McMann trade paying off for Kraken, GM Botterill says

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- Bobby McMann is making an impact for the Seattle Kraken.

The forward has five points (three goals, two assists) in two games since they acquired him from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the NHL Trade Deadline on March 6, helping them win two straight after they had lost four in a row in regulation.

“He’s delivered exactly what we expected,” Seattle general manager Jason Botterill said at the NHL GM meetings.

The question now is if McMann can help the Kraken make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

They hold the second wild card in the Western Conference entering their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; The Spot, HBO MAX, TNT), but it’s a tight race. The Kraken are tied in points with the first team below the cut line, the Los Angeles Kings, and one point ahead of the San Jose Sharks.

After hosting the Lightning, they will crisscross the continent on a six-game trip, facing the Nashville Predators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Lightning, Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers.

“We have a huge road trip and pretty tough competition,” Botterill said. “But for us just to be a part of these games is exciting, and it’s something that our group hasn’t had in the last two years here.”

Seattle joined the NHL as an expansion team in 2021-22. The Kraken made the playoffs in their second season and came within a win of the Western Conference Final, upsetting the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the first round and taking the Dallas Stars to seven games in the second round.

They missed the playoffs the past two seasons. Coach Dan Bylsma was fired April 21. Botterill was promoted from assistant GM the next day, replacing Ron Francis, who became president of hockey operations. Lane Lambert was hired as coach May 29.

This has been an up-and-down season, but the Kraken have put themselves back in the mix. They went 1-9-1 from Nov. 23-Dec. 18, then 8-0-2 in their next 10 games. They went 5-1-0 in their last six games before the Olympic break and were third in the Pacific Division, then went 2-3-0 in their first five games afterward. They held the second wild card at the deadline.

Seattle had pending unrestricted free agents: defenseman Jamie Oleksiak and forwards Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen. But the Kraken signed Eberle, the captain, to a two-year, $11 million contract and acquired McMann, a pending UFA.

“We just felt it wasn’t right to sort of dismantle the team or take away from the team,” Botterill said. “They earned the right to keep battling to get into a playoff spot. In the last couple years, we have traded players at the deadline for draft picks. We felt now it was a situation of, ‘Hey, can we help the team a little bit here?’”

The biggest issue in Seattle was, and continues to be, the lack of a superstar.

Eberle leads the Kraken with 48 points (22 goals, 26 assists). Only three teams have a leading scorer with fewer points -- the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks -- and none is in a playoff spot. The Kraken are averaging 2.88 goals per game, tied with the New York Islanders for 22nd in the NHL.

“We’ve been involved trying to look to add offense to our group -- veteran offense to our group,” Botterill said. “If you look at all the numbers, yes, we have to create more offense. … We feel we have young talent in our organization, but finding a little bit more of a proven scorer or a proven point-getter is something that we’ll continue to look at.”

But McMann was a solid addition. The Kraken struggle to get pucks and bodies to the net, and they thought he would address that with size (6-foot-2, 217 pounds), speed and forechecking ability. Lambert knew him well after serving as associate coach in Toronto last season.

The Kraken gave up a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft to get him. There was one problem: He couldn’t play until he received a U.S. work visa.

While McMann sat in limbo, Schwartz took a skate in the face, putting him out indefinitely, and the Kraken lost three in a row.

“It’s just frustrating, because it’s beyond your control, right?” Botterill said. “We did everything similar to other teams. Everyone’s trying to put the same documents in at the same time. Unfortunately, some things don’t happen as quick as you want them to. Plus, we ran into the Jaden Schwartz injury, which really hurt us on the left side from that standpoint. Getting [McMann] in the lineup was a big boost.”

McMann has been the left wing on the top line with Eberle and center Matty Beniers. The Kraken hope they have enough offensive depth to make a run, like they did in 2022-23.

“We’re never going to have that top line that can equate to some of the top-end players in the Western Conference,” Botterill said. “But can we find matchups more down the lineup from our third line or fourth line? That’s how we have success right there.”