Free agency began today!
…The Kraken really didn’t feel the need to rock the boat all that much.
While teams were handing out one to two year deals like candy in order to scrounge up a number of the league’s more interesting UFA signings, Ron Francis and company elected instead to take it slow and steady, starting the Free Agency period by signing John Hayden and Marian Studenic both to year long, $775k contracts.
They also shored up their blueline depth with Jimmy Schuldt, a journeyman defender to a one way, $775k deal.
Given their term, its likely they’ll be playing with Coachella Valley most of the year and show up primarily in relief if the Kraken become Very Injured. I’m sure they’ll do the Valley proud!
The big(ish) signing, was the pickup of defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who was signed for two years and $3.15 million AAV.
Dumoulin has been playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins for about 9 years now, and from what I can gather from the metrics has been the very model of an acceptable depth defender. I imagine that Dumoulin will be taking up Carson Soucy’s spot now that the traitorous dog has taken up residence in Vancouver.
Of course…there still is one rumor that persists; regarding another certain defenseman, but so far, that hasn’t panned out yet.
We’ll see if anything comes out of it tonight, but it seems that for right now the Kraken have started the free agency period in an patient, unsexy way.
Of course, this is just day one. Let’s see how things continue.
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