Meanwhile, decisions need to be made on two more wingers, Jaden Schwartz<\/a> and Eeli Tolvanen<\/a>.\u00a0 Schwartz has been with Seattle for all of its five NHL seasons and sits fifth in franchise scoring despite a long list of injuries, including this season.\u00a0 He has shown flashes of top-six performance but his injury history makes him a little less likely to return, meaning he\u2019ll need to be replaced.\u00a0 Tolvanen\u2019s case is a little less certain.\u00a0 He has 35 goals and 71 points over the last two seasons but saw his role be reduced down the stretch.\u00a0 Still, for a team with minimal firepower, letting a decent scorer walk would be risky.\u00a0 Also up front, though Jared McCann<\/a> isn\u2019t a pending unrestricted free agent, he becomes extension-eligible in July and is someone the team should be looking to lock up to a long-term deal.<\/p>\n Make A Decision On Wright<\/p>\n When the Kraken selected Shane Wright<\/a> with the fourth overall selection in 2022, they hoped that he could be their future top center or at least a core second liner.\u00a0 Four years later, that outcome doesn\u2019t seem quite as certain.\u00a0 The team evidently felt the same way as back in January, they reportedly made<\/a> the youngster available if they were going to land the impactful forward they were seeking.<\/p>\n On the one hand, it seems as if he\u2019s trending in the wrong direction.\u00a0 On the other, he\u2019s a young center who is signed for one more year on his entry-level deal at a cap charge not far above the minimum salary.\u00a0 He still has five seasons of team control remaining, too.\u00a0 Even if his value isn\u2019t as high as it once was, there would still be plenty of suitors for his services.<\/p>\n On top of that, the Kraken are well-stocked down the middle.\u00a0 Matty Beniers<\/a> is entrenched as one of their top two middlemen while Berkly Catton<\/a>, an eighth-overall selection, is a natural center, as is prospect Jake O\u2019Brien<\/a>, a number pick himself.\u00a0 Meanwhile, veteran Chandler Stephenson<\/a> is still signed long-term and bottom-sixer Frederick Gaudreau<\/a> has a couple of years left as well.\u00a0 While there is no elite piece (at least at the moment), they\u2019re not in bad shape depth-wise and could afford to part with Wright.<\/p>\n Botterill will need to decide if he\u2019s better off giving Wright another look in the hopes of him rebounding or at least helping his trade value at the risk of a slow start further lowering his value.\u00a0 But if the team is still open to moving him, Wright is one of their better trade chips.<\/p>\n Add More Firepower<\/p>\n Over the years, the Kraken have tried more of a by-committee approach with their offense.\u00a0 Several of the players from that approach are still around but more often than not, that hasn\u2019t worked out well.\u00a0 In three of their five seasons, they have been in the bottom five of the league in terms of goals scored, including 2025-26 when they were 28th.\u00a0 (They were fourth and 16th the other two seasons.)<\/p>\n This is why they were willing to pay a significant premium in terms of salary to try to land Artemi Panarin<\/a> from the Rangers in the hopes of making him the centerpiece of their offense.\u00a0 They\u2019re believed to have tried to make some big offers in the past to free agents as well but haven\u2019t had a ton of success on that front and the market this year isn\u2019t likely to bring significant improvements up front.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the idea of moving Wright makes some sense.\u00a0 With Brandon Montour<\/a> in the fold, perhaps Vince Dunn<\/a> could be a trade chip to add a core forward.\u00a0 They could also pull from their prospect pool (though that\u2019s risky for a non-playoff team).\u00a0 But with three subpar offensive seasons from this core group, Botterill needs to find a way to add at least one if not two more threats up front.<\/p>\n Upgrade Defensive Depth<\/p>\n Seattle has one other unrestricted free agent of consequence this summer in veteran Jamie Oleksiak<\/a>.\u00a0 However, with Dunn, Ryan Lindgren<\/a>, and Ryker Evans<\/a> in the fold, they should be able to fill his spot without too much difficulty so they don\u2019t necessarily need to get into a bidding war to try to keep him.<\/p>\n However, they could stand to upgrade on their depth options.\u00a0 If they want to give their prospects a bit more time in the minors with Coachella Valley, their internal replacements for Oleksiak are Josh Mahura<\/a> and Cale Fleury<\/a>.\u00a0 Both players have been around the NHL for a few years now but are better seventh options than a full-time sixth.<\/p>\n Fortunately, there will be better options available on the open market.\u00a0 While there aren\u2019t a ton of top-four players set to reach free agency, there are a lot of third-pairing pieces who have had more success than Mahura and Fleury.\u00a0 Ideally, the addition would be a right-shot option to balance out the pairings but an upgrade is an upgrade.\u00a0 They likely only need a short-term player with Ty Nelson<\/a>, Tyson Jugnauth<\/a>, Caden Price<\/a>, and Ville Ottavainen<\/a> having some success in the minors with the Firebirds and presumably, one of them could break through to full NHL readiness within a year.<\/p>\n But while that prospect depth is promising, a short-term veteran addition to replace Oleksiak and be an improvement on Mahura and Fleury would be worthwhile.\u00a0 More importantly, it\u2019s one that should be realistic to achieve, unlike their forward needs which will be much harder to accomplish.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason has arrived for half of the league\u2019s teams that aren\u2019t taking part in the playoffs.\u00a0 Accordingly,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[5,4188,4,63047,697,2686,234,5318],"class_list":["post-569641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-kraken","tag-hockey","tag-kraken","tag-nhl","tag-offseason-checklist-2026","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-kraken","tag-seattlekraken"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116537068848279807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_25187563-233x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Unfortunately for Seattle, that move didn\u2019t materialize and Wright\u2019s value has likely dipped since then.\u00a0 After putting up a very respectable 19 goals and 25 assists in 79 games in his first full season in 2024-25, his sophomore numbers took a turn in the wrong direction.\u00a0 Wright managed just 12 goals and 15 helpers in 74 appearances last season and struggled considerably after the Olympic break, notching just one goal and four assists in 18 outings.<\/p>\n