Kraken still looking for immediate star talent
The Seattle Kraken are off to a good start in their bid for their second Stanley Cup Playoff appearance in franchise history, as their 8-5-1 record has them in third place in the Pacific Division.
General manager Jason Botterill is looking to make the Kraken a legitimate threat in the playoffs, and he’s balancing aggressive pursuit of available players with the desire to retain star defenseman Vince Dunn, who is in the final season of a four-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $7.35 million.
He already sent young center Shane Wright to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Matthew Wood, but Botterill has his sights set on getting even more moves done.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by NHL insider David Pagnotta to discuss the Kraken’s strategy to add an impact player or two to the mix of their roster.
Carter Hutton: To try to pivot here a little bit into what Seattle, we saw them do, Shane Wright gets moved out, right? He was supposed to be a piece to bring something bigger back in and try to beef this team up. They’ve got to sign Vince Dunn as well. What do we expect from them? Because they seem to be this team that continually hangs around, right? But we never put them in that big category because of the lackluster superstars that they don’t have.
David Pagnotta: Yeah, and that’s still what they’re looking for, Hutts. They’re still active. Botterill looks to continue to see what potential stars are available, and how can we get in on this? At any position. There’s interest in [unsigned RFA defenseman Simon] Edvinsson in Detroit. There’s, you know any forward that could potentially be available that’s a top-six guy or even a first-line guy, they’re going to kick tires on and see if they can get into that race. They’ve got some good young kids coming up, but they want to add immediate pieces. So while they’re searching for that, while they’re talking to Detroit, and I’m sure other teams. You mention, they’re actively engaged. They started right after the start of the season with Vince Dunn and his camp. Those are ongoing. If he hits the free agent market, he’s going to be one of the top defensemen, top players overall to hit UFA status in July next summer. They hope it doesn’t come t that. Dunn’s voiced… interest and desire to stay in Seattle if everything makes sense. They’d like to make it happen, and they’ve got the money to do it. They’re trying to make that happen, and they’re still very actively looking to bring in one, two maybe three if they can, maybe that’s a little too aggressive, they’re looking to bring in stars on to this team while also keeping Dunn.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…
