Seattle Kraken Sign RFA Defenseman Before Arbitration

The Seattle Kraken continued their busy day with their second signing, this time for RFA Will Borgen after he had filed for arbitration. The new contract is for two-years at $2.7 million AAV.

Seattle’s Will Borgen has a new deal before his arbitration case: 2x$2.7M AAV
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 7, 2023

The general consensus is that is a bit high per year for Borgen, but the 26-year-old has good upside and should get more playing time this season on the second pairing. He isn't expected to contribute heavily to the offense despite scoring three goals and 20 points last season, but the 6'3 defender will block shots and hit a lot.

The Kraken can afford what seems like a bit of an overpayment at the moment because of the cap space they have to work with. Two years is more than enough time with the role he is expected to have to see what they have in their d-man and they should be more than fine with some larger contracts ending soon.

I can only predict that the outcome from arbitration would be a lower AAV than what he just signed for, but Seattle might have been looking for that extra year to space out their contracts. The goal was to get Borgen signed and the Kraken did just that. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.