Kraken Acquire Mackie Samoskevich

The Kraken have acquired winger Mackie Samoskevich from the Panthers. Seattle is sending the 25th overall pick in this year’s draft plus a conditional second-rounder in 2027 the other way.

Both Seattle and Florida have confirmed the deal. The conditions on the 2027 second round pick are simple; Florida will obtain whichever selection, originally owned by Winnipeg or Columbus, ends up higher.

Samoskevich has been a target of Seattle GM Jason Botterill‘s for months. The Kraken made a push to acquire him from Florida at the trade deadline with the Cats out of the playoff picture, but they weren’t able to get a deal done in time. Now, with Florida set to bring in a blue-chip prospect with this year’s ninth overall pick and Samoskevich needing a new contract this summer as a restricted free agent, the Panthers have decided they’re more amenable now to moving on.

Chosen by the Panthers 24th overall in 2021, the 23-year-old was unable to advance into a top-six role, but still provided scoring depth with 15 and 12 goals over the past two seasons respectively. In a season where injuries ravaged their forward group, the door was wide open for Samoskevich to take on more and solidify himself into the team’s plans, but it didn’t happen. A slight uptick in his ice time, up to 14:28, did not yield any more offensive production, coming away with a stat line effectively the same. Samoskevich’s shooting percentage regressed to 7.5%, with strings of bad luck at times. He was well-sheltered in 2024-25 with just shy of 60% of his shifts at five-on-five starting on the attack, a number which dipped to 52.1% this past season, facing more of a challenge.

With Florida GM Bill Zito punting on one of very few young players with any meaningful upside in their organization, it raises questions on what comes next. Taking back 25th overall, the exact range where they were able to find the talented youngster, the Panthers could benefit from a selection to supplement what is widely regarded as one of the most barren prospect cupboards in the league, natural considering their multiple Stanley Cups in previous years. On the other hand, they’ve already been linked to Dylan Larkin as well as Connor Hellebuyck, and they just added two more trade chips to try and make a splash to jump right back into contention. The lost 2025-26 season already gave them 9th overall in this Friday’s draft, and suddenly the Panthers are the eighth club to have multiple first rounders on hand.

With Samoskevich off the board, they now have no notable restricted free agents to deal with, leaving just over $15.2MM, plenty to figure out their goaltending situation and replace Samoskevich’s role with a cost-effective veteran.

As for Seattle, a 25th overall pick which was originally acquired last spring from Tampa Bay as part of the Yanni Gourde/Oliver Bjorkstrand deal hardly had as much of a use to them. Known as sorely needing more firepower this summer, Samoskevich’s 32 points last season didn’t jump off the page, but he’ll still be just 23 debuting for the Kraken next fall. Before that can happen they’ll have to agree on a new contract, but a two-year bridge deal around $3MM per season is extremely doable. The Connecticut native was college teammates with Matty Beniers at Michigan, now coming in as a nice young piece who already has a Stanley Cup, experience massive for any young player to get to soak up from the background.

Likely to receive a top-six role pretty much immediately, the elite-skating righty with an excellent release should have more room to roam free and unlock more offense. Having to take a back seat behind the Panthers’ elite veterans allowed Samoskevich to form a nice two-way game in the middle six, but Seattle is banking on him to be much more than that, based on what they surrendered today. While today’s trade return was a steep price, he has every ability to break out next season to surpass the 20-goal-mark and become a true top six threat for years to come, on a team which flat out just needs more excitement up front.

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta was the first to break the deal, while Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman provided the exact details. 

Pro Hockey Rumors’ Bradley Keith contributed significantly to this article.