Trade-deadline preview for the Seattle Kraken

Players to watch

Earlier this week, Linda Cohn of ESPN reported that Kraken general manager Ron Francis is listening to offers for everybody on the team’s roster. With Seattle firmly out of the playoff race, Francis’ objective now is to sell off some players to build draft and prospect capital while also determining which players he’s going to build around.

In terms of impending unrestricted free agents, Mark Giordano is the biggest name Seattle has to offer. He was ranked No. 17 on Frank Seravalli’s trade targets list for January but will have quite a bit of say in regard to where he winds up.

Giordano has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to provide a list of 19 teams he can be traded to. As Seravalli mentioned in the trade targets post, Francis won’t move Giordano unless it’s to a place where he’s comfortable and could help in the Stanley Cup chase.

Two more rental names Seattle could move are veteran forwards Calle Jarnkrok and Marcus Johansson. Jarnkrok has been a good two-way winger in the league for years, while Johansson can provide depth scoring on a playoff team.

The interesting thing to watch when it comes to the Kraken will be how they handle some of their veteran players who are signed beyond this season.

Jared McCann has been Seattle’s best forward this season, as he leads the team with 17 goals and 26 points. McCann is a restricted free agent with one more year left of team control before he can hit the open market. He’s young enough to be considered a long-term player for Seattle, but he could also net a lot in return in a trade.

It’s a similar situation with defender Vince Dunn, who’s signed for one more year with a $4 million cap hit. Dunn leads Seattle’s defensemen with 17 points through 38 games and is logging 19:57 per game. At just 25 years old age, he could be a part of the Kraken blue line for years to come, or the team could sell high.

One final thing to note about the Kraken is that they boast nearly $7.5 million in open salary-cap room, which gives them the flexibility to be creative at the trade deadline. They can take on problematic contracts from other teams in order to help facilitate deals or as a way to acquire more draft picks.