Islanders: Trading for Vince Dunn will be more difficult than you think

The Seattle Kraken have a bunch of defensemen after their expansion draft. Looking at their CapFriendly page shows six d-men signed to deals and another three RFA’s. That’s nine. Clearly more than necessary. Which means they might be OK with trading one to the New York Islanders.

Everyone has their eye on former St Louis Blues blueliner Vince Dunn. And for good reason. The 24-year-old is a solid puck mover and a good offensive defenseman. He’d be the perfect fit to replace Nick Leddy.

But getting him might not be so easy.

Trading for Vince Dunn best fit for New York Islanders, but won’t be cheap

Sure, the Kraken have more defensemen than necessary. Nine is too many to put on one blue line. That’s obvious. But that doesn’t mean Dunn is surplus to requirements.

Recently, The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark (subscription required) put together a Kraken depth chart and listed Dunn as the number one lefty on the team. It was the second such time he’s done so. It’s clear the expectation is that Dunn will be an integral part of the Kraken’s blueline. Assuming they get him signed of course. As I mentioned Dunn is an RFA after all.

I’m sure the Kraken will listen to offers on any of their players, but what will be the necessary return for what they seem to believe will be a top-pair defenseman? And one that could lead their blueline in production? It won’t be cheap.

You’d have to think it’s going to take a decent package to pry him away from the NHL’s 32nd franchise.

I know that Seattle has made a number of curious decisions since they came into the league – drafting what seems like a weak team and not weaponizing their cap or the expansion process come to mind – but trading low on Vince Dunn surely won’t be one.

Getting Dunn and even Vladimir Tarasenko through the trade market will be difficult for the Islanders who already don’t have a ton of valuable prospects or a ton of draft capital. So while Dunn should be the Islanders top LHD trade target pulling it off might be tough.