Matty Beniers Defends Kraken's Reputation After Jason Robertson Trade Collapsed

Matty Beniers addressed the frustration inside the Kraken locker room over Jason Robertson's refusal to join Seattle, speaking with The Athletic's Mark Lazerus during the NHL's preseason player media tour in Las Vegas. The Kraken center did not dodge the topic, and in doing so gave the clearest public response yet from a Seattle player to a trade that never happened.

"Yeah, absolutely," Beniers said when asked if Robertson's decision stung. "There's a tough rep about Seattle because it's rainy, and maybe the city. But guys love it in Seattle, the guys that are there. When the sun's out, it's beautiful. There's so much nature; there are a lot of things to do."

He didn't stop there. "So yeah, it obviously doesn't feel good when you're on a team and you try to get someone else and they don't want to come," Beniers said. "But at the same time, if you don't want to be here, we don't want you, anyway."

The Kraken had put together an eight-year offer worth $15 million per season for Robertson, a restricted free agent this past June, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill said the Stars had a sign-and-trade arranged that would have sent Robertson to Seattle in exchange for the seventh overall pick. Robertson never held a formal veto over that trade. He simply would not put his name on the contract that made the deal work, and without his signature the whole arrangement collapsed. He also passed on a separate opportunity to join the St. Louis Blues, a report from Jeff Marek of The Daily Faceoff indicated on June 25.

Instead, Robertson filed for salary arbitration on July 5, one of 15 restricted free agents to do so that summer, before signing a one-year, $12 million contract with Dallas that sets him up for unrestricted free agency next summer.

Had Robertson accepted Seattle's offer, the $15 million annual salary would have made him the second-highest-paid player in the league at the time, trailing only Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov at $17 million. That order has since shifted. Anaheim's Leo Carlsson passed Kaprizov later in the summer after the Ducks matched a five-year, $90 million offer sheet he had signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, pushing his average annual value to $18 million.

A Second Snub

Robertson's decision was not the first time a marquee forward chose somewhere other than Seattle. Before the February trade deadline, the Kraken offered New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin a four-year extension worth more than $14 million per season as part of a proposed trade. Panarin, who carried a full no-movement clause, turned it down and instead signed a two-year, $22 million extension with the Los Angeles Kings.

Beniers made clear that he does not fault players for controlling their own destination, even as the pattern has followed his team into a second offseason. "It's up to them; it's their decision," he said. "Every team, you want guys that want to be there. You don't want to bring someone in that doesn't want to be there. It just won't work out."

Beniers is right that a player who doesn't want to be somewhere is unlikely to help a team win, and there's a version of this where the Kraken dodged a headache rather than missed out on a star. But two star forwards passing on Seattle in less than a year is not nothing, and no amount of talk about sunshine and hiking trails changes the fact that the front office now has to find another way to land the kind of scoring talent it clearly wants.

More Info

• Matty Beniers defends Seattle Kraken after Jason Robertson rejected trade | FOX 13 Seattle Sports
• Matty Beniers defends Seattle Kraken after Jason Robertson rejected trade | sports.yahoo.com
• Jason Robertson Rejecting Trade Set Off Seattle Kraken's Matty Beniers | nhltraderumors.me
• Matty Beniers Has Blunt Message For Jason Robertson After Failed Kraken Trade | yardbarker.com