Seattle Kraken Have Flexibility Ahead Of 2026 NHL Trade Deadline

Don’t look now, but the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline is only a few days away (Mar. 6), and every team in the league has now played at least 59 games this season, meaning that there is about a quarter of the regular season remaining before the start of the playoffs.

The Seattle Kraken are one of several teams that need to decide if they will be aggressive buyers, sellers, or stand pat at the deadline. They currently occupy a playoff spot and are one of eight teams in the Western Conference with between 62 and 70 points, which speaks to the parity found outside of the three-headed monster in the Central Division (Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and the Minnesota Wild are the only ones with more than 80 points).

The Kraken also have five players set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer: captain Jordan Eberle, alternate captain Jaden Schwartz, Eeli Tolvanen, Jamie Oleksiak, and Matt Murray. The decisions made on these players could have significant ramifications on the team’s chances of making the playoffs this season for the second time in franchise history and beyond.

Can the Kraken thread the needle between keeping the team in the hunt for the postseason while building on the budding youth movement? Let’s dive in.

Kraken On Border of Western Conference Playoff Race

Given that Seattle ranks outside the league’s top 10 by points percentage (PTS%), it’s clear the team should not be considered a contender for the Stanley Cup this season. What is less clear is which of the lower tiers the team falls into when it comes to the Western Conference playoff race.

Seattle currently holds the second wildcard spot in the West with 67 points in 60 games, three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the division lead, and one game in hand. They have multi-point leads on both the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks in the wildcard race, but the playoff field remains uncertain.

Given their place in the standings with six weeks to go in the season, prognosticators are generally bullish on Seattle’s playoff chances. The stats gurus at The Athletic give the Kraken around a 30% chance of qualifying for the playoffs, while the folks over at MoneyPuck and HockeyReference are much more forgiving at over 70% each. The discrepancy lies in how The Athletic’s model generates its probabilities, giving much greater weight to last season’s results until later in the season. It’s difficult to find the balance between sometimes lagging indicators of past performance and the temptation of recency bias, so settling down somewhere in the middle represents a fair compromise.

For what it’s worth, Tankathon’s strength-of-schedule metric paints a favorable picture of Seattle’s remaining schedule, which ranks in the bottom half of the league by opponent difficulty. It also helps that the Kraken have built up some recent momentum, winning seven of their last 10 games and 13 of their last 23, while the Kings (only won eight of their last 22) and Oilers (10 of 21) have stumbled since the start of 2026.

The Kraken’s performances in recent seasons mean people are wary of their chances, but the odds are gradually aligning in their favor. Clinching the second-ever postseason berth in franchise history should be the goal, but without sabotaging or mortgaging the future by trading a ton of assets for non-elite talents and handing costly extensions to past-their-prime players. 

Kraken Veterans In Need of New Contracts

Eberle, Schwartz, Murray, and Oleksiak are all over the age of 30 and are set to become unrestricted free agents (UFAs) on July 1.

Progressive front offices generally don’t extend older players to hefty extensions. Still, the Kraken have made questionable decisions in this department and in free agency, making it difficult to identify the team’s true direction.

Of the four, Eberle is the only one I would keep as the team’s captain, despite him also holding the most value with 22 goals and 41 points in 58 games this season. His leadership qualities are doubly important when it comes to impressionable prospects making the jump to the big leagues. Eberle also has nine seasons with 70 or more games played (on pace for a 10th), while Schwartz can only count six and has played in only 40 games this year.

As a day one member of the Kraken who is also fifth in career points in the franchise’s short history and an alternate captain, it would be bittersweet to part with Schwartz. Is a pick or two worth the trade-off of losing his locker room presence, especially as the team is gearing up for the playoffs? These are the decisions the best front offices make without emotion or sentimentality, and Jason Botterill and Ron Francis will have to make as well.

Oleksiak is a hulking 6-foot-7, 252-pound defender, but he’s aging (33) and is facing role duplication from the younger (28) blueliner in Ryan Lindgren. Executives always salivate over big, penalty-killing defensemen at the trade deadline, so it’s possible the Kraken can ignite a bidding war for the Canadian behemoth.

Murray has only appeared in five NHL games this season and was tabbed for a tertiary role from the beginning, acting as a safeguard for Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer. His injury history likely means teams will look elsewhere for insurance in net.

If any of the aforementioned players are offered a new contract, the term and salary should be dictated by how the Kraken are prepared to operate in the summer of 2027, when Vince Dunn, Ryker Evans, Shane Wright (though he’s been in trade rumors), and Jared McCann will all need new deals. The salary cap is rising, but earmarking significant financial capital for aging players is a disaster-in-waiting in the cap era.

Kraken Can Be Smart Buyers

As a result of trading Oliver Bjorkstrand, Mason Marchment, and Brandon Tanev over the past year, the Kraken have eight picks (four first and four seconds) over the first two rounds of the 2026 and 2027 NHL Drafts. That represents a formidable war chest of future capital before any other potential trades this week and, coupled with a strong prospect pool, gives Seattle flexibility in trade talks.

While there isn’t any single trade that would immediately make the Kraken Cup contenders this season, that doesn’t mean the groundwork can’t be laid for a transformative summer.

While such a massive deal would have to wait until the offseason, targeting American winger Jason Robertson (he’s a restricted free agent this summer) of the Dallas Stars would be the biggest possible swing for the Kraken front office. He’s in his prime (he turns 27 in July), scores a ton (11th in both goals and points among all skaters since 2021-22), and would be the kind of star the team has lacked in its brief existence.

Dangling the likes of Wright, which I’m against unless it’s for someone like Robertson, could be what pushes the trade over the line, and it could come without sacrificing other burgeoning talents already in the fold like Berkly Catton or Jake O’Brien. The likes of Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Elias Pettersson could also be moves that would see prime-age players enter the fray without detonating the farm. The question is whether the historically hesitant front office would take such a risk.

Kraken Can Have Best of Both Worlds at 2026 Trade Deadline

While the Kraken should not see themselves as contenders this season, the organization can take significant steps towards competing in 2026-27 and beyond.

The front office can begin selling off aging and expiring assets this season (Eberle, Schwartz, Olesksiak) while also using their cache of picks and prospects to augment the current crop of players with prime-age talents who can be significant contributors for the next half-decade.

Engaging the fanbase and rewarding the current team with reinforcements to secure a playoff appearance this season can be balanced with building a Stanley Cup contender for the 2029-30 campaign. The front office has its work cut out, but that doesn’t mean improvement on both fronts is impossible.

Data courtesy of the NHL.