The Chicago Blackhawks acquired two-time 20-goal scorer Andre Burakovsky from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Joe Veleno on Saturday.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson has been looking for a way to add some scoring punch to one of the league’s weakest offenses, but he’s reluctant to commit too much money and too many years to a high-end free agent such as Mitch Marner or Nikolaj Ehlers, neither of whose ages line up with their very young core. At 30 years old, Burakovsky doesn’t, either.
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However, with just two years left on his contract — at a $5.5-million cap hit — Burakovsky can be a nice stopgap while the rest of Chicago’s young forwards work their way into the NHL lineup. He found himself in a fourth-line role with the Kraken by the end of the season, but he’s 6-foot-3, is a strong skater and has shown some top-six talent in the past.
Seattle not having to pay *anything* to get a team to take Andre Burakovsky’s deal is incredible work. pic.twitter.com/NdjW5c4IcO
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) June 21, 2025
Burakovsky had just 10 goals and 27 assists in 79 games for the Kraken this past season after his 2023-24 season was cut short by a groin injury. He never lived up to the five-year, $27.5 million contract he signed with Seattle after helping the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022.
In his three seasons in Colorado, he had 20, 19 and 22 goals after modest but consistent production for five seasons with the Washington Capitals. But he was in danger of getting squeezed out of the Kraken lineup and was an obvious trade candidate.
Veleno, a fourth-line center acquired by Chicago from Detroit in the Petr Mrázek trade at the deadline, was a possible buyout candidate, and still could be, if this proves to be little more than a cap dump for the Kraken. Veleno has one year left on his deal at a $2.275-million cap hit.
The Blackhawks’ strong closing kick with a team loaded with rookies and players younger than 23 years old has lessened the urgency Davidson feels to turbocharge the team’s long rebuilding plan. Rather than go big-game hunting in unrestricted free agency, trades like this one — modest additions who can play up and down the lineup but don’t require long-term commitments that’ll block younger players’ paths to the NHL — are about all that Blackhawks fans should expect this summer.
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Why Seattle made this deal
The Kraken found an affordable way to make their bargain acquisition of Mason Marchment just about cap neutral thanks to this cap dump.
Burakovsky was once an oversized, slick scoring winger with a penchant for big goals during his time with Washington and Colorado. However, since arriving in Seattle, Burakovsky has struggled with injuries, and last season, when he finally managed to appear in more than 50 games for the first time in his Kraken tenure, he struggled outright.
With two years remaining on Burakovsky’s contract, this deal gets the Kraken out of a significant cap commitment for a struggling middle-six winger who was falling rapidly down their depth chart. They also save a fair bit of actual cash, just as the NHL offseason is about to grind into full gear.
That’s well worth doing for a Seattle team that should be aiming higher, and aggressively looking to do everything possible to give themselves a shot to add some needle-moving forwards this summer.
Remarkably, Seattle didn’t need to add any sweeteners to this trade, given Burakovsky’s durability concerns, diminishing form and the term and salary that remain on his contract.
Veleno, 25, is young enough to be bought out at a one-third rate over the next week. The Kraken could keep him and roll the dice on a depth player with some draft pedigree, but they could also easily add to the cap savings by exercising an ordinary course buyout on the final year of his deal before the first window closes on June 30.
In any event, the real value for Seattle here is in the cap space saved over a multi-year time horizon. And Chicago will hope that they’ve found this summer’s version of the Ilya Mikheyev trade, and can build Burakovsky back up into a useful contributor (or trade chip). — Thomas Drance, senior NHL writer
(Photo: Ben Ludeman / Getty Images)
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