The Seattle Kraken announced a trade just a few hours before their game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night. Elliotte Friedman was the first to announce that Daniel Sprong would be making a return to Seattle in exchange for future considerations, and just moments later, the Vancouver Canucks confirmed this in a post on X (formerly Twitter.)
This move came as a surprise with the Kraken’s current cap space situation. They have $5.6M available with Vince Dunn on injured reserve, but he’s expected to make a comeback in the next three weeks, meaning this will likely be the first of a few trade announcements from the Kraken.
Sprong played 66 games for the Seattle Kraken during the 2022-23 season, scoring 46 points across those games. Following the team’s playoff run that season, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, where he played in 76 games with 43 points, ultimately signing a one-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks during free agency on July 20th.
During the pre-game press conference on Friday night, Francis said that they are expecting the visa process to take a few days in order to get Sprong to Seattle. He likely will not arrive until next weekend and will immediately start skating with the team and getting acquainted with Coach Dn Bylsma’s processes.
Francis also said that he’s looking forward to having Sprong on the power play unit and that he is capable of creating things on his own and scoring chances. Francis is hoping that this will bring a “little jolt” to the locker room and that it might help the team realize that this is another guy fighting for a spot on the roster and get everyone to pick their game up moving forward.
Sprong has a solid shot, and good production as a bottom-six forward. He is expected to slot into the bottom-six in Seattle as well. He is a consistent physical presence on the ice and will hopefully bring some much needed goal scoring to the Kraken after a not-so-stellar start to their season. The Kraken currently hold a 5-8-1 record and are entering their longest homestand for the 2024-25 season.
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