The Dallas Stars traded Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken for a third and fourth round pick on Thursday evening.

The news comes mere hours after signing forward Matt Duchene to a four year, $4.5 million deal. Duchene was linemates with Marchment and had undeniable chemistry along with Tyler Seguin that made one of the best lines in hockey over the past two seasons.

Marchment had one year left on a four year, $4.5 million deal, the exact deal General Manager Jim Nill gave Duchene. Marchment was set to become an unrestricted free agent after next season and will likely demand a higher number than what he is currently making. His bruising style and flair for the dramatic are part of what drive him to be a valuable asset, and with a breakout year, he could secure a lucrative deal next off-season.

Surely, Dallas would have decided to keep Marchment if at all possible, but the salary cap dictated that the Stars simply had to move out at least one contract to make the last few moves of the summer. Dallas only had under $500k of cap space to work with after the Duchene deal, which was not even enough to sign a minimum salary player, let alone Jamie Benn or perhaps Mikael Granlund.

With only one year left before Marchment might walk away based on the salary cap situation for Dallas next off-season, the Stars chose to get a couple of draft picks in return now instead of waiting.

The question mark now becomes who replaces Marchment on the line next to Seguin and Duchene. Dallas is in win-now mode and needs every line to perform at its highest level in order to make the Stanley Cup Final.

If Dallas needs to move more money, Matt Dumba or Ilya Lyubushkin have one and two more years on deals worth over $3 million each. Depending on what Nill has left on his to-do list, the Stars could be looking for suitors for one or both of those defensemen signed last off-season.

Marchment finished each of his last two seasons with 22 goals and added 56 assists. He had a rough first season, only potting 12 goals and 19 assists while being -6. On the line with Duchene and Seguin, he found a place to thrive, with a phenomenal +37 rating over those two seasons.

The Kraken will welcome his goal scoring after a difficult season of being one of the worst scoring teams and missing the playoffs by a mile.

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