GLENDALE, Ariz. — It was just Friday that defenseman Jeremy Lauzon was trotted out solo for the Kraken's first public autograph-signing session.
A line of fans at the Kraken Community Iceplex eagerly engaged in this rare connection with a player, which COVID-19 pandemic protocols had prevented. Alas, barely 48 hours after the event, Lauzon was an ex-Kraken player, traded to the Nashville Predators for a second-round draft pick.
Lauzon's here-today, gone-tomorrow vanishing act was just the latest instance of poor timing to befall an expansion team that has struggled with first impressions. It also shows how fanning on an initial shot at on-ice respectability can have greater implications for an expansion team than a typical middling franchise in an established market.
Sure, players get moved when teams struggle. But for the expansion Kraken, still striving for an identity in this market, moving players around like widgets leaves new fans even less to identify with.
That's why the pressure is squarely on general manager Ron Francis to get things done this summer and pivot the Kraken in a better direction. Francis came up largely empty on both talent and "draft capital" by failing to execute more than a handful of side deals at last summer's expansion draft.
Now he has that draft capital in 10 additional picks acquired through a half-dozen deals made before Monday's NHL trade deadline. He can use some of those picks to make trades this summer for additional NHL-seasoned talent the Kraken badly need.
It's a job Francis must get done for a last-place team producing nowhere near the win-loss results he'd expected. He needs to show fans grappling for reasons to watch that next season won't be more of the same.
Moments after Lauzon was traded Sunday, the Kraken shipped young forward Mason Appleton back to Winnipeg for a less-impressive fourth-round pick. Not long after, I was emailed by Kraken fan Larry Lestelle, who had gone to the previous night's home game against Detroit with his adult son.
"Insane what the Kraken are doing," Lestelle wrote. "This is not the way to build a fan base. I was at the game on Sat night with my son. My son was wearing an Appleton jersey, now this. Forget it."
When I sought and received permission to quote him, Lestelle added that his son "was super excited to get the team. He bought season tickets, got the jersey with gift money, and he was very disappointed with the fire sale."
Now, sure, players get traded all the time and jerseys become outdated. It's easy to chastise fans who don't pay close attention to trade deadlines and get burned when a mediocre player is shipped off.
But it got me thinking: Which player jerseys are Kraken fans supposed to buy? I mean, yeah, in most markets the guy with the "C" is safe, knowing the captain usually isn't going anywhere.
Except, the Kraken did trade 38-year-old captain Mark Giordano. In highly unusual and unprecedented fashion, they named a captain they knew would be shipped out months later if they fell from playoff contention. So, no, his jersey wasn't safe.
On the other end of the age scale, you've got Lauzon, the type of young blue-liner teams usually keep. Lauzon, 24, was the team's youngest everyday player and displayed natural aggressiveness that kept him in the lineup despite some untimely giveaways and penalties. The Kraken seemed more than willing to be patient with Lauzon's young shortcomings, giving him ample playing time all season at the expense of other defensemen.
But then, he was gone. In fairness, Francis said the Lauzon deal came as a late surprise for the relatively high price of the second-rounder. It's not as if he plotted this for weeks to spring on his marketing department.
Still, the result is the same when it comes to finding players for fans to connect with. I mean, the reason the Kraken had Lauzon signing autographs was because they desperately want a deeper connection with the city's sports community.
Appleton was another whose performance was lacking at times but, still in his mid-20s, appeared to be somebody for whom the team might show patience. He'd recently formed part of a line with Yanni Gourde and Colin Blackwell that became the team's most productive in recent weeks. We've been told the Kraken, despite all the losing, were importantly forging a hardworking culture that Appleton and Blackwell were certainly contributing to of late. Now they're gone as well.
Granted, Blackwell is a pending unrestricted free agent and could have been lost for nothing. Still, at age 28 he looked like another guy the Kraken might have thought about keeping. Instead, they used him to sweeten the Giordano trade.
None of these moves was necessarily wrong. Looking at them from thousands of miles away, most NHL pundits would agree Francis had no choice. But that doesn't solve the first-year franchise's issue of what to tell paying fans sitting in the stands just feet from these players at Climate Pledge Arena.
Soon after Sunday's deals, a Kraken season-ticket holder emailed saying: "While I guess I understand the reasoning behind trading players with expiring contracts — it appears that the Kraken are soon not going to have but a handful of NHL-caliber players to put into a lineup. As a season ticket holder it is quite disappointing to see them send players away and not get comparable talent in return — draft choices don't score any goals! I have been very patient due to their competitiveness — even if hasn't resulted in wins/points — however I am not happy about paying top dollar to see an AHL team."
No, draft picks alone do not score. And it can take years for players drafted with second-round-or-lower picks to register at the NHL level. The Kraken didn't land any first-round selections with these trades. So Francis, as indicated, will instead use some of his draft capital as added enticements in summer-trade packages for players much closer to the desired talent level.
The Kraken now say they've identified their "core" through players such as Gourde, Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Brandon Tanev, Jamie Oleksiak, Adam Larsson and others. If the Kraken improve, fans will buy those player jerseys in droves next season, and a deeper connection will inevitably form, despite the year's delay.
But for that to work, the Kraken can't repeat this cycle a year from now. They must show significant progress.
That means Francis can't fan on too many more shots this summer. He rarely did as a Hall of Fame player. And now, when opportunities present themselves come June or July, Francis the GM will need to again start firing them home.
