With Patrik Laine officially on the trade block, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet suggests that the Seattle Kraken are a team to watch in the race for the scoring winger (audio link to «32 Thoughts»). It's unclear how much Kraken general manager Ron Francis has pursued a move, but Friedman believes there's a «real push in that organization to be more aggressive» this summer as the team enters its fourth season.
Few expected scoring to be a major issue for the Kraken this season after their potent offense tallied 289 goals last year. However, their shooting percentage plummeted, resulting in a 29th-place finish in goals. A major setback has been the health of top-six winger André Burakovsky, who has missed nearly half the season with injuries for two consecutive years. While effective when healthy last season, Burakovsky struggled in 2023-24, recording just 16 points in 49 games, the lowest points per game of his 10-year NHL career.
Laine's availability has been a concern, missing 47.6% of regular-season games over the past three seasons. This season, he played only 18 games, spending much of the year in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program after an early upper-body injury.
Despite these issues, Laine was worth his $8.7MM cap hit during his two seasons with over 50 games in Columbus, where he projected for 38 goals and 82 points in 2021-22 and 33 goals and 78 points in 2022-23. These would have been career-best point totals, though not surpassing his 44 goals with the Jets in 2017-18.
Laine's power-play prowess would also boost the Kraken. He led the league with 20 power-play goals during his sophomore season, and his presence could energize a Kraken power-play unit that has struggled at 18.4% over the past three seasons, ranking 28th in the league.
