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Seattle Kraken Sign Jaxon Castor To PTO

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The Seattle Kraken have signed netminder Jaxon Castor to a professional tryout, as their training camp roster (announced yesterday) confirmed he’ll be at the Kraken’s main camp starting next week.

Castor is beginning his pro career a tad late at age 26 but does so after a spectacular final collegiate season with St. Cloud State in 2022-23. It was quite a rise for Castor, who spent five seasons at the university – the first of which was spent playing club-level hockey in the ACHA II division. He would serve as the main team’s backup for three more years before finally getting a shot as a starter.

He took advantage of the opportunity, capturing an NCHC tournament championship with the Huskies and earning an All-Tournament Team nod. Castor played in 23 games for St. Cloud last season, posting a 2.02 goals-against average, .924 save percentage, four shutouts, and a 14-8-1 record. At the end of the season, he made his pro debut, appearing in two games for the ECHL’s Florida Everblades and recording a .912 save percentage.

No matter the outcome of his camp, Castor will be suiting up in the Kraken organization next season. He’s already signed an ECHL contract for 2023-24 with the Kansas City Mavericks, Seattle’s second-tier minor-league affiliate behind the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. He could go so far as to earn a two-way AHL contract from Coachella Valley if he impresses in Kraken training camp, though, which would improve his odds of a recall to the reigning AHL Western Conference champions.

Castor will supplement Joey Daccord, Chris Driedger and Philipp Grubauer as the fourth goalie listed on Seattle’s main camp roster. Currently, he sits sixth on the Kraken organizational goalie depth chart behind the three aforementioned netminders, European free agent signing Aleš Stezka, and former University of Minnesota starter Jack LaFontaine, who is under AHL contract with Coachella Valley.

Shane Wright Officially Granted Exemption, Can Play In The AHL This Season

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Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis has shared that, if Shane Wright doesn’t make the NHL roster, he will be eligible for an AHL assignment. This move was recently speculated by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Because of these reasons, the OHL has granted Wright an exemption, following conversations between the Kraken, the NHL, and the OHL that date back months ago. These talks focused on how returning to the CHL wouldn’t benefit the former exceptional status recipient, especially after the tangled 2022-23 season that Wright had. Wright started the year with Seattle, before suffering an injury and getting assigned to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for a conditioning stint. After eight games, Wright returned to the NHL for a single game, then left for the World Juniors, and when he came back, his OHL rights had been traded from the Kingston Frontenacs to the Windsor Spitfires – whom he spent the remainder of the season with. But after Windsor’s early postseason exit, Wright returned again to the AHL, playing in 24 playoff games with Coachella Valley.

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Latest On Shane Wright

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2022 fourth-overall pick Shane Wright played for three club teams last season, skating in eight NHL games, eight regular-season AHL contests, and 24 games in the OHL. The CHL-NHL transfer agreement stipulated that he could only play in the AHL under very specific circumstances. Wright was allowed to play in 24 games on the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ run to the Calder Cup Final, and now it appears he could get a more extensive regular-season look in the AHL next season.

On the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said that he’s “under the impression” that Wright’s eligibility for the AHL next season “has been sorted out,” and that the CHL has agreed to allow Wright to play for Coachella Valley assuming he is unable to crack Seattle’s opening-night roster. Wright technically falls one OHL game played short of the CHL’s cut-off point for eligibility, as well as just a few days short based on his birthday. But with Wright so close to automatic eligibility for the AHL and clearly overqualified for another OHL campaign, it seems the CHL has elected to put Wright’s development first and allow him to begin his full-time pro career.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • The Chicago Blackhawks are hoping Kevin Korchinski will join Connor Bedard as a foundational piece of their next competitive era, and it appears that the 2022 seventh-overall pick could be primed to break into the NHL as soon as opening night. Korchinski, 19, spent last season patrolling the blueline of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, and he scored 73 points in 54 regular-season games. According to The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus, “it would take a pretty jarring faceplant at camp” for Korchinski to not make the Blackhawks’ opening-night roster. (subscription link) Korchinski is considered by many to be Chicago’s best prospect behind Bedard, so assuming he avoids that “jarring faceplant” he should make the team’s opening night all the more exciting for Blackhawks fans.
  • The Montreal Canadiens have announced their roster for their upcoming rookie camp, a group of names that features three invite players: QMJHL winger Isaac Dufort, 2018 Vegas Golden Knights fourth-rounder Slava Demin, and WHL goalie Jan Spunar. Another notable aspect of this announcement regards prospect Ty Smilanic, the 74th overall pick of the 2020 draft who the Canadiens acquired from the Florida Panthers in the Ben Chiarot trade. The 21-year-old was listed on the rookie camp roster, something Radio-Canada’s Marc Antoine Godin noted is a curious development seeing as Smilanic is a college prospect and NCAA players are typically excluded from rookie camp. There’s no official word yet on Smilanic’s plans for next season, but given Smilanic’s participation in rookie camp the possibility may exist that he won’t be returning to the University of Wisconsin to play a second season there.

Seattle Kraken Sign Mitch Reinke

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Saturday: The Kraken have officially announced Reinke’s signing.

Friday: In a confirmed transaction according to CapFriendly, the Seattle Kraken have signed forward Mitch Reinke to a one-year, $775K two-way contract for the 2023-24 NHL season. Reinke had previously spent the last two seasons playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL.

Carrying only one NHL game under his belt during the last five seasons, Reinke once looked to be one of the top players in the NHL’s highest minor league system. In his first full pro campaign during the 2018-19 AHL season, Reinke would impress with 12 goals and 33 assists in 76 games for the San Antonio Rampage, good for second on the team in scoring that year. Unfortunately, primarily due to injuries, Reinke has not reached close to that point total since.

Spending his first three years in the St. Louis Blues organization, Reinke would join the Pittsburgh Penguins organization in 2021 after being non-tendered that summer. Still dealing with mild injury concerns over his two-year stint for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Reinke would dramatically increase his assist total compared to his final two seasons spent for the Blues’ AHL affiliates. Last year, only playing in 52 games, Reinke would score only one goal but still notched 26 assists on the year.

It would be an unlikely circumstance to see Reinke join the Kraken next year, but if healthy, should become a solid contributor to their AHL team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. In their inaugural season last year, the Firebirds would finish second in the Pacific Division, marching all the way to the Calder Cup Finals, losing to the Hershey Bears in six games.

Kraken Prospect Eduard Sale Officially Commits To OHL

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Dating back to last season, it was expected that winger Eduard Sale would play with OHL Barrie for the 2023-24 campaign.  That is now confirmed to be the case as the Colts announced that the Kraken first-rounder has officially committed to the team.

The 18-year-old was the 20th overall selection back in June after a season that didn’t help his draft stock.  Sale entered the year as a potential top-ten pick with some early rankings having him closer to the top five.  He spent last season playing in the Czech Extraliga playing against pros and not surprisingly, his offensive numbers didn’t exactly stand out as he notched just seven goals and seven assists in 43 games.

However, against his own age level, Sale fared much better.  He had six points in seven games at the World Juniors and then followed that up with six more in five contests at the World Under-18s in May, the final tournament before the draft.

Seattle has already signed Sale to his entry-level deal but assuming he doesn’t play in ten or more NHL games this coming season, his contract will slide a year.  As a result, it will still have three years remaining heading into the 2024-25 campaign.

Seattle Kraken Sign Devin Shore

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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.

Burakovsky Skating, Should Be Ready For Training Camp

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  • Kraken winger Andre Burakovsky has resumed skating as he works his way back from a torn groin muscle he sustained back in February, notes Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. The hope is that the 28-year-old will be fully recovered for training camp next month.  Burakovsky led Seattle in scoring at the time of his injury with 39 points in 49 games and was expected to be back just after the trade deadline which played a role in the team opting to not make an addition up front.  However, he wound up suffering a setback and underwent surgery which ended his season.

Seattle Loans Niklas Kokko To Finnish League

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While the Kraken signed prospect goaltender Niklas Kokko to his entry-level deal back in May, he won’t be making his North American debut right away.  Instead, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that Seattle has loaned him back to Karpat in Finland for the upcoming season.

The 19-year-old was a second-round pick by the Kraken back in 2022 (58th overall) after a strong showing with Karpat’s Under-20 team.  Last season, he moved up, splitting the year between Finland’s top two professional divisions, getting into nine appearances in the top-level Liiga and 14 more in the second-tier Mestis, posting save percentages of .901 and .903 respectively at the two levels.

While Kokko is eligible to play in the AHL at 19 since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, he likely wouldn’t have received much playing time with Coachella Valley.  With Seattle bringing back Joey Daccord, either he or Chris Driedger will be the odd one out in training camp behind Philipp Grubauer with the loser of that battle ticketed for the Firebirds pending waivers.  Meanwhile, Ales Stezka is expected to play in the AHL this coming season after spending 2022-23 in his native Czechia.

That would have made Kokko the third-string option in the minors and faced between the options of giving him limited playing time in the AHL, regular minutes in the ECHL, or loaning him to stay at home, they’ve made what seems like the logical choice.  His contract, which officially begins this season, will instead slide a year and still have three years remaining on it heading into 2024-25.

AHL Coachella Valley Signs Jack LaFontaine

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The AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds have signed netminder Jack LaFontaine to a one-year contract, per the team, bringing the former Carolina Hurricanes draft pick into the Seattle Kraken organization.

A 2016 third-round pick, LaFontaine’s post-draft career got off to an inauspicious beginning at the University of Michigan for two seasons in a backup role. After then taking a year off from school to play in the BCHL, LaFontaine joined the University of Minnesota, where he became the team’s undisputed starter and, during the 2020-21 campaign, was arguably the best goalie in college hockey, posting a .934 save percentage and 22-7-0 record en route to winning the Mike Richter award for the NCAA’s top collegiate goalie.

His fifth season in college didn’t go quite well, posting a 2.69 goals-against average and .900 save percentage in 20 games before deciding to turn pro in the middle of the season and sign an entry-level contract with Carolina. He made two NHL appearances for them, stopping just 32 of 41 shots in 75 minutes of action. His time in the minors after signing didn’t go swimmingly, posting just a .885 save percentage and a 4-3-7 record in 13 games with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

The minor-league performance was discouraging enough for the Hurricanes to cut him loose at the end of the season, opting not to issue him a qualifying offer in favor of other goalies in the organization they believed had higher ceilings. It led to LaFontaine signing an AHL contract last summer with the Syracuse Crunch, the affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He played just five games in Syracuse last season, instead spending most of 2022-23 in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears, where he again struggled with a .898 save percentage and an 11-14-1 record. He did look much improved in his stint with Syracuse, though, posting a .924 save percentage and 2.36 goals-against average in his limited stint.

LaFontaine will now look to secure a backup role in Coachella Valley and get his career back on track. He’ll have to beat out Kraken free agent signing Ales Stezka for the job, though, and he’s coming over to North America after posting a .924 save percentage and 2.14 goals-against average in 39 games with HC Vítkovice in the Czech Extraliga last season.

August Free Agency Update: Pacific Division

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As even most mid-tier free agents are now off the market, it’s a good time to look at how each team has fared on the free agent market this offseason. We’re publishing a list of one-way signings (i.e., likelier to start the season on the NHL roster) by team, per division, to keep you updated on NHL player movement since the new league year began on July 1.

Asterisked players denote a restricted free agent. Double-asterisked players denote the contract starts in the 2024-25 season. We finish up with the Pacific Division. You can check out the list of Atlantic Division signings here, the list of Metropolitan Division signings here and the list of Central Division signings here.

Anaheim Ducks

*F Troy Terry (seven years, $7MM cap hit)
F Alex Killorn (four years, $6.25MM cap hit)
D Radko Gudas (three years, $4MM cap hit)
G Alex Stalock (one year, 35+ contract, $800K cap hit)
D Robert Hägg (one year, $775K cap hit)

Calgary Flames

D Jordan Oesterle (one year, $925K cap hit)

Edmonton Oilers

*F Ryan McLeod (two years, $2.1MM cap hit)
F Lane Pederson (two years, $775K cap hit)
F Connor Brown (one year, $775K cap hit)

Los Angeles Kings

**F Anze Kopitar (two years, 35+ contract, $7MM cap hit)
D Andreas Englund (two years, $1MM cap hit)
G Cam Talbot (one year, 35+ contract, $1MM cap hit)
G David Rittich (one year, $875K cap hit)
F Jaret Anderson-Dolan (one year, $775K cap hit)
F Trevor Lewis (one year, 35+ contract, $775K cap hit)
*D Tobias Björnfot (two years, $775K cap hit)

San Jose Sharks

G Mackenzie Blackwood (two years, $2.35MM cap hit)
*F Fabian Zetterlund (two years, $1.45MM cap hit)
D Kyle Burroughs (three years, $1.1MM cap hit)
F Filip Zadina (one year, $1.1MM cap hit)
F Givani Smith (two years, $800K cap hit)

Seattle Kraken

*D Vince Dunn (four years, $7.35MM cap hit)
D Brian Dumoulin (two years, $3.15MM cap hit)
*D William Borgen (two years, $2.7MM cap hit)
F Kailer Yamamoto (one year, $1.5MM cap hit)
*D Cale Fleury (two years, $800K cap hit)
F Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (one year, 35+ contract, $775K cap hit)

Vancouver Canucks

D Carson Soucy (three years, $3.25MM cap hit)
D Ian Cole (one year, $3MM cap hit)
F Teddy Blueger (one year, $1.9MM cap hit)
F Pius Suter (two years, $1.6MM cap hit)
*F Nils Höglander (two years, $1.1MM cap hit)

Vegas Golden Knights

*F Brett Howden (two years, $1.9MM cap hit)
*F Pavel Dorofeyev (one year, $825K cap hit)

Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly

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