With the NHL’s trade deadline less than two weeks away, the expansion Seattle Kraken are in the midst of determining which players on their roster they want to build around and which could fetch future assets in deals.
Put Jared McCann in the former category.
McCann, who leads the Kraken with 21 goals and 33 points, signed a five-year contract extension Tuesday worth $25 million.
“We talked for a couple weeks and kind of got something rolling and I’m very happy with how it came out,” McCann said.
McCann and the Kraken will attempt to snap a seven-game road losing streak Thursday when they play at Ottawa.
McCann, 25, already has eclipsed his previous high of 19 goals, set in 2018-19 in a season when he was traded from the Florida Panthers to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“I think we always thought he had the potential to do that when we looked at sort of his numbers and we thought there was a little bit more in his game that hopefully could come out,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “So you’re always pleasantly surprised when that does happen. And certainly I think he’s had that kind of season where he’s stepping forward.”
Now Francis will focus on trade talks involving three veterans who are unrestricted free agents at season’s end in defenseman Mark Giordano and forwards Calle Jarnkrok and Marcus Johansson.
“It’s really case by case because in reality we don’t know what the next couple of weeks is going to bring,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “For me, it’s just a simple, honest approach, a couple of quiet conversations individually along the way and really just everybody remaining focused on the job at hand together.”
The Kraken have lost the first three games of their five-game trip, though they’ve come close in games at Washington, Carolina and Toronto. They rallied from a two-goal deficit to take a third-period lead Tuesday against the Maple Leafs but were undone by Auston Matthews’ hat trick in a 6-4 defeat.
Colin Blackwell had a goal and an assist for Seattle. Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 shots but the Kraken allowed three power-play goals to drop to 1-9-1 in their past 11 games.
“We have to be real honest without ourselves,” Hakstol said. “This team can force you into some tough situations, but we weren’t hard enough to play against in a lot of areas.”
The Senators snapped a five-game skid with a 4-1 victory Tuesday at St. Louis. Tim Stutzle and Josh Norris each scored power-play goals and Anton Forsberg stopped 22 shots.
“We really emptied the tanks to get a win tonight,” said Senators forward Brady Tkachuk, who also scored in his return to his hometown. “This is unreal. I think it’s our best effort we’ve had all year. Everybody was buzzing. Everybody was on their game.”
Tkachuk’s father, Keith, who played for the Blues, watched the game from a skybox. It was the Senators’ first trip to St. Louis since Jan. 19, 2019.
“Absolutely, it’s special being here. I don’t get to play here too often,” the younger Tkachuk said. “When I do, it’s definitely special. I’m happy with the outcome and just the way we played. It was a lot of fun tonight.”
–Field Level Media