NHL's next big blockbuster trade could involve Shane Wright and five teams
Photo credit: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images
Seattle does not want draft picks for Shane Wright. It wants a top-six scorer, and that reframes his entire trade market.
David Pagnotta reported that GM Jason Botterill would rather package the 22-year-old in a larger deal for a top-tier forward than cash him in for a package of prospects and picks. The Kraken keep shopping him and evaluating every scenario.
That detail flips how this should be read. The instinct is to ask which club needs a young center, when the sharper question is which club owns a movable scorer Seattle covets.
The going rate was set three weeks ago
Wright is a right-shot center coming off 27 points in 74 games, down from 44 the year before, with his ice time sliding to 13:48 a night. His draft pedigree is real, but so is the recent comparable.
Simon Nemec, the No. 2 pick from Wright's own 2022 class, was moved this summer after his own down year. New Jersey got two protected first-rounders, a second, and a prospect, and still had to attach Maxim Tsyplakov to make it work.
That is what a disappointing top-five pick returns in this market right now. It is futures and an upside swing, not an established forward coming back the other way.
The leverage is thinner than it looks
Wright's most valuable asset is not the No. 4 label. It is one season of team control at an $886,666 cap hit before restricted free agency.
Notably, the public "agreed to move him" line came from Wright's agent, not from Botterill, who declined to comment. When the player's camp announces the exit, the buyers gain the leverage, not the seller.
Seattle can still find a fit. It just may have to choose between the scorer it wants and the price the market is really paying.
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