The Dallas Stars cleared some much-needed cap space Thursday, sending Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken in a deal that helps both teams move forward with their summer plans.
Dallas gets back a third-round pick in 2026, plus they’re reunited with their own 2025 fourth-rounder that had been making its way around the league.
The move frees up $4.5 million for the Stars, who wasted no time putting that money to use by signing Matt Duchene earlier in the day.
But the Stars aren’t out of the woods yet when it comes to their salary cap crunch.
They’ve still only got about $5 million to work with, and they need to add 4-5 more forwards just to fill out their roster. That’s going to be really tough to manage.
There might be more moves coming. If the Stars can find takers for defensemen Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin without having to eat any salary, they’d have around $12 million to play with.
Even then, it’s looking like next year’s Stars team won’t be quite as strong as the group that made their playoff push this past season.
For Seattle, Marchment could be exactly what they need. He’s a consistent 20-goal scorer who isn’t afraid to throw his body around, racking up over 100 hits per season.
Those are two areas where the Kraken struggled last year. They only had five players hit the 100-hit mark, and just four guys managed to score 20 goals.
“Mason has a unique combination of size, skill and strength,” Kraken GM Jason Botterill said. “He works well down in the corners and around the net and that’s an element we want to continue to add to our group here.”
The only question is where exactly he’ll fit in Seattle’s lineup. The Kraken are already pretty loaded on the wings with Jaden Schwartz, Kaapo Kakko, Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, André Burakovsky and Eeli Tolvanen all expected back.
But having too many good players is the kind of problem most teams would love to have.