Samoskevich should factor in someplace on the Kraken\u2019s top three lines and potentially among their top two trios, bringing another right-handed shot on a team needing more of those. Top right-handed Kraken shooters include Jordan Eberle, Chandler Stephenson and Shane Wright among forwards and Brandon Montour and Adam Larsson on the defensive side, with Botterill agreeing another winger to let fly from the right side of the ice won\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re just trying to give options to (coach) Lane (Lambert) and the coaching staff,\u201d Botterill said. \u201cWe pride ourselves on being a four-line team, so I\u2019ll leave it up to Lane and the coaching staff on where Mackie fits into the mix and stuff. But we think that \u2013 especially with that right shot \u2013 we\u2019ve talked a lot about getting more pucks to the net, more of a shooter mentality, and that\u2019s certainly what Mackie brings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samoskevich, a native of Newtown, Connecticut whose \u201cMackie\u201d name evolved from a twin sister trying to pronounce his \u201cMatthew\u201d birthname as toddlers, brings above average speed to go with that right-handed shot. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder is also known for his grit and a scoring touch that saw him notch 12 goals and 20 assists last season to follow up a rookie campaign when he scored 15 and added 16 assists.<\/p>\n
The Kraken hope Samoskevich builds off those totals, especially if afforded more ice time than the 14:28 per game he managed last season with the defending two-time Cup champion Panthers. The restricted free agent earned $775,000 last season, and Florida would have needed to make a qualifying offer of $813,750 to extend him.<\/p>\n
Botterill said he\u2019s yet to speak with Samoskevich\u2019s representatives about any extension talks or how his restricted free agency will be approached this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are things we\u2019ll certainly look at with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s a matter of getting Samoskevich acclimated to his new team. Having a former teammate around in top line centerman Beniers, who played his final Michigan season as a sophomore when Samoskevich was a freshman there in 2021-22, certainly won\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that it\u2019s easier from a familiarity standpoint coming to a new organization,\u201d Botterill said. \u201cIt just makes the transition all that much easier. I know Matty speaks very highly of Mackie, his style of play and the person he is, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samoskevich should factor in someplace on the Kraken\u2019s top three lines and potentially among their top two trios,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-314935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}