Last night, the Dallas Stars announced that they have traded Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken for a 2026 3rd round pick and a 2025 4th round pick. The 3rd is Seattle’s own, while the 4th amusingly is the Stars’ 4th rounder that was originally shipped off to the New York Rangers as part of the deal for Nils Lundkvist.
The move came less than twelve hours after the Stars announced they had signed pending UFA Matt Duchene to a 4x$4.5M contract extension. The move, while not surprising, did create a salary cap logjam, leaving the Stars with roughly only $500k to work with. That led to wide speculation that Marchment, who had one year left on his contract with an identical $4.5M AAV, might be on the move. Now, the Stars’ free agency outlook is virtually identical to how it was before, only with Marchment swapping out for Duchene.
The Stars originally signed Marchment to a four-year deal in free agency after a breakout season with the Florida Panthers, where he scored 47 points in just 54 games (a 71 point pace over 82 games). While he never reached that height again in Dallas, he did find great chemistry with, ironically, Duchene as well as Tyler Seguin over the past two years, and scored 47 points in 62 games this last season (a 62 point pace).
The points, however, took a backseat to the frequent penalties Marchment seemed to commit, especially come playoff time, in which Marchment averaged nearly a penalty every other game across three deep playoff runs with Dallas. It was the price that came with playing a more physical, aggressive game compared to most of his teammates, although at some point it felt a lot of calls were largely reputation based whereas other players might have been given a slide.
With the 2025 NHL Entry Draft in just one week and Free Agency beginning July 1st, Stars General Manager Jim Nill still has his work cut out for him — captain Jamie Benn is expected to sign a new deal, as well as RFA Mavrik Bourque, but that would still give Dallas with just 10 NHL forwards under contract. Not to mention that the blueline still needs retooling after last year’s free agent acquistions, Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubshkin, find themselves on the trading block after being scratched (to different extents) in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Below is the press release from the trade:
FRISCO, Texas – Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill announced today that the club has traded forward Mason Marchment to Seattle in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick (#126 – originally Dallas’ selection).
Marchment, 30, skated in 62 regular-season games with Dallas in 2024-25 and recorded 47 points (22-25—47). His 22 goals tied his career high and he potted a career-high four game-winning goals. During the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Marchment posted five points (1-4—5) in 18 contests. Over three seasons with the Stars, the forward tallied 131 points (56-75—131) in 211 regular-season games and 16 points (8-8—16) in 49 postseason contests.
The six-foot-five, 212-pound native of Uxbridge, Ontario was originally undrafted and signed as a free agent by the Stars on July 13, 2022.