Seattle Kraken Hire Dave Lowry
The Seattle Kraken are bringing in another veteran name behind the bench, adding Dave Lowry as an assistant coach. Lowry leaves the Winnipeg Jets where he served as interim head coach last season, following Paul Maurice’s midseason exit. Kraken general manager Ron Francis released the following statement:
Dave brings experience to our coaching staff. He had a long and successful NHL playing career and has significant coaching experience at the NHL and junior ranks. Dave will be a valuable addition to Dave Hakstol’s staff.
Lowry, 57, appeared in more than 1,000 games in the NHL over a long playing career, which included stops with the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, and Calgary Flames, even serving as captain of the latter for a short time. As a coach, he has several stops around the league and was twice named the WHL Coach of the Year while with the Victoria Royals.
With so much experience coaching young players, he’ll be a valuable resource for the Kraken as they try to build through the draft. The team also has several new additions like Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Justin Schultz who will try to turn their fortunes around quickly and contend for the playoffs in year two of the franchise’s history.
Lowry joins Hakstol’s staff which also includes Jay Leach and Paul McFarland as assistants.
Seattle Kraken Name Jeff Tambellini Director Of Player Development
The Seattle Kraken announced this evening that they have hired former NHL veteran Jeff Tambellini to be their Director of Player Development. With the expansion of their young prospect pool as a new franchise, the organization made the decision to bring on Tambellini in order to facilitate player growth and development and to “optimize” their resources. The team has also hired Matt Larke as a Skills Development Consultant and added that former Seattle goaltending coach Andrew Allen will remain with the team as a scout evaluating goalies.
The newest member of Seattle’s front office had this to say on his hiring:
“It’s a big, big step going from junior hockey to college hockey into the American [Hockey] League and then to the National Hockey League. It’s my job along with our whole staff to help these players navigate that transition, make them better players. To make them stronger off the ice, set up their training schedules and teach the details of what goes into being a pro.”
Tambellini has plenty of experience in his own right that should help him to help Seattle’s young players. The 38-year-old was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2004, attending the University of Michigan. He played parts of six NHL seasons, totaling 63 points in 242 games, a majority of those as a member of the New York Islanders. Tambellini’s last NHL action came as a member of the Vancouver Canucks in 2010-11, where he appeared in four games in that year’s Stanley Cup Finals. Following his retirement from playing in 2017, Tambellini spent a season as an assistant coach at Michigan before becoming General Manager and Head Coach of the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
As for Larke, who will support Tambellini in his new role, he said the opportunity to work for an NHL franchise is “a dream come true.” Larke previously worked in a similar role for Team USA’s National Team Development Program. Allen also expressed excitement for his new role, one he had had prior to the team’s expansion draft last July.
Seattle Kraken Announce ECHL Affiliate
The first ECHL affiliate in Seattle Kraken history will be the Kansas City Mavericks, who will partner with the expansion team and their new AHL affiliate Coachella Valley this season. The Mavericks had been affiliated with the Calgary Flames for the past several years.
It is a multi-year agreement between Kansas City and Seattle, though the exact details were not revealed. The Kraken had gone without full-time minor league affiliates in their first season as they built up their prospect system but will now need three tiers to develop and train players properly. More and more, the ECHL is being used as a proving ground for raw skaters or young goaltenders, giving them a chance to receive game action and improve through competition.
The Mavericks meanwhile had struggled of late, putting up losing seasons in each of the past three years. In fact, throughout the five-year affiliation with the Calgary Flames, they reached the playoffs just once and lost in the first round. The best season on record for the club is 2015-16 when they won 52 of 72 games.
At that time, they had a young star by the name of Carter Verhaeghe, who was trying to sort out his career after being sent to the low minors. He was joined the following season by a young netminder named Ville Husso, in his first year of North American hockey. These are the kinds of players that can benefit from time in the ECHL, meaning an affiliation like this is not something to be overlooked, even if it isn’t the landing spot for high-profile names.
Seattle Kraken Re-Sign Ryan Donato
After not being given a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent, Ryan Donato is heading back to Seattle anyway. The Kraken have signed Donato to a one-year, $1.2MM contract. General manager Ron Francis released a statement:
Ryan elevated his game last season and we’re happy to have him return to the Kraken. He completed a career year and will hopefully eclipse that in 2022-23.
While Donato’s qualifying offer would have been less than this, it would have opened up the possibility of arbitration which would have almost certainly resulted in a higher cap hit than $1.2MM. The 26-year-old forward reached new career-highs with 16 goals and 31 points in 74 games this season, after signing a one-year, $750K deal with the team in 2021.
It’s been a rollercoaster career for Donato since turning pro in 2018. He registered three points in his first game for the Boston Bruins and looked like he might be a key member of the team in the years to come. Before the end of his first full NHL season, he would be traded to the Minnesota Wild as part of the package for Charlie Coyle, and less than two years later would be sent to the San Jose Sharks for a third-round pick.
At the end of the 2020-21 season, he was left unqualified by the Sharks after scoring just six goals, leaving him without a clear path forward. With the Kraken, he has put his career back on track and now looks to take advantage of his second contract with the expansion franchise.
The Kraken, despite only entering the league a year ago, now have more than $80MM committed for 2022-23, leaving them with just over $2.2MM in cap space. Donato will try to continue carving out ice time in a forward group that has added Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and potentially Shane Wright this summer, depending on what the team does with the latter.
Seattle Kraken Sign Michal Kempny
July 25: Seattle has officially announced the contract, adding Kempny to the organization.
July 24: The Seattle Kraken have added another player, signing defenseman Michal Kempny to a one-year, one-way $750K deal, according to CapFriendly.
Kempny, 31, won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with the Washington Capitals, playing a decently-sized role on their veteran defense. Since that point, Kempny has struggled in larger roles and fallen down the depth chart in Washington, to the point where he split time between the Capitals and their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, in 2021-22.
The 31-year-old native of Czechia is an undrafted player who once looked like a potential middle-of-the-lineup NHL defenseman. Nowadays, though, he’s more of a depth player, and he’ll likely battle with Cale Fleury and Gustav Olofsson for the seventh defenseman slot in Kraken training camp. In Washington this year, Kempny skated in 15 games and notched two points, playing just under 16 minutes of ice time per game and just over a minute on the penalty kill. In the AHL, Kempny was able to handle a larger role and acted as the Bears’ number-one defenseman in the games he played. In Hershey, Kempny led the Bears in time-on-ice per game and saw significant minutes on their penalty kill.
In Seattle, Kempny will either win a training-camp battle and make the opening night roster, or the Kraken will hope he clears waivers and is able to be sent to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. If the latter scenario comes about, Kempny will likely play as a top-pairing defenseman in the AHL and be one of the team’s first call-ups if injuries hit their blueline. At a $750k cap hit, Kempny is a wise signing for a Kraken team looking to improve upon a dismal first season.
Seattle Kraken To Re-Sign Morgan Geekie
According to PuckPedia, the Seattle Kraken and RFA forward Morgan Geekie have reached an agreement on a one-year, $1.4MM contract, thus avoiding arbitration (link). Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman also believes the deal to be in place (link). Geekie had been one of the 24 players who had elected salary arbitration ahead of last Sunday’s deadline to do so (link), and was scheduled for an August 11th hearing on the matter (link). After the acquisition of forward Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Geekie contract, Seattle is left with just over $2.2MM in available salary cap space.
A third-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2017, Geekie was an offensive force in the WHL, tallying as much as 90 and 84 points as a member of the Tri-City Americans. After turning pro for the 2019-20 season, Geekie again impressed with his offensive output, recording 46 points in 73 games in his pro debut as a member of the Charlotte Checkers. Geekie also made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes, scoring three goals with an assist in just two games in the regular season and was even trusted to play eight playoff games as well. The forward failed to take a meaningful step forward in 2020-21, however, with just nine points in 36 NHL games.
Despite not being able to continue the breakout, geekie was still rather valuable, at least enough for the Kraken to select him from the Hurricanes in their expansion draft. The brand new Kraken gave Geekie the full NHL experience in 2021-22, having him play 73 games. Still not exactly his AHL or WHL production, Geekie did take a small step forward with 22 points this season. Now giving him a raise from his previous $750K cap hit, Seattle will hope Geekie can tap into some of his prior success as the organization looks to keep climbing the standings.
Francis: Still Looking To Add Depth Players, Not Ruling Out Donato Returning
After acquiring winger Oliver Bjorkstrand from Columbus on Friday, the heavy lifting for Seattle’s offseason appears to be done. However, GM Ron Francis told reporters, including Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, that he’s still open to adding another depth defenseman and another depth forward. The team has roughly $3.6MM in cap space per CapFriendly with Morgan Geekie still needing a new contract that will cut into that cap space. Ryan Donato was an intriguing non-tender earlier this month likely due to his arbitration eligibility despite recording 16 goals and 15 assists (good for sixth in team scoring) and Francis indicated that the door is still open to his return as well at the right price.
More from the Pacific Division:
- With the Oilers being among the teams that are still looking to clear out some money this summer, Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal posits that the cleanest option for Edmonton might be to move winger Warren Foegele. Acquired in a trade from Carolina last summer, the 26-year-old signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal that has two seasons remaining. Foegele had 26 points in 82 games last season but posted 127 hits (a new career-high) which could be of interest to teams looking for some grit in the bottom six. Edmonton still has to re-sign forwards Jesse Puljujarvi, Ryan McLeod, and Kailer Yamamoto and are basically down to the LTIR space from Oscar Klefbom and Mike Smith ($6.367MM combined). It will be difficult to sign those three with that money so finding a spot for Foegele would certainly help their cause.
- Winger Ty Ronning expressed an interest in signing with Vancouver this summer to play with AHL Abbotsford, notes Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province. However, the team indicated that their preference was to focus on the development of their prospects which would have limited Ronning’s playing time and resulted in him signing with Minnesota’s farm team instead. The 24-year-old spent five years with WHL Vancouver so joining the Canucks would have been a homecoming of sorts.
Seattle Kraken Acquire Oliver Bjorkstrand
After today’s signing of Patrik Laine, the Blue Jackets badly needed to create cap space. They’ve now done so, sending winger Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick.
This trade is another example of just how difficult it is for teams trading established players to get large compensation packages in return. Bjorkstrand is a 27-year-old forward who just set career highs in production in 2021-22. Bjorkstrand scored 28 goals and 57 points in 80 games last year, which ranked second on the Blue Jackets behind Jakub Voracek. Bjorkstrand’s contract is $5.4MM for the next four seasons, taking him to his age-31 campaign.
That’s a reasonable, affordable cost for a player like Bjorkstrand, which is perhaps why he’s the player Columbus had to trade. The trade of Bjorkstrand indicates that the team may have found there was not much appetite for their other highly-priced forwards like Voracek and Gustav Nyquist, despite Nyquist and Voracek each being productive and having less term on their contracts than Bjorkstrand.
For Columbus, this is a deal fans won’t be celebrating, but it’s also one they’ll understand as the cost of doing business at the top of the free agent market. The Blue Jackets landed perhaps the most talented player in their franchise’s history, Johnny Gaudreau, on a major contract earlier this month. It’s likely that seeing Gaudreau light the lamp repeatedly in Columbus will ease the pain of losing a reasonably-priced top-six winger for just two mid-round picks.
For the Kraken, adding Bjorkstrand at such an affordable asset cost is another solid addition for a team desperate to improve on last season’s lackluster scoring attack. With Bjorkstrand in the fold and free agent signing Andre Burakovsky arriving from Colorado, Dave Hakstol will have no shortage of options for who he wants to flank his two highly-drafted young centers in Matty Beniers and Shane Wright.
Seattle Kraken Sign Carsen Twarynski, Kole Lind
6:37 pm: CapFriendly reports that Lind’s deal has an AHL salary of $150K with $175K guaranteed, while Twarynski’s deal has an AHL salary of $110K.
2:55 pm: The Seattle Kraken have agreed to terms with two of their restricted free agents, reaching one-year, two-way deals with Kole Lind and Carsen Twarynski. Both players were eligible for arbitration but did not file. Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press reports that Lind’s deal will carry an NHL salary of $850K, while Twarynski’s is the league minimum of $750K.
Lind, 23, was selected from the Vancouver Canucks in last year’s expansion draft and ended up playing 23 games for the Kraken. He scored eight points in those games despite limited minutes and actually is showing a bit of upside as a potential full-time option for the team moving forward. In the minor leagues, the winger scored 17 goals and 35 points in 46 games while racking up a team-leading 106 penalty minutes.
That included multiple fighting majors, as the hard-nosed winger continued to play a physical brand of hockey despite not being the biggest player on the ice. If he can continue to bring that kind of versatility, a bottom-six role seems like a realistic outcome this season if he can prove himself in camp.
Twarynski, another original Kraken, was the team’s pick from the Philadelphia Flyers in the expansion draft last year despite not showing a ton of offensive upside so far in his professional career. That continued this year with just five goals and 18 points in 71 games with the Charlotte Checkers, making him a potential non-tender candidate.
Instead, he’ll be coming back to the organization and is likely headed for the minor leagues once again, this time with the Coachella Valley Firebirds in their inaugural season. The 24-year-old forward does have 22 games of NHL experience with Philadelphia but hasn’t really shown anything other than physicality in those matches, registering just a single goal.
Morgan Geekie Files For Salary Arbitration
The National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) announced that 24 players have filed for player-elected salary arbitration, the deadline for which came this afternoon. This list is not necessarily the final and complete list of players headed for arbitration, with clubs now eligible to elect salary arbitration until tomorrow, July 18th at 5:00 pm ET.
Mason Appleton (WPG)
Ethan Bear (CAR)
Jesper Bratt (NJD)
Lawson Crouse (ARI)
Morgan Geekie (SEA)
Mathieu Joseph (OTT)
Kaapo Kahkonen (SJS)
Kasperi Kapanen (PIT)
Keegan Kolesar (VGK)
Oliver Kylington (CGY)
Maxime Lajoie (CAR)
Steven Lorentz (SJS)
Isac Lundestrom (ANA)
Zack MacEwen (PHI)
Niko Mikkola (STL)
Andrew Mangiapane (CGY)
Matthew Phillips (CGY)
Jesse Puljujarvi (EDM)
Tyce Thompson (NJD)
Yakov Trenin (NSH)
Vitek Vanecek (NJD)
Jake Walman (DET)
Kailer Yamamoto (EDM)
Pavel Zacha (BOS)
Notably out of this list, Mikkola had previously filed for arbitration, but the two sides were able to settle on a one-year, $1.9MM contract that will leave the defenseman an UFA after next season.
A key distinction to add is that any player who has filed for arbitration is no longer eligible to sign an offer sheet, effectively taking the players on this list off the market. Three notable names that did not file for arbitration are Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine. Though contract talks have been quiet on Dubois and Tkachuck, word of amicable discussions between Laine’s camp and Columbus has been made known. Once tomorrow’s club-elected salary arbitration deadline passes, teams and players will have time to prepare their cases before hearings begin, running from July 27th through August 11th.