a screentest?’” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘What does that mean?’ And we end up going out to ROOT Sports, and [executive producer] Jon Bradford there ran my screentest. I didn’t know what I was getting into.”
Alison Lukan presented the “Starbucks Community Star” for the Kraken on March 16. (Photo/Sound Of Hockey).
At the screentest, Lukan learned how some of the basic broadcasting technology worked and how to interact with a producer speaking to her through an earpiece. Bradford then had her do a dry run, commenting on a Vegas Golden Knights playoff game from last season as a sample intermission segment.
Unsurprisingly, Lukan passed the test with flying colors.
“We had conversations and said, ‘Let’s give this a shot,’” she remembered. “Our first game was the preseason game against Vancouver, and I’ve never had to think about hockey as fast as that or been as crazy tired after. It was just— ignorance is bliss to go in and do it, but it was a blast, and we were off from there.”
Aside from helping her through the screentest, it was also Bradford who eventually gave Lukan the advice to be herself on air, a quality that has helped make her sound natural and engaging on broadcasts.
An unexpected turn
At the beginning of March, Lukan was visiting friends in Washington, D.C., and was planning to meet up with the Kraken when they began their two-week road trip with a game against the Capitals. She received an unexpected phone call from Seattle’s senior vice president of marketing, Katie Townsend, asking if she might be interested in filling in for color commentator, J.T. Brown. Brown had landed in COVID protocol and was no longer able to travel with the team.
Considering she had never done television in any form prior to the season, jumping all the way into an NHL broadcast booth to do live color commentary was a massive leap for Lukan. But she knew she had the right people in place to guide her through.
“It was only because I know the caliber of the team at ROOT that they would take care of me and help prepare me.”
Lukan also knew she wouldn’t be alone in the booth and would have a legendary play-by-play announcer to help her out. “If you have the opportunity to work with someone like John Forslund, he is going to shepherd you through the process. He’s going to cover up every mistake you make, and you’d be foolish to pass up an opportunity to stand alongside him anywhere professionally.”
One area in which Lukan knew she needed help was with players’ numbers. With such a short time to prepare, she did not have all the numbers committed by the start of her first game in the booth. But Forslund—the consummate pro that he is—certainly did know them and was able to smoothly cover any gaps in the commentary.
Though Forslund did assist Lukan by nudging the on-air discussion around a couple small hiccups, he raved about the work that she did. “Working with Alison was fantastic,” Forslund said. He wasn’t surprised that she filled the role with such grace, despite the circumstances. “Her love for the game has been evident for a long time. She has connected with our fans in a new market because of this, and in a new role as game analyst the transition was seamless. I enjoyed our time together, but most importantly our fans benefitted from her talents.”
A feeling of gratitude
Lukan knows that her rapid rise into the public eye here in Seattle is something that few get to experience, and she’s grateful to those who have helped her through it. From her ROOT Sports producer, Scott Malone, to Forslund, to Brown, to Condor, to Bradford, to rinkside reporter Jen Mueller, Lukan knows a lot of people have supported her and helped her earn the trust of the fledgling fanbase. Heck, even the fans themselves have been instrumental in telling Lukan what information they need from her.
“The fans in Seattle and of the Seattle Kraken are incredible. I love how they’re willing to advocate for themselves when they need more information or when they have the information to have intelligent discussion.”
She also has an even deeper respect now for the work that Brown does in the color commentator role. “I have been blown away by J.T.,” she said. “I think that particularly when you compare his commentary to other former players on television, I am impressed with his ability to go beyond the ‘get pucks deep’ and ‘fight hard’ and all of the cliches. He really gives us a window into what players are thinking about and what they are doing.”
Now that she’s finished her four-game stint filling in for Brown, Lukan has happily returned to her more regular roles doing intermission analysis and digital content. She has no intention of ever becoming a full-time color commentator, but then again, she never expected to be on TV in the first place. Regardless, she will never forget the experience.
“I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was a blast, and I’m just so thankful I had the opportunity to do those four games.”
Lukan is living proof that being yourself can lead you to opportunities you never thought were possible.
