Kraken Acquire Frederick Gaudreau From Wild: How He Fits, What It Could Mean for Offseason
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1080"]
The Seattle Kraken acquired more center help on Thursday for a cheap price as their busy offseason continues. Credit: Frederick Gaudreau/Instagram [/caption]
Oh, you thought that the Seattle Kraken were done trading with the draft coming up? Think again.
The Kraken made yet another deal Thursday, acquiring Frederick Gaudreau from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a 2025 fourth-round selection, which will be pick 102 of this weekend’s NHL Draft.
Gaudreau, 32, is coming off a solid-if-unspectacular-2025 campaign for the Wild, where he scored 18 goals and tallied 19 assists. After being a bit player for the Predators for three seasons and a (very) short stint with the Penguins, he became a mainstay for the Wild over the last four campaigns, and he procured 134 points over 307 games with Minnesota while averaging 15:33 minutes on the ice in that timeframe.
At first glance, this seems like a bit of an odd fit, and that’s no insult to Gaudreau, but more that it’s a surprise to see another center joining the club. The Kraken already have Matty Beniers, Chandler Stephenson and Shane Wright at the position, with Berkley Catton also expected to join the Kraken. The team also acquired Joe Veleno in the deal that sent Andre Burakovsky to the Blackhawks, but there’s rampant speculation that Veleno isn’t going to play a significant role with Seattle. Still, that’s a lot of mouths to feed at the position, and while Gaudreau does have the ability to play on the wing, the comments from general manager Jason Botterill suggest he’s here to play up the middle.
That being said, this move makes more sense when you take a deeper look. First, the cost was so little; a fourth-round pick for a player capable of giving you 15-20 goals is an easy yes. But, perhaps the biggest reason for this move is the need for help in the penalty kill. The Kraken needed help with that unit, regardless, and they lost both Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev from that unit; arguably the two best players in that group. Gaudreau will be a big part of that unit based on the comments from Botterill and should be a stabilizer for that group.
And, while there’s absolutely no guarantee this will happen, a move like this for such a low price does make it easier to trade one of your centers in a splash move. It’s hard to see Beniers or Wright moved and Stephenson’s contract makes him unlikely to draw a ton of interest on the market, but you can’t completely dismiss it. And the fact that Gaudreau is capable of playing on the wing makes a move of one of those players more tolerable, anyway.
It looks a bit weird on the surface, but the Kraken were able to get better Thursday without paying a major cost, and it helps create potential flexibility for that massive move we’re all hoping to see this offseason. It could be worse.
