PHILADELPHIA — Brandon Tanev’s tenure with the Kraken ended Friday after the winger was traded to his former team, the Winnipeg Jets, for a second-round draft pick in 2027.
Tanev, a pending unrestricted free agent, was held out of Thursday night’s 5-3 road loss to the Nashville Predators, the telltale sign a deal was in the works. The team confirmed the details Friday, first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger.
Tanev’s last Kraken appearance was at home, on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild. That was also the last Seattle game for Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand, who both were traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday. Gourde, too, returned to his former team.
Seattle acquired a 2027 first-round pick, which is top-10 protected, in the Gourde/Bjorkstrand trade. As it stands, that distant draft weekend will be a busy one. The team could also flip some of its newly acquired draft capital and use it to acquire established NHL talent this summer, a notion general manager Ron Francis referenced in his post-deadline press conference.
In 238 games with the Kraken, top penalty killer Tanev compiled 41 goals and 42 assists. Nine goals and eight helpers, respectively, came in 60 games this season. He scored four goals during a three-game stretch in November.
“Brandon is an energetic, speedy, and forward-playing player, and that’s what he brings each and every night,” coach Dan Bylsma said after Thursday’s loss. “And when he’s not there, you’ll miss it. But I thought we saw some of that from Mikey (Eyssimont) and the fourth line.”
Tanev’s six-year, $21 million contract he signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019 expires this summer.
Just before the 3 p.m. deadline passed, the Kraken agreed to deal forward Daniel Sprong to the New Jersey Devils for a 2026 seventh-round pick.
They picked him up Nov. 8 for free, so the pick in the draft’s final round is a bonus. Sprong’s second stint in Seattle was quick and strange, another brief stop on a winding career path. A month into his first season in Vancouver, the Canucks sent him south for future considerations, back to a Seattle team where he set several career highs in 2022-23 before departing in free agency.
After just 10 appearances, a goal, an assist, and many healthy scratches, an unimpressed Sprong was waived and assigned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
“At the end of the day, I want to make it clear I’m an NHL player,” Sprong, 27, said after his three-point Firebirds debut on Jan. 11. He totaled 11 goals and 25 points in just 19 games with Coachella Valley. Then the Kraken set him free.
A wild, seller-friendly 2025 trade deadline passed with the likes of recent Carolina acquisition Mikko Rantanen (Dallas) and Boston captain Brad Marchand (Florida) winding up in cities few, if any, expected. The Kraken’s moves were relatively tame. They got something in return for both big-name pending UFAs in Gourde and Tanev, freed up cap space by offloading Bjorkstrand’s $5.4M annual contract and gave Sprong an opportunity somewhere else. They picked up two first-rounders, two-second rounders and more, plus forward Eyssimont, who scored in his Kraken debut Thursday.
This story will be updated.