Jacob Stoller and Patrick Williams discuss the difficulties with dual affiliations for an AHL team after the Carolina Hurricanes lost their affiliate. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk5NTI3NjI4MDM2NjQ1OTkx/usatsi_20287115.jpg] One of the top restricted free agents on the market has avoided arbitration. The Seattle Kraken came to an agreement with their top defender on Friday evening, signing Vince Dunn to a four-year contract extension worth an average annual value of $7.35 million. The deal ties Dunn to Seattle through the 2026-27 season and ensures that the two sides won't have to endure the prickly process that is arbitration while positioning Dunn to cash in upon expiry as an unrestricted free agent. It's not a shock that Dunn would pull in quite the pay raise this summer. The 26-year-old broke out in a big way in 2022-23, putting up career-best numbers to the tune of 14 goals and 50 assists for 64 points in 82 games while logging nearly 24 minutes in average nightly ice time. That production placed Dunn just outside the top 10 in Norris Trophy voting at the end of the year, finishing 11th among all qualified defensemen. If Dunn can keep up this production for the foreseeable future, the Kraken will have a borderline-elite offensive defenseman on their hands locked up at a bargain price for nearly the next half-decade. That's some tidy business for a club that seems ready to leap into their contention window after making it to the second round of the playoffs in just their second year of existence. Kraken fans should be overjoyed with this one.
