A solid middle core continued to be fortified by the Kraken with Thursday’s acquisition of veteran center Frederick Gaudreau from the Minnesota Wild for a fourth-round pick in this weekend’s NHL draft.
Gaudreau, 32, scored 18 goals and added 19 assists last season while mostly centering the Wild’s fourth line. The native of Bromont, Quebec has three seasons remaining on a five-year, $10.5 million contract counting for $2.1 million annually against the salary cap.
"Frederick's a versatile skater who plays a strong two-way game,” Kraken general manager Jason Botterill said. “He gives us depth down the middle and has the ability to produce offensively. He's a player that can be trusted on the defensive side of the puck, especially on the penalty kill. We're excited to welcome him to the team.”
Heading into Friday’s opening round of the two-day NHL Draft at the L.A. Live Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, the Kraken still have the No. 8 overall pick, two more in the second round and one apiece in rounds five and seven. They’d had two additional fourth round selections as well, but both have now been traded away with one used in last week’s deal with Dallas for forward Mason Marchment and now this latest one, No. 102 overall, in the Gaudreau deal.
Gaudreau’s addition now sees the Kraken with established NHL centers on all four lines between him, Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and Chandler Stephenson, with last summer’s No. 8 overall draft pick Berkly Catton expected to get a shot at making the team out of training camp in September.
The 6-foot, 214 lb. right-handed shot Gaudreau scored a career high 19 goals in 2022-23 ahead of Minnesota awarding him a five-year contract extension. Gaudreau’s totals fell the next season, partly due to being limited to only 67 games after an injury sustained when he was leveled by an open ice hit.
But then came last season, when Gaudreau bounced back for the second most goals of his career. His ability to move up and down the roster for the Wild – playing both “middle six” and “bottom six” roles at times on lines two-through four -- should prove an intriguing piece for the Kraken’s already solid depth in their forwards combinations.
His play on Minnesota’s fourth line last season alongside Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin brought an element of finesse to an otherwise rugged trio used by the Wild to shut down the opposition’s most dynamic scorers. Minnesota’s playoff team was built largely around goal prevention and the team’s fourth line became a major part of that.
That should immediately benefit a Kraken team that saw its goal prevention backslide last season to 3.20 allowed per game compared to 2.83 the prior year.
Gaudreau has been a late bloomer of sorts throughout his hockey career, having struggled to break into the major junior ranks as a teenager following a serious wrist injury. But he wound up playing 64 games in 2011-12 for a Shawinigan Cataractes team that won the Memorial Cup championship, becoming a steady regular for them the next two seasons and an additional one for the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
Still, his modest totals, topping out at 19 goals his final year with Drummondville and 43 points a couple of seasons prior with Shawinigan, weren’t enough to get him drafted by NHL teams. He bounced around the AHL for a few seasons ahead of breaking in with Nashville in 2016-17.
It was with the Predators that Gaudreau’s playoff experience, honed with Shawinigan years prior in winning the Memorial Cup, was further honed at the NHL level. He made his postseason debut in 2017 with Nashville and became the first player since 1944 to score his first three career NHL goals in a Stanley Cup Final.
Two of those Cup Final goals against Pittsburgh were winners in the only two contests of that six-game series the Preds managed to capture.
Still, that initial playoff spark didn’t translate into regular season success. Gaudreau tallied just eight points over parts of three seasons with the Predators, then moved on for a lone campaign with the Pittsburgh team he’d scored twice against in the Cup Final three years prior.
It wasn’t until 2021-22, upon joining the Wild, that Gaudreau finally put things together at the NHL level with a career high 14 goals and 30 assists in 76 games at age 28.
He followed that 44-point season with a career best 19 goals and 38 points the following campaign to earn his contract extension he’ll now continue with the Kraken.
One thing the Kraken have emphasized in their recent player acquisitions and coaching hires is prior success performing in playoff and championship contests. Beyond Gaudreau’s regular season stats, he made four additional playoff appearances his last five seasons with Minnesota and Pittsburgh. That gives him 32 NHL postseason games overall in which he’s scored eight goals and added two assists.
As for the Kraken, they hope their increasingly solid middle of the ice is a significant step towards helping Gaudreau land another playoff shot to further his recent stretch of success.
