By Aaron Portzline, Julian McKenzie, Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston

The Seattle Kraken have traded forward Mason Marchment to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for a 2027 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick, league sources told The Athletic Friday.

No salary is retained on Marchment in this deal, per league sources.

Marchment has four goals and 13 points in 29 games this season with the Kraken. The Uxbridge, Ontario, native has 80 goals and 202 points in 331 career games. The forward will join his fifth NHL franchise since entering the league in 2019-20, having previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars before joining the Kraken in June. The Stars traded Marchment to Seattle for a 2025 fourth-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick.

The Athletic’s Chris Johnston ranked Marchment at No. 10 on his most recent NHL trade board this week. The move was made Friday night, just moments before the league’s holiday roster freeze took effect at 12:01 a.m. (ET) Saturday.

The Blue Jackets, in a 3-6-4 rut since Nov. 20, were looking for a way to jolt a roster that was expected to end Columbus’ five-year playoff drought after barely missing the postseason last season.

This trade indicates that GM Don Waddell still believes this season can be salvaged. The Blue Jackets are last in the conference, but only six points behind Philadelphia (as of Saturday morning) for the second wild-card spot.

The trade comes one day after a 5-2 loss to Minnesota, after which Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski vented his frustration that the Jackets keep finding ways to lose and keep coming up on the wrong end of close games.

Neither of the picks the Blue Jackets parted with in this trade were their picks originally. The second-round pick in 2027 was part of the return they received from Minnesota in a November 2024 trade that sent David Jiricek to the Wild. The fourth-round pick in next year’s draft was acquired by Columbus in the March 2024 trade deadline deal that sent forward Jack Roslovic to the New York Rangers.

Marchment is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. He carries a $4.5 million salary cap hit, but the contract he signed with Dallas in 2022 — four years, $18 million — was front loaded.

His base pay this season (actual dollars) is $3.6 million, but $1 million was already paid in a signing bonus. With the season nearly half in the books, the Blue Jackets are on the hook for roughly $1.45 million in prorated salary.