Insider: Kraken showing they’re ‘in the business of taking big swings’

The Seattle Kraken’s attempt to make a big trade for an offensive playmaker reportedly fell through.

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Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported Thursday night that Dallas Starts winger and two-time All-Star Jason Robertson turned down an eight-year contract worth $15 million per year from the Kraken that would have allowed Seattle to acquire the restricted free agent via trade.

The Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Friday to break down the situation. He also explained why it’s a good sign for the Kraken even though they weren’t able to get the deal done.

“Well, quite bluntly, Jason Robertson wasn’t interested in that deal in Seattle,” Marek said. “The St. Louis Blues had offered a massive package as well. He wasn’t interested in playing for the St. Louis Blues. It’s still widely believed that his preferred destination is Dallas. But he wants to stay in Dallas at his number, and that’s $14 million (over eight years) and whatever bonus structure that they can work out.”

Robertson, who tallied 45 goals and 51 assists last season, isn’t the first potential trade acquisition to turn down a contract offer from the Kraken. Ahead of this past season’s trade deadline, Seattle reportedly tried to work out a deal with New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin. However, Panarin exercised his no-trade clause and turned down an offer that the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported was worth $12 million per year over three or four years.

So, do players just not want to play for the seemingly stuck-in-neutral Kraken?

“I haven’t heard it across the NHL,” Marek said. “… Players make decisions for a lot of different reasons.”

Marek noted taxes, weather and regional lifestyle as potential factors in play.

“I kind of look at these two situations as just completely unique situations,” Marek said. “And look, the Jason Robertson thing, I don’t think it’s specific to Seattle. I think that there are probably other places that have approached Dallas about about making a move and would Robertson re-up, and obviously the answer from the Robertson camp is no.

“This isn’t unique to Seattle. I think, again, his preferred destination is Dallas. He just wants to be in Dallas on his own terms.”

The encouraging part of Robertson news

Not being able to successfully land talented players like Robertson and Panarin certainly hurts, but Marek thinks the fact the Kraken are in on those types of players is an encouraging sign that they’re moving away from what was his big criticism about the organization.

“The one thing that we see out of Jason Botterill as the general manager of this team… (he takes) big swings,” Marek said. “And the main criticism that I’ve always had about Seattle was this is a team that’s always just tried to be safe and hit singles. When you’re too safe for too long and just want to get on base by hitting singles, you find yourself with a roster where everybody’s kind of out of place and everybody is playing one level higher than they should play, and that goes for forwards and that goes for defensemen as well.”

Marek believes Botterill will keep trying to take those big swings.

“As a matter of fact, given what has happened with Robertson, I’m going to go ahead and guess that Jason Botterill is probably doubling down trying to land the big one or big ones this draft weekend,” Marek said. “At least now, the Seattle Kraken are in the business of taking big swings.”

Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this post. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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