Team: Seattle Kraken
Team Building Status: Building
The Seattle Kraken are about to come to the end of their figurative ELC. Their first three years in the NHL have been an up and down affair. Abysmal goaltending cratered their inaugural season before they made the postseason in year two. Year three is a step back as the Kraken are officially eliminated from postseason contention. The on-ice results have been tumultuous, so where is this team headed?
Roster Ruminations
NHL Roster
The Kraken seemed to be trying to hang in the playoff race this season and they did a respectable job of it, as they sit fifth in the Pacific Division. Alas, it wasn’t enough and they were officially eliminated earlier this week. The model doesn’t hold out much hope that next season will be any better.
Salary Cap Management
The Kraken have plenty of cap space this summer, with over 20% of their cap space available for next season. They have a few RFAs that will eat into that, including Matty Beniers, but cap space should not be a big constraint. They also have a lot of long term flexibility, without a single contract extending beyond the 2026-2027 season. With this much cap flexibility, there is opportunity to improve the roster over the summer.
Future Assets
The Kraken have clearly prioritized building through the draft through the first few years of their existence. Hockey Prospecting ranks them 8th in the NHL for their prospect pool and it includes a few players that have some significant star potential. Their pool of draft picks is also above baseline for the next three drafts.
What’s Next?
The Kraken’s current NHL roster is made up of mostly players age 27 and over. A large portion of that group dates back to the expansion draft, including Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Brandon Tanev, Jaden Schwartz, Adam Larsson, and Jamie Oleksiak. It was a fine group to get the franchise off the ground but, three years later, it’s time the Kraken start turning over that part of their roster with more urgency. They extended Jordan Eberle ahead of the trade deadline, which was a fine move on a two year deal, but it can’t become the norm. With only Pierre-Edouard Bellemar, Tomas Tatar and Justin Schultz as pending UFAs this summer, the Kraken need to start looking to the trade market to bring down the average age of their roster. There are some very capable players here and the Kraken would be wise to move on from a few of them while their value is still high.
The Kraken have been building through the draft since their inauguration and it’s their young prospects that will drive the long term competitiveness of the team. Matty Beniers and Shane Wright are the headliners and there are plenty more exciting prospects developing in the Kraken system. Ryker Evans and Tye Kartye have started to make their mark in the NHL this season already and there are more on the way. This cohort still has plenty of room to develop before it peaks and it would behoove the Kraken to find a few more roster spots for their youngsters next season.
Between the veteran cohort and the Beniers/Wright cohort, the Kraken have a few capable NHLers that can help bridge the gap as they transition the NHL roster between them. Vince Dunn may have been the steal of the expansion draft, becoming a standout on the Seattle blueline and Eeli Tolvanen is the best waiver claim in recent memory. This is a small group, but it’s capable of filling a few holes as the future cohort takes over as the main driver of the NHL roster.
The Kraken have set themselves up to become competitive for a long time. The danger is that they wait too long to turn over the older portion of their roster. They should not wait until their veterans age and lose value before starting to shift to their future cohort in a more significant way. If they wait, they may put the entire framework in danger of falling apart. If they start now, they have potential to become a powerhouse for the next decade.
