Ex-Penguins forward Jared McCann thriving with the Kraken

The Seattle Kraken don’t really have any traditions.

Really, how could they?

They’re a first-year expansion franchise that has been playing games of consequence for less than two months.

There is at least one exception, however.

How they conclude practices.

“Usually the next team up, the guy in the middle who is leading the stretch (came from the next opponent),” Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said to media Sunday in Seattle. “It’s unique. With the guys that we have, everyone is coming from different teams.”

By tradition, Jared McCann had the honors Sunday in advance of Monday’s meeting with his former employer, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He didn’t appear to be burdened with a surplus of sentimentality going into the matchup.

“They didn’t want me,” McCann said. “That’s the way I look at it. It’s pretty simple. I play for the Kraken now, and this is where I want to be.”

McCann didn’t get to Seattle from Pittsburgh directly.

This past offseason, following the Penguins’ abrupt departure from the postseason by the hands of the New York Islanders in the playoffs, there was no shortage of speculation as to who the Penguins would jettison, especially with the expansion Kraken joining the league.

Penguins management did not want to lose McCann through the expansion draft.

So they traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 17 in order to clear his salary cap hit of $2.94 million off the books.

Four days later, the Kraken plucked McCann away from the Maple Leafs.

Nearly five months later, McCann is one of the Kraken’s top players. Entering Monday’s game, he was fourth on the team with 15 points (10 goals, five assists) in 19 games.

This success comes off a strong 2020-21 campaign with the Penguins. In 43 games last season, McCann posted 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists).

“When I was in Pittsburgh, there was a lot of injuries, and I got good opportunity to play on the power play and more five-on-five ice time,” McCann said. “It’s been the same here. We’ve had some injuries. I’ve been given a great opportunity.”

A restricted free agent after this season, the 25-year-old McCann is hoping this opportunity leads to something more permanent than what he’s been able to enjoy to this point of his eight-year career.

A long-term deal with the Kraken.

“That’s something that he’s talked about it,” Eberle said. “I’ve heard him talk about it, that he wants to be here long term. He loves it here, much like a lot of us do. You get that opportunity that maybe you weren’t given on other teams when you thought you were playing good. He’s playing well enough to earn himself stability, and I know that’s important to him.”

A first-round pick (No. 24 overall) of the Vancouver Canucks in 2014, McCann spent one season with them before being traded to the Florida Panthers in 2016. Late in his third season with the Panthers, McCann was dealt to the Penguins in February of 2019.

After parts of three seasons with the Penguins, he ended up with the Kraken (via the Maple Leafs).

“There was a little bit of surprise (leaving the Penguins), for sure,” McCann said. “I had a career year there, and I was given a good opportunity to play. But it’s a business. It’s something that I’ve experienced pretty early in my career.

“It’s a business. That’s the way it goes. Not a lot of people realize that. It’s nothing personal. It really isn’t. I had a great three years there in Pittsburgh. It’s hockey. Guys get moved.”