The Seattle Kraken announced they’ve signed forward Devin Shore to a one-year, two-way contract today. The deal will carry the league minimum cap hit of $775K. PuckPedia reports his minor-league salary is $250K.
Shore will now look to crack a deep Kraken forward group that has remained largely unchanged since the end of last season. It’s a group that boasted multiple 20-goal scorers up and down the lineup and earned them their first playoff series victory in franchise history.
Shore’s played in nine NHL seasons dating back to a three-game stint with the Dallas Stars in 2015-16. He would then play in all 82 games for the Stars the following two seasons before making short stops with the Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets prior to COVID-19 pausing league operations in 2020. He would then sign as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers shortly before the 2020-21 campaign began, where he spent the last three seasons.
He opened his full-time NHL career with back-to-back 30-point seasons in 2017 and 2018 but has since slipped out of an everyday role in the lineup. He’s gone on to post 50 goals and 135 points in 422 career games, but he scored just once and added eight assists for nine points in 47 games with the Oilers last season. As a result, he was assigned to the minors for a five-game stint with AHL Bakersfield for the first time in seven years.
A winger who can chip in at the bottom of the lineup, Shore will be hard-pressed to make the Kraken out of camp. The edge on any spots will likely go to 2022 fourth-overall pick Shane Wright and veteran utility forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, whom the team signed to a one-year, one-way deal earlier this summer. If he’s placed on waivers and clears, he’ll likely suit up for the majority of 2023-24 with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Could he be another Daniel Sprong and have a career year in Seattle..
Hahaha oh man, that would be shocking. Surely if they’re looking for an NHLer, they had other options.
If it’s a two-way deal, doesn’t that mean he won’t need waivers to get to Coachella?
Two-way deal refers to the pay scale, not waiver eligibility.
Correct. A two-way deal only indicates a player is paid a different salary in the minors than when in the NHL. Waiver eligibility is quite complex and determined by how long it’s been since a player signed their first NHL contract and how many NHL games they’ve played. CapFriendly has a good breakdown of when players reach waiver eligibility: link to capfriendly.com
Francis has made a glaring mistake this summer by not addressing the blueline. If that continues it will be a problem for Seattle.