EDMONTON, Alberta – Kraken general manager Ron Francis says the plethora of future draft picks held by his contending club “gives us the flexibility” to add players by the March 3 trade deadline.
But Francis, whose team began play Tuesday tied for second and two points out of the Pacific Division lead, added it’s still too early to make a call on how active the Kraken will be. Various rumors across the NHL have the Kraken potentially making a play for veteran defenseman John Klingberg, 32, an offensive-minded defenseman who signed a one-year deal with Anaheim last summer after teams balked at giving him a bigger offer.
“It’s two months, so there’s time,” Francis said in an interview of any upcoming trade decisions. “It’s not like this is coming today or tomorrow. There’s time to see where we are and how we’re playing, what the lineup looks like. And then all the other things at that point, and then making that decision.
“I think it’s a fine line,” he added. “It’s a balance, right? You want to show your guys you believe in them and try to add something to help them. But you also understand the importance of building the (foundation) underneath as well. And having a lot of picks maybe gives us the flexibility to do a little bit of both. We’re open to looking at all different possibilities.
“So, what then happens is we’ll get to March 3 and see if there’s something that makes sense for us.”
Francis has three second-round picks going into this summer’s draft, the two extra ones coming off trades with Toronto for Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell last March and the Washington Capitals for goalie Vitek Vanecek back in 2021. It’s possible some of those – plus the team’s additional salary cap space – could be used to snag a talented player.
The Kraken’s defensive unit, believed a weakness when the season began, has pleasantly surprised with Vince Dunn emerging as a true two-way force alongside stalwart defender Adam Larsson. Justin Schultz has helped stabilize the second pairing with Jamie Oleksiak and allows the Kraken to go with balanced left-right shot combinations across the board.
But the defensive depth is lacking behind third pairing Carson Soucy and Will Borgen and the Kraken have gotten fortunate in that injuries to their blue line corps have been few and far between.
The Kraken went 3-3-1 over seven games missed by Oleksiak during a November injury and a December suspension, surrendering 30 or more shots in four of those contests. Two of those December games were also missed by Schultz after absorbing a hit from behind, with the Kraken losing both and yielding 69 shots total in what became consecutive road losses to Tampa Bay and Carolina.
Those seven games missed by Oleksiak and two by Schultz are the only ones the team’s six starting defenders haven’t played in – a rarity for any team this deep into the season.
That and the so-so Kraken power play – 18th of 32 teams with a 20.63 success rate entering Tuesday — would also suggest the right-handed shot Klingberg might be helpful, despite putting up mediocre results with an awful Ducks team to date. Klingberg was a valued power play contributor with Dallas through last season and it was believed the Kraken – before signing Schultz for two seasons – would be among suitors prepared to offer him a multi-year deal.
Schultz and Dunn have alternated “quarterbacking” the primary power play unit.
The Kraken entered Tuesday night’s game against the Oilers with their power play in a 2-for-16 slump, having failed to score the last three games. They broke that drought on their first attempt against Edmonton, with a Daniel Sprong shot redirecting in off of Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
Schultz drew an assist on the play.
There has also been speculation the Kraken might attempt to import another goaltender beyond Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer. But there are issues with that, one of which being the team already getting crowded at the position with Chris Driedger poised to perhaps return this spring from off-season knee surgery.
Also, Jones – named an NHL first star for his performance last week – and Grubauer have looked stronger of late. Jones has posted a save percentage of .938 or better in five of his last seven outings while Grubauer has been at .914 or better in four of his last six.
Francis gave no indication he’d consider adding another goalie to the team’s mix.
…Oilers captain Connor McDavid scored his league-leading 38th goal of the season on an end-to-end rush to tie Tuesday night’s game in the opening period. McDavid entered the night averaging 1.86 points per game and looking to become the sixth player to notch a 150-point season and the first since Mario Lemieux collected 161 in 1995-96 – about nine months before McDavid was born.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol had talked pregame about preventing McDavid from freewheeling up ice in exactly such fashion. But he also admitted that containing McDavid is something no team has really figured out.
“You have to have good awareness,” Hakstol said of tracking where McDavid is. “You have to find layers (of defenders) on top of him. The earlier you can vary his path or slow him, the better. So, all of those factors are at play, that’s for sure.”
…Dunn entered Tuesday looking to become the second Kraken defenseman this month to threaten to break the team points streak record by tallying at least one in eight straight contests. Dunn’s defensive partner, Larsson, also had a points streak of seven consecutive games before seeing it end in Toronto on Jan. 5.
That Toronto game was also where Dunn launched his current streak, which has seen him notch four goals and seven assists over the seven contests. Jordan Eberle previously held the team record on his own before Larsson and Dunn matched it.