Seattle Kraken Should Not Trade Shane Wright

In an increasingly competitive Pacific Division – first and sixth place are separated by only seven points – the Seattle Kraken are still hanging around the playoff race. Despite winning only three of their last 10 games, they are 8-5-3 in 16 games since the Christmas break and are only a few points back of third in the division, with games in hand.

The postseason is within sight, and general manager Jason Botterill is rumored to be itching to make a move to grab hold of the franchise’s second-ever berth. More specifically, the Kraken are listening to offers for Shane Wright in the hopes that leveraging their center depth can help bolster the team’s thinner ranks on the wing. 

In the short term, the idea is logical. Matty Beniers and Chandler Stephenson are Seattle’s primary top-six pivots, with top prospect Berkly Catton also a potential option down the middle with further professional seasoning. 

Despite a down season (18 points in 51 games) and diminished enthusiasm around his potential, Wright still carries a great deal of value around the league. He’s a fourth-overall pick, only turned 22 a few weeks ago, plays a premium position, and tallied a respectable 44 points in 79 games only a season ago in his first full NHL campaign. If a formidable upgrade on the wing is what management desires, it shouldn’t be difficult to find a team in the midst of a rebuild or a retool who would jump at the opportunity to buy stock in a development project like Wright.

Therein lies the rub. Wright is exactly the type of player that the Kraken should be hoarding, not selling at a reduced cost. The team is nowhere near true Stanley Cup contention – The Athletic has given them a less than 1% chance of winning this season – and their best players are all approaching or already on the wrong side of 30. I’ve long argued against the Kraken going all-in with this core, and moving Wright for anything other than a player well under 30 would be a clear step in the wrong direction. 

Kraken Core Not Worth Giving Up on Wright

The basis of the Kraken’s apparent argument for trading Wright is that doing so would provide them with an upgrade, presumably older, elsewhere. That would mean pushing an under-23 player out of the room to get more competitive now and mortgage more of the future.

Jaden Schwartz, Jordan Eberle, Joey Daccord, Philipp Grubauer, Adam Larsson, Brandon Montour, Chandler Stephenson, Jared McCann, Vince Dunn, and Jamie Oleksiak are all 29 or older, with the vast majority over 31. That is a core structured to win now or in the next year or two, but not much longer after that. 

Instead of doubling down on an aging contingent of veterans whose ceiling is already demonstrably lower than what is necessary, a pivot towards selling off pending free agents or those with two years remaining on their current contracts could recoup a ton of assets, such as draft picks or downtrodden young players (like Wright), which could also be used to jumpstart a real retool. Success has been hard to come by in Seattle, so the allure of a rare playoff berth could be too tempting for Botterill and company to let slip by without reinforcements.

Wright’s Underlying Numbers Showing Improvement

Given Wright’s 19-goal, 44-point output in his first full season last year, his performance through the first half of the 2025-26 campaign is disappointing. At seven goals and 11 assists through 51 games, the Burlington, Ontario-native is producing at an 82-game pace of 11 goals and 18 assists, quite the drop-off from 2024-25. That’s despite earning virtually the same amount of average time on ice at five-on-five and across all situations. Wright has one additional year left on his contract beyond this one before he becomes a restricted free agent (RFA), and he’s done little to suggest more than a team-friendly bridge deal is in his future.

While it’s true that Wright’s boxscore numbers look terribly underwhelming on the surface, a look under the hood actually shows the young center’s shot- and chance-creation at five-on-five experiencing an uptick year-over-year.

Wright is producing shots, chances, and accumulating expected goals at a higher rate than last season, but the puck just isn’t going in for him or his linemates. The center’s individual shooting percentage (SH%) in all situations has cratered from 20.9% last season to 9.1%, while his on-ice mark (which accounts for any shots taken while he is on the ice) has dropped nearly 4% from 13.7% to 9.9% at present. 

If Wright were shooting at even 15% individually, he’d have an additional four or five goals to his name, with an extra eight or nine if he matched his finishing rate from last season. It’s important to note that last year’s SH% was unsustainable for anyone (even Connor McDavid), but Wright has been very unlucky not to have tacked on more points this season.

For what it’s worth, Wright ranks fourth among qualified Kraken forwards (100 minutes played) in expected goals per-60 at five-on-five and second in high-danger chances per-60. While his defensive numbers could use some work, he creates offense at a higher rate than most of his teammates and boasts the fourth-best on-ice share of expected goals and high-danger chances among the forwards. Considering the Kraken’s conservative offensive environment, that’s a feat in and of itself.

Wrong Time to Give Up on Wright’s Potential

It would be unwise to part with Wright even though his value has dropped due to his boxscore numbers this season, since his potential is being buoyed by improving underlying numbers. 

Since their inaugural season, the Kraken rank 26th in the NHL by points percentage (PTS%), hardly an indicator of sustained success. The organization’s eye should be on the back end of the 2020s and the early 2030s for contention. While trading Wright isn’t a franchise-altering move in and of itself, it would be a foreboding sign of the franchise’s intentions and priorities.

Data courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and the NHL.