The Seattle Kraken made their first notable move of the 2025 NHL offseason on Thursday evening. Seattle sent two draft picks — a 2025 fourth-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick — to the Dallas Stars. In exchange, they receive gritty top-six forward Mason Marchment.
Marchment had been bandied about in trade rumors for a while. The Stars had a bit of a cap crunch, entering the offseason with less than $5 million in available space. This crunch became even more pronounced when they signed Matt Duchene to a four-year contract extension.
The Stars moved Marchment’s entire cap hit in this trade with the Kraken. And Seattle is happy to have someone of his caliber on their team. General manager Jason Botterill released a statement once the news of this trade broke on Thursday night.
“Mason adds an important skillset to our roster. He’s a veteran player who brings a combination of size, skill and toughness. Mason knows what it takes to win, having been part of deep postseason runs with the Stars. We’re excited to have him join our group,” Botterill said, via The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta.
Mason Marchment Checks Boxes For Kraken
Minas Panagiotakis/Getty ImagesMason Marchment joins the Seattle Kraken after spending three seasons with the Dallas Stars.
Botterill took over as general manager at the end of the 2024-25 season. And he immediately laid out his vision for his team in his first meeting with the media. He told the media he was looking to add strength to this roster, making a key distinction between this and size.
“If you look at the areas for improvement, I’m not going to say ‘size’ I’m just going to say ‘strength’,” Botterill said back in April, via the Kraken’s official website. “We have to find ways of doing a better job in front of our own net and find a way to do a better job of getting to the opposition net.
“And when I say ‘strength’ it’s because a (5-foot-10) player like Jaden Schwartz finds a way to get there and be one of our top players with a net front presence.”
Marchment fills this need while also bringing size to the table. He has scored 44 goals in the last two seasons, with 22 goals coming in 2024-25. He scored these goals while playing in only 62 games during the regular season.
Playoff Experience With Stars is a Plus
Botterill hit on another facet of this decision. Marchment has made three straight Western Conference Finals with the Stars. All of these came in losing efforts, to be fair. Dallas lost in 2023 to the Vegas Golden Knights, and fell to the Edmonton Oilers in 2024 and 2025.
Still, this experience is important to Seattle. “He’s been in three conference finals in a row,” Botterill said, via the Kraken’s official website. “He knows the intensity of playoff hockey.”
Seattle’s only playoff appearance ended at the hands of the Stars, ironically. Marchment did not skate for Dallas in that second-round series. In any event, the Kraken want to return to the playoffs sooner rather than later. Adding Marchment is the first step toward achieving that goal.
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