So far, we really only know one thing about recent expansion NHL teams: they're unpredictable. The success the Vegas Golden Knights had in their first season was universally unexpected among pundits. Four years later, the Seattle Kraken are proving equally hard to wager on. 

After the NHL’s newest expansion team more or less punted on being super competitive (at least on paper) in favour of compiling salary cap space via the expansion draft, the Kraken were fairly aggressive on the first day of free agency. 

And sure, some moves weren’t exactly out of left field—the Kraken had been linked to winger Jaden Schwartz for quite some time—but overall, the team had eyebrows to the sky on Wednesday with regards to one move in particular. 

Here’s our take on how the team fared. 

Jaden Schwartz signs a five-year, $27.5 million contract

Like we mentioned earlier, the Kraken were linked to Schwartz early on. They effectively double-dipped on the St. Louis Blues after snagging underrated rearguard Vince Dunn in the expansion draft.

Schwartz has spent the majority of his career being a somewhat under-the-radar scorer for the Blues. He put up 57 points in 71 games in 2019-20 and was a vital part of the Blues’ Stanley Cup run in 2019, when he scored 20 points in 26 games. 

That pace saw a big dropoff last season as Schwartz potted 21 points (only eight of which were goals) in 40 games. And that’s likely to be the problem here. At age 29, Schwartz is probably on the down slope of what’s been a productive career. 

The good news is that Schwartz is still a very good defensive winger. But if he starts leaning more into that role and is less of a scorer as he ages, will the Kraken be happy with paying over $5 million a year? For now, it’s solid, and Schwartz should fit right in on a Kraken team that will be doubted out of the gate. It’s pretty easy to imagine him on a first line with, say, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde. That trio has a little bit of everything and certainly won’t be a fun matchup for other teams’ top lines. 

Grade: B

Schwartz should be a solid and not overly costly addition to the Kraken. But if last year is the start of things to come instead of a blip, this contract won’t look good in a couple years. 

Alexander Wennberg signs a three-year, $13.5 million contract

Centre Wennberg comes in at $4.5 million against the cap, $400,000 lower than his last multi-year deal. The problem is that the Blue Jackets bought him out of that contract. After drafting the forward 14th overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and seeing him score 59 points in 80 games in 2016-17, Columbus bought high, signing Wennberg to a six-year pact. He didn’t come close to hitting those totals again. Just over three years later, in October 2020, he was bought out. 

He ended up signing a one-year deal with Florida and scored a respectable 29 points in 56 games with the Panthers. The all-important question: is Seattle buying high, as Columbus once did? 

Grade: C

It feels like yes. Wennberg scored a career high 17 goals last season, but he did it with a ridiculous 20-percent shooting percentage. He’s not a bad player, by any means, and he should be able to fit in well in the middle-six with Seattle. But he’s not a consistent point producer, and it really does feel like he’s being signed at the very limit of his upside.  

Phillip Grubauer signs a six-year, $34.5 million contract

So this was something of a shocker. Sure, it was thought that the Kraken could go for a big-name goalie in the expansion draft—perhaps Carey Price, Ben Bishop or Grubauer himself, all of whom the club had exclusive negotiating rights to. 

But the Kraken (wisely) took Jonas Doonskoi from the Avalanche and chose to go with another unrestricted free agent in Panthers’ goalie Chris Driedger, as well as Washington netminder Vitek Vanecek and Ottawa Senators’ prospect Joey Daccord. It was assumed the team was all good in the pipes. 

Then the Kraken went out and got one of the biggest free agent fish around. Grubauer’s contract carries a $5.9 million cap hit. And while the German ‘tender has proven himself quite consistent in the last several years, he was no doubt helped by being behind one of the league’s better clubs last season. Grubauer rode that help to a Vezina nomination. Not to say the goalie wasn’t good, but the underlying numbers point to him being very solid, if not spectacular. 

He turns 30 in November and while goalies usually age better than their skater counterparts, it’s a lengthy deal. It’s also something of a “we’re ready to compete now” move. Which is a tad puzzling given how the Kraken treated the expansion draft. 

But mostly, it’s confusing because Seattle already did the whole “Chris Driedger is our goalie” thing. They brought him out to Seattle, put him in the jersey and, most importantly, gave him a $3.5 million dollar a year cap hit for the next three. 

Grade: C

Maybe we’re still a bit surprised by the move—getting aggressive and landing a star in free agency isn’t a horrible thing. And teams like Vegas and Montreal proved that you can have success while paying big for netminding. But it’s generally accepted that having over $9 million committed to the position isn’t where you want to be. 

Grubauer will be good enough to paper over some holes—especially in the beginning—and that’s likely exactly what the Kraken want and need. On the other hand, you don't have to look too far to see the cautionary tales all over the NHL that would advise against giving goalies close to 30 long deals with big money. 

Trading Vitek Vanecek for a second-round pick

Of course, the Grubauer move also opened up the opportunity to move one of their incumbent goalies, and the Kraken did just that, trading Vanecek back to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick in 2023. 

Could Vanecek be a perfectly good netminder and was a tandem of him and Driedger potentially solid and way less risky than getting Grubauer? Oh, definitely. But did Seattle GM Ron Francis essentially get a second-round pick out of Washington in the expansion draft? He did. And that’s a whole lot better than what he got from some other teams. 

Grade: A