Kraken's Francis happy with deadline deal haul

Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis speaks with reporters after the NHL trade deadline on March 7, 2025 at the Kraken Community Iceplex in Seattle, Wash. (Curtis Crabtree / FOX 13 Seattle)

SEATTLE - Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis believes a trio of trades made ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline helps position the team to make significant improvements this offseason.

Francis completed two trades on Friday before the noon P.T. deadline, sending Brandon Tanev to the Winnipeg Jets for a 2027 second-round pick, and Daniel Sprong to the New Jersey Devils for a 2026 seventh-round pick.

Along with the trade of Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, the Kraken now have 10 draft picks in the first two rounds of the next three drafts.

"We're pleased with the return we got in those deals," Francis said. "So when you look at us moving forward, that's five first round picks in the next three drafts, five second round picks in the next three drafts. So 10 picks. I'm not sitting here saying we're looking to draft 10 players. In a perfect world, we're looking to move some of these draft capital pieces to try and acquire players and move the process forward a little bit."

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The Kraken have done well to build out their organizational depth over the last four years. A prospect-heavy team in AHL Coachella Valley has picked up the baton from the teams of the last two years and is back atop the Pacific Division standings. Now they can use those draft picks to start dealing for proven NHL pieces elsewhere this summer, in addition to the salary cap relief of Bjorkstrand's contract no longer being on the books.

"We're (at) roughly 20 million or so in cap space available," Francis said. "We talked about the draft capital that we've acquired to do that too. So we're certainly looking at the free agent market, and we're certainly looking to see if there's any trades that teams want to make ahead of the draft, which is kind of the next point where a lot of trades seem to happen. So we'll be very active in that and try to make our team better."

The deadline saw teams trading away players getting significant returns. Seattle being able to get a pair of first-round picks and a second-round pick from the Lightning in exchange for Gourde and Bjorsktrand was terrific value the team couldn't overlook.

"It seemed to almost turn into an arms race in some of the divisions," Francis said. "It's going to be pretty interesting how things play out. There's some teams that did some really good work at the deadline bolstering their team and they could match up against each other in the first round, which, you know, both teams can't advance, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. But yeah, it was certainly some good returns for the sellers in this trade market."

Francis thanked Gourde, Bjorkstrand and Tanev for their contributions to the Kraken over the last several seasons. Gourde and Tanev were both members of the initial Kraken team in 2021-22 after being acquired in the NHL Expansion Draft, while Bjorkstrand spent three seasons with Seattle.

"You look at Yanni, you look at Bjorky, and you look at Tanev, the things they did for this organization, on and off the ice, were tremendous, and we can't thank them (enough)," Francis said. "In the case of Yanni and Bjorky, they've wives and families as well. They really represent the Kraken well. We wish them nothing but the best moving forward, it's just unfortunately a tough part of the business sometimes."

Seattle had much higher hopes for this season. The offseason signings of Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson were made with an eye on being in the playoff race again. Instead, injuries to Gourde, Jordan Eberle and Vince Dunn for at least 20 games each, along with on-ice issues such a poor goaltender from Philipp Grubauer led to a disappointing campaign.

But the renewed roster flexibility this summer and continued development of their prospect pool has Francis believing better times are around the corner.

"I think it's doable, and I think we have a team if we make the right tweaks over the summer, that we can do that," he said.

"There's a lot of good things on the horizon there. … Obviously, we want to get healthy and hope that that happens next year. But, you know, we have to look at things because, obviously, I felt going into the season we were a team that could compete for the playoff spot, and we're not there. So that's why we had to do the things we did. And we want to get to the position where we're in the playoffs and competing."

The Kraken will need to re-sign restricted free agents Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans this summer. A contract buyout of Grubauer seems a likely path as well to free up some more cap space after a wretched campaign this year. While they weren't moved at the deadline, defenseman Jamie Oleksiak and wingers Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann each could be available in trade this summer if the Kraken are able to find other pieces to bring to Seattle.

Jacob Melanson made his NHL debut for the Kraken on Thursday night, playing just shy of 10 minutes in Nashville before being sent back to Coachella Valley. Francis said 20-year-old Jani Nyman will get a look on the NHL roster before the end of the season as well.

In his first season in North America, the Finnish second-round pick from 2022 has 26 goals and 15 assists for 41 points in 55 games for the Firebirds this season. His 26 goals are tied for third-most in the entire AHL.

"That's really good for a young kid," Francis said. "So, you know, that's exciting at some point here, we'll give him a look to before the end of the season."

Berkly Catton – Seattle's 2024 first-round pick – has 101 points on 36 goals and 65 assists in 50 games for the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL. Francis said that Catton's play will make them take a hard look at having him on the roster next season as well.

"Based on what he's doing, I would fully expect him to push next year in training camp to make us have a hard decision of whether we keep him on our roster," he said.

NHL rules don't allow teams to call up numerous prospects to get a look after the deadline. Seattle is limited to just four call-ups for the rest of the season outside of for injury reasons. John Hayden and Cale Fleury were called up on Friday from Coachella Valley, and Francis said Nyman will get as look eventually, too. That leaves just one more player eligible for call-up.

Current Kraken lineup:

Jaden Schwartz – Matty Beniers – Kaapo Kakko
Jared McCann – Shane Wright – André Burakovsky
Eeli Tolvanen – Chandler Stephenson – Jordan Eberle
Mikey Eyssimont (UFA) – John Hayden (UFA) – Tye Kartye (RFA)

Vince Dunn – Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak – Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans (RFA) – Josh Mahura (UFA)
Cale Fleury

Joey Daccord
Philipp Grubauer

The Source: Original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle.