Shane Wright is on the move, and the Bruins are left watching a deal that went for far less than it should have.
The Kraken sent the 22-year-old center to the Predators on Sunday in a 1-for-1 swap for Matthew Wood. The Bruins, 10-4-1 after beating Chicago 5-4 in overtime Saturday night, were not the team that landed him.
Seattle took the 15th overall pick from 2023 and gave up the fourth overall pick from 2022. That's the whole price. No pile of picks, no package of prospects.
Wright carries 183 games of NHL experience and an 82-point career, which is a lot of production for a player still on his entry-level deal. He has 3 goals this season through 14 games.
Wood isn't a bad player. The 6'4, 200-pound winger has 18 goals over his NHL career and logged 13:00 in Nashville's shootout win over Tampa Bay on Saturday.
But he's a winger with 34 career points. Wright is a center with nearly two and a half times that. Seattle moved the more valuable piece, and it isn't close.
According to Frank Seravalli-style insider chatter, this is how it was first put out there, but the cleanest version came from Gino Hard, who relayed that the Kraken receive Wood from the Predators for Wright, with the news attributed to Elliotte Friedman.
Why a 1-for-1 price should sting Boston
Boston has won seven of its last 10 and sits at 55 goals for with a +19 goal differential. This is a contender that can afford to be picky, but a former top-five pick at this cost is the kind of swing a contender checks on.
Marco Sturm used Elias Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, Casey Mittelstadt and James Hagens up the middle against Chicago, and the group got the job done. Still, adding a young center with real NHL mileage for a single player is value that rarely shows up.
Nashville is the obvious winner. The Predators are 5-4-5 with a -5 goal differential, and they just added a center who has not even hit his prime, at a cost that barely dents the roster.
Contract status adds another wrinkle. Wright's entry-level deal at $886,666 expires after this season and he'll be a restricted free agent, so whoever holds his rights controls the next negotiation.
That's now Nashville's job. Boston, meanwhile, hosts Vegas on Monday with no new center in the building.
