Team: 2022-23 Seattle Kraken

Initial Creation Date: Oct. 6, 2021

Published: Oct. 6, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Haydn Fleury gets dealt simply because they don’t have the cap space to sign him. The Coyotes have a ton of draft picks to spare, plus they need defense. Fleury getting dealt there makes too much sense.

Ryan Donato stays on as a 14th forward and Dennis Cholowski wins the job as the 7th defenseman who constantly rotates with Will Borgen who makes the team as the 6th defenseman.

Matty Beniers officially signs his entry level deal and makes the team out of camp as the 3rd line center to start. Jared McCann is also re-signed after a strong first year in Seattle and he and Joonas Donskoi come together with Beniers to form a devastating 3rd line as Beniers fared well in his rookie season. Eventually Beniers could play well enough to take Alexander Wennberg’s spot on the 2nd line. Calle Jarnkrok is re-signed as a UFA to be a 4th line center and he, Mason Appleton, and Brandon Tanev could potentially be one of the best 4th lines in the entire league as the perfect shutdown trio.

Morgan Geekie is my breakout candidate for Seattle and thus I think he surprises everyone with an excellent year in year one and earns a significant contract extension. He finds comfort on the right wing side and develops great chemistry with Jaden Schwartz to form a formidable 2nd line. Wennberg on that line is admittedly a question mark as he’s probably better suited for a 3rd line center role, but until Beniers is ready for greater responsibilities Wennberg must hold that 2nd line center spot for the time being.

Seattle goes into the offseason needing an elite top line left winger and an elite top pairing right handed defenseman more than anything else. Johnny Gaudreau has come to a divide with the Calgary Flames organization for a couple of years now and since I don’t see that situation getting much better and since Calgary might be ready for a change of pace, Gaudreau finds a fresh new start in Seattle and the change of scenery helps him return to the form that made him one of the top left wingers in the game a few years ago. He also makes Yanni Gourde and Jordan Eberle better players for it.

As for Kris Letang, the Pittsburgh Penguins will soon be going through a rebuild and that could happen as soon as this season. If that is the case, then Letang and the Penguins parting ways is a strong possibility and most likely destined to happen. Letang is obviously much older by this point, but I still think he has more than enough in him to still be able to perform at an elite level at an older age. He’s the perfect type of veteran defenseman that Seattle could use on their back end especially given his pedigree as a 3 time Stanley Cup champion. Just as Marc-Andre Fleury helped to mold the identity of the Vegas Golden Knights, Letang could very well do the same for the Kraken.