As we’ve sought reasons for optimism heading into the sixth edition of Seattle Kraken hockey, we’ve continuously found ourselves circling back to scoring winger Bobby McMann.
Acquired from Toronto at the NHL Trade Deadline last season, the 30-year-old burst onto the scene and filled up the net 10 times in just 18 games in Deep Sea Blue, despite the team spiraling out of the playoff picture around him. Keeping him in the organization quickly became a priority for the Kraken this offseason.
Now, armed with the first big contract of his career—he’ll make $5.75 million over each of the next six seasons with Seattle—McMann is ready to hit the ground running with more familiarity with the organization, the team, and the city.
“It’s definitely a fresh start for everybody,” McMann said. “It’s a new season, a new approach, definitely excited about the season. I think the guys are excited. The guys are really optimistic and feeling good about our game.”
The trade that brought McMann to Seattle was a down-to-the-wire deal, with the transaction going through moments before the deadline. General manager Jason Botterill was cautious at the time about indicating whether he could see extending McMann past last season or if it would be a proper “rental” situation.
Botterill joked on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast two weeks ago that seeing McMann play one game—he had two goals and an assist in his debut in a 5-2 win at Vancouver on March 14—was all it took to convince the front office that they wanted to keep him around. (Watch the full interview in Ep. 398 of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast.)
“In all honesty, it was a great fit for our group,” Botterill said. “Bobby coming in and— first of all, you look at the acquisition of Bobby, it was a scenario where you look at [Research and Development], you look at our pro scouts, that combination [of departments] both agreeing this player would be a good fit.
“Also, [head coach Lane Lambert] having a relationship with Bobby from his Toronto days, he came in, and I think you saw, when a player comes in with speed, the way Lane wants to play, that assertiveness, that aggressiveness, Bobby certainly did. I think we have some players with some very good hockey sense, but we needed more of a shoot-first mentality. Bobby brought that, got to the net, and so it was a great fit from there.”
Kraken captain Jordan Eberle immediately saw the fit, too, and looks forward to (likely) skating on a line with McMann when the season opens Thursday in Calgary.
“Things that stick out are his shot, his speed, his size,” Eberle said of McMann. “He plays hard, plays fast. He came in, made an impact, scored goals right off the bat. And just as a guy, I think he’s a pro. He takes care of himself, he’s always got things going on just to fine-tune his body and be ready for the next game. I think that’s an important thing, and you bring that to our culture of just being professional.”
Why McMann stayed in Seattle
At his end-of-season press conference, McMann indicated that winning was high on his list of priorities. It was up to Botterill and the Kraken to prove they shared that priority, so they went to work wooing McMann and his agent to convince them this was the best place for Bobby.
At the beginning of the offseason, McMann spent more time with his Kraken teammates and returned to Seattle for an extended stay to get even more of a feel for the city than he got during the season.
“I went on a bit of a golf trip [with the guys], spent some time here, checking out the city, checking out different areas: Bellevue, Kirkland, Seattle, the west sides of Seattle too,” McMann recalled. “I wanted to really get a good feel of the city, first off, and then the hockey was the main focus. ‘What does this team look like in the future here, and where do I fit into that?’
“And then it was extensive conversations with Botts and Lane too. I went over to his house, had discussions about it, and kind of went back and forth about ‘How can I contribute, and how can I be a piece that adds to this group? And do we have the pieces in this group to continue to grow and continue to push to be a competitive and contending team every year?’”
Lambert, who was an associate coach for the Maple Leafs in 2024-25 when McMann finally became a full-time NHLer and scored 20 goals in 74 games, confirmed he was in on the pitch.
“I was very involved with Bobby,” Lambert said. “I had him in Toronto, and he came in here, and he liked what was going on. Obviously, we didn’t have the successes that we wanted to have, but certainly with the plan and the plans that are in place in the development area, and he’s a guy who continuously wants to develop his game… I think there were things that we were doing here that he hadn’t seen before, and it’s probably a good portion of why he wanted to remain here.”
Indeed, McMann was sold on Botterill’s vision for the future of the Kraken, the depth of their prospect pool, and the tightness of the group currently in the dressing room.
“I like the group here, and I like what they’ve established so far,” McMann said. “And I think that there’s a lot to be built and a lot of potential out of guys in here to grow their games and be really elite players in this league. And that’s what you need to be a winning team, and I think that this team has potential… The prospects and the amount of picks that they have coming up here, I think those are all things that you can utilize to make this team better. And I think there are guys coming up in this organization that can be real players.”
The Kraken crumbled down the stretch following the Olympic break last season, despite McMann adding a needed offensive boost. Now, with him in the fold as a more permanent member of the team, there is a glimmer of hope that he can bring that punch from the beginning and help Seattle roll all the way through the end of the season.
“Throughout the discussions [with Botterill and Lambert], I felt comfortable enough that I could be a good piece in [the team’s future success],” McMann said. “[I believe] we have the pieces surrounding too to continue to grow this new program to new heights.”
Other Kraken notes
Curtis Douglas and Ville Ottavainen were perhaps the most surprising holdovers when the Kraken reduced their roster to 23 in advance of the NHL’s Monday deadline. Based on what we saw in practice this week, we expect them to begin the season as healthy scratches, along with Josh Mahura.
Here’s how they looked in line rushes on Monday.
Mackie Samoskevich, listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, is not expected to play Thursday in Calgary. He has not been ruled out for Saturday in Edmonton or the home opener on Sunday, but he did not participate in the team’s most recent skate on Monday.
Jake O’Brien is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury, but while Samoskevich is noted as “IR” and still present on the official roster, O’Brien is nowhere to be found. We confirmed he has been designated as non-roster injured reserve. We suspect that whenever he is healthy enough to do so, O’Brien will report to Coachella Valley to take advantage of the new rules allowing 19-year-old first-round draft picks to play in the AHL.
With the shortened Training Camp, the team is not doing a “bonding trip” of sorts this season, but they did have a team golf outing on Monday.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The preseason is done, and the games will count from here on out, starting with the season opener in Calgary on Thursday. It’s difficult to extrapolate many insights from a shortened preseason when only the last two games resembled NHL lineups. It’s also worth noting that one of those games, the Kraken versus Flames preseason game on Thursday night, was basically the full NHL Kraken playing against Calgary’s AHL team.
The roster is set for now
The Kraken made their roster moves on Sunday to be roster compliant for the NHL deadline on Tuesday. Unfortunately, there weren’t many tough decisions to be made because the Kraken designated Mackie Samoskevich (day-to-day) and Jake O’Brien (week-to-week) to injured reserve.
As I see it, there are five bubble players: Ben Meyers, Curtis Douglas, Ville Ottavainen, Cale Fleury, and Josh Mahura. In my opinion, Fleury and Mahura’s spots are more secure, but the team could be concerned about losing the 24-year-old Ottavainen in a possible waiver claim.
Here is how the lines look going into the season:
I don’t expect those lines to stay intact for very long, but I did like the Winterton-Catton-Wright line on Saturday night against Vancouver.
Jake O’Brien status
The Kraken’s first-round selection from the 2025 NHL Draft played the first preseason game before being classified as injured. It was only one game, but he seemed much more NHL ready than I expected. He looked comfortable with the puck and made some nifty skilled plays that showcased his potential. The scouting report on O’Brien is high-end hockey sense and excellent vision. I anticipate he will be more of a playmaker, but his timing and positioning are top notch here in his preseason goal last Saturday.
I anticipate that, once healthy, he will be sent down to Coachella Valley. It would have been nice to see him play one of the final two preseason games against some tougher competition, which would have provided a better benchmark for his game and helped us understand just how “NHL ready” he really is.
Heading into Training Camp, I expected him to spend the entire season with the Firebirds, but there could be a scenario where he gets some NHL games later in the season.
Pack mentality
I don’t think every hard hit or questionable transgression requires a response or a scrap, but I did like the pack mentality that the team showed over those last two preseason games. To prove the doubters wrong, this team needs to be better than the sum of its parts. From everything I’ve heard around Training Camp and through different media outlets, it feels like there is a deliberate effort to build a better team commitment and culture on and off the ice from the players themselves.
This shows up in that pack mentality on the ice. It’s a “you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us” type response. It showed up when newcomer Mackie Samoskevich took a hit after a shot on net last Thursday. You also saw a response on Saturday when Ryan Winterton went after Elias Pettersson after he hit Shane Wright late in the third period.
Other musings
There are currently eight defensemen and 13 forwards on the roster. The Kraken only used eight unique defensemen but 19 different forwards all last season. Some of the guys sent down will certainly get an opportunity later this season.
Mackie Samoskevich is currently listed as day-to-day and on injured reserve. IR indicates he is out at least a week, though IR can be retroactive to when the injury occurred. So, it’s still possible he plays the opener.
Even if Samoskevich is out on Thursday, the Kraken will likely have five players under 24 in the lineup. That will be the most under-24 players the Kraken have suited up for a season opener in their six-season history.
Matty Beniers seems to be taking a bigger leadership role this season. When speaking to the media, he seems more assertive and vocal when talking about the team and eager to prove the pundits wrong.
The Kraken allowed two power-play goals against in four shorthanded situations on Saturday night. It was more like three power-play goals in those four opportunities since time expired right as Vancouver scored its fourth goal. That’s bad, and the penalty kill must improve this season, but it is way too early to freak out about the penalty kill.
Speaking of killing penalties, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard is going to be a regular NHLer very soon. He is starting the season in Coachella Valley, but he is knocking on the door right now.
In case you missed it, the Seattle Torrent’s first round pick “threw” out the first pitch at a White Sox game over the weekend.
USA Hockey Olympic gold medalist Abbey Murphy made the ceremonial first shot at the White Sox game 🏒 pic.twitter.com/OUYU9IWmlj
Bobby McMann (SEA) – I know it is just preseason, but Bobby McMann had a goal in each of his two preseason games. During his 18-game stint with the Kraken last season, he was on pace for 47 goals over an 84-game season. I would settle for 30 this season. Semyon Vyazovoi (SYU/SEA) – The Russian goaltender has five wins and two losses in the KHL this season, with two of those wins being shutouts. He is the Kraken’s most promising goaltending prospect in the system. Brandon Montour (SEA) – He had two goals and an assist in his two preseason games. Again, it’s just preseason, but it’s nice to see that Monty is starting the season healthy. (Check out Darren’s interview with Monty if you want to hear what he was dealing with last season.)
Goal of the week
I love this entire sequence.
The week ahead
The regular season kicks off for the Seattle Kraken on the road with a Thursday game against the Calgary Flames and then they face the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday in Edmonton before heading home for the home opener on Sunday in another game against the Flames.
The Flames are expected to be a bottom-five team in the league, but a lot of pundits are predicting the same for the Kraken. Meanwhile, predictions for Edmonton are all over the map, so who knows what to expect from them. The Kraken are a collective 4-14-1 against the Oilers in franchise history. Their last win in Edmonton was Jan. 3, 2023.
I am not expecting much from the game against the Oilers, but it is important to get a few points from the two games the Flames. The Kraken do have a back-to-back scenario over the weekend, but so do the Flames, so no excuses.
I will settle for three points out of the three games.
And finally
I know not many people are giving this team much of a chance this season, but I think the path is there if they can stay healthy. A full season of Bobby McMann should be an upgrade over what they got last year, Samoskevich adds another scoring threat, and I’m very excited to see what Catton can do in his second NHL season. If those things break the right way, I can see this group sticking around the playoff bubble. And if they’re still in the mix come March and April, anything can happen.
The Kraken weren’t as far away from a playoff spot last season as their final standing might suggest. Yes, there were plenty of frustrating nights, and the brutal home stretch where they couldn’t seem to get out of their own way. But they were still hanging around the playoff race into March despite injuries, a league-worst penalty kill, and an offense that struggled to score consistently. Making the playoffs this season doesn’t require a miracle. It just requires a handful of reasonable things breaking in Seattle’s favor.
Here are five reasonable things that need to go right for the Kraken this season.
Stay healthy
This feels like the obvious one, but it also might be the most important. Over the last few seasons, the Kraken have dealt with more than their fair share of injuries. Every team goes through it, and “next man up” sounds great in theory. The problem is that Seattle simply hasn’t had the kind of NHL-ready depth that allows a team to absorb multiple significant injuries without feeling the effects.
Last season, Kaapo Kakko, Brandon Montour, Jaden Schwartz, and Jared McCann all missed time. In the cases of McCann and Montour, both players ultimately played through injuries that impacted their effectiveness even when they were in the lineup. If you want an idea of what Montour was dealing with, Darren’s recent one-on-one with him is worth a watch.
One thing that has stood out during Training Camp so far is that both McCann and Montour appear healthy and are fully participating. That may not sound like much, but it is already a better starting point than a year ago.
The Kraken don’t need perfect health. No team gets that. They just need their best players available for most of the season.
The young guys need to take meaningful steps
Player development isn’t always linear, and the Kraken are banking on several young players taking the next step in their careers this season. Berkly Catton is at the top of that list. Given the options available to him last season (NHL or WHL, but not AHL), sticking with the Kraken was probably the right place for him rather than another year in Spokane. While I wouldn’t describe his season as a struggle, there were stretches where finishing chances proved difficult. Even so, he consistently showed flashes of the high-end skill that made him one of the organization’s most exciting prospects.
The encouraging part wasn’t necessarily the production. It was how often the talent was apparent. There were plenty of moments where Catton created offense, made plays in tight spaces, and demonstrated that his skill set can translate to the NHL. The Kraken don’t need Catton to become a superstar this season. They just need him to be more comfortable, more confident, and a little more productive than he did a year ago.
The same general principle applies across the roster. Whether it’s Catton, Shane Wright continuing his ascent, or younger players solidifying everyday roles, Seattle needs its internal improvement to supplement its offseason additions.
The new guys need to fit in immediately
A year ago, one of the biggest disappointments was Mason Marchment. The Kraken acquired him to add offense and a bit of nastiness, but the fit never really materialized. At various points of his brief stint in Seattle, he looked disconnected from the flow of the lineup, and the production wasn’t there. By mid-December, Seattle had moved on.
That situation serves as a reminder that acquiring talent and successfully integrating talent are two different things. This year’s newcomers need to be different. The biggest name in that group is Mackie Samoskevich. Samoskevich arrives from Florida with plenty of upside and the possibility of flourishing with a larger role than he may have received with the Panthers. The Kraken don’t need him to lead the team in scoring, but if he can hit the 20-goal mark, that would provide a significant boost for a team that finished 28th in goals scored last season.
I’m also including Bobby McMann in the “new guy” category, even though he appeared in the final 18 games of last season. McMann was an immediate fit. He scored 10 goals in those 18 games and seemed comfortable instantly. Of course, expecting that pace over a full season would be unrealistic. Maintaining a 47-goal pace is something reserved for the league’s elite scorers, but if McMann can give the Kraken 25 to 30 goals over the course of a season, that changes the complexion of the lineup.
Remember, the Kraken have had exactly one 30-goal scorer in franchise history: that was Jared McCann’s 40-goal campaign during the magical 2022-23 season. Finding another legitimate scoring threat would go a long way toward helping an offense that has frequently struggled to generate enough goals.
The penalty kill has to improve
There is no way around this one. The Kraken finished 31st in the NHL with a 72.2 percent penalty kill last season. It started poorly, stayed poor, and consistently hurt them throughout the year. If there was a whiteboard in the coaches’ offices this summer listing priorities for 2026-27, improving the penalty kill had to be at the top of the list.
What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that the margins were already so thin. The Kraken lost 24 games by one goal last season, excluding empty-net goals. That was the seventh-highest total in the NHL.
You don’t need a dramatic special teams turnaround to swing a handful of those results. Even a modest improvement could mean a few extra wins, which would mean several additional standings points. And a few additional standings points could be the difference between meaningful hockey in April and another early offseason.
The penalty kill doesn’t need to become elite. It simply can’t remain near the bottom of the league.
Take it personally
Professional athletes love finding motivation. Sometimes it comes from a playoff loss. Sometimes it comes from being overlooked. Sometimes it comes from a perceived slight.
The Kraken should have plenty of material to work with. We don’t need to rehash the entire Jason Robertson saga, but the Kraken, its fans, and the city itself absorbed more than a few shots this summer after Robertson turned down a deal that reportedly would have paid him $15 million per season. The specific reasons for Robertson’s decision were never disclosed. Maybe it was about competitive outlook, maybe it wasn’t, but either way, the narrative quickly became that Seattle wasn’t a desirable destination and wasn’t a team worth betting on. That’s the kind of thing a locker room should remember.
Beyond that, national media projections have been largely dismissive of the Kraken heading into this season. Despite remaining in the playoff race into early March last year, despite making changes to the roster, and despite playing in a division that arguably got weaker over the offseason, many preseason predictions have Seattle finishing near the bottom of the standings once again.
We shall see if those projections are correct or not. Not that outside opinions decide games, but players have a way of finding motivation wherever they can. And few things are as motivating as proving people wrong.
Final thoughts
None of these things are particularly outrageous. The Kraken don’t need career years from a bunch of players. They don’t need everything to break perfectly in their favor.
They need reasonable health. They need growth from their young players. They need their additions to fit. They need a competent penalty kill. And they need to embrace the idea that almost nobody believes in them.
If those five things happen, the Kraken should find themselves right back in the playoff conversation. And this time, they might just stay there.
On Monday, Sep. 21, the Kraken announced the first wave of Training Camp cuts and reassignments. In today’s edition of Kraken Contracts Corner, we’ll break down those moves and then pick up with Part II of our two-part series grading the Seattle Kraken’s significant offseason signings. We’ll then conclude with a few other contract odds and ends you need to know as the Kraken continue preparing for the season.
Seattle Kraken trim camp roster to 27 players
After two preseason games that gave the coaching staff an opportunity to see several of the team’s prospects up close, the Kraken announced a number of transactions Monday morning that trimmed the NHL Training Camp roster.
Following those moves, there are 23 “veterans” still in camp, including “roster-bubble” veterans Curtis Douglas, Ben Meyers, Jacob Melanson, Cale Fleury, and Josh Mahura. There are also four younger players still with the NHL team: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, Jake O’Brien, Ville Ottavainen, and Nikke Kokko. I suspect that Mølgaard is the only player in the younger group who has a chance to stick around and displace a veteran on the initial roster, absent an injury.
Going through the transactions, the Kraken reassigned defensemen Finn Kearns, Rylan Singh, and Will Reynolds to their junior clubs, as expected. The team also released Brody Gillespie and Maks Corovic from their Rookie Camp tryouts. Gillespie and Corovic will rejoin their respective junior clubs, too, and again be draft eligible in 2027.
The Kraken’s other moves are intended to send players to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The following 16 players are waivers-exempt and were assigned to the AHL directly:
D Alexis Bernier
D Tyson Jugnauth
F Carson Rehkopf
D Lukas Dragicevic
F Andrei Loshko
F Lleyton Roed
F Ryden Evers
F Julius Miettinen
F Eduard Sale
F Jagger Firkus
D Ty Nelson
F Nathan Villeneuve
F David Goyette
F Jani Nyman
D Kaden Hammell
D Caden Price
It was surprising to see some of these players sent down so early, but this is a product of the shorter Training Camp this season.
The most interesting transactions are the players who, due to age and service time, require waivers to be assigned to the Firebirds:
F J.R. Avon
F Logan Morrison
F John Hayden
G Victor Ostman
Other teams have a 24-hour window to claim any one of these players off waivers. If unclaimed, the players will report to Firebirds camp. Ottavainen will also require waivers if he does not make the NHL team, as would any of the bubble “veterans” listed above. O’Brien, Mølgaard, and Kokko are waivers-exempt.
Finally, the following four players are signed to AHL contracts and will now report directly to Firebirds camp following their release from NHL camp agreements:
F Justin Janicke
D Gustav Olofsson
F Ian McKinnon
F Mitchell Stephens
Grading the offseason signings
Curtis Douglas signs a two-year, $1.25 million AAV UFA contract on signed Jul. 1, 2026
The takeaway
Rugged forward depth and roster competition at a bubble NHL-AHL rate.
Details
Market analysis
Douglas was a “Group Six” unrestricted free agent on Jul. 1. Most often, a player becomes an unrestricted free agent when his contract first expires after his 27th birthday. Douglas, 26, became a free agent earlier because he was over 25 years old, had played more than three “professional seasons,” and had accumulated fewer than 80 NHL games.
For our comparables, we looked at unrestricted free agents between 25 and 29 years old with at least 20 NHL games played but fewer than five goals and 10 points in their last season preceding free agency. Since much of what Douglas trades on is his physicality, we also required that the player have at least 30 hits in that season. (Douglas had 64 for the Canucks last season in 43 combined games between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks.)
This returned a list of 28 comparable contracts from the last four offseasons. The deals averaged 1.5 years in length and were valued near the league minimum at 1.1 percent of the Year 1 salary cap. The Kraken gave Douglas a two-year contract at 1.2 percent of the cap. Both figures are just slightly above average, meaning favorable to the player.
Context analysis
The Kraken clearly valued Douglas’s very specific physical profile. In a way, it’s hard to separate the Douglas signing from the next one we’ll discuss, Jacob Melanson. They will likely push each other for the same checking role, and the loser may find himself on the outside of the NHL roster looking in. I suspect the team would prefer that Melanson emerges victorious and Douglas is AHL depth, but Douglas at least protects against a “sophomore slump” for Melanson. Both players have the same marching orders (whether express or not): Play sound defensive hockey, but protect the team’s top young players when necessary.
If Douglas does not make the NHL team, Douglas would require waivers to go to the AHL. The two-year term could dissuade a potential claimant. If or when Douglas is in the AHL, he would only count $50,000 against the Year 1 NHL salary cap, with the remainder “buried” in the minors.
Grade: C+
Even if the term or value may be slightly high, it was likely necessary to secure the player. We are essentially talking about rounding errors in the big picture. And one could argue it’s really a one-year deal because Douglas’s contract could be fully buried in the AHL for the 2027-28 season without cap consequence.
Jacob Melanson signs a three-year, $1.45 million AAV RFA contract on Sep. 4, 2026
The takeaway
Finding precedents for this contract is difficult. It’s a unique contract for a uniquely physical player.
Details
Market analysis
Melanson has played in only 37 NHL games, with 36 of them coming last season. He has two goals and three assists at the NHL level, all during the 2025-26 season. At the AHL level, he has played parts of three seasons, never topping 19 points in any campaign.
Typically, when a 23-year-old restricted free-agent forward with this resume goes to the negotiating table, he is bargaining for guarantees on a two-way contract or maybe a multi-year term.
We know Melanson’s case is different. Scoring really isn’t his value proposition. He is a fourth-line forechecker, and his speed and physicality do create advantages for his team when he is out there. Teams rarely pay for that skill set, though. The player has to be special in his contributions. Brandon Tanev is a player who earned a big contract playing this way, but the examples are few and far between.
Over the last four seasons, there were 16 contracts for RFA forwards aged 21 to 26 with 20 or more NHL games but fewer than five goals and five assists in their last season before the contract. Until June 2026, none of those contracts were worth more than $1,000,000 annually or more than 1.02 percent of the cap. Only four players had received three-year contracts, with the rest two- or one-year terms.
Between June and Melanson’s signing in September, however, two interesting contracts were signed:
Zach Ostapchuk signed with the Sharks in June for four years and 2.26 percent of the cap; he had four goals and three assists in 59 NHL games last season.
Ville Koivunen signed with the Penguins in August for eight years and 3.85 percent of the cap; he had two goals and five assists in 39 NHL games last season.
Koivunen is a different kind of player; the Penguins are clearly betting long-term on middle-six scoring upside after the player posted 56 points in the AHL in 2024-25 and 41 points in 34 AHL games last season. Melanson is unlikely to score like that.
Ostapchuk may be a more revealing comparison, though. Similar in age to Melanson, he also fits more of a checking profile, with 140 hits in 2025-26. Though this falls well short of Melanson’s hit rate (more on this in a moment), it’s notable physicality. Beyond that, Ostapchuk has a longer track record than Melanson, with 122 total NHL games played.
All told, even when accounting for Koivunen and Ostapchuk, Melanson’s comparable contracts were for 2.4 years and 1.18 percent of the cap. Melanson signed well above those marks, getting a three-year deal worth 1.39 percent of the cap.
Why? Melanson’s money-maker is his physicality. Melanson’s career mark of 33.2 hits per 60 minutes leads all NHL players with at least 10 games played going back at least 50 years. (I stopped looking at that point.) His 33.5 hits per 60 minutes last season led the league and would have led any individual season going back at least 10 years among all players with at least 10 games played. (I stopped looking at that point.) You get the idea.
This makes him such a unique case. How does the league value this type of physicality from a young restricted free agent? We just don’t have recent precedent for it. Ostapchuk is our best evidence that other teams are willing to pay for it like Seattle did here.
Melanson will still be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights when this deal expires in 2029.
Context analysis
Melanson’s value may ebb and flow depending on the matchup and flow of a game, but he has the ability to change a game’s course with a high-energy shift or bone-crunching hit. There’s no other forward on the roster (except for perhaps Douglas, now) who can do that. It makes him a good fit as the team’s 12th (or perhaps 13th) forward. His relative youth also works in his favor. The team surely hopes he’ll be able to hold up his physical play for at least the next three years.
While it is a “big” contract for the type of player Melanson is, it’s also a very modest sum in the grand scheme and won’t prevent the team from doing anything else it wants to do contract-wise.
Grade: C+
This deal seems like a concession by the Kraken in the direction of unique contract demands by a unique player. The Kraken didn’t “win” the deal, but it’s also not necessary to do so. Squeezing every penny on these restricted free-agent deals may not always be the right play—particularly so given the team’s ample cap space—when the downside is alienating the player.
Contract odds and ends
Assuming he is not claimed, goalie Victor Ostman will play this season in Coachella Valley on a one-year contract. After the season ends, he will be a Group Six unrestricted free agent unless the Kraken re-sign him sooner or he plays in 26 NHL games this season (adding to his two previous NHL games).
The rule change allowing 19-year-old first-round picks from the CHL to play in the AHL will be in effect for this coming season. Jake O’Brien is almost certain to be the Kraken’s first such assignment taking advantage of this rule.
Teams had until 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 15 to sign players to contracts under the previous CBA. Since that time, certain deal structures are no longer allowed. The maximum term for re-signing a team’s own player is now seven years, not eight. And certain front-loaded and bonus-heavy deal structures are no longer permissible. Unlike several other teams around the league, the Kraken did not get any last contracts “under the wire.” The players who were technically eligible for such a deal included Jared McCann, Vince Dunn, Ryker Evans, Shane Wright, and Philipp Grubauer.
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
On Sept. 4, the last of the Seattle Kraken’s restricted free agents, Jacob Melanson, signed a contract with the team. Though additional signings could still come during Training Camp and into the regular season, of course, it seems Seattle’s summer business has now come to a close.
What better time for a quick trip to “Kraken Contract Corner“? Across two posts (because I’m too verbose), we’ll mainly investigate how the Kraken fared in its four most significant summer free-agent signings. In Part II, we’ll address the Curtis Douglas and Melanson signings and conclude with a few rapid-fire contract notes to file away as we approach the 2026-27 regular season.
Let’s dive in to Part I. Check back soon for Part II.
Bobby McMann
Six-year, $5.75 million AAV UFA contract, signed Jul. 1, 2026
The takeaway
The profile brings risk, but the contract is fairly consistent with the limited historical precedent for a late-blooming player like McMann. The average value is reasonable, particularly in this ascending-cap environment. The team likely views McMann as a necessary firewall against offensive failure—even if some in the fanbase could argue that is a bug, not a feature.
Details
Market analysis
There are a few different ways of looking at McMann’s market value.
The first method is to look at his last year before free agency in historical context. McMann scored 29 goals and added 17 assists in the 2025-26 season and hit free agency at age 30. He then received a six-year contract worth 5.53 percent of the Year 1 salary cap from Seattle. (Note that we’ll use cap percentage rather than raw dollar figures in our analysis of contracts to account for the shifting salary cap context.)
Over the last four years, unrestricted free-agent forwards between ages 28 and 32 who scored between 24 and 34 goals and had between 36 and 56 total points in their free-agency season secured contracts that averaged 4.4 years in length and 6.47 percent of the Year 1 cap. (The average age of these players was close to McMann’s current age.) This makes the trade-off simple: McMann got more term (and financial security) in exchange for below-average value—particularly given the fact that it is now apparent the cap will be escalating for the foreseeable future.
Yet, that pool of players differed from McMann starkly in their overall track record. McMann is a notorious late bloomer. He has played 218 NHL games, posting 64 goals and 41 assists. The most “similar” player in this first comparable pool is Pius Suter, who had played 364 games, scored 82 goals, and added 80 assists. The “average” player in this group almost triples McMann’s marks (602 NHL games, 164 goals, 188 assists).
The shorter track record suggests there could be greater risk and variability in McMann’s potential outcomes than would be typical of the pool generally. If we were to look at comparables for similarly aged free-agent forwards based only on their career numbers as they entered unrestricted free agency, we end up with a wildly different result. Among forwards aged 28-32 with career marks at or below 340 games, 100 goals, and 100 assists, McMann’s comparables averaged just 1.9 years of term and 1.57 percent of the Year 1 cap.
How about a middle-ground approach that searches for players with lesser career records, but similarly strong free-agency years? I searched again using the same career thresholds but adding in a requirement of 20-plus goals in the free-agency year. Here, we narrowed our list to only three recent examples.
Kiefer Sherwood signed with the Sharks this offseason for five years, 5.53 percent of the cap, with 66 goals and 68 assists in 337 career games.
Ilya Mikheyev signed with the Canucks in 2022 for four years, 5.76 percent of the cap, despite a career track record of only 146 games played, 36 goals, and 36 assists.
Michael Bunting signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2023 for three years and 5.39 percent of the cap, with 57 goals and 69 assists in 187 career games.
With an average of 5.56 percent of the cap and four years of term, teams got a modest AAV discount and very little term discount on these short-track-record players compared with our first sample.
How does McMann stack up? Sherwood’s contract is very similar—one year shorter, but Sherwood is a year older than McMann. Arguably, McMann had a better free-agent season (29 goals) than both Mikheyev (21) and Bunting (23), but Mikheyev and Bunting were both 28 at signing, two full years younger than McMann.
Assuming for the sake of argument these context factors more or less cancel out, McMann received a Year 1 cap percentage right in line with this micro-market of late-blooming scorers, but also received more term. This is likely where the negotiation focused and was the area where the Kraken gave ground to secure the deal.
How have Bunting and Mikheyev fared since signing their deals? Bunting has played for an eye-popping four teams during the original three years of his free-agent deal, though he continued to chip in offensively, averaging 17.3 goals per season. Mikheyev has also moved teams, spending two years in Vancouver and two in Chicago during his contract. He averaged 15.5 goals per season.
Context analysis
McMann is an auxiliary scoring forward on the far side of his 30th birthday. One could reasonably ask whether a building team should be signing this type of player. At the same time, one must ponder whether the Kraken view themselves as a building team or a borderline playoff club, for which marginal scoring is highly significant.
Assuming the goal is to deploy the strongest NHL team you can and compete for the playoffs, McMann projects to provide strong goal-scoring “value” relative to dollars spent in the short term—though the Bunting and Mikheyev case studies suggest that our expectations may overshoot the likely reality.
The term is lengthy by any metric we evaluated above. That said, the contract’s cap percentage will continue to tumble over time and should be low enough that the deal is relatively easily tolerated or moved in years 4-6, when McMann has only a 10-team no-trade list.
Grade: B
It’s hard to give this move a “good” or “bad” mark given the complexity of the situation. The Kraken operated within the general market confines, and your opinion on the deal likely turns on the “vision” question surrounding the signing.
Mackie Samoskevich
Three-year, $3.85 million AAV RFA contract, signed Jul. 1, 2026
The takeaway
The contract offers short-term value for an ascending restricted free agent. It also sets up one more negotiation for a big-money contract extension before Samoskevich hits unrestricted free agency.
Details
Market analysis
Before signing, Samoskevich was a 23-year-old restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Last season with Florida, Samoskevich had 12 goals and 20 assists. Using a sample of 22-to-25-year-old restricted free agents with between eight and 16 goals and 12 and 28 assists in their pre-contract seasons, we arrived at a pool of 24 comparable player contracts over the last four seasons. The pool averaged 3.25 years in term and 3.28 percent of the Year 1 cap. Samoskevich’s contract was three years and 3.7 percent of the Year 1 cap.
Though the value came in just slightly “above market,” it strikes me as fair given (1) the clear, ascending cap environment relevant to years 2 and 3, and (2) the fact that the player’s true production level was potentially role-suppressed on a Stanley Cup-caliber team.
Context analysis
Samoskevich is a pre-prime, ascending player on a very modest contract. He fits on any team, and, as I have argued, is a terrific fit for this year’s Kraken team whether it makes a playoff run or not. If he stays healthy, there is little doubt he will provide surplus value over the term of the deal. The question is how much.
The public second-guessing of the Samoskevich deal came with the term. Should the Kraken have tried to lock Samoskevich into a longer-term deal now? With the benefit of hindsight, one can also look at ensuing long-term contracts for barely established players like Noah Ostlund, Braden Bowman, and Fraser Minton and wonder if Seattle miscalculated.
That said, at the time Seattle signed Samoskevich, the vast majority of his comparables signed “bridge” contracts in the two-to-four-year range just like Samoskevich did. The scoring production of players in this range just leaves too much profile uncertainty for the player and team to see eye-to-eye on long-term value.
Only four of his comparables—Anton Frondell (six years), Logan Stankoven (eight years), Frank Nazar (seven years), and Matt Boldy (seven years)—had signed true long-term deals. It would be wise to hesitate in comparing Samoskevich to any of these players, aside from perhaps Nazar. At the time, though, it would have been easy enough to consider the Nazar deal an outlier.
Samoskevich will still be a restricted free agent when the contract ends, which affords the team the opportunity to negotiate a long-term deal beginning in July, 2028.
Grade: B+
The deal falls within the range of expectation, but as an RFA deal, it should return significant value for the team. More players and contracts like this would move the needle for the Kraken.
* * *
What do you think about these deals? Any other questions for your Kraken contracts corner correspondent? Let us know in the comments below or on X/Twitter or BlueSky at Sound_Hockey or Deepseahockey.
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
With Rookie Camp drawing to an end Tuesday and Training Camp starting Thursday, NHL hockey is back, baby!
Training Camp is condensed this year with the NHL moving from an 82- to an 84-game regular-season schedule. To account for the two additional games, the preseason schedule has been reduced from six games to four. That also shortens camp.
During the 2025-26 season, the Kraken had 21 days between the start of Training Camp and their first game. This season, they have only 14 days.
Let’s take a look at five questions as the Kraken head into their shorter-than-before Training Camp.
1. Can Shane Wright earn a larger role?
One of the bigger clickbait stories this offseason followed agent Kurt Overhardt’s comments suggesting general manager Jason Botterill had agreed to trade Shane Wright. There was likely a conversation about a possible trade, but no deal has materialized. More recently, Overhardt told Emerald City Spectrum that Wright is “fully committed [to the Kraken].”
Shane Wright (photo/Brian Liesse)
Wright played largely in a third-line role last season. He also received protected deployment, which limited his defensive-zone starts. His most common linemates were Kaapo Kakko and rookie Berkly Catton, and the three had the fewest defensive-zone starts among Kraken forwards.
On the other hand, Wright ranked among the top three Kraken forwards in offensive-zone starts, but he converted those opportunities into only 27 points.
Points are not everything. Head coach Lane Lambert discussed Wright’s 200-foot game during his end-of-season news conference.
“Everybody’s going to look at Shane Wright’s season and go, ‘Oh, gee, he had this many points [this year], and he had that many points last year,’” Lambert said. “Ask Shane if he feels like he’s a better player now than he was at the beginning of the year, and the answer would be yes, he does. Sometimes the points can fool you a little bit. I thought Shane got stronger defensively, I thought he got stronger on face-offs, and I thought he improved his 200-foot game. And what I see about that is that that’s a better formula for the future with him than in the past.”
Wright is only 22 and has plenty of room to grow. He is also building trust with the coaching staff, but he now needs to seize the opportunities that come his way.
Camp will show whether Wright can earn more than a third-line role. The coaching staff will evaluate his defensive and offensive game to determine whether a larger role is warranted. As for a trade, time will tell. It would not make sense to move Wright at a low point in his value, and the Kraken are unlikely to walk away from his upside without a strong return.
2. Is Jared McCann fully healthy?
Jared McCann (photo/Brian Liesse)
Seattle sniper Jared McCann missed the final three games of the 2025-26 season. On April 16, he underwent a procedure to address a lower-body injury that had been nagging him throughout the campaign. McCann also underwent surgery after the 2024-25 season to repair a lower-body injury, but that injury never seemed to fully heal, causing him to miss parts of last season’s Training Camp.
The one-time 40-goal scorer ended up missing 30 games last season because of the injury. He settled for 20 goals in 52 games, but that was a 32-goal pace if he had been healthy for the full season. Since scoring 40 in 2022-23, he has not surpassed 30 goals again, recording 29, 22, and 20 goals in the following three seasons.
McCann often stretched and tested his leg between plays last season, and the injury clearly affected his game. By undergoing the procedure immediately after the season, McCann gave himself as much recovery time as possible. Now, eyes will be on him during Training Camp to see whether the injury lingers.
McCann is the Kraken’s all-time leading scorer with 283 points, and a fully healthy version of him (especially in a contract year) could provide the offensive boost Seattle needs.
3. Where will Mackie Samoskevich fit in the Kraken lineup?
Training Camp will offer the first chance to see Mackie Samoskevich on the ice in a Kraken uniform. Acquired from the Florida Panthers this offseason, Samoskevich arrives with potential to add speed and scoring to Seattle’s lineup.
Botterill described Samoskevich as a player with “speed, skill, and scoring ability.” He added that the 2025 Stanley Cup champion “can contribute offensively and add a spark to our lineup.”
Samoskevich plays on the right wing but skated in a bottom-six role with Florida. He could be in line for a promotion in Seattle.
With Eeli Tolvanen signing with the New York Rangers, Samoskevich could land on Chandler Stephenson’s line, or he could reunite with former Michigan teammate Matty Beniers.
Training Camp and preseason games will show where the coaching staff is thinking of slotting in Samoskevich.
Training Camp offers a chance to see how those prospects are progressing and whether they are ready for NHL action.
Jani Nyman, Oscar Fisker-Mølgaard, Jagger Firkus, and Logan Morrison ranked as Coachella Valley’s top four players in points per game (20 games played minimum) last season.
Firkus is the only player in that forward group who has yet to appear in an NHL game. Still, he appears close to breaking through and has looked good in Rookie Camp. Nyman has played 40 games with the Kraken, but his scoring touch has not consistently translated to the NHL.
On defense, Ville Ottavainen, Ty Nelson, and Tyson Jugnauth are players to watch. Jugnauth and Nelson led Firebirds defensemen in scoring with 45 and 35 points, respectively. Ottavainen is a more defensive-minded defenseman.
At face value, there isn’t much available space for a player to jump into the NHL roster if they weren’t there last year. But injuries always happen, so some of these players will find themselves in Kraken uniforms sooner or later.
Darren Brown gave a full breakdown of young players who could impact the lineup this season, so give that a read if you want to learn more about which guys are knocking on the door.
5. How will the defensive pairings shake out?
The Kraken’s defensive group appears mostly set for the 2026-27 season. Jamie Oleksiak is the only departure, having signed with Vancouver as a free agent. Seattle has seven returning defensemen.
The pairings, however, will look different. Expect Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson to continue leading the Kraken in ice time. They have been paired together now for five seasons.
The bottom four could feature new combinations, though. Ryker Evans and Ryan Lindgren could compete for a spot on the second pairing to play alongside Brandon Montour. Lindgren may have the edge. His defensive-minded game would give Montour more freedom to join the offense, and he was paired frequently with Montour last season so there is already familiarity.
Ryker Evans (photo/Brian Liesse)
Josh Mahura and Cale Fleury will likely compete for the final regular spot on the blue line, with the other acting as the seventh defenseman. Lindgren, Mahura, and Evans are all left-shot defensemen, so one may need to play on his off side.
Preseason incoming
The Kraken open their preseason schedule Saturday, Sept. 19 against the Vancouver Canucks, providing the first game-action look of 2026-27. The four-game exhibition slate will give the coaching staff limited time to evaluate the group before Opening Night, so these questions will have to get answered quickly.
What questions do you have as the Kraken head into Training Camp? Let us know in the comments below.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
