The Kraken have made one of the first pre-deadline trades (discounting that little Bo Horvat trade) by acquiring left shot defenseman, Jaycob Megna from the San Jose Sharks in exchange of a fourth round pick in 2023. Megna comes in with a low cap hit of $762,500 for both this season and next season. In 48 games this season, Megna has 1 goal and 11 assists, and lead all Sharks defensemen with hits with 75.
Megna was an interesting player for the Sharks. He averaged the fourth most minutes among Sharks defensemen, playing most of his time with Erik Karlsson. When the duo was together, they outscored their opponents 44-31 at 5 on 5 in 667 minutes played together. In the 370 minutes that Karlsson played away from Megna, he only outscored the opposition 25-23.
At the same time however, when Megna was away from Karlsson, the Sharks were outscored 1-11 in the 145 minutes he played. That was time played with Matt Benning, Vlasic, or Ferraro for the most part.
The 6'6, 220lb defender certainly adds some size and toughness to the Kraken's roster and it will be curious to see how he is used by Hakstol. Currently with Justin Schultz out, there is a large hole on the right side of the blueline. Players like Soucy or Oleksiak can play the right side which would then give Megna a place on the left side. It's interesting that Megna was used in such a high end role on the top pairing in San Jose. Megna will obviously not take the place of Dunn on the top line but he could log some heavier minutes on the second pairing alongside Oleksiak as an example. That would be a heavy and tough duo to play against.
I remain confident that the Kraken will make likely another move or two like this; depth options that can bolster this team but not upset the chemistry that has been so strong all season. For a fourth round pick and acquiring a player that is not only around for this season but next at a very low cost, that is good value for Ron Francis.
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