Kraken's new GM making moves

As the weather warms up in Seattle, the local Kraken hockey team has been extremely busy.

While the Florida Panthers lifted Lord Stanley’s Cup a week ago, the Kraken are in mid-season mode.

After acquiring Mason Marchment from the Dallas Stars a few days ago, the Kraken shipped Andre Burakovsky to the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Joe Velino.

With free agency still on the horizon, Marchment’s a big acquisition for the Kraken. Seattle, which has stockpiled draft choices in recent years, sent a fourth-round pick in the upcoming draft (which ironically, originally belonged to the Stars) and a third-round pick in 2026 to Dallas.

With Ron Francis bumped up to team president, Jason Botterill’s now the man in charge when it comes to player movement. The new GM wanted the 6’5 212 Marchment for his size and presence in front of the net.

“I think Mason has a unique combination of size, skill and strength,” Botterill said in an interview, Thursday. “He works well down in the corners and around the net and that’s an element we want to continue to add to our group here. He’s been in three conference finals in a row; he knows the intensity of playoff hockey.”

The deals are related in that Buralovsky ($5.5 mil.) added a million dollars more to salary cap space than Marchment ($4.5 mil). The Blackhawks have agreed to pay the remaining two years of Burakovsky’s salary. Marchment has one season remaining on a four-year deal signed with Dallas.

Marchment looks to be at the peak of his career. The last three seasons in Dallas, Marchment has recorded 56 goals and 75 assists for 131 points along with 187 penalty minutes.

Elliotte Friedman of SportsNet and Hockey Night in Canada, said that the Toronto Maple Leafs (the team Marchment started his NHL career with) had hoped to acquire Marchment as a replacement for Mitch Marner, expected to leave the Leafs via free agency.

A late bloomer, the 30-year-old Marchment was an undrafted free agent signed to an AHL contract (with the Toronto Marlies) in 2016 as he hadn’t played junior hockey until age 19.

Nicknamed `Mush,’ Marchment’s father, the late Bryan Marchment, played in the NHL for parts of 19 seasons with nine different teams. With Chicago in 1993, the rugged defenseman accumulated 313 penalty minutes.

In his first year with the Kraken (2022-23), Burakovsky was the team’s leading scorer heading into February, but he would be sidelined with a myriad of injuries for the next two seasons.

Burakovsky played in 79 games last season but had a disappointing season with ten goals and 27 assists. It looks like Burakovsky’s overtime goal in the 2022 Stanley Cup finals for the Colorado Avalanche against the Tampa Bay Lightning will stand as the highlight of his career (Burakovsky also had 66 points that season).

Unlike Marchment, Velino was a high draft pick going to the Detroit Red Wings as the 30th pick in the 2018 amateur draft. He was traded earlier this year (March 7) to the Blackhawks for goalie Petr Mrazek and forward Craig Smith.

Velino spent part of four seasons with the Wings. His best season was 2023-24 when he tallied 12 goals and 16 assists. Velino’s also on the last year of his contract.

On paper, new GM Botterill’s moves look pretty good. It’ll be interesting to see what moves the Kraken will make in free agency and the upcoming amateur draft as Lane Lambert settles in as the new Kraken head coach.