3 Potential Trade Destinations For Kraken's Jamie Oleksiak

The Seattle Kraken will hope to improve off of last season where they missed the playoffs again. The team will likely look to make moves, but also keep some of their RFAs around as they will help this team right now and in the future. Even with $20 million in projected cap space, the Kraken could look to free themselves of a few contracts, Jamie Oleksiak in particular from the defense.

He has one year left on his contract and the Kraken would be just fine with Vince Dunn, Ryker Evans, and Josh Mahura down the left side. Freeing up a spot on the back-end will also open space for the team to bring in someone else, whether that be through a trade or free agency. Oleksiak has a cap hit of $4.6 million and a 16-team no trade clause. Here are three teams the Kraken could trade the veteran to.

Los Angeles Kings

There is a chance that the LA Kings will lose Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency if they haven't signed him to a contract yet. That means there will be a hole on the left side that must be filled. There aren't too many targets in free agency unless they can manage to bring in Ivan Provorov. A safer route, albeit a lesser upgrade, would be Oleksiak. He probably won't cost too much and can play second line minutes. This would allow the Kings to have Mikey Anderson, Oleksiak, Joel Edmundson, and Jacob Moverare as their left side depth, which isn't terrible.

Winnipeg Jets

While the Winnipeg Jets have more work to do to their forward group based on how many players are signed, the defense could use some work. Ville Heinola should be traded at this point since it doesn't seem like he's going to get a fair shot in Winnipeg. One of Logan Stanley or Colin Miller should slide to the seventh defenseman and the other moved. Both have one year left on their deals. With Josh Morrissey and Dylan Samberg as the top-4 LD, Oleksiak could be a strong third pairing option. The Jets have plenty of cap space to utilize to upgrade their group.

Florida Panthers

As the Florida Panthers have done the last few seasons, they have managed to bring in players for cheaper and see them make an impact. Nate Schmidt will likely head to free agency after this playoff run. There won't be a ton of cap space for the Panthers to keep at least two of Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad, but with some cap retention, Florida could absolutely bring in Oleksiak. It won't be the exact same team as they have right now, but Bill Zito will continue to do whatever it takes to get better.