One: Trade Winds and Wins
The Kraken won two games this week without Alex Wennberg, held out of the lineups in Calgary and Winnipeg to make sure he didn’t get injured before GM Ron Francis could make a deal with another former NHLer, Chris Drury, president and GM of the New York Rangers. Wennberg goes to play third-line center in NYC and likely plenty of penalty-kill shifts. Seattle gets a second-round pick in this summer’s NHL Draft and a conditional fourth-round selection in June 2025. While holding out Wennberg was a practical move, it turned out to be part-genius, too, because it strongly positioned Jared McCann as capable of playing center between top-six wings Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jaden Schwartz. McCann delivered some timely playmaking and, bonus, two shorthanded goals, one in each road victory. Perhaps as importantly, McCann has improved his 200-foot, all-zones game in each of the three Kraken seasons. Dave Hakstol has praised McCann’s defensive prowess, same for GM Francis. McCann himself brings up better defensive work by Kraken forwards as a must for his team to prosper. He played center when Matty Beniers was out with an injury and now looks like he might be on a longer run as a center, a position that he played in the Seattle inaugural season and earlier in his NHL career.
“Right now, I'm confident he could do the job there,” said Dave Hakstol Thursday after practice. He’ll be in that spot [Friday] night and I see no reason why he can't go back and have another good night. In some ways, his abilities and speed are more evident when he's playing up the middle ... you have to be able to think defensively, especially for anybody who understands our system, you’ve got a lot of work to do as a centerman defensively. Jared has got a good grasp of that. He does a nice job down low. He covers the ice as he's reading the play and he's able to support our defensemen.”
