Daniel Sprong earns one last shot at the NHL, signs one year contract

The Seattle Kraken have signed 25 year old forward Daniel Sprong to a one year, two-way contract worth $750,000 at the NHL level and $325,000 at the AHL level.

Check it out:

The former Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks and Washington Capitals forward played 16 games with the Kraken last season, posting six goals. In total he has 46 goals and 70 points in 202 NHL games. 

While Sprong has yet to find lasting success in the NHL, he's been a "breakout candidate" for seemingly his entire career. He put up a stellar 32 goals and 65 points in 65 games during his first season of pro hockey with the Penguins' AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barr/Scranton Penguins back in 2017-18 and has been seen as a potential NHL star ever since. The only problem is... well... he can't score at the NHL level. Well, actually that's not true... he can score just fine, but he can't seem to do much else. Sprong has a very lopsided 46 NHL goales, but just 24 assists. He's a pure trigger man, without the capability of doing much else unfortunately.

Still, the Kraken could very much use a trigger man. They have some good playmakers in Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz, Jared McCann and Oliver Bjorkstrand on their roster, so it makes sense to grab a pure sniper like Sprong. Then there's top picks Matty Beniers and Shane Wright, certainly they could use a guy like Sprong on their wing. Think of him like a D List Phil Kessel and he's actually kind of an appealing addition.

As for the rest of the Kraken, they still have some work to do. While I see them improving on their pretty mediocre inaugural season, I don't seen them improving enough to be a real factor in the Stanley Cup Playoff race. Once guys like Beniers and Wright establish themselves as NHLers, once the defence gets an upgrade or two and once the team gets its goaltending figured out, they could be a threat. But honestly, that seems like a project that's at least a few years away from becoming a reality.