Shane Wright reveals top team he'd prefer a trade to and it's completely unexpected

Elliotte Friedman confirmed Wright and the Kraken agree a fresh start suits both sides. Ben Kuzma of The Province then reported Vancouver is the young centre's preferred landing spot, drawn by where the rebuild is headed.

Wright went 12-15-27 in 74 games last season while averaging 13:48 a night, well short of the offence expected from a fourth overall pick.

Coverage has landed in the same place since: cheap centre, rebuilding club, real opportunity, a clean win-win. Almost nobody has named the executive now sitting across the table in Seattle.

Seattle's assistant GM is Patrik Allvin, hired in June after four years running Vancouver. He drafted Tom Willander and acquired Zeev Buium in the Quinn Hughes trade with Minnesota.

So when the Kraken asked the Canucks for Willander or Buium, that was not a random over-ask. It was Allvin pricing prospects he knows better than GM Ryan Johnson does.

The return that trade brought back - Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a first - is the same pool Seattle keeps circling.

Wright carries an $886,666 cap hit and no trade protection until he becomes an RFA in 2027. Publicly preferring one club narrows his market and hands leverage to the side selling him.

That side happens to employ the executive who assembled Vancouver's asset base and knows precisely which pieces to demand.

Johnson is negotiating against his own recent history.

Every extra suitor Wright scares off makes Allvin's read of that cupboard more valuable, not less.

The fit for Wright is real. The quiet edge in this deal belongs to Seattle, and almost no one is saying so.

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