The NHL’s free agency season begins in just a few weeks, but the wheeling and dealing between teams has already begun. Look no further than the Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals doing a swap with Pierre-Luc Dubois heading to the American capital and goalie Darcy Kuemper being sent to the City of Angels. On Wednesday it was revealed that the Ottawa Senators have engaged the Seattle Kraken in talks about Brandon Tanev. What might such a trade entail?
Tanev’s Time in Seattle
Tanev has been with the Kraken since the club’s inaugural 2021-22 season, acquired during the expansion draft in July 2021. He’s never been a top liner, logging on average 13:46 of ice time throughout his career. Even so, he’s helped no fewer than three franchises reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He did so twice with the Winnipeg Jets, then twice again with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and for the 2022-23 Kraken that went to the second round of the playoffs.
His most productive campaign was that same 2022-23, when he partook in all 82 of the club’s regular season dates, tallying 35 points in the process via 16 goals and 19 helpers. Unfortunately, 2023-24 was marred by injuries, especially during the first few months, thus his participation in only 66 contests.
The timing of a deal with the Senators makes sense. He’s 32 years old, was banged up for a chunk of the season, and has one year left on his current deal paying him $3.5 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent (UFA) in July 2025. Could the Kraken keep him around as they slowly insert various Coachella Valley Firebirds prospects into the lineup? Absolutely. Could they attempt to save some cap space by dealing a player that is solid but probably not part of their long-term future? Yes to that as well.
Tanev for Who?
Naturally with the league calendar set to begin soon, any discussions, debates, and rumors about trades will gravitate towards the notion of cap space. This is when franchise bookkeepers have the clearest picture of how much money they actually have in their coffers.
As specified, Tanev comes with a $3.5 million price tag for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign, and the Kraken have $23.4 million of projected cap space (without any of their looming free agents signed).
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The Senators run a much tighter ship. Their pending cap room has been established at $12.4 million. As one would imagine, Ottawa won’t want to simply deal away a draft pick or a player on an entry-level deal. If they are willing to pick up Tanev for $3.5 million with $12.4 million of cap space available, they’ll want to offload somebody costly in the process. To that point, the same report mentioning that the Senators are talking with the Kraken about Tanev indicates that the Ontario-based franchise is shopping Mathieu Joseph around.
Pros and Cons of Trading for Joseph
This carrot would and should strike general manager Ron Francis’ interest. There are several reasons why. First, Joseph is cut from a similar cloth as Tanev. He’s a solid player who can contribute on one of the lower lines but isn’t anyone’s definition of an unmissable ingredient for a championship run. Stick in him there, see what happens, and odds are the results will be mostly satisfactory, if not unspectacular. The reality is all teams need a Mathieu Joseph. Third are fourth lines are rarely the talk of the town, but they have their role and serve their purpose.
Two other elements make this an alluring proposition. At 27, Joseph is much younger than Tanev. Should he fit in and be a moderately consistent contributor, the Kraken can get a lot of mileage out of the Laval native. It’s less clear if the same can be said of Tanev. Not impossible, just not as clear. Even their numbers when they play most of a regular season are similar. Joseph has had a 25-point season (2018-19), a 35-point season (2023-24), and a trio during which he flirted with 20 (19 in 2020-21, 18 in 2021-22, and 18 in 2022-23). Tanev, who has been around for two more years, has had a 29-point campaign (2018-19), a 25-point campaign (2019-20), the aforementioned 35-point season, and an 18-point tally in 2017-18.
To make the accountants at Climate Pledge Arena happy, Joseph has two years left on a deal that pays him $2.95 million. He’s younger than Tanev, puts up eerily similar numbers, is a good third or fourth-liner, and costs less.
Does this mean the trade is a shoo-in? No. It’s nice that he would cost about $550,000 less than an older player, but does Seattle want to replace a red apple with a green apple? It’s still an apple. Maybe the Kraken want draft picks. They have a ton to work with this summer (five in the first three rounds). To put the idea further into context, the team also took a step backward this season and is about to be led by a head coach – Dan Bylsma – who knows a thing or two about player development since he’s the one who coached the Firebirds to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals.
Unless one is trading for Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, or Igor Shesterkin, there are going to be pros and cons to any potential deal. Upon reflection, a Joseph-for-Tanev swap does make sense for the Kraken. It allows them to plug in a similar player as the one who is walking out the door but at a lower cost and with less mileage.
