If you think a $50 million, seven year contract was going to be enough by itself to lure free agent defenseman Brandon Montour to Seattle – it wouldn’t have.
Make no mistake; big dollars and lengthy term were essential ingredients coaxing the Florida Panthers Stanley Cup-winner across the continent. “Term was important, me being 30,” Montour said on the Empty Netters podcast. “The contract’s nice and all, but I wanted to be somewhere that I felt wanted as a person and a player. That’s all you can ask for.”
Slow & Steady Won This Race
Seattle’s persistent pursuit, according to Montour, is what ultimately sealed the deal. Kraken general manager Ron Francis demonstrated the endurance of a long distance runner, maintaining contact with the pack until a late finishing kick. The chase of the top-pairing d-man was indeed a marathon, not a sprint. “We had meetings throughout the year,” Montour recalled. “What we wanted as a family, what teams wanted. Did we want to be on a rebuilding team? Did we still want to contend?
Montour, a 2014 Anaheim Ducks draft choice, played parts of his first three NHL seasons in SoCal until a 2019 trade to Buffalo. He genuinely considered returning to a Ducks team in the middle of a rebuild. “Anaheim was in the mix, the feeling of unfinished business. I miss that place.” As a visiting opponent, Montour hadn’t felt the same warm fuzzies for wintertime Seattle. “Whenever I played there it was gray and gloomy. I’m sitting in the hotel like, ‘I’m not getting out of this hotel to see anything.'”
Starting from behind, the Kraken would need to elbow their way through the pack of suitors. “Seattle was a team that was talked about kind of in the background from my agent for a while. I knew it was a loud building, but other than that, not much (knowledge of the franchise) on that front.”
With Cup Won, Montour Plots New Course
Once the Panthers had secured the Stanley Cup in June with a thrilling seventh-game victory over the Edmonton Oilers, Montour’s full attention turned to choosing his new destination. “I was fortunate to have a good amount of teams interested in me. At the same time, you kind of want one team to decide. Am I going out West? Am I going East? Each day, I had half a day to think about one team. What about this place? What about that place?”
Montour began to realize Francis wasn’t taking no for an answer. “They just kept staying in the conversation. A couple of days before we decided, I was just like, ‘We’ve got to seriously consider what this place is.’ I talked to management, talked to players. They’re a team that wants to find a way to win, so that intrigued me.”
Go West, Young Defenseman
Just after NHL free agency opened at 9 am Seattle time on July 1, Montour made it official: he was joining the Kraken. Later last month, the Montour family made its first brief visit to the Emerald City since Brandon signed. “Landing in Seattle, I knew where it was. But from Florida, I type in Seattle on my maps and I’m like, ‘I couldn’t have picked a further possible place to go.’ But obviously, the place is beautiful and summertime is incredible.”
Apparently on this trip, Montour did leave his hotel. Brandon was equally impressed with the franchise infrastructure. “Incredible facilities; it’s got everything you need.” Well, except for a Stanley Cup.
“It was cool to win a Stanley Cup in Florida for the very first time as an organization. I decided it would be cool to win a Stanley Cup for the Kraken organization for the first time as well. I’m expecting a big season for myself, and I think the team’s pretty damn good. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of damage we can do.”