The Seattle Kraken spent development camp trying to do more than polish prospects on the ice. They were also making a pitch for the future of the franchise - and for the city itself.
With several big-name players recently turning down lucrative offers from Seattle, the team has placed extra weight on this week’s camp at Kraken Community Iceplex. General manager Jason Botterill said the idea is to help prospects get comfortable with the organization, the building and the region.
“That’s a big part of our development camp,” Botterill pointed out. “There’s an on-ice element to it, that you’re trying to help the kids. More importantly, that our prospects get familiar being in this building, being in Seattle, being in the Pacific Northwest.
“When they come to Seattle, not just seeing the hockey rink. We took them all out to Ballard for dinner. They’re all going to U-Dub to be around their facilities.”
The hope is that those first impressions linger. If Seattle can build real connections with young players now, it could pay off later when it’s time for second and third contracts, instead of forcing the club to chase outside stars down the road.
Botterill pointed to Bobby McMann as proof the approach can work. McMann arrived from Toronto at the March trade deadline without a say in the move, but he quickly responded to the environment around him - the staff, the locker room, the facilities and the opportunity. He scored 10 goals in 18 games after taking on a bigger role.
That stretch mattered. McMann, who would have had plenty of free-agent interest, signed a six year, $34.5 million contract on June 21.
For Botterill, the difference came from McMann seeing more of Seattle than the usual quick winter visit opposing players get.
“He was able to enjoy the Pacific Northwest after the season. Golf, South Lake Union, going around different parts of the city. That’s a big part of making sure that message gets out to other people in the National Hockey League.”
The roster-building strategy has also shifted because of the league’s financial landscape. With the salary cap rising by $8.5 million to a record $104 million, more teams are able to keep their own players, and that has changed the shape of the market.
Botterill said that meant several players who might have been part of the 2026 free agent class never reached that point. “With the escalating (salary) cap,” Botterill explained, “more teams have an opportunity to sign their own players.”
That left the Kraken with a free-agent pool that Botterill didn’t view as worth a major swing. “It was never going to be a focus on day one of free agency.”
He also said the team had to be careful not to clog the path for younger players by bringing in veterans who would “stunt the growth” of the group already in the system. “This is our new landscape, the importance of internal development.”
That philosophy fits with the three year, $11.5 million deal for Mackie Samoskevich, the newest trade arrival. Botterill said the 23-year-old’s game lines up cleanly with the club’s young core.
“That speed, shot-first mentality, fits in with our 23-and-under group really well. With the extra ice time he can get with our group, we think his numbers are going to really take off.”
Even with that youth movement taking center stage, Botterill said Seattle isn’t done looking for ways to improve. Trades remain on the table.
“Trades are where you’re going to improve your team. We’ll keep looking at different opportunities.”
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Ron Francis is back in Pittsburgh in a front-office role, and the move has nudged open an old Seattle conversation along with it. Hired June 19 as a senior advisor to Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, Francis has already been involved in draft decisions and development camp, while also looking back on the work he did building the Kraken from the ground up after leaving Carolina for the expansion project.
For Seattle, Francis remains tied to the franchises earliest identity: the arena, the locker room, the practice facility and even the Palm Springs minor-league rink all came together under his watch. The broader record of that launch still hangs over the organization, too, with the teams early rise, lone playoff trip and subsequent misses serving as a reminder of how quickly an expansion story can turn from promising to unfinished. [Read more 🡒]
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Beyond the scoring, the more encouraging takeaway for Seattle was the list of prospects who kept popping up in the right places. Hawke Huff, Clarke Caswell, Ollie Josephson, Nathan Villeneuve and defenseman Rylan Singh all drew notice for strong showings, which is often the real point of a development camp finale anyway. The scrimmage also offered an early look at some of the organizations most intriguing young talent sharing the ice, a reminder that the Krakens prospect pipeline is starting to give fans a few names to track closely. [Read more 🡒]