Can the Kraken making more splashes this offseason? – Keeping up with the Kraken, June 23rd, 2025

2 Comments

1. 

   @tjtower 7 months ago

   Trade Oleksiak – sign Kakko, sign Ryker to a bridge deal, sign Eyssimont – Don't resign Kartye

   I think one of either Jaden Schwartz or Eeli Tolvanen are definitely getting traded, and I think there is probably a better than 33% chance than McCann gets moved. We have 6 LW on the roster if we resign Eyssimont, which the advanced stats say we absolutely should do. Someone has to move. I think the logical answer is Schwartz, as much as I love him and his fit in Lambert's scheme – Marchment has kind of made him redundant as they play at about the same level, Mush i just a little bigger and more physical. Tolvanen has exactly what you want on your 3rd line and that's exactly where I expect he'll play with the current setup.

   McCann is tough – I would love to keep him because he's been our best player, but he got shuffled around a lot last year. I also don't think he's as good a fit for Lambert's philosophy. It would take a lot to move him, but I think they are absolutely exploring that right now. I think there is a world where Marchment upgrades Schwartz, and then you trade McCann and try to find a LW that can score at least as much as him with a little more physicality. Nikolaj Ehlers might make some sense. He wants a bigger role (and should finally get one), is similar in production to McCann, but a little better suited to Lambert's scheme. It's a risk though, because he could step back and just be a worse version of Canner, for more money. In a perfect world you would want a bigger upgrade or to just keep him – and if the Kraken aren't winning near the deadline you trade McCann with retention for a massive haul.

   There is a secondary benefit to moving so many forwards and having guys like Marchment on a short contract – we have a ton of young forwards that are coming up in the next couple of seasons, so getting started on that now helps set us up for the future. This just adds to the idea that we will likely move on from guys like Schwartz and potentially McCann, with Tolvanen and Eberle being potentially gone after the season depending on the development of Catton/Rehkopf/Nyman/Firkus

   Now, what about big moves? I think near the end of the season and earlier in the offseason there were some potential names that made sense like Cole Caufield, David Pastrnak, and Jason Robertson, but every single one of them has absolutely become unavailable – Caufield performed better as the season went on, Pasta is the player Boston is going to build around, and it seems Dallas is hellbent on doing anything but trading Robertson and rightfully so. I don't really see a big move for a young player in their prime coming to fruition. I don't see anyone being available from the top 40 points scorers last season because they are all either young foundational players, or their teams are looking to compete. Instead it could make sense to look to young RFA's that might be traded – JJ Peterka, Will Cuylle, or another young player in need of a raise – or hope that the rumors on Martin Necas are true, because he would be a perfect fit.

   One other player that could be an interesting fit is Conor Garland. He's been an ascending player the last couple of seasons, finally seeing top-6 ice time this year, and he rewarded the Canucks with 50 points. He also was the top-line RW for team USA at World Champs, pushing Tage Thompson down to the second line. He was one of the alternate captains, won player of the game twice and was tied for second on team USA in points. He has familiarity with Matty, Eyssimont, and Joey from their time on the USA squad together. There is talk that Vancouver wants to potentially move him, and if that's the case he would be a great potential fit for our top-6.

   For defense – I think Ryker on a bridge deal makes a lot of sense. He was our best "defensive" defenseman for the first 2/3rds of the season before being the worse defenseman on the team in the final 1/3rd. There are shades of a good player in there with high-end second pair upside. I think he'll do better in Lambert's more structured defensive scheme. There wasn't a single defenseman on the team that finished with a positive defensive rating last year, so it wasn't just Ryker making mistakes. A 3 year bridge at fairly low AAV make sense to evaluate him further, even if that' anchoring the 3rd pair. As for Oleksiak, I think it makes sense to sign a player like Vladislav Gavrikov to a medium length deal to upgrade that spot. Oleksiak is making too much money, but even worse, he doesn't do anything very well right now – he isn't giving good offense, good defense, or using his size. Gavrikov won't offer you much offense, but it will be a little better than Oleksiak has been, but he will absolutely offer you lock-down level defense and physicality that Oleksiak just hasn't displayed the last few seasons. He isn't flashy at all, but he's exactly what this team needs and would pair perfectly with Brandon Montour's more mobile, puck-moving style on the second line. There's also Provorov, who would also be an upgrade (although more expensive) or Dante Fabbro, who could sign for much less and anchor the right side of the 3rd pair (with either Mahura or Ottavainen), pushing Evans up to Montour's pairing and making that second-pair a lot more offense-focused, with the chance that Fabbro keeps developing and can potentially move up into a top 4 role at some point in the next couple seasons.

   Circling back to Kartye – I love him, I really do. He's scrappy and physical, which is great, but he just hasn't take the step forward into the role yet and he really hasn't shown enough to expect him to play higher in the lineup. With players like Ryan Winterton having higher upside and nipping at his heals, and the plethora of young forwards we have down in Coachella, I just don't think we can justify sign him. I would call around and see if there is anything we can get for him and give him the chance to play higher in the lineup somewhere else.

   There's still a lot of moves that could be made – and I'm sure that whoever they decide to add won't be found in the wall of text I just wrote – but if I were the GM, this is where my head would be at. Get more physical, play better defense, upgrade some scoring where you can, and don't sign any contracts that will handicap our future.

2. 

   @Davethue 7 months ago

   Awesome show thank you Jayd Charl and Miracle! I am so sick of rechecking Twitter for news but it’s exciting because of the moves J.B. has made. I hope he isn’t done because I’m with you on the forward log jam. Honestly I hope we suck again next year again and get another top ten pick. Alright till next time y’all take care.