The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those eliminated in the first round. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Seattle.
Expectations were high for the Kraken heading into 2023-24, perhaps a bit too lofty after an impressive second season. The team struggled, resulting in a new coach and some big free agent splashes. That didn’t move the needle, however, as the struggles continued, leading to another coaching search while the front office has been shaken up. Accordingly, new GM Jason Botterill has plenty on his checklist in the weeks and months ahead.
Find A New Coach
After Dave Hakstol was let go last year, the Kraken promoted from within, naming veteran Dan Bylsma as their new head coach. Considering that he had some NHL success in the past with Pittsburgh and had fared quite well with AHL Coachella Valley, it was a reasonable decision. But now, they’re on the lookout for a new bench boss again following the decision to move on from him quite quickly.
It would be a bit surprising to see recent history repeat itself with another promotion from the Firebirds. Derek Laxdal took over from Bylsma this season in the minors and while he has a decent track record as a head coach there (and in the OHL where he was Coach of the Year last season), it feels like this is a situation where they’re going to be looking for someone more experienced that can get them back to the playoffs next season.
Rick Tocchet’s name has surfaced as a strong candidate. He’s more than familiar with the division having been with Vancouver the last couple of years and he also has some familiarity with Botterill dating back to their days in Pittsburgh. Last year’s Jack Adams Award winner, Tocchet is also a strong candidate for several other openings. On the other side of the front office, Ron Francis has worked with Peter Laviolette before from their days in Carolina which could help his cause when it comes to being considered.
One under the radar option that has some ties to Seattle is Jay Leach. He was one of the finalists for the top job last year and was an assistant with them until this season. It would be a little surprising to see a first-time head coach get the job but Leach having worked with a lot of the team before could give him a leg up in discussions. If management wants to go with a younger coach with some experience, Jay Woodcroft could be a fit as well.
With several openings around the league, the potential exists for this to drag out a bit, especially if teams have their eyes on assistants who are currently still working which could slow the market down. But if Botterill and company have their eyes on someone who’s available now, they could move relatively quickly to get this hire done.
Decide Grubauer’s Fate
When Seattle signed Philipp Grubauer to a six-year, $35.4MM contract back in 2021, it looked like they might have their goalie situation settled for a while. While there was some risk in signing someone coming off a career year with Colorado (one that made him a Vezina finalist), his overall track record was still pretty solid with a 2.30 GAA and a .920 SV% in 214 games up to that point.
Let’s just say things have not gone as planned for Grubauer since then. Over the first half of the deal, he failed to post a save percentage above .899 and ultimately lost the starting job to Joey Daccord. This season, it got even worse. His GAA jumped to a career-high 3.49 while his SV% dropped to a career-low .875, numbers that were significantly worse than the league average. By MoneyPuck’s Goals Saved Above Expected mark, he failed to crack the top-100 league-wide which also says a lot. Unsurprisingly, he cleared waivers in late January and played in seven games with Coachella Valley where his numbers were a bit better but still below average.
With Daccord beginning his five-year, $25MM contract next season, Seattle is now primed to be one of the top-spending teams in goal. Given their cap situation (they have over $21MM in space per PuckPedia), they can afford it. On the other hand, that’s a lot of money to pay a goalie they don’t have much faith in, making a buyout a potential option.
Should Seattle buy Grubauer out this summer, they would take on dead cap charges of $1.983MM in 2025-26, $3.083MM in 2026-27, and $1.683MM in 2027-28 and 2028-29. Still, that would free up nearly $4MM in space next season and $3MM the year after that before adding on extra money the following two seasons. Meanwhile, unless he’s being moved as salary ballast to offset a pricey contract coming back the other way, a trade is probably an unrealistic outcome.
Could the Kraken find a better goaltender for the savings from a Grubauer buyout? Even with a thin UFA market, there’s a good chance they could do so and potentially even free up a bit of space to put toward filling another spot on the roster. Is that improvement enough to justify adding dead cap money in 2027-28 and 2028-29? That’s what management will need to decide over the next six-plus weeks.
Re-Sign Key RFAs
A decent chunk of Seattle’s current cap space is going to be required to keep their RFA class intact. Tye Kartye has earned a small raise off his entry-level deal which is pretty straightforward but their other two restricted free agents of note have a bit more complicated cases.
Last offseason, both the Rangers and Kaapo Kakko opted to kick the can down the road, so to speak, with the winger preemptively accepting what would have been his qualifying offer. It was a chance for more evaluation time for both sides. That evaluation eventually led to the 24-year-old getting a fresh start with Seattle, one that did him a lot of good. After notching just 14 points in 30 games to start the season, Kakko was more productive following the swap, tallying 10 goals and 20 assists in 49 outings with the Kraken.
Notably, this is his final RFA-eligible year. Kakko could simply opt to file for arbitration, go to a hearing, and probably get a $1MM or so raise from his $2.4MM qualifying offer while setting himself up to hit the open market next summer at the age of 25, an outcome we rarely see. But if both sides are happy with how things went following the swap, a multi-year agreement could be worked out. With Kakko’s inconsistency, a long-term deal feels unlikely for both sides but effectively another bridge contract that buys up a UFA year or two might make sense for both player and team. In that case, the price tag could jump closer to the $4MM per year range.
Then there’s Ryker Evans. The defenseman played his first full NHL campaign this season and fared quite well, notching 25 points while logging over 19 minutes per game while seeing a bit of action on both special teams units. Already basically a top-four piece, he’s the type of player Seattle would likely want to sign to a long-term agreement. A max-term deal could push the AAV past the $6MM range while a six-year pact that only buys out a couple of UFA seasons could start with a five. Alternatively, if one side wants a bridge agreement, the price tag would probably land in the $3MM territory which would give them a bit more cap flexibility to add pieces this summer although they’d be paying a higher price tag for Evans down the road. They’ll have to decide which is the better option over the coming weeks.
Look Into Moving A Forward
Considering that it appears the goal for next season is to make the playoffs, this might seem a little odd. However, there aren’t many open roster spots (once Kakko and Kartye sign, they’ll have 10 forwards locked up) and it seems likely that management will once again try to add a piece or two on the open market. On top of that, they have some forwards including Jani Nyman and 2024 first-rounder Berkly Catton who are close to being NHL-ready. Integrating them into the lineup will also require some spots to be opened up.
The way to open up a spot or two will likely have to come through a trade. Forward Jaden Schwartz is about to enter the final year of his contract and while he’s extension-eligible, it doesn’t feel like the Kraken would want to do an early extension. He stayed healthy this season and finished third in team scoring with 49 points in 81 games but injuries plagued his first three years with the team. Given that he has dabbled at center a bit in the past and is on a manageable $5.5MM cap charge, there could be some trade interest in him from a team looking just for a short-term addition up front that doesn’t want to commit to a longer-term deal on the open market.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Botterill look into moving Andre Burakovsky as well. He has two years left at $5.5MM and like Schwartz, injuries have been an issue since signing that deal as he missed 33 games in each of his first two seasons. However, he had a 37-point effort this year and had 39 points in 49 games in 2022-23 with them so there is still some offensive upside to work with. Similar to Schwartz, a team looking for a shorter-term addition might be more interested in flipping something to get Burakovsky on a short-term deal.
Jordan Eberle and Eeli Tolvanen are on expiring deals but Eberle being their captain probably takes him out of consideration at this point while Tolvanen is someone that they may try to keep around.
Moving out a forward isn’t something they necessarily have to do but with two straight disappointing seasons now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to shake up their forward group while simultaneously making room for some new free agents and a prospect or two.
Photo courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.