Snapshots: Wild, Kraken Captaincy, Halbgewachs

While Minnesota freed up $2.25MM in cap space today with the trade of defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to Anaheim, don’t expect that money to be spent right away.  GM Bill Guerin told Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription link) that while he wouldn’t rule out using it on a free agent, it’s unlikely that he’ll opt to do so.  Guerin felt that the Wild needed more cap space and while they’re shown as having a little over $5.7MM in room right now per CapFriendly, that figure has them with a minimum-sized roster which is likely to change.  But even with adding a couple of players to that current projection, Minnesota will be well-positioned from a cap perspective to make additions to their roster in-season and will have some room to work with if injuries arise.  It may not seem like much but that’s a cap situation that many teams would like to have right about now.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

• Last season, the Kraken had Mark Giordano as their inaugural captain but that post has been vacant since the veteran was moved to Toronto at the trade deadline. GM Ron Francis told Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times that he’ll sit down with head coach Dave Hakstol to decide if they even want to name a captain this season and that if they do, they’ll likely wait to see how training camp goes before making a decision.  Veterans Yanni Gourde, Jordan Eberle, and Adam Larsson would be candidates for the captaincy if they do decide to name one for 2022-23.
• Free agent winger Jayden Halbgewachs has drawn interest from MoDo in Sweden, sports director Henrik Gradin acknowledged to Ornskoldsviks Allehanda. The 25-year-old is coming off a productive year with AHL San Jose where he had 41 points in 59 games while also getting into three games with the Sharks, picking up his first career point.  While he’s the type of player that would typically generate a fair bit of interest on a two-way deal, heading overseas to play in a top league there might ultimately help his value in the long run if he was to get back to being a top scorer as he was back in junior.