[Sound of Hockey] (Part II) What the Kraken can do with their pending unrestricted free agents
January 25, 2024
[Sound of Hockey] (Part II) What the Kraken can do with their pending unrestricted free agents
8 comments
Sadly agree with these…
It’s unfortunate but I think we squandered our chance to trade Driedger in December/Early January by only playing him once while we were hot.
They do bring up a good point that we may have been purposely keeping Chris as a back up option for the rest of the year too.
It was Joey’s show for sure, but 3 good games out of Chris instead of one and we could have shopped him to a handful of goalie-hurt teams from his NM clause.
I am really afraid we are seeing Chris’s last season in our system. Gru will be nearly impossible to trade, and has a more strict no move clause than Chris for now. I see people saying shop Gru, but that is horrendously unrealistic because of his no move clause and contract size. Love him or hate him Gru is likely gonna stick around so might as well support him when he plays.
I don’t think the front office has as many goalie concerns as we do as fans. They are in their roles for a reason so I trust them. I think we’re gonna use the raised cap space next year to ~~retain Joey,~~ keep key players we can and then maybe shuffle the D around more than we want this off season.
I’m surprised they only talked about walking driedger and no one else. Including part 1 I could see bellmare, driedger and even eberle being let go to free agency. Bellmare is very close to retirement at 38, driedger for the contract has not been good and eberle is not performing at the level that he was the last two years, I think we could get a good trade offer for eberle but bellmare and driedger are hard sells.
Shultz I think stays though unless Ryker becomes more proactive in the offensive zone,if we Ryker develops to become a threat offensively then we could see a top line of Dunn and Ryker which would be exciting, I could see dumo being sent out for Ryker taking his spot, he hasn’t been great nor bad just sorta average and it could be good to give the young gun a permanent spot to improve his game.
Don’t open this link, /u/futuregoalie
i am pumped that the “resign wennberg” train is picking up steam
plenty of room on the bandwagon folks
I really see Wenny the other way. His value is the *reason* to deal him at the deadline. I feel like fans and sports writers are stuck in a buy-high sell-low mindset.
We have a glut of centers. Why should we pay more than we can afford to Wennberg when we can offload him in his prime? Let someone else pay him the big bucks and watch his performance fall off.
Full disclosure, I haven’t read this.
But I’m worried that the trade Driedger camp is boldly assuming anyone will value him at the NHL level. We as fans know he’s good, but without games to show him off how is anyone else supposed to see it? Wouldn’t they look at us and go “well they never played him, he can’t be that good”? I’m worried he won’t get a contract of any kind, anywhere, and I know he’s okay and making films and stuff but I just don’t want his NHL story to be over 😢 blehhh
Anyway my hope is that he will get signed to another pacific team so I get to see him come here often and ideally it’ll be Vancouver so I can easily travel to see him but I’ll accept Edmonton. Calgary sounds like they’re having a hard time keeping players so I wouldn’t want him to go somewhere that sucks. He’s from Winnipeg so he might enjoy being close to friends and family but with Hellebuyck I doubt they need anyone else
>Shane Wright is developing in the AHL and will look to make the Kraken next year. This does create a log jam in the center position if Wennberg stays, but having too many centers is a good thing, and the Kraken have options with the current rostered players that can play both wing and center. We would rather see Wright make the team first and eventually ease him into a top-six center role. Keeping Wennberg around gives them the ability to do that.
I could buy this scenario in which re-signing Wennberg makes sense – you intend to move him or Wright to the wing instead of just giving Wright 3C minutes and duties immediately. However, that would likely involve trading a current winger so more moves are needed to make this approach work.
Assuming Wright’s ELC slides again this season, that means we will have him on that ELC for the next 3 seasons. That is potentially a **massive** surplus value at the center position if he reaches his projected potential.
The question is not “is Wennberg a good player”, it is “is the money and roster spot Wennberg will take the optimal way to allocate limited cap dollars and ice time over the next 3-5 seasons?”
If the organization believes in Shane Wright as a 3C next season and a 2C after that and wants the maximum flexibility to sign other guys, then they should let Wennberg walk.
If the organization does not think Wright is ready to take on a prominent NHL role, wants to remain competitive next season, and doesn’t want to spend money on the blueline or at wing, then they should re-sign Wennberg.
8 comments
Sadly agree with these…
It’s unfortunate but I think we squandered our chance to trade Driedger in December/Early January by only playing him once while we were hot.
They do bring up a good point that we may have been purposely keeping Chris as a back up option for the rest of the year too.
It was Joey’s show for sure, but 3 good games out of Chris instead of one and we could have shopped him to a handful of goalie-hurt teams from his NM clause.
I am really afraid we are seeing Chris’s last season in our system. Gru will be nearly impossible to trade, and has a more strict no move clause than Chris for now. I see people saying shop Gru, but that is horrendously unrealistic because of his no move clause and contract size. Love him or hate him Gru is likely gonna stick around so might as well support him when he plays.
I don’t think the front office has as many goalie concerns as we do as fans. They are in their roles for a reason so I trust them. I think we’re gonna use the raised cap space next year to ~~retain Joey,~~ keep key players we can and then maybe shuffle the D around more than we want this off season.
I’m surprised they only talked about walking driedger and no one else. Including part 1 I could see bellmare, driedger and even eberle being let go to free agency. Bellmare is very close to retirement at 38, driedger for the contract has not been good and eberle is not performing at the level that he was the last two years, I think we could get a good trade offer for eberle but bellmare and driedger are hard sells.
Shultz I think stays though unless Ryker becomes more proactive in the offensive zone,if we Ryker develops to become a threat offensively then we could see a top line of Dunn and Ryker which would be exciting, I could see dumo being sent out for Ryker taking his spot, he hasn’t been great nor bad just sorta average and it could be good to give the young gun a permanent spot to improve his game.
Don’t open this link, /u/futuregoalie
i am pumped that the “resign wennberg” train is picking up steam
plenty of room on the bandwagon folks
I really see Wenny the other way. His value is the *reason* to deal him at the deadline. I feel like fans and sports writers are stuck in a buy-high sell-low mindset.
We have a glut of centers. Why should we pay more than we can afford to Wennberg when we can offload him in his prime? Let someone else pay him the big bucks and watch his performance fall off.
Full disclosure, I haven’t read this.
But I’m worried that the trade Driedger camp is boldly assuming anyone will value him at the NHL level. We as fans know he’s good, but without games to show him off how is anyone else supposed to see it? Wouldn’t they look at us and go “well they never played him, he can’t be that good”? I’m worried he won’t get a contract of any kind, anywhere, and I know he’s okay and making films and stuff but I just don’t want his NHL story to be over 😢 blehhh
Anyway my hope is that he will get signed to another pacific team so I get to see him come here often and ideally it’ll be Vancouver so I can easily travel to see him but I’ll accept Edmonton. Calgary sounds like they’re having a hard time keeping players so I wouldn’t want him to go somewhere that sucks. He’s from Winnipeg so he might enjoy being close to friends and family but with Hellebuyck I doubt they need anyone else
>Shane Wright is developing in the AHL and will look to make the Kraken next year. This does create a log jam in the center position if Wennberg stays, but having too many centers is a good thing, and the Kraken have options with the current rostered players that can play both wing and center. We would rather see Wright make the team first and eventually ease him into a top-six center role. Keeping Wennberg around gives them the ability to do that.
I could buy this scenario in which re-signing Wennberg makes sense – you intend to move him or Wright to the wing instead of just giving Wright 3C minutes and duties immediately. However, that would likely involve trading a current winger so more moves are needed to make this approach work.
Assuming Wright’s ELC slides again this season, that means we will have him on that ELC for the next 3 seasons. That is potentially a **massive** surplus value at the center position if he reaches his projected potential.
The question is not “is Wennberg a good player”, it is “is the money and roster spot Wennberg will take the optimal way to allocate limited cap dollars and ice time over the next 3-5 seasons?”
If the organization believes in Shane Wright as a 3C next season and a 2C after that and wants the maximum flexibility to sign other guys, then they should let Wennberg walk.
If the organization does not think Wright is ready to take on a prominent NHL role, wants to remain competitive next season, and doesn’t want to spend money on the blueline or at wing, then they should re-sign Wennberg.