The Seattle Kraken restricted free agent centre Ryan Donato signs a one-year contract worth $ 1.2 million. This contract carries him through the 2022-23 season.
RETURN OF THE DON!
We’ve re-signed @DonatoRyan to a one-year deal with a 1.2M AAV → https://t.co/FypNUE6Kzg pic.twitter.com/pKOBD6wUVT
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) July 27, 2022
RFA Ryan Donato Signs Contract
Over his five-year NHL career, Donato played for the Kraken, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild, and Boston Bruins to date. The Bruins drafted him back in 2014 with their second-round, 56th overall selection. In total, Donato amassed 51 goals and 57 assists for 108 points through 254 career games. Those totals appear modest, but they continue trending up pace-wise year after year. His best year came just this past campaign in 2021-22. He posted 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points in 74 games last season.
Those 74 games played also represent a new high-water mark for a single year in the NHL. Similar to every other season in his career, Donato posted strong Corsi numbers, demonstrating his solid two-way game. He carried a 54.4% Corsi-for, or -4.7% Relative Corsi-for, impressive considering how low in the standings his team finished. Donato also racked up a career-high 70 hits and 39 takeaways.
What This Means for the Future
Well, the Kraken need to do more than retain players from last season if they expect to improve. The team looks drastically different already too, after shedding most of their veterans at the trade deadline last season. As a result, Seattle carried nearly $23 million in cap space into this summer. That comes before adding the $3.5 million in space they receive with Chris Driedger moving to injured reserve after a recent injury in the IIHF tournament. (Actually, that perfectly offsets the $3.5 million that rejoins the roster with Brandon Tanev returning to good health.)
And now, even with Donato signed, the majority of that cap space remains. Seattle possesses plenty of flexibility to go out and spend on a UFA should they choose to, with plenty of big names available. They also collected a boat load of draft picks, and Ron Francis already hinted that he may elect to flip those for other assets. After all, if Seattle holds on to all their picks, they’ll end up selecting 34 players in just the next three drafts (2022, 2023, and 2024, namely). That’s more than a lot, considering that the average for three drafts would be 21 selections.
So, maybe this summer is the one where the Kraken “weaponizes” that cap space, like Francis said he would back during the expansion draft a year ago. More money will undoubtedly wind up with other RFA’s too, as Donato was one of ten in the Kraken’s system (and one of six on last year’s active roster). But none of those RFA’s project to earn huge paydays. Fans still won’t expect this team to spend to the salary cap, nor should they. This is a budding franchise with some promising young talent, but with eyes set firmly on the next few drafts to add to that prospect pool. Success today, while not a bad thing, doesn’t help them draft well. Should Seattle take a surprising leap forward this year, somehow, Francis would have some interesting decisions to make at the trade deadline.
The Seattle Kraken have re-signed forward Ryan Donato to a one-year contract worth $1.2 million, the team announced on Wednesday. #FOX13 https://t.co/Pg9tmACZLN
— FOX 13 Seattle (@fox13seattle) July 27, 2022
