Fresh off adding to an already impressive Kraken stockpile of draft picks with Friday’s trade of forward Brandon Tanev, general manager Ron Francis reiterated his plans to “make us better sooner rather than later.”
Francis, after Friday’s noon trade deadline was complete, had added a 2027 second-round pick from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for pending unrestricted free agent forward Tanev, 33, having previously dealt winger Oliver Bjorkstrand and center Yanni Gourde to the Tampa Bay Lightning for two first-round selections and a second rounder as well.
That leaves the Kraken with five first-round picks and five second-rounders over the next three drafts, significant salary cap space and a plethora of prospects at the AHL level, to go out and acquire NHL-proven talent this summer and possibly prior in trades or free agency.
“We’re planning to use those picks as capital to go out and acquire players and speed things up,” Francis said. “Obviously, we want to get healthy and hope that happens next year. But we have to look at things because obviously I felt going into the season that we were a team that could compete for a playoff spot and we’re not there.”
Bjorkstrand's trade shed $5.4 million off the team's salary cap books for next season while the three players in total comprised just more than $14 million in salary this current campaign. That freed cap space will now be available to fill their vacated roles – potentially for far less given Gourde and Tanev were both playing on the fourth line – while leaving room to bring in higher-end pieces for bigger money.
“A quick look and we have roughly $20 million in cap space available,” Francis said. “We talked about the draft capital that would be required to do that (add bigger names in trades) too. So, we’re certainly looking at the free agent market. And we’re certainly looking to see if there are any trades that teams want to make ahead of the draft – which is kind of the next point where a lot of the trades seem to happen.
“So, we’ll be very active on that and try to make our team better.”
The Kraken made a second, more minor move just ahead of the deadline by dealing forward Daniel Sprong – relegated to the AHL in recent months – to New Jersey for a seventh-round pick in 2026.
As for Tanev, who returns to a Jets team he spent parts of four seasons with to start his NHL career, the pending unrestricted free agent stood to leave after the season if not re-signed. He was earning $3.5 million against the cap, which the Jets picked up the remainder of about $850,000 on for this season.
An original Expansion Draft selection from Pittsburgh in July 2021, his wide-eyed photographs, flowing hair and energy made him instantly among the team’s most recognizable players and a fan favorite from the outset. He was also the Kraken nominee for the Bill Masterton Award in 2023 for the player best exemplifying traits of perseverance.
The previous year, Tanev suffered a torn ACL in December of the Kraken’s debut campaign and missed the rest of the season. But he came back and posted a career-high 35 points the season of his Masterton nomination, further cementing his popularity amongst fans.
Still, given his pending free agent status, fourth line role, and the expected promotion of several AHL forwards the coming season or two, the departure of Tanev by the trade deadline seemed inevitable. He was held out of Thursday’s game against Nashville as trade talks continued.
Francis thanked Tanev for his years of service as an original expansion draft selection. Only seven such selections remain on the full-time NHL roster out of the original 32 picks -- Jordan Eberle, Vince Dunn, Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak, Adam Larsson, Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer.
But in Tanev’s case, as with another original expansion draft class member, Gourde, traded this week, his pending free agent status meant he could have left for good this summer unless re-signed.
“Two of the three guys we moved were pending UFA and we’re pleased with the results we got in those deals,” Francis said, adding: “You look at Yanni (Gourde), you look at Bjorky (Bjorkstrand) and you look at Tanev, the things they did for the organization on and off the ice were tremendous. I can’t thank them enough.”
