Adam Proteau in The Hockey News dances around Seattle's problem today, writing that the Seattle Kraken’s key need is to generate offense - which he acknowledges is an easy ask, without an easy solution.
“The Kraken are essentially capped out on the salary cap front, so Francis wll have to be creative in trades. But by the NHL's March 7 trade deadline, if Seattle is still on the fringes of the playoff race, Francis will have a stark choice to make: become a buyer, and add to the lineup, or become a seller, and focus on the long term. The status quo shouldn't be an option for Francis, as the Kraken's future and present needs to be better than what we've seen of late.”
While he doesn’t say it, the implication is clear. The Kraken don’t have the roster they need, and they’re capped out. It’s perhaps worthy of note that the Flames (7 points up on Seattle with two games in hand) have $19.14 million in projected cap space to Seattle’s -$905 thousand.
Which suggests - or almost asserts - that the Kraken have a GM problem.
The next question, which is pretty difficult to answer, is what is the “creative trade” potential for this team? Grubauer, Oleksiak, Larsson, Tanev, Gourde, Or… yes, Beniers? None of these guys, even together, are not going to garner a Brock Boesser or Mitch Marner.
And, gulp, we have to re-sign Ryker Evans (did someone say “no cap space?”)
Like Adam says, or rather, says without saying, “the Kraken have a GM problem.”