Kraken (26-33-4) at Flyers (27-28-8) | 9:30 a.m.

One: GM Ron Francis Talks Trades, Future Post-Deadline

PHILADELPHIA – Gather your breakfast ingredients and brew the coffee – or head over to 32 Bar and Grill for “Pucks and Pancakes” at Kraken Community Iceplex for Saturday’s road game. The half-past-9 a.m. puck drops with both teams lighter on veteran players than just a few days ago. Kraken general manager Ron Francis met with media Friday afternoon to field questions and provide insights on the trade haul, plus making sure he commented on the veterans swapped to other teams this week. Fan favorite Brandon Tanev was moved Friday back to the team that drafted him, Winnipeg, in exchange for a 2027 second-round draft choice. Francis said, “different teams started kicking the tires” as the deal materialized. The highlights of the haul of sending out three veterans (including Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand heading to Tampa Bay) include two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and veteran forward Mikey Eyssimont, who scored his first Kraken goal Thursday night. Those draft choices make it five first-round picks and five second-round picks in the next three NHL drafts. Francis was clear: “We're not sitting here hoping to draft 10 players,” hinting broadly at using some of the draft capital in trades.

“I do want to point out, when you look at Yanni, you look at Bjorky, and you look at Tanev and the things they did for this organization, on and off the ice were tremendous,” said Francis without being prompted. “We can't thank them enough. In the case of Yanni and Bjorky, we thank their wives and families as well. They really represented the Kraken so well. We wish them nothing but the best moving forward. It's just, unfortunately, a tough part of the business sometimes.”

Two: Prospecting the Prospects

Another reason why Francis and his hockey operations group will be open to packaging some of those higher-round picks in trades is the impressive depth and near-future potential of draft picks over the first four years of making selections: “You start looking at what we have coming in the pipeline,” said Francis on Friday. “[American Hockey League affiliate] Coachella Valley, two years ago, we were one of the oldest teams in the league, and especially in the forward group. Last year, we were the 20th oldest group of forwards in the American Hockey League. This year, we're the third-youngest. Yet we're still sitting in first place [in the Pacific Division and Western Conference].

“I have already mentioned a lot of other guys,” said Francis when asked late in the media conference to specify prospects with a good chance to play in the NHL next year, if not sooner. “Take a look at Jacob Melanson [2021 fifth round], he got a game last night. This is a kid that had a great camp, playing really well early [in the AHL season], broke his ankle and came back playing well again. We gave him a game last night, it was exciting to see him get that opportunity.

“Jani Nyman [2022 second round] has got 26 goals. He's number one in the American Hockey League for rookie goal scoring. He's fourth and rookie scoring with points, and he's fourth overall in goal scoring in the AHL. That's really good for a young kid. At some point here, we'll give him a look before the end of the season.

“We've seen glimpses of [forward Ryan] Winterton coming up and down [2021 third round, 17 NHL games to date]. [Jagger] Firkus [2022 second round] is playing well down there. We have a lot of guys that are actually playing [with the Firebirds. “That doesn't include guys outside of that, right? Look up [2024 first-rounder] Berkly Catton’s stats in the Western Hockey League [36 goals, 65 assists, 101 points in 50 games for Spokane]. That's pretty impressive, too. Based on what he's doing, I would fully expect him to push next year in training camp to make us have a hard decision of whether we keep him on our roster. A lot of good things on the horizon, and we also have the assets now and the cap space [the GM estimated $20 million] to do some other things to help make us better sooner rather than later.”

Know the Foe: Flyers 4-4-2 in Last 10 Games

Philly is only five points removed from the Eastern Conference second wild-card spot, but there are five teams bunched in front of them. The Flyers traded heartbeat-of-the-team forward Scott Laughton (11 G, 16 A) to Toronto on Friday, who will prove valuable as a player who can contribute on both the power play and penalty kill. Philly also moved high-energy forward Andrei Kuzmenko (2G, 3A in seven games) after coming over in a trade with Calgary that sent two more PHI forwards, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, to Calgary.