The Kraken activated winger André Burakovsky from the injured checklist Friday, per CapFriendly’s transactions log. He might be an choice for Friday’s sport in opposition to the Flyers after taking part within the staff’s morning skate. Burakovsky had been listed as week-to-week with an undisclosed injury since early this month, his second long-term absence of the season.
Whereas a real top-six menace, the 28-year-old Burakovsky hasn’t had a lot of an opportunity to indicate off his abilities since signing a five-year, $27.5M pact with the Kraken as a free agent in 2022. He’s performed in 56 out of 118 regular-season video games (lower than half) for the reason that starting of 2022 because of accidents and missed all 14 postseason contests final yr. A groin muscle tear price him the latter half of 2022-23, whereas an upper-body damage sidelined him for 20 consecutive video games earlier this season.
That’s restricted Burakovsky to seven video games on the season for the struggling Kraken, notching three assists. With 39 factors in 49 video games final season, Burakovsky was the staff’s second-highest scorer on a per-game foundation. His 0.80 factors per sport have been behind solely Jared McCann’s 0.89.
He’s coming again on the proper time for Seattle, who’s rattled off three straight wins for the primary time this season. The Kraken are 5-0-2 of their previous seven video games. It’s been a vital run for a staff seeking to proper the ship and make its second consecutive postseason look. At one sport under the .500 mark, the Kraken nonetheless have a methods to go, however they presently sit simply three factors again of the Predators for the second wild-card spot within the Western Convention.
The Kraken solely had 22 gamers on the energetic roster previous to activating Burakovsky, so no corresponding transfer is critical.