The Seattle Kraken got their guy. On Tuesday the team announced that Jared McCann had signed a five-year contract extension that will pay him an average of $5 million per season. Barring a trade, the deal will keep McCann in Seattle through the 2026-27 season. It is the first contract extension ever to be signed by a Kraken player.
With an expanded role, McCann has had a breakout season in this inaugural Seattle campaign and leads the team in both goals (21) and points (33). His 21 goals represent a career high for him, and the team still has 23 games left to play, so his stats could certainly increase before the end of the season.
His impressive year made some wonder if McCann and his agent, Joe Resnick, would be looking for the type of deal that could cause negotiations to drag on. But the 25-year-old forward continued to indicate that he was very happy with Seattle and the opportunities he was getting.
General manager Ron Francis said there had been conversations about an extension between the team and Resnick throughout the season and that the dialogue picked up steam just before the All-Star break. “Working with Joe and Jared was never contentious,” Francis said Tuesday. “It was always having the open, honest discussions, and getting to the point we felt that both sides were covered with the deal. That’s why it got done the way that it did.”
The extension shows that the Kraken view McCann as part of their core as they continue to build out the franchise. “It sends a message,” Francis said. “Certainly in Jared’s case, he’s excited to be in Seattle, excited—as a lot of our players are—the way the ownership and management treats the players. [They’re] excited about the passionate fanbase and the city itself and want to be here as we build this thing and become more and more successful.”
McCann himself seems thrilled to have some security. “It’s a lot of pressure off my shoulders,” McCann said of the extension. “I can just focus on playing hockey, and obviously it’s a huge honor to get that deal and to be a part of this for the future.”
Sound Of Hockey reaction
We’ve seen fans in the Kraken Twittersphere calling on Francis to get a deal done with McCann, who has proven to be arguably the best find of the entire Expansion Draft. What sometimes gets lost, though, is that a player going to RFA status has very few options, and the team holds most of the leverage in those scenarios. With the very few options available to a player in RFA status, we knew a McCann extension would get done at some point. The question was always simply about the term and money needed to complete the transaction.
We also believed from talking to McCann on several occasions that he was not interested in a knockdown, drag-out type of negotiation. He always seemed to be very happy in the Pacific Northwest and genuinely thankful to be getting consistent top-line minutes for the first time in his career.
As far as the number is concerned, five years at $5 million is a perfect landing spot. It shows a long-term commitment by the club but doesn’t hamstring Francis or preclude him from going after high-end free agents in the offseason. From McCann’s point of view, it gives him the security that has been lacking in his career—this is technically his fifth NHL organization, though he never played a game for Toronto—and is a nice, deserved raise from the $2.94 million AAV that his current contract is paying him.
We love this deal, we love this player, and we are pleased that this got done well in advance of any possible offseason drama.
With the NHL All-Star break in the rearview mirror, we thought it would be a good time for a roundtable discussion to get the staff’s takes on the biggest surprises and disappointments and the favorite on- and off-ice moments of this inaugural Seattle Kraken season.
We also want to welcome Curtis (Curtiz?) Isacke to the team, as he will be contributing around these parts moving forward. We are pumped to have him helping out!
Ok, let’s get to it.
Biggest Surprise
Darren Brown: I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the play of Ryan Donato this season. After being cast off from three different organizations including not being tendered a qualifying offer by the Sharks last season, this was a real “prove it” campaign for the 25-year-old winger.
Ryan Donato is pacing to have a career year with the Seattle Kraken. (Photo/Brian Leisse)
After being a healthy scratch in the early stages of the season, he’s played himself into a solid role, done everything asked of him, and has notched a respectable nine goals and seven assists in 41 games. He will again be a restricted free agent after this season, but I would be surprised if the Kraken were to follow San Jose’s lead in not giving him a qualifying offer.
Andy Eide: Mine could probably fit in the “disappointment” category, but the fact that Joonas Donskoi has one goal and needed 44 games to get it is a surprise. ‘Baffling’ might be a better word than ‘surprising.’ Donskoi has scored double-digit goals in each of his last four seasons, and you would have penciled him in for seven or eight by this point. This isn’t a diss on him since he’s contributed in a number of other areas. He has 14 assists which is the same he had last season in Colorado. He’s been a monster on the penalty kill and is driving play.
It’s also not like he didn’t create chances in the first half. He’s had a number of near misses, great goalie saves against, and some bad luck.
With half a season to go, hopefully the goal he scored in Boston will open up the floodgates. He’s always been a streaky scorer, but nobody could have foreseen it taking 40-plus games for him to find a goal.
Curtis Isacke: If I’m being honest in my initial reaction to this prompt, my biggest “surprise” is the same as Darren’s answer to the question about the biggest disappointment (stay tuned).
But, in terms of a “pleasant” surprise, I’ll stretch a bit and go with the early returns on the Kraken’s first amateur draft class. Second overall pick centerman Matty Beniers is tied for seventh in goals scored and fouth in points in all of Division I NCAA hockey. Elite Prospects recently ranked him as the second most valuable forward based on a broad (but not complete) dataset of NCAA Division I hockey prospects, delivering solid play-driving analytics on offense and defense, and measuring as truly elite in the transition game.
Second-round defenseman Ryker Evans leads all WHL defenders in scoring and looks capable of providing the offensive defenseman and power play quarterback projection Seattle Kraken management put on him–despite many furrowed brows among media and analysts–on draft day.
Third-round forward Ryan Winterton missed several weeks with injury, but has tallied seven goals and nine assists in eight games since returning to the Hamilton Bulldogs. While the sample size is still small, the two-point-per-game pace is second in the OHL. And, even beyond those three, there are some strong performances farther down the board too. For example, seventh-round goaltender Semyon Vyzaovoi is third in his 33-team Russian junior league (MHL) in save percentage (among goaltenders with more than 15 starts).
John Barr: This is a little off the board, but I am going with the free agent signing of Marcus Johansson. He has been one of the more versatile forwards on the team and has played up and down the lineup. Johansson is steady and reliable no matter where he plays. Sure, he is not flashy, but the team has needed him to backfill all over this lineup as injuries and COVID raged through the roster. Like Donato, he was a late free agent signing on a reasonable salary, and I have appreciated his contributions.
Biggest Disappointment
DB: I can’t believe the organization had to play the “team puppy” card this early on. To me, that’s a card that is reserved for the most desperate of times, but with the team in last place, the Kraken apparently determined that the situation was dire enough that it called for the introduction of Davy Jones. *Author’s note: Please understand I am only kidding and got to boop Davy on Tuesday, and he is the cutest.
Ok, but seriously… It’s impossible to overlook what has happened in the Kraken goalcrease. After Philipp Grubauer signed his big free-agent deal, we truly believed that with Chris Driedger already in the fold, Seattle would have one of the top tandems in the NHL. Obviously, things haven’t played out this way in the first half of this season, but recent returns have been far more favorable. Let’s hope that continues in the second half, and those two can build something positive going into next season.
Philipp Grubauer has shown improved play of late. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
CI: I agree with Darren that Grubauer’s play has been the most notable player disappointment on the Kraken. I was a bit nervous in the offseason when the team committed so much of its cap space to two goaltenders, given the inherent variability of goaltender performance. I talked myself into the signing a bit on the premise that the team understood the studies and signed two goaltenders coming off of stellar seasons in order to create redundancy and better protect them against a regression. Saying all of that, I’m bewildered by Seattle’s goaltender performance overall, and in particular the play of Grubauer. I was concerned that the goalie situation might be overpriced but average in production. Never did I consider that at the unofficial halfway mark, Grubauer would have registered the single worst goaltender season in the league by some advanced and standard metrics.
But he is hardly alone in returning disappointing on-ice play in the first half. In fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that every aspect of the team, aside from even-strength team defense, has fallen short of expectations. And Darren has already covered Grubauer.
So, I’ll go “off the board” again and say this: It’s a shame that this inaugural season has been impacted by COVID, leaving many people I know nervous or unwilling to go out and see a Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena. Everything about the experience is phenomenal, but I sense there is a certain unrestrained jubilance missing. I really hope we can get back to that place within the next year (or at least sometime?).
AE: There was a lot of speculation as to who would be the breakout player for the Kraken. Which guy would emerge with a bigger chance and explode to career highs because of it? Through the first 30 games it looked like that was going to be Brandon Tanev. He was the high-energy player, the fan favorite, and was on pace to set a new career high in goals. Tanev was even a must-see during pre-game warmups.
Then he got injured to the point where his season was done. Not only were the Kraken robbed of a productive player, but the city lost its first face of the franchise, one that brought cheers from the Climate Pledge Arena crowd with every mad dash down the ice.
JB: He is one of my favorite players on the team, but I was expecting a breakout season for Morgan Geekie. We have been tracking Geekie for some time and know what he can do on the ice, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. He had a big goal in the opening game in Vegas and appeared to be a scoring threat that the Kraken desperately needed this season. Since that opener, he only has two goals in 39 games and has been given a reduced role as of late with a couple games as a healthy scratch.
I still like Geekie’s potential, but he appears to be a season or two away from being that scoring threat we anticipated. At 23, Geekie is the youngest forward on the Kraken’s NHL roster, so he has time.
Favorite on-ice moment
DB: It’s odd to select a moment from pre-season, but the first “home” game in Spokane was something I’ll never forget. The roar of the crowd and the insanely loud “Let’s go, Kraken!” chant as the puck dropped for the first time sent shivers down my spine. I remember looking over at Andy, and saying, “Oh, that gave me chills,” and he said, “Yeah, me too!” What an awesome memory.
JB: I attended the first game in Vegas and the first victory in Nashville, but nothing compares to opening night at home. I had goosebumps all night and may or may not have shed a couple tears that night. The whole event exceeded my expectations, but hearing the throngs of fans cheering for an NHL team in Seattle was something I dreamed about many times. It was literally the moment when my dream came true.
But, like John, there is only one answer for me. It was the night of the inaugural home opener, and the final seconds of a scoreless first period were melting away in a protracted corner puck battle in the Canucks zone. The Kraken were playing well, and the atmosphere was charged in the building, just waiting for a release.
Finally, with about nine seconds remaining, the puck broke free and landed on Joonas Donskoi’s stick. He filtered the puck from low to high (as the Kraken are wont to do), getting it to Adam Larsson at the blue line, who quickly moved it to his partner, Vince Dunn. Dunn rotated a bit to change the angle, deked to shake loose the Canucks player, and snapped a wrist shot past Thatcher Demko. This sent 17,151 Seattleites to a cacophonous nirvana (pun intended).
Yes, I know the Kraken lost that night. But I’ll carry that moment with me for a long time. It’s everything hockey in Seattle can be and will be.
There’s no place like home 🦑
Vince Dunn scored the first-ever goal on home ice for the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena pic.twitter.com/VgoYipdqrP
AE: Just before the break, the Kraken hosted the Florida Panthers at Climate Pledge Arena. Florida was the best team in the league, and there was not a ton of optimism for a Seattle win before the game started. But the Kraken played well, found some greasy goals, and held a 4-3 lead late in the game. The Panthers went to the power play and pulled Sergei Bobrovsky to make it a six-on-four. They peppered Grubauer and the overwhelming feeling was that they were going to tie the game.
Grubauer stood tall, however, including a save on Anthony Duclair who received a cross-ice pass and was on the doorstep with time and space. The net was wide open, and as Duclair took what was going to be a soul-crushing game-tying goal, Grubauer flew across the crease and got his glove on it.
The crowd erupted and may have given the reaction to Dunn’s home opener goal a run for its money in decibel levels. Calle Jarnkrok scored on the empty net and the Kraken won 5-3.
I also really loved the first night Kraken game ops put their full pre-game show together. We got to view the dry run early during morning skate that day, and seeing the players out on the bench taking it in and applauding after was awesome.
CI: To the extent John Forslund isn’t considered “on the ice,” give me Forslund. He’s a true professional and a gentleman, but also one of the most skilled and informative play-by-play broadcasters in the business. It’s hard to overstate his value to this franchise.
As the rest of the ROOT Sports broadcast searched for its footing initially, he was a steadying influence. And now, even on a night when the team is struggling, he’ll provide better entertainment and hockey education than you’ll find anywhere else on your television. Plus, the man can call a goal. We’re lucky to have him. (The rest of the team broadcasters are pretty darn good too. The Kraken have a good thing going on their broadcasts.)
JB: The fish toss after Kraken home victories. That is something unique in Seattle about Seattle. I’ve been to over 20 arenas across the league, and I always love the arenas that do something unique to their city. Nashville, Boston, and Tampa all jump to mind as unique experiences where you know exactly where you are when you are watching a game in those arenas. The CPA experience still needs some development to make it feel like a true Seattle experience, but the fish toss is unique and will never be replicated outside this city.
AE: The Kraken hit a homerun with the opening of the Kraken Community Iceplex. With three rinks, the Iceplex is a hockey gem, right in the city. Yes, it’s the practice rink for the team, but it’s a hockey mecca, the only rinks in city limits, and is more than just a practice facility.
The place is a palace, and no matter what time it is, there are activities and people utilizing it. Public skating, youth hockey, curling, figure skating, and a pub, the Iceplex has everything, and hockey is right at the center of it all. The Kraken promised they were going to help build the sport here and they’re doing that with their practice facility.
Second half bold prediction
DB: I really hope I’m right about this, but both Grubauer and Driedger will be around a .920 save percentage in the second half. Please let me be right about this.
CI: Looking at the ages and contracts on this team, there is only one conclusion: this group of Kraken players is a bridge team. If a player isn’t a core piece that could be around in the next era of Kraken hockey, try to trade him. For the right offer, I’d trade virtually any player not named McCann or Dunn. Of course, there are many Kraken players that are not realistically movable, but any and all marginal candidates should be on the table.
I’m going to recklessly predict three trades: (1) Mark Giordano, (2) one of Calle Jarnkrok or Colin Blackwell, and (3) an additional trade taking on a hefty (but expiring) contract with an extra draft asset attached.
If a “hockey trade” is possible, a realistic target I’d be interested in taking a flyer on is Bruins winger Jake Debrusk (particularly if he gets the Jay Leach stamp of approval that other former Bruins have received).
JB: The Kraken get over 50 percent of the remaining points on the schedule. Driedger and Grubauer have stabilized in net lately. Meanwhile the skaters in front of them have been playing well, going 5-5-0 over the last ten. Once they get Jamie Oleksiak, Carson Soucy, and Jaden Schwartz back from injury, they should finish the season strong.
AE: I have two predictions that may or may not be considered ‘bold.’ First, the Kraken will continue their strong play of late and put together some wins in the second half. They start five points behind the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference standings, and not only will Seattle catch and pass the Blackhawks but will make a run at the Winnipeg Jets, who are nine points ahead.
Second, the Kraken power play, which has been quite bad, is in a 3-for-40 slump. Over the second half they will score at least 10 power-play goals. You heard it here first.
Now it is your turn, what would be your responses to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Maybe it hasn’t quite gone as well as we hoped it would for the Seattle Kraken in their first year. They are not the 2017-18 Vegas Golden Knights—not even close, in fact—and it does look like there is at least a couple-year process that will need to be endured before Seattle can actually ice a contending team. We begrudgingly accept this reality now.
Compared with the lead-up to the season, there is now a lot more clarity about what the organization does and does not have in its grasp. With the All-Star break coming to a close for the Seattle Kraken and the rest of the NHL, this feels like a good time to take stock.
What the Seattle Kraken have
Goaltending
We know, we know! Put down your pitchforks and your torches, folks. We are fully aware that this position has been a massive concern and one of the primary reasons for the team’s struggles this season. But both Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger appear to have turned a corner after a miserable first few months.
Coming in, we expected the goal crease to be a strength for this team, and we still think this will be the case in the longer term. A relatively small sample size of improved play from both netminders over the last month has reinforced this belief, and the team has followed suit by playing well in front of its goalies.
Even if they haven’t turned a corner and regress to playing the way they were both playing earlier in the campaign, Seattle’s top two netminders are signed to significant deals, so this position feels relatively set. Grubauer is under contract through 2026-27 with an average annual cap hit of $5.9 million, while Driedger is signed through 2023-24 at $3.5 million per year.
Grubauer also has a no-trade clause for the first three years and a modified NTC for the next three, so he’s not going anywhere any time soon. Driedger has a modified NTC throughout his deal, so he too has some control over where he can theoretically be traded.
Joey Daccord’s waiver exemption runs out after this season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
We expect that these are the two goalies for this team for the foreseeable future, but there is one wrinkle to consider. Joey Daccord has played well in the AHL and has filled in admirably on a couple of occasions at the NHL level. He’s been a nice insurance policy, because he is currently waiver exempt and can be shuttled back and forth between the Kraken and the Charlotte Checkers without fear of losing him to another NHL club.
The problem is that Daccord’s waiver exemption runs out after this season. So, he will have to pass through waivers if Seattle tries to put him in the AHL at any point during the 2022-23 season. Does general manager Ron Francis want to get ahead of that issue and try to get a return for Daccord? Or does Seattle think Daccord is ready to serve as a cheaper backup to Grubauer next season? If so, maybe Driedger is the guy that gets moved. Either way, put a pin in this one, because it is something that may need addressing by the front office.
A core of solid (but not dazzling) players
The foundation is there for the Kraken. They have a group of players that does things the right way, doesn’t cheat, and battles every night, despite Seattle’s firm footing in last place in the Pacific Division.
Since the early-January break due to COVID issues, the identity of the club has revealed itself, and now Seattle is playing the way we expected from the beginning. The group makes the opposition fight for every inch of ice and is in every game, win or lose.
Jared McCann has already tied his career high for goals. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
There are also forwards that can produce. Jared McCann has proven that he can put the puck in the net consistently and deserves a nice raise, while Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle have pitched in for stretches. The Kraken have gotten contributions from guys like Yanni Gourde, Brandon Tanev, Ryan Donato, and Calle Jarnkrok as well.
Worth noting, Donato (restricted free agent) and Jarnkrok (unrestricted free agent) are on expiring contracts, so whether they remain Kraken beyond 2021-22 is yet to be determined.
Also worth noting, we really like this group of forwards, but if they could play in lower roles, they would each bring Seattle even more value. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Defensive depth
Like goaltending, the Kraken entered the season expecting to have a practically impermeable blue line. It was downright leaky in the early going, though, with turnover after turnover ending up in the back of Seattle’s net.
But recent returns have been far more favorable, with Wednesday’s 3-0 shutout of the New York Islanders serving as a prime example. That night, there was almost nothing getting through to Grubauer that created much danger, and odd-man rushes were almost non-existent for New York. Of course, the Isles are a defensive team that has struggled mightily this season, but still, it was a solid defensive effort by the whole group.
In the first three months of the season, the Kraken owned just 47.53 percent of the expected goals for (xGF), meaning they were giving up more defensively than they were generating offensively. They were 24th in the league in this category during that period. Since the early-January break, however, they have generated 52.46 percent of the xGF, good for 13th in the league over that stretch.
From a personnel standpoint, the season-long rotation on the bottom pair, featuring Haydn Fleury, Will Borgen, Jeremy Lauzon, and—to a lesser extent—Carson Soucy has made for interesting storylines about who will and will not be in the lineup each game. Up until this last week, it had also meant that even as injuries and illnesses popped up for the Kraken, they hadn’t needed to look to the AHL for defensive stopgaps.
With Jamie Oleksiak, Soucy, and Borgen all out at the same time, Cale Fleury was the first AHL defenseman recalled and performed admirably alongside his brother in two games for the Kraken. The fact it took 44 games for the Kraken to use an AHL defenseman does speak to the team’s depth in that spot.
Again, one month of positive play is a relatively small sample size. It’s also possible that Mark Giordano gets moved prior to the trade deadline, which would put a serious dent in the blue line. Still, the xGF stat is a promising indicator that the early struggles were fixable and not necessarily a matter of personnel. With all that in mind, we maintain that the Kraken do, in fact, have defensive depth.
What the Seattle Kraken need
Top-end skill
Don’t get us wrong, we love the trio of Eberle, Schwartz, and McCann, and we’re hopeful that McCann’s contract extension will be a long one. But what if Schwartz and Eberle were wings on Seattle’s second line, with McCann skating on the top group with some combination of players that features Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, and/or Tomas Hertl?
Filip Forsberg is expected to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Even one of those players would change the whole makeup of Seattle’s forward lineup and give Eberle and/or Schwartz more favorable matchups, while pushing players better suited for depth and checking roles into those positions.
We know, free agency is scary, and getting one (or two?) of the best unrestricted free agents on the market is both risky and costly. But Seattle has a lot going for it, from the cap space to the sparkling new facilities, so luring top talent is a legitimate possibility.
Recognizing the risks, landing a top free agent or two this offseason would be the fastest way to jumpstart this organization on its path to contention.
Organizational depth
The times that Seattle has had to call up help from the AHL this season have revealed just how shallow its current pool of players is. This should marginally improve next season, as the Kraken will have their own AHL affiliate with the inception of the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They’re likely going to have to sign a bunch of career AHLers and tweeners to fill out the inaugural roster, though, as they still won’t have much of a prospect cupboard from which to draw.
Building real organizational depth will take several years of drafting and developing players.
That brings us to the next obvious need for Seattle…
A prospect pool
Ryker Evans had an outstanding training camp for the Kraken. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Seattle’s top-three picks in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft are all looking like good choices, based on early returns.
Matty Beniers is having another excellent season at Michigan with 36 points in 28 games and is now in China to compete in the Olympics.
Ryker Evans had a great training camp with the Kraken and has 43 points in 39 games on the blue line for the Regina Pats of the WHL. He scored a banger on Sunday, by the way.
Ryan Winterton has returned from a long injury hiatus and has 16 points in just eight games for the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
So, there are some players there, but three guys under 20 years old is not a prospect pool. Getting another lottery pick in the 2022 draft would certainly help, but it may behoove the organization to acquire some young, waiver-exempt prospects that are further along in the development process.
The Kraken are in a decent spot
While there are some glaring holes in the existing NHL roster and throughout the organization, Seattle has done a good job of building a foundation for the future. There’s plenty of salary cap flexibility, and the current group is creating an identity as a team that is hard to play against and skates with every team in the NHL.
Sure, some more wins would be nice, but at this point, the best-case scenario for this inaugural season is to win enough to keep the fans interested down the stretch, while also losing enough to stay in contention for a top-three pick in the 2022 draft.
Regardless of if Seattle lands another top pick, there is a pathway to success in the relative near future for this fledgling franchise.
If hindsight is 20/20, then foresight is a superpower. The Seattle Kraken are firmly planted in last place in the Pacific Division and look like a more traditional expansion team than many expected. With that in mind, there have been a lot of folks trying to figure out where the team’s front office went wrong with the work it did in building the inaugural roster.
While we’re disappointed that things have gone sideways in this first season, we always knew this was a possibility. Assembling a group of mostly spare parts from other teams could have produced a winner, as it did in Vegas, but with so many unknowns entering 2021-22, we were braced for a tough on-ice start for the franchise. Sadly, that is what we’ve gotten, as any cautious optimism has been quashed.
In hindsight, we’re thankful that the Kraken front office had the foresight to also recognize that a bad first season was plausible. We still believe general manager Ron Francis and his staff built a good foundation for sustained success in the future, but they also were clever in leaving themselves an escape hatch in case this first season didn’t pan out the way they hoped.
That escape hatch came in the form of selecting players with minimal term left on their respective contracts and signing free agents to one-year deals. As it stands currently, the Kraken only have 15 players under contract for 2022-23, including those on their taxi squad and those with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. That number does not include the 10 players set to become restricted free agents, with whom the Kraken have exclusive negotiating rights, assuming they extend qualifying offers.
For context, NHL teams are allowed to give out up to 50 contracts at any one time, so even if they sign all 10 of their RFA’s to extensions, the Kraken still would only be halfway to the maximum number of allowable contracts.
Also worth taking into account, the Kraken currently share their AHL affiliate with the Florida Panthers. The Coachella Valley Firebirds are supposed to begin play in 2022-23 and are expected to be the exclusive AHL affiliate of the Kraken, so many more players will have to be added to the system in the relative near future.
With all this in mind, the Kraken are poised to look drastically different in 2022-23, as the front office has a mountain of decisions to make in the coming months. We figured this would be as good a time as any to look at the current roster and get an idea of which players could return next season and which could be on the move.
Players under contract
Let’s get this group out of the way quickly. These are the players that are under contract through next season and are currently on the Kraken’s NHL roster. Assuming no trades of these players, they are expected to still be Kraken in 2022-23.
Not currently on the NHL roster are Luke Henman, whose contract expires after 2023-24, and Joey Daccord, who is signed through next season. Both of those players will become RFA’s after their contracts end.
Unrestricted free agents
Here’s where decision making will have to come sooner rather than later for the Kraken brass. There are five players on the team’s current NHL roster that are set to become unrestricted free agents after this season. If the Kraken don’t re-sign these players before free agency officially opens in July, they are free to sign anywhere they want.
Do any of these players offer enough value to contending teams to fetch trade offers prior to the March 21 trade deadline? Do the Kraken want these players back after this season? If so, is there mutual interest from these individuals in continuing their respective tenures in deep-sea blue sweaters?
It’s just our hunch, but with the team struggling as much as it has, we would expect Francis to listen to any offers he receives on what would be rental players for other teams.
Mark Giordano
Current cap hit: $6,750,000
Surely the Kraken wouldn’t name a captain in their first season, only to trade him at the deadline, would they?
Well, if one player can bring value on the rental market, it’s Giordano. He’s a former Norris Trophy winner, he’s a leader, and he does the kinds of things teams salivate over for deep playoff runs. We also knew all along that with his age, his captaincy would be relatively short lived, even if he ended up playing in Seattle beyond this season.
One challenge is that Giordano has a modified no-trade clause, so he will have some control over where he goes. Still, at 38 years old, we have to think he would be open to a move to a contending team.
Calle Jarnkrok
Current cap hit: $2,000,000
Two-way forward, Calle Jarnkrok, 30, had a tough start to his Kraken tenure. He began the season by getting COVID-19, then went without a single point in his first 12 games. He finally broke out with a goal and an assist on Nov. 21 against Washington, only to get injured the following game against Carolina and miss two more weeks.
Jarnkrok has turned it on of late, though. He looks like a different player now and has averaged a point per game over Seattle’s last nine contests. He could end up having a pretty good statistical season if he can stay healthy, especially if coach Dave Hakstol continues playing him with Yanni Gourde.
He also has 63 career playoff games under his belt with Nashville, so with his affordable cap hit, we think teams could inquire about Jarnkrok.
Marcus Johansson
Current cap hit: $1,500,000
Marcus Johansson was one of those later-in-the-summer free agent signings by the Kraken, as they looked to fill out the rest of their roster prior to training camp.
On a one-year deal, we saw Johansson as a depth addition at the time. But the veteran forward has played a more significant role than we anticipated, including getting plenty of power play time—he’s been a big contributor as the net-front guy—and playing in the top six for a lot of the season.
Johansson has 97 career playoff games, and folks seem to remember his impressive performance during Boston’s 2018-19 Stanley Cup Final run, when he had 11 points in 22 games.
Still, despite getting plenty of opportunity, Johansson only has nine points on the season. So, will we see him back in a Kraken uniform next year?
This one could go either way. If Seattle can get him back on a similar contract for another year or two, we think they’d take him. But we also think Francis will be able to replace Johansson if other teams come calling, or if they can’t find a team-friendly extension.
Colin Blackwell
Current cap hit: $725,000
Forward Colin Blackwell had something of a breakout season with the Rangers in 2020-21, registering 12 goals and 10 assists in 47 games. That led to his selection by the Kraken in the Expansion Draft.
He has had a similar first half to Jarnkrok, though. He started the season on injured reserve after missing all of training camp with a nagging lower-body injury. He then got COVID and missed most of December. He also has found himself in the press box as a healthy scratch on several occasions, but now on the line with Jarnkrok and Gourde, Blackwell seems to have found a home.
We don’t expect too many callers for Blackwell at the deadline. But if he can continue to build and be a regular player on a contributing line, we don’t see why the Kraken wouldn’t bring Blackwell back, especially if they can get him for around $1 million.
Riley Sheahan
Current cap hit: $850,000
Depth forward Riley Sheahan has been exactly what we expected him to be. A good soldier and a responsible two-way center, Sheahan plays a simple and quintessential fourth-line game. There are probably players out there with more offensive upside that can replace Sheahan, but it doesn’t hurt the Kraken to keep him around beyond this season.
He did pass through waivers and had a brief stint in the AHL this season as well, so if anything, he can provide some veteran leadership to the Firebirds in 2022-23.
Max McCormick
Current cap hit: $750,000
Max McCormick is another player like Riley Sheahan. He has filled in well on the fourth line when given the opportunity, but there isn’t a ton of offensive upside. He’s in a similar spot to Sheahan in that he has played his role admirably, but if he doesn’t return, there are other players out there that can replace him.
Restricted free agents
With restricted free agents, the Kraken hold most of the cards. Assuming Seattle wants these guys back, it can keep them; it’s just a matter of how long and for what price.
To keep their rights, Seattle just has to extend qualifying offers to these players. This means something equal to or higher than their previous salary, with some slight variations in the rules depending on what they made before.
The player can either reject or accept the qualifying offer, but once the qualifying offer is made, the player can really only sign with Seattle.
All of the Kraken players set to become RFA’s do have arbitration rights, but even if negotiations get to that point, it becomes guaranteed that a deal will get done for one more year. Arbitration hearings are rare, as most negotiations get settled before getting to that contentious stage.
Here are the players that will be RFA’s after this season:
Jared McCann
From this list, we want to focus on a few individuals, with the first being Jared McCann. Talk about a guy who has flourished with an expanded role, McCann appears to be the steal of the Expansion Draft for the Kraken. He has already set a career high for goals and has more than three months of hockey left to play in this campaign. He leads the Kraken in that category and is nipping at Jordan Eberle’s heels for the team scoring lead.
McCann was already getting paid relatively well, but what if he stays healthy and pots 30 goals this season? What kind of a number could he command from Seattle to keep him around long term?
Working in Seattle’s favor on this front, McCann seems to love it here. Every time we ask him about what this season has meant, he gushes over how much he appreciates the opportunities he’s gotten. With this in mind, we’re confident Francis will be able to keep McCann around for years to come. We just wonder how much he’ll have to pony up to get the budding star to remain here beyond next season.
Morgan Geekie, Mason Appleton, Jeremy Lauzon
We believe these three will be extended, and none of them should break the bank. They’ve all played admirably in their roles and have solidified themselves as regular players for the Kraken. We like Geekie’s offensive upside, Appleton’s two-way play, and Lauzon’s physicality.
Ryan Donato
The case of Ryan Donato is an interesting one. We spoke to him before the season about the bumps in the road that he had experienced in his pro hockey career, and how Seattle could provide an opportunity for him to finally take a big step forward.
He has seized that opportunity for the most part and has earned Hakstol’s trust as an every-day player. Donato is on pace to set career marks in pretty much every category, including games played, goals, and points. After bouncing from Boston to Minnesota to San Jose, we think Donato may have found a home in Seattle for the foreseeable future. Keep an eye on this one, though.
Haydn Fleury
Unless something changes with his usage in the second half of the season, we wonder if Haydn Fleury could be moved either via trade or via Seattle simply letting him get on with his career elsewhere. Stuck in a logjam on the Kraken blue line, Fleury has found himself scratched far more often than he could have anticipated entering the season.
Back on Nov. 23, Fleury was asked how his career has progressed. With a downtrodden look, he said, “Umm… I think it got better in Anaheim, and… I don’t know. I’ll leave it at that.”
So, we don’t get the sense he’s particularly thrilled with his situation.
What do you think, folks? Who stays and who goes? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
As mid-season training camp (that’s what we’re calling this week) continued for the Seattle Kraken on Friday, the team was all smiles. The players battled, scrimmaged, and celebrated their goals against one another. With all three of their games postponed due to opponents’ COVID-related issues this week, it’s been an interesting opportunity for the Kraken to reset and hopefully clear their minds before getting back into the swing of things Monday in Colorado.
Some 3-on-3 scrimmage action for your viewing enjoyment. Jamie Oleksiak with the 🚨🚨🚨. pic.twitter.com/eCXnul7wPS
Although the schedule has been segmented by postponements and an unexpectedly long holiday break, the Kraken are still actively on a five-game losing streak. You wouldn’t know that based on the mood at Kraken Community Iceplex, where things have been upbeat and energetic.
As the Kraken march toward returning to action, a key player in Jaden Schwartz has been noticeably absent.
Jaden Schwartz out four to six weeks
Since news broke that Brandon Tanev would miss the remainder of the season after having surgery on an injured ACL, the last thing Kraken fans would have hoped to see was Jaden Schwartz going on the shelf for four to six weeks. But that has indeed happened, as the team announced Thursday that the top-line forward will have hand surgery.
#SeaKraken forward Jaden Schwartz will have surgery on his hand. He is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks.
For a club that’s already struggling, these are two massive blows in a row. Schwartz is such an integral part of the lineup at both ends of the ice and has been a driver for this team all season long. And even looking at the line combos that coach Dave Hakstol employed at Friday’s practice, the absences of Schwartz and Tanev make the team look much thinner on all four lines.
Here are #SeaKraken lines at practice this morning…
Schwartz has six goals and 14 assists in 29 games this season and has registered more than 20 minutes of ice time on seven occasions.
Alex Wennberg is in COVID protocol, but there is a good chance he returns in time for the game against the Avalanche. That will have a significant trickle-down impact, as he likely will get inserted back into the top six. Nonetheless, somebody will need to step up to fill the new void of Schwartz, while Hakstol simultaneously looks for the right mix to backfill for Tanev.
The loss of Schwartz has perhaps the biggest effect on Jordan Eberle, who has been attached at the hip to Schwartz for much of the season. Marcus Johansson took Schwartz’s spot on the top line at Friday’s practice, skating alongside Eberle and Jared McCann.
“We’ve got JoJo with us now, and we’ve had a good week of practice here,” Eberle said Friday. “We’re going to get a lot of offensive zone chances and a lot of offensive zone shifts, so we have to find a way to create some offense, and that’s what we’re looking to do. When a guy goes down like Schwartz, you got to pick it up collectively. [There’s] not one guy [that] can do it.”
Said Hakstol, “Just as it always is with an injury, other players have to step in and do the job.”
Kraken embracing practice time
It’s downright bizarre to have this week-long break in the middle of the season, especially after the longer-than-usual holiday hiatus. The Kraken seem to be embracing the time off, though, as they have had longer on-ice sessions this week with plenty of battle and endurance drills.
“I think for us, we needed some practice time,” Eberle said. “I think you look at how the season’s gone and where we are, obviously we’re not happy with it. We’re out of a playoff spot and trending in the wrong direction. We’ve had this week to find some answers to what we’re doing wrong and obviously just get a little bit of a mental break more than anything and try to re-group as a team.”
It’s been a rare opportunity for Hakstol to really focus on fixing issues that have been plaguing his team.
“I didn’t like our last performance, so we want to leave that in the past,” Hakstol said, referring to Seattle’s Jan. 1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. “The biggest thing is our level of togetherness and compete. Going out with good detail and competing hard through 60 minutes and being a consistent hockey team, those are the things that I’m looking for.”
Starbucks loves Grubauer
The second ice sheet at Kraken Community Iceplex is visible from the Starbucks that is housed within the facility. In one of the windows, we spotted a sign Friday that read, “Gruby is our fave customer.”
We managed to snap a photo of said favorite customer with the sign in the background (you may have to click the tweet to actually see the full photo).
We asked the Starbucks employees what makes him their favorite, and they indicated that Grubauer is the only Kraken player that stops by regularly.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
With a break in the Seattle Kraken schedule, here is a trip around the boards, giving you some quick hits on what’s been happening with the team of late.
Game postponements
If you have not heard by now, the only game remaining on the Seattle Kraken schedule this week against the Ottawa Senators has also been postponed. The Senators added Thomas Chabot, Chris Tierney, and Zach Sanford to their COVID protocol list that already had six players on it.
The next game on the schedule will not be until Jan. 10 against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The Senators game postponement leaves the Kraken with seven postponed games, four home games and three road games.
With the participation of NHL players in the Winter Olympics this year officially nixed, it is a safe bet that several of the postponed games will be rescheduled during the break that was originally intended for the Olympics. That window is only 16 days, Feb. 7 to 23. If all seven games are rescheduled in that window, that will be a game every 2.3 days. That rate of days per game is consistent with the normal rate of days per game, but if we see any other cancelations, it will get tight.
The Kraken are lucky that the three away games that need to be rescheduled are all clustered in Canada so it might be possible to just add one road trip to the schedule to make up the Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg games.
Here is a look at all the postponements across the league by team:
It is interesting to see that Seattle has one of the highest non-Canadian team postponements.
Seattle Kraken COVID-19 protocol list updates
Speaking of COVID, as of Monday morning, Mason Appleton was cleared off the COVID-19 protocol list and was able to practice with the team for the first time since the Christmas holiday break. Just as Appleton was coming off, Alexander Wennberg was added to the COVID protocol, joining Jeremy Lauzon who has been on since Jan. 1. With the postponement of the Ottawa game, both Lauzon and Wennberg are likely to be cleared before the Kraken head to Colorado for their next scheduled game on Monday.
Tanev surgery updates
Fan favorite and overall maniac, Brandon Tanev, underwent successful knee surgery on Dec. 30. The team is reporting that he should be ready for the start of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Brandon Tanev had successful knee surgery on Dec. 30 and is expected to return for the start of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Monday-morning quarterback: ‘What’s wrong with the Kraken?’ edition
The Kraken have certainly been struggling to get in the win column lately. After two competitive games against the Flyers and Flames last week, the Kraken never got their footing on Saturday night against the Canucks. Seems that everyone had an opinion on what is wrong with the Kraken Monday morning:
All three articles give their best guess at what is wrong, and each author’s take probably has a little truth to the Kraken’s shortcomings this season. Most of the authors reference preseason analytical models that predicted the Kraken to be a competitive playoff team, which makes me wonder if maybe the models were wrong from the start. The articles are worth a read if you want to understand some of the theories being floated around the Kraken’s cold start to the season.
In case you missed it
In the feel-good story of the week, read about how one Seattle fan might have saved the life of the Canucks’ Assistant Equipment Manager, Red Hamilton.
After alerting @Canucks Asst. Equipment Manager Brian "Red" Hamilton of a cancerous mole on his neck, the #SeaKraken & Vancouver teamed up to surprise Nadia Popovici with $10K for medical school.
Climate Pledge Arena announced they will be hosting a WHL game between the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips on Feb. 26. Tickets go on sale Jan. 10.
Seattle, are you ready for a 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱? 🌊
