Alright, squids had a good game against the Blackhawks, but now with Jaden Schwartz out long-term as per the team, as well as likely losing Andre Burakovsky for more significant time, even calling up a couple of Firebirds may not be enough.
Enter Ron Francis, armed with a mid-round pick.
The Kraken announced today that they have traded their 5th round selection in the 2024 draft to the Colorado Avalanche, for Slovakian forward Tomáš Tatar.
Colorado is the most recent stop on Tatar’s whirlwind tour of the NHL. He began his career as a member of the Detroit Red Wings back in 2010, then was very briefly a Vegas Golden Knight after their inaugural season, then Montreal, then New Jersey, then the Avs, and now Seattle. This dude must live out of a suitcase.
Tatar is the epitome of just useful depth most of the time. He drives play in the right direction, has a hell of a time finishing (HANG ON, FOLLOW ME THROUGH HERE), and creates a lot of good offense as a net-front presence, as your good friend and mine Allyson Ballard pointed out:
Frankly, while the Kraken are getting some good offense in lately, they really could use someone with his kind of dogged insistence of getting to the net as quick and as efficiently as possible to supplement their game, and Tatar fits the bill perfectly. He’s been a net-positive player just about everywhere he’s been as a result so…yeah, why not go for him?
The Kraken also recalled Shane Wright, assigned Tye Kartye and Marián Studenič back to Coachella, which seems a bit strange given how well Kartye’s done, but given that much of that was done in anticipation of this move for Tatar, I can’t help but think that more might be on the way.
But that’s tomorrow’s concern. Today, we welcome a new Slovak Kraken to the fold.
Either way, let’s all welcome Tomáš Tatar to Seattle!
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