Daniel Sprong signs one-year deal with Seattle Kraken

As reported by Chris Johnston, the Seattle Kraken have signed forward Daniel Sprong to a one-year contract. The deal carries an AAV of $750,000.

Daniel Sprong was initially brought in by Seattle on a professional tryout contract. He impressed the team enough in training camp to earn an NHL contract. The deal is a two-way contract, which means the Kraken have the ability to send Sprong up and down from the AHL without having to go through waivers.

Sprong played the bulk of the 2021-22 season with the Washington Capitals. He scored 14 points in 47 games in Washington. At the 2022 trade deadline, Sprong was dealt along with a fourth-round pick and a sixth-round pick to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for veteran forward Marcus Johansson. He played 16 games in Seattle scoring six goals and zero assists to end the season.

The 25-year-old winger is a skilled player but hasn’t quite been able to put it all together at the NHL level. Sprong’s NHL career began with the star-studded Pittsburgh Penguins but he did not get a good opportunity there. He ended up playing 42 games for the Penguins over three seasons from 2015-16 to 2018-19. He only scored nine points in that span while getting less than ten minutes of ice-time per night.

He was originally a second-round pick of the Penguins from the 2015 NHL Draft but he had run his course in Pittsburgh by the middle of the 2018-19 season. In December 2018, Sprong was dealt in a one-for-one trade to Anaheim for defenceman Marcus Pettersson, who is currently a big part of the Penguins’ defence.

He was traded again in 2020, this time to the Washington Capitals, in exchange for another defenceman, Christian Djoos.

In his career so far, Sprong has played 202 NHL games, scoring 46 goals and 70 points in that span. He will look to invigorate his career with an opportunity to play meaningful minutes in Seattle.