Kraken sends Shane Wright back to junior hockey after gold medal win

TORONTO Kraken general manager Ron Francis liked a lot of what he saw from Shane Wright at the World Junior Hockey Championship and wants him to continue that regularly.

And so Francis broke the news to Wright in person on Friday morning, the day he turned 19^th birthday and after winning a gold medal with Team Canada at the world’s top under-20 tournament returned to the main junior ranks.

Francis had felt Wright didn’t have much left in junior hockey, but the option of more bench time with the competing Kraken proved even less palatable.

If we were going to bring him back to Seattle after the tournament, we wanted him to play, Francis said by phone Friday morning from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was attending the tournament final. And right now, I couldn’t say who we would put him in the lineup the way guys are playing and the teams are playing.

But the bigger picture is that I wasn’t disappointed in his world juniors. We weren’t disappointed with how things turned out. He’s 18, turned 19 yesterday. We think he’s done a lot of great things.

His tournament here was excellent. He might not have gotten the points that people might have expected, but I think his leadership on and off the ice and the way he played was huge.

He played the way he had to to win the gold medal and that was great to see.

Francis expects Wright to join the Kraken in training camp in the fall. The Kraken can bring him back at any time this season, but if he appears in more than one NHL game, it will count as a full season against his three-year entry-level contract and pending free agency.

The looming sign that he would reach the nine-game mark in his NHL experience without it counting as a full season is partly what prompted the Kraken to call Wright now.

Wright was named Canada’s captain at the junior tournament and scored a goal in Thursday night’s 3-2 overtime win over the Czech Republic in the gold medal final. He had four goals and three assists for Team Canada, finishing sixth on the team in scoring.

Meanwhile, the Kraken won their third straight Thursday night, defeating the highly-touted Toronto Maple Leafs in the second contest of a seven-game road swing. They improved their record to 21-12-4 and remained in third place in the Pacific Division, four points behind the second place Los Angeles Kings after five games.

Wright, who was drafted fourth overall by the Kraken in July, finished his first NHL season in eight games with a goal and an assist. He added four more goals in five games with the Coachella Valley Firebirds during a two-week AHL draft period, but minor league hockey was no longer an option due to league rules.

The agreement between Canada’s major junior leagues and the NHL requires all teenage draft picks not considered under the age of 20 to return to their former junior teams.

Wright will return to the Kingston (Ontario) Frontenacs for now, but Francis has asked to be dealt to a Memorial Cup contender to further his competitive development. He expects that to happen before the January 10 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) trade deadline.

That looming trade deadline also factored into the team’s decision to send Wright back now. Wright can only be traded within the OHL, not to Western Hockey League or Quebec Major Junior Hockey League teams.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Shane Wright was drafted fourth, not second as stated in a previous version.