Fresh off of leading Team Canada to victory at the World Junior Championships, Shane Wright’s status for the rest of the season has been made clear.
The Seattle Kraken have reassigned the forward to his junior team, the Kingston Frontenacs, meaning he will spend the rest of the season chasing the Memorial Cup. That chase may not take place in Kingston, though, as NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston tweets that the expectation is that Wright will be traded to another OHL team.
Kraken general manager Ron Francis issued the following statement regarding Wright’s status:
We’re very proud of Shane’s performance at the World Juniors, helping captain Team Canada to a gold medal. He has a bright NHL career ahead of him with the Kraken and now has an opportunity to lead his junior team as they compete for a Memorial Cup. We look forward to watching him the rest of this season and wish him well.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster season for Wright, who somewhat surprisingly fell to the number-four slot at the 2022 draft. The now 19-year-old center began the year with the Kraken, but played sparingly and was frequently a healthy scratch.
The Kraken exploited a little-known feature of the NHL-CHL transfer agreement that allowed Wright to spend two weeks in the AHL. After a successful five-game stretch there where Wright scored four goals, was recalled back to Seattle, played in one game, scored his first NHL goal, and then left to captain Canada’s World Juniors squad.
Now back in the OHL, Wright will look to have a dominant rest of the season and help his team win the Memorial Cup. Wright’s OHL performance last year was seen as somewhat disappointing, as he failed to lead the Frontenacs on a deep playoff run and didn’t post the dominant production many expected.
He’ll now get another chance to have the overwhelmingly productive OHL campaign many were expecting, and with some NHL experience under his belt and a WJC win in his back pocket, he’s in a prime position to succeed.
Trade him for a bundle! The Kracken are not using him, so why not?
Trade him and Gourde for Horvat and win now!
Does the WJC bump work at the NHl level? I thought it only increased value in fantasy…
Ewww.
Wow that’s a bad take in every way imaginable. Are you Mike Milbury in disguise Johnny
SMH…can we trade you?
… you’re kidding, right? You really think that Wright and Gourde are the best Vancouver could get for Horvat?
They are not going to win now. They are good, but they do not have the defense or goaltending to make a deep playoff run. They need to be patient. Wrights ELC will now slide, giving them plenty of time to see what they have.
Seems like the right move for this season.
Out of curiosity though, what’s the policy on recall? Hopefully not an issue, but I’m sure there’s a rule in place.
Wright cannot be recalled this season. He will spend the rest of the year in the OHL.
Smart move by the Kraken (due to circumstances).
Wish he could play for Coachella Valley (4 goals in 5 games), but at least they’ll save a year of ELC.
With the Kraken in the playoff hunt, there just isn’t room for him. No sense making him a healthy scratch or playing ~8 min/night on the 3rd/4th line.
Hopefully he gets traded to a contender, works on his game and shuts up the nay-sayers who are convinced the kid has a ‘bad attitude’.
Looking forward to seeing him in 23/24 training camp.