RECAP: Seahawks open free agency, Kraken drop three straight

SEATTLE – There will be some new faces on the Seattle Seahawks this season, as the team signed two players to the defensive line. The Seattle Kraken found themselves in a losing skid, while the Mariners continue on through spring training. Check out this week’s professional sports recap for an update on the three squads.

Kraken

After sweeping through a four-game road stand against St. Louis, Detroit, Columbus and Colorado and defeating Anaheim at home, the Seattle Kraken lost three-straight games — once against the Ottawa Senators and twice to the Dallas Stars.

Against Ottawa on Thursday, Seattle quickly found itself down 3-0 after the Senators scored three goals in under eight and a half minutes in Climate Pledge Arena. Left wing Jared McCann stopped the bleeding with a goal in the first period, then Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz scored to begin the second period and cut the deficit to one. McCann scored again six minutes later to tie the game at three.

Seattle took the lead on a goal by Vince Dunn three minutes into the third period, but the Senators answered with their own goals and took home a 5-4 win over the Kraken.

The Kraken held a 3-2 advantage over Dallas on Saturday, but the Stars tied the game at three on a goal by Joe Pavelski with 1:10 left in the game. Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen then gave the Stars the win 3:26 into the overtime period, giving Seattle its second straight loss.

With a chance to avenge Saturday’s loss to Dallas on Monday, Seattle fell short and once again lost to Dallas for the second time in three days. Dallas jumped out to a two-goal lead early in the first period and led 4-2 at the end of the second. By the time the clock read triple zeroes, the Stars had won 5-2 over the Kraken.

The losses dropped Seattle to 37-23-7 on the year and widened the gap in the Pacific Division standings. Seattle’s 81 points are behind Vegas (90 points) and Los Angeles (85 points) and one ahead of Edmonton.

Up this week for the Kraken are road contests against San Jose (Thursday) and Dallas (Tuesday) and a home game against Edmonton (Saturday).

Seahawks

The NFL’s league year officially began on Tuesday afternoon, when free agents could sign with new teams. Seattle signed free agent defensive end Dre’Mont Jones, formerly of Denver, to a three-year contract worth $51.5 million and defensive end Jarran Reed, formerly of Green Bay, to a two-year deal worth $10.8 million, according to spotrac.com.

Running back Rashaad Penny, 2018 first-round pick by Seattle out of San Diego State, signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles worth $1.35 million. Linebacker Cody Barton, a 2019 third-round pick by Seattle out of Utah, signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Washington Commanders.

To free up cap room, the Seahawks released defensive ends Shelby Harris and Quinton Jefferson, the team announced on Tuesday. Harris was part of the Russell Wilson trade in 2022, while Jefferson was a fifth-round pick by Seattle in 2016. Jefferson played for Seattle from 2016-2019 and returned to the Seahawks for one season in 2022.

Mariners

With just two weeks until Opening Day, the Seattle Mariners have put together four wins in their last five spring training outings. Seattle saw its bats come alive against Cincinnati, Texas and Kansas City in 11-3, 11-10 and 8-6 wins, respectively. The Mariners also took down Colorado 4-2, taking the lead on an RBI by Sam Haggerty in the top of the sixth inning. Against the Angels on Monday, Seattle held a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning before Los Angeles scored seven runs over the next three innings.

Up this week for Seattle is Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Cleveland, Texas, Chicago (White Sox), Milwaukee and Los Angeles (Dodgers).