Seattle Kraken GM Ready to Spend Money on Top Players

The Seattle Kraken won't have any financial restrictions in their inaugural season as general manager Ron Francis has been given the green light from ownership to spend right to the salary cap in the team's first season.

Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke spoke with the media on Friday and gave Francis the green light to spend, spend, spend:

Our GM has lots of options. What owners want is for our GM to build a long-term winner. He’s gotta figure out how to do that. If that strategy involves us going to cap in Year 1, he has the authority to do it. I think that is one of the reasons we are all optimistic. We have this fan base. We have this arena. We have the Kraken Community Iceplex and owners willing to give Ron resources. Our hope that is we are going to reward these fans, who have been incredible, with a competitive team for years to come.

The expansion draft goes down on July 21 and every team's list has to be submitted by July 17. There's been talks about some big names being linked to the Kraken including Duncan Keith, Mark Giordano, TJ Oshie, Jack Eichel and Vladimir Tarasenko. This summer is setting up to be the busiest in NHL history and the Seattle Kraken and their deep pockets are to blame.

Photo credit:  James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports