Takeaways from Kraken season-ending press availability

SEATTLE - A breakthrough second season for the Seattle Kraken came to a heartbreaking end on Monday night in Dallas with a 2-1 loss to the Stars in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The Kraken saw a 40-point improvement in the standings from their debut campaign to year two, and Seattle found themselves as one of the last five teams in the league still playing before their season ended in Dallas. While the large majority of the team will be back next season as the Kraken hope to make a deeper playoff run, there will be several questions the team has to answer this offseason before the group reconvenes for training camp in September.

Here's a quick look at some of the things learned from the team's end-of-season media session with head coach Dave Hakstol and general manager Ron Francis on Thursday.

– Kraken tight-lipped on impending discussions with free agents-to-be such as defenseman Vince Dunn

A vast majority of the Kraken's roster is under contract for next season, including each of their top 10 forwards. However, a trio of defensemen heads Seattle's group of pending free agents this summer.

Vince Dunn, Will Borgen and Carson Soucy all are unsigned for next year. Dunn and Borgen and restricted free agents with Soucy being an unrestricted free agent. Dunn is coming off a monster season for Seattle where he finished second on the team in points behind 14 goals and 50 assists. Only the 70-point season of Jared McCann outpaced him for the season.

"We're hopeful, yeah," Francis said. "But we'll see how those go. We haven't started them yet. Usually if you get a deal where the team is not happy and the players not happy, that's probably a fair deal. So we'll see if we can strive to get to that point." 

Borgen was a full-time starter for the first time in his career and played all 82 games. Soucy was a constant on Seattle's bottom pair. Seventh defenseman Cale Fleury is also a restricted free agent, but he played in just 12 games throughout the season for the Kraken.

Francis told Ian Furness of FOX 13 and Sports Radio 93.3 KJR that Dunn and Borgen will both be given qualifying offers if they are unable to reach long-term agreements with either player.

Meanwhile, Daniel Sprong, Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, Joonas Donskoi, John Hayden and Jesper Frödén are also free agents. Sprong and Geekie are restricted with Donato, Donskoi, Hayden and Frödén being unrestricted.

"We do have some guys whose contracts are up, we've got to make some decisions there," Francis said. "But there's always areas that we think we can tweak and get better, whether It's bringing people from the outside in or trying to work from an internal position to make it stronger. But we certainly think we can continue to improve.

"It's still early in the process for us and talking un front. Geeks, Sprong and Donato are contracts that we've got to talk about here as we move forward."

Goaltenders Martin Jones and Joey Daccord are also set to be unrestricted free agents.

"We've got some decisions to make there and we'll work through those in the next few days here and make sure that we're all comfortable in the direction we want to go and address it accordingly," Francis said of the goaltending outlook.

Francis wasn't going to give many indications of what those decisions will be. Dunn and Borgen definitely seem to be part of the plan moving forward as top four defensemen. However, Seattle may have to part with most, or all, of their fourth-line grouping of Sprong, Donato and Geekie.

Some of that is partly because…

– Tye Kartye appears destined to have a full-time role on next year's team

Just a year removed from being an undated free agent signing out of the Ontario Hockey League, Tye Kartye was called upon to jump into a top role and fill the shoes of Jared McCann after he was injured by Cale Makar in the opening round of the playoffs.

Kartye played his first career NHL games in the heat of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, scored in his first ever game and had three goals in 10 total games played, and appeared fully deserving of a spot on the big club moving forward.

"I think you, like us, were impressed with the performance by Tye Kartye at the end of the year, too. So that's an exciting possible piece for us moving forward," Francis said.

Hakstol was effusive in his praise of Kartye as he played with the team over the last three weeks. He brought a physical presence to the lineup and seamlessly paired with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle on Seattle's de facto top line. When McCann was ready to return, Kartye remained in the lineup for the Kraken as he delivered a key goal in a Game 6 victory over Dallas to force a decisive game against the Stars. He finished with five points with three goals and two assists in 10 games played for the Kraken.

While Kartye's position within next year's team could vary a bit, there seems to be very little doubt that he will be a part of the team again next fall.

– Shane Wright's path into the team far less certain

Shane Wright, the No. 4 overall pick in last year's NHL Draft, may have trouble finding a role on the Kraken's roster again next year.

Wright played eight regular season games and five preseason contests for the Kraken this year, was team captain for Canada's gold medal winning team in the World Junior Championships, had 37 points in 20 games played for the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL, and is now a part of the Coachella Valley Firebirds team making a Calder Cup run the American Hockey League. He's one of the team's top prospects for the future. But that future may not be next season.

"It's a possibility. It's really going to come down to Shane and how hard he works in the summertime to be honest with you," Francis said. "… This is not an easy league and we've got a good team and he's gonna have to earn it like everybody else has around here and that includes having a big summer for him."

Ideally, the Kraken would like to have Wright develop in the AHL. However, prospect agreements with the Canadian Hockey Leagues could require Wright to play another season in the OHL since he won't be 20 years old. The team intends to petition for an exemption for Wright as he is just shy of meeting necessary thresholds to make his AHL eligible.

Another season in the OHL would seem pointless for Wright at this stage. But the lineup with the Kraken doesn't yield an obvious spot to drop Wright into either. Fourth-line playing time may be insufficient and centers Matty Beniers, Alex Wennberg and Yanni Gourde are all under contract. If the team moves on from Wennberg, perhaps Wright could slotted in between Jaden Schwartz and André Burakovsky for a top nine role with the big club. But that would require moving on from a player in Wennberg that has had roles on both the power play and penalty kill, is an adept passer and has ability to gain the offensive zone with puck control regularly. 

"He's a young kid," Francis said of Wright. "We forget these guys are are 18-19 and it takes time to understand and learn the league and there's parts of his game he needs to continue to work on and we'll have Jeff Tambellini and our player development staff working closely with him over the course of the season in the summer and getting into next year and and continue to help him find his way to being the player he wants to be in the National Hockey League."

– André Burakovsky had torn groin that kept him out final three months

Speaking of Burakovsky, Francis said he sustained a torn groin muscle when he was injured in a game against the New York Islanders in early February.

Burakovsky played just 21 seconds against the Islanders and the issue ultimately kept him out for the rest of the year due to a pair of setbacks.

"He tore his groin 19 seconds into his first shift coming back off the nine-day All-Star break," Francis said.

The Kraken were expecting to get Burakovsky back in the lineup about a week after the trade deadline in early March. However, he had a setback that reset the recovery process.

"I mean, going into the deadline, we thought he was going to be back seven days after the trade deadline," Francis said. "That was what we counted on as kind of being our (addition) piece and then he had the setback. And then he was actually tracking really good, you know, had a 45-minute skate and then reached for something and had another setback. So at that point we decided we needed to kind of have a little better look."

Burakovsky had surgery before the playoffs began that were expected to keep him out for about six weeks. Francis said that it would have likely taken until the Stanley Cup Final for Burakovsky to have been able to return to action.

Burakovsky was the team's leading scorer when he was injured in early February. He is expected to be fully healthy for the start of next season.

Outside of Burakovsky, Francis said that the team didn't have any significant injuries entering the offseason.

"There was nothing on the exit (interviews) that would require surgery. So I think, you know, we got some bumps and bruises but overall, I think we came through it (healthy)."

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