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Ryan Winterton

Kraken Recall Andrew Poturalski, Send Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton Down

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The Seattle Kraken have recalled forward Andrew Poturalski to the NHL lineup, while sending down the rookie duo of Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton. Both Wright and Winterton appeared in three games with Seattle this season, with both players going without a point and recording a -1.

Seattle will now look to Poturalski to provide a spark. The 29-year-old centerman currently has seven points through 10 games in the AHL. It’s a slight step down from the scoring pace he recorded last season when he tallied 42 points in 38 AHL games. He also added 12 points in 16 playoff games. Poturalski signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016, following the end of the University of New Hampshire’s season. He’s an undrafted free agent who’s spent much of his career in the minors, although Carolina did provide him with four NHL games over his seven years with the club. He recorded two assists and a -4 in those games but is still looking for his first NHL goal. Poturalski was also briefly a part of the Ducks organization from 2019 to 2021, before returning to the Hurricanes depth charts and then signing with the Kraken last summer.

The Kraken are currently facing injuries to Jordan Eberle and Andre Burakovsky. Eberle is nearing a return to play, finally shedding his no-contact jersey at practice, but Burakovsky is still out long-term. The winger is expected to return in December, after sustaining an upper-body injury early in the season.

This move also rejoins Wright and Winterton with Coachella Valley, where both players have had success through the early season. Wright has recorded six points in seven AHL games, while Winterton has five points. This is Winterton’s first season of professional hockey, after playing in the OHL last season, while Wright appeared in 39 pro games between the NHL regular season, AHL regular season, and AHL playoffs last year.

Kraken Recall Shane Wright And Ryan Winterton

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Seattle has added some reinforcements to its roster in advance of their game tomorrow against Colorado.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forwards Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton from AHL Coachella Valley.

Wright was the fourth overall selection back in 2022 but wasn’t deemed to be ready for full-time action in the NHL.  Since he wasn’t eligible to play in the minors on a full-time basis, Seattle gave him spot duty in the NHL (eight games where he had a goal and an assist) plus a one-time conditioning assignment in the minors until the World Juniors.  After that event, he was sent back to major junior where he had 37 points in 20 games.  Once his Kingston team was eliminated, he became eligible to play in the minors and played in all 24 postseason contests with the Firebirds, notching nine points.

Following training camp, Seattle successfully received a waiver for Wright to play in Coachella Valley this season over returning for what would have been his final season in junior.  He’s off to a nice start in the minors this season, picking up six points in his first seven games, putting him tied for fourth on the team in scoring.

As Wright doesn’t turn 20 until early January, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players still comes into play.  Wright can play up to nine times for Seattle this season without officially burning the first year of his entry-level contract.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if this winds up being a shorter-term recall, one that lets them evaluate where he’s at before returning him to the Firebirds where he’d receive more playing time.  Should he play in ten or more games, the next threshold to watch for would be 40 games on the NHL roster at which point he’d receive a year of service time towards free agent eligibility.

As for Winterton, the 20-year-old was a third-round pick by the Kraken in 2021 and he certainly has outperformed that draft slot.  While injuries limited him to just 34 regular season games with OHL London last year, he was quite impactful during the Knights’ playoff run.  During that time, he picked up 13 goals and 16 assists in 21 games to lead the league in playoff scoring.

Winterton is now in his first professional campaign and is off to a good start as well, collecting three goals and two helpers in his first seven games.  Unlike Wright, the nine-game threshold doesn’t matter for Winterton.

Seattle had two vacant roster spots so no corresponding moves needed to be made to add Wright and Winterton to the active roster.  One of them seems likely to replace Jordan Eberle; Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times reports that the winger suffered a cut from a skate blade to the upper part of his leg in practice today.  He underwent tests to determine the severity of the injury although GM Ron Francis feels the worst-case scenario was avoided.

Snapshots: Domi, Kraken Prospects, Vrana, Wotherspoon

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As soon as Max Domi signed with Chicago just minutes into free agency last summer, the expectation was that he’d be traded at the deadline when there wasn’t much money left on his one-year, $3MM contract.  However, in a recent 32 Thoughts appearance, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reports (video link) that it’s not a guarantee that Domi moves.  He’s enjoying a nice bounce-back year with the Blackhawks, collecting 11 goals and 13 assists in 36 games so far, good for second on the team in scoring.  He’s also winning draws at a career-best clip of 56.3%.  If he’s happy in his role and having some success, it may make more sense for Chicago to try to extend the 27-year-old.  That’s a discussion GM Kyle Davidson is expected to have with Domi’s representation in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • A pair of Kraken prospects are on the move in the CHL. OHL London announced that they’ve acquired forward Ryan Winterton from Hamilton as part of a four-player trade.  The 19-year-old was a third-round pick (67th overall) in 2021 and has 46 points in 37 games so far this season.  Meanwhile, Sherbrooke of the QMJHL announced the acquisition of winger Jacob Melanson from Acadie-Bathurst.  The 19-year-old has 25 goals in just 27 games this season.  Both prospects have already signed their entry-level contracts with Seattle.
  • The Red Wings will extend Jakub Vrana’s conditioning stint by three more games, relays MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has already played in three games and was held off the scoresheet and the team feels he could benefit from a longer stretch in the minors.  This is the only extension that Detroit can give Vrana; he’ll have to be recalled once these three games are up.
  • The Devils announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon to AHL Utica. He was recalled last week for his second stint with the big club this season but didn’t get into a game with New Jersey; his last NHL appearance came back in January 2017.  So far this season, the 29-year-old has two goals and seven assists in 23 games with the Comets.

Pacific Notes: Miller, Winterton, Yamamoto

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Despite the fact that J.T. Miller is coming off a career year, he has been in trade speculation for several months with the Canucks alternating between making him available and not.  As CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports (video link), it appears that Vancouver is back in the camp of listening to offers for the 29-year-old.  Miller has one year left on his contract with a $5.25MM AAV but after collecting 99 points in 80 games this season, he will have a strong case for a significant extension, one that can be signed as early as mid-July.  However, Dhaliwal notes that Vancouver’s internal limit would be an AAV in the high-$7MM range and that will likely come in lower than Miller’s camp will be looking for.  Barring a change of heart on how much they’re willing to offer, it would appear that Miller’s name will remain in the rumor mill for a little while yet.

More from the Pacific:

  • Kraken prospect Ryan Winterton played an important role for OHL Hamilton as they won the league title and have advanced to the Memorial Cup semifinals. Despite that, Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times reports that Seattle won’t be signing him to his entry-level deal this summer and instead will wait and see how 2022-23 goes.  The 18-year-old was a third-round pick in the 2021 draft and potted 20 goals while adding 26 assists in 37 games with the Bulldogs this season while averaging more than a point per game in the playoffs as well.
  • Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal examined the improvements in winger Kailer Yamamoto’s performance following the midseason coaching change which has helped give him leverage heading into contract talks with salary arbitration rights for the first time. However, he suggests another bridge deal (Yamamoto played on a one-year deal this season) is the best way to go.  Yamamoto is still four years away from UFA eligibility so a two-year would buy them a bit more time to evaluate the 23-year-old and keep the cap hit lower.  Yamamoto is coming off a 20-goal, 41-point season with the Oilers so he’ll still be getting a decent-sized raise on the $1.175MM he made this year.

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