The Seattle Kraken selected forward Berkly Catton of the Spokane Chiefs with the No. 8 overall pick during the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft Friday. Catton joins Lukas Dragicevic (Tri-City; 2023 second-round pick) and Kaden Hammell (Everett; 2023 fifth-round pick) as in-state WHL players drafted by Seattle.
“[Catton] has got elite hockey sense, real good speed, [and] high compete level. He’s a very high-end offensive player,” Ron Francis said Friday after the team made the selection. “That was the guy we wanted, so we’re excited.”
Catton led all CHL first-time draft-eligible prospects in points and was fourth overall in the WHL in scoring during the 2023-24 season.
Quick thoughts on the pick
This pick is at once unexpected and not surprising. It’s unexpected because a few high-end blueliners were still on the board at No. 8. The vast majority of industry analysts had Seattle taking a defenseman, even if it meant dropping into what I’d consider the second tier of players at that position, such as Carter Yakemchuk.
On the other hand, Berkly Catton was ranked No. 6 on the final Sound Of Hockey Big Board. And if you only remember one stat about Berkly Catton, try this one: he is one of four first-time draft eligible CHL players since 2000 to post 115-plus points and 50-plus goals. The other three? Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, and Connor Bedard.
Furthermore, we should not discount the position value if Catton can stick at center. In my mind, I had been projecting Catton as a play-driving winger in the longer term, but many scouts disagree, and Ron Francis spoke about Catton as a center prospect after the pick.
Elite Prospects, which grades the individual skills of draft-eligible prospects, had Catton as the third-best puckhandler, fourth-best skater, fifth-best passer, and 10th-best shooter in the draft. They also deemed him to have the fourth-best “hockey sense” in the draft, which is a stand-in for on-ice intelligence and gameplay instincts. All told, Elite Prospects gave Catton the sixth-highest average skill grade among skaters in the draft, with only his physicality grading below average.
In my pre-draft piece, I wrote that “Berkly Catton [] is a deadly offensive package, combining skill, skating, and offensive instincts. If he stood 6-foot-2 instead of 5-foot-10.25 with the same skill level, he’d be considered as early as the second overall pick.”
Chris Peters compared Catton toTim Stutzle. Corey Pronman though Catton reminded him of 2022 No. 3 overall pick Logan Cooley. For Elite Prospects, Catton brings shades of Cooley or Troy Terry.
So, Catton is a not a “reach” or “off-the-board” pick at all. Particularly given that Seattle has shown a willingness to take shorter forwards and is still looking for high-end offensive firepower in the organization, the pick makes plenty of sense and good pay significant dividends into the future.
Berkly Catton player profile
Center/Left Wing | Spokane Chiefs | Age: 18 | Height: 5’10.25″ | Weight: 175 lbs | Left shot
| Season | Team | Lge | Games | Goals | Assists | Pts | Plus-minus |
| 2021-22 | Spokane Chiefs | WHL | 9 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -7 |
| 2022-23 | Spokane Chiefs | WHL | 63 | 23 | 32 | 55 | -36 |
| 2023-24 | Spokane Chiefs | WHL | 68 | 54 | 62 | 116 | 15 |
What does the Big Board say?
At the time the Kraken drafted, Catton was the second-highest ranked remaining player on the Sound Of Hockey Big Board at No. 6 overall. Only Zeev Buium was ranked higher at No. 5. (Buium ultimately fell to Minnesota at No. 12, so it seems the league did not agree with the Big Board on him.) I had Catton as the No. 10 overall player in the draft based on my data-only approach. Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News, Smaht Scouting, and Scouching all had Catton ranked as the No. 3 prospect in this class, his highest position on any public draft board we tracked.
How does he look on the ice?
What are scouts saying?
Strengths:
“Berkly Catton is one of the most fun players to watch in this draft. Give him time and space, and he’ll make you pay; try to take it away, and he’ll cut through your formation anyway like a hot knife through butter.
“It’s on the rush where he’s most effective. A series of crossovers allows him to build speed as he plans his attack, reading and reacting to what’s in front of him, using a series of weight shifts and handling moves to navigate the neutral zone as he drives play toward the opposition goal. With this ability comes cunning in the form of a sophisticated delay game that allows him to level up and attack with support or connect with trailing linemates as they enter the play.” – Elite Prospects
“Catton may be the best transition forward in the draft class, thanks to his combination of skating and intelligence. He can gash a defensive unit through the middle of the ice with ease. Catton identifies skating lanes and plays to his opponent’s weaknesses. He knows where to put the puck when attacking a defender 1-on-1, forcing them to defend in uncomfortable and compromising positions.
“Catton is arguably the smartest player in the NHL draft class, constantly looking to create small advantages, chain them together and eventually create a big advantage. Catton makes life easy on his teammates, allowing them to play to their strengths while he fills in their gaps. He is a playmaker at heart, but he showed this season he can make goalies pay if they don’t respect his shot, especially when he gets into the home plate area.” – Ferrari
“I value players who elevate others greatly. Players who can move the puck themselves, move the puck to others, find targets, hit them accurately, and finish chances they get from others. Catton checks every one of those boxes in my books. His tracked data is outstanding almost across the board… Brilliant with the puck with his pass lane creation skill and one of the few players I trust to run a line this year as he is, he’ll almost certainly be drafted too late and someone is going to be very happy.” – Scouching
Weaknesses:
“The Spokane center isn’t the biggest player, and he will need to bulk up, but he’s not some 5-foot-8, 150-pound forward who gets intimidated easily. Catton has the potential to stick at center long-term despite his size. He is the exception to the rule because of his mobility and smarts.” – Ferrari
“The only hangup is that he isn’t the most physical centre out there, but he’s so smart with his positioning and such a great support player that surrounding him with players that can fill that gap should give him the space to be [himself at the NHL level].” – Scouching
“Of course, there’s always a catch with any prospect, and this is true of Catton. In his case, it’s one of efficiency. He’s prone to throwing pucks away with hope passes and lacks that extra layer of patience that defines most top playmakers. One can wonder to what extent playing on a team with as little firepower as Spokane helped foster these bad habits, but they’re there all the same.
“There’s also the question of how well he will handle the rigors of the NHL game. His ability to take pucks off the wall and get inside was inconsistent across many of our viewings, and there’s a chance he struggles to generate offense when he’s not attacking in space or off the rush, which says nothing of whether he’ll stick at center or not.” – Elite Prospects
Expert reaction
“I’m a huge fan of Catton’s game. I thought he was one of the most dynamic players in the draft. Given how much Seattle needed a premier defense prospect, it’s a bit surprising that they went and took a forward, but if they were going to take one, Catton is more than reasonable at this slot. He has top-line forward potential and could be a star if he truly hits. Teams were worried by his size, but everything else about his game was a major positive.” – Corey Pronman, The Athletic
What’s next for Berkly Catton?
Catton will very likely return to the WHL next season and figures to compete for a WHL scoring title in a high-ice-time, first-line role for Spokane. After that, he will likely get a longer look with Seattle, but, as a January, 2006 birthdate, he’ll be in the position of returning to the WHL again for the 2025-26 season if he doesn’t make the NHL roster.
I’d still project him to slot on the wing eventually, particularly if Matty Beniers and Shane Wright remain in the fold, but he looks like a solid bet to produce 60-plus points annually as a top-six forward when he reaches his prime in about three years.
Final thoughts
While a team doesn’t go into the draft looking for a player at a “need” position in the first round like an NFL team might do, the organizational picture matters. So I can’t help but wonder whether the team might have more strongly considered taking a swing on a high-upside blueliner like Zeev Buium or Zayne Parekh if Eduard Sale were looking like the dynamic offensive player the team expected him to be when making him the 20th overall pick in 2023. I know Catton projects (for some) as a center, and Sale is a pure winger, but both are offense-first forwards.
On the other hand, the Kraken are a very analytically inclined organization, and macro studies of first-round pick success rates indicate that forwards hit at a better rate than defensemen. This likely factored into the team’s decision-making process too.
Kraken general manager Ron Francis has often said in the past the he looks to his scouts and analytics department to support each other before making a move. This looks like a pick where both sides of the front office were able to find common ground, even if it bucked the common wisdom that Seattle may look to add to their blue line.
The team figures to have opportunities to add a defenseman in the second round. Henry Mews, Spencer Gill, and Leon Muggli are three blueliners who could represent good value for Seattle at that point.
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
Love this pick. Catton is electric, and brings more offensive firepower than any of our other prospects.
I know our prospect pool is lacking defensemen, but the Kraken are lacking star power. Best way to get a star is through the draft, and while I loved Buium, I think really think Catton has more potential there, even at his smaller stature.
This feels like the ultimate test of “best player available”. The organization already has Shane Wright, Matty Beniers, and Ryan Winterton down the middle. They also have an undersized highly skilled, high scoring forward who just won the CHL player of the year award… but they don’t have a legitimate top pair defensive prospect in the pipeline.
With Buium, Parekh, Dickinson and Silayev all available, the Kraken go with who they must have had as “best player available”.
It’ll be a few years, but as Dunn ages out, and the Kraken are rooting around to find a No.1 D… are we going to remember that we passed on Zeev Buium?
I’m gonna hope for the best, but the absolute conventionality of this pick doesn’t doesn’t give me high hopes for free agency of trades.
As long as Catton hits, we can take that saved money/cap space and spend it on a defenseman.
I know it isn’t that simple, the player needs to want to come here, but if they got the extra cash from Catton hitting on a cheap contract, it should go a long way towards filling the hole. That comes back to BPA, they probably felt Catton was the more likely guy to turn into a plus NHL level player.
I think you also look at from the perspective of we still don’t know if Shane or Matty reach the potential of a being star players. Catton is another shot at that, and comes with real game-breaking skill and potential.
In the pessimistic scenario, some of our top prospects don’t reach their potential and now you have options for others who might. Best case scenario, most of them hit and you have a surplus of young forwards who are trade ammo to fill in other gaps to make a run.
This team and all of its prospects are still too young to really know what their long term identity is. Ryan was mentioned above, and we still don’t know if he’s capable of sticking in the NHL at this point. Until we have more of a complete picture of these players, I think drafting BPA is actually the safest option.
I agree with this perspective. Between Matty, Shane, Firkus, and Catton, we would be above average return if two of them end up high level centers (top 6 right?). It’s a numbers game and they clearly felt Catton had the best chance of becoming a good piece.
I agree wholeheartedly with the premise of taking the best player available. Drafts are too much of a crapshoot to look three years out and try to project what positions the team will need. Just take the very best player available and let the chips fall where they may. Some positions need to be filled in free agency, better to draft best players you can and fill holes via trades and cash.
I love that we got a guy who was almost universally rated highly, usually in top 8. Good enough for me. Now hopefully the kid has the passion and luck to make it work.
Coincidentally, the Athletic had an article yesterday pointing out that eight of the top ten defensemen in the league are with the team that drafted them, but only six of the top ten wingers are. Depending on how you look at it, that doesn’t seem like much, but it’s consistent with the idea that top defensemen are hard to acquire, top wingers not so much.
Since the Kraken clearly need a top line quality forward this off season, I think this should be a good opportunity to preview just how successful the Kraken should expect to be going out and acquiring a top pair defensemen outside the draft.
That is interesting, and not in a good way, about top defensemen sticking with their team. I certainly find those numbers significant 8/8 is legit. That isn’t ideal for a pipeline with little to show. I have heard offensive players hit at a higher rate than defensive, I wonder at what rate? I think it largely comes down to the delta between picks. I believe the Kraken just had a higher faith in Catton hitting/higher chance of him being a difference maker. Most picks outside the top couple don’t turn into difference makers, I like them going with their gut and data on the player they feel is most likely to.
I don’t think this offseason will be a good test regarding bringing in a top defenseman. I don’t see that as something they will even try to do this year. By time they sign the RFA’s that it makes sense to they only have 10+ million in cap space. The bigger need is for players that can put the puck in the net. I don’t think they will be in the market this offseason.
Just to clarify… the test will be if they can go out and get what they need. This season it’s a premium forward. I am a fan of Ron Francis, but he isn’t known for making trades or signing big free agents. If they can’t manage a forward when they need it, what makes us think they can land a top pair defenseman eventually?
Great pick. Like everyone, I thought they’d go D but, if you’re going to go O, Catton is a fantastic selection. He drives play, he has fantastic edges, and his hands are elite.
I know some will not like him cause of his size. But you don’t pass on elite offensive talent cause of size. Would anyone turn down Jack Hughes on the Kraken cause he’s Catton’s size? I wouldn’t.
This is a weird pick. I guess so much of the draft is a crapshoot any time you pick out of the top 3 but this does not satisfy a need in the D corps. There’s no mpact on the next 3 years with the 8 pick so I guess go with whatever feels good is the manta here. This off season is more about the trade market for us. Either way, I’m already ready for next season.
What, exactly, are they going to do with another young centerman if he does make it to the big club in a couple years? Let’s not forget that, in addition to Matty and Shane, they have Rehkopf and Goyette looking AHL-ready or at least too damn good for the CHL. I get taking the best player available, but where does Catton fit in the organization? I know, having too many good center prospects is a dream problem. It’s just that there is another not-so-nice problem on the blue line that did not get addressed, and with Larson, Oleksiak, Dumoulin, and Schultz on the wrong side of their prime years the organization’s blue line is starting to look like a looming disaster. Dunn has proven to be the real deal, but are Borgen, Evans, and Ottovainen going to be able to make themselves into bona fide top-four NHL defensemen in the coming years? I guess, in fairness, Borgen already has.
They may not be as deep at center as you are picturing.
This is from the Kraken website:
“Francis, a Hall of Fame center himself who is second only to Wayne Gretzky in career NHL assists and an all-time great two-way player, said 2022 second-round draft pick David Goyette and 2023 second-rounder Carson Rehkopf are both now projected as wings. That left open the need to add an elite center prospect to the Kraken’s pipeline.
“Centers are critical,” said Francis. “We’ve had a couple guys drafted at center who have since moved to the wings. So we felt where we were that depth at center was important for us. That’s what we were looking for.””
Quick shout out to Curtis. Mid-season big board had Catton at 8. End of season at 6. Right in there!
Let’s assume all goes well and the top picks all hit. In a few years, the lineup could be:
C: Beniers, Wright, Catton, and Fisker-Molgaard
W: Rehkopf, Goyette, Firkus, Sale, Nyman, Winterton, McCann, Tolvanen, and one of today’s 2R picks.
What d’ya think about the 2 2R and 2 3R picks for today? Maybe 1 G, 1 F, and 2 D?
Huh. Goyette and Rehkopf moving to wing honestly does change things. In that case, yeah, Catton really does fill an important spot in the pipeline. It is also nice to have a couple good prospects at wing apart from only Jani Nyman and Ryan Winterton to get excited about. Those two are exciting, especially Winterton after his wild AHL playoff performance, but the pipeline needed a couple more.
The blue line is still in trouble, but… I am cool with Francis drafting Catton now.
We have too many small lightweight centers already. Firkus, Matty, Yani, Schwartz, and each Firebirds center. I am not impressed.
Schwartz and Yani will most likely not be around by time Catton makes the team. Between Firkus and Matty one of them probably won’t end up a top 6 center. You gotta take the best player available. They tried to do that, now we sit back and hope they were right.
Addressing all of those:
Firkus is a winger, and we still don’t know if he makes it as an NHL player.
Matty is 6’-2” and just finished his sophomore season, I think it’s safe to project he’s going to fill out his frame as he gets older.
Yanni is going into the last year of his contract.
Schwartz only has 2 years left on his contract, and plays more wing than center.
Jagger Firkus has a better chance of ending up in a petting zoo than being top 9 forward. Can we please just stop pretending he’s going to be a legit NHL player?
Totemforlife really???? I think a player that has shown that much skill has a fairly high chance of being successful in the NHL. What you hate on him because he beat up on your team? He’s not a lock but your commitment is just ridiculous.
I’d agree this was a very interesting pick, I feel that they could have traded down and still selected their “guy” if that was the direction they wanted to go…. Call Minnesota. I know Francis said he wanted to build down the middle I guess now we know he is obsessively going to draft centers regardless of the teams needs long term. I’m not impressed with this selection but regardless he will probably be a great NHL player, but better options left on the table? I could be wrong but I don’t feel this is the player that is going to do what is necessary to win a cup, we need some bigger stronger high end talent to go with our “skilled” forwards we have already drafted if we’re looking at adding forward depth. I was excited to see a high end defender added to our system, yes they tend to develop slower was that a factor? You’d think it should not have been as we need to look a three to four years down the line as well. Overall not impressed, hopeful yes.
Good lord…. Catton is an elite offensive talent. He’s the same size as Jack Hughes. The Kraken need elite talent.
I don’t think you actually read my post? 😂 I said he’s going to be a “great” nhl player. They could have picked him up a probably 4 picks later and gotten another third round out of it. It’s a bit of a head scratcher.
Can’t help but feel a bit disappointed when so many of the top D prospects were still surprisingly available when the Kraken picked. Ultimately of course only time will tell…
Disappointed the kraken drafted an elite offsive talent? My goodness people…
The way I look at it is those defenseman just aren’t projected the same by the teams as they were by most media. If that group of D players were truly viewed as elite, they would have started coming off the board earlier.
I would have preferred Buium, but it’s hard not to appreciate that they’re taking a swing on the ceiling of Catton rather than playing it safe. He’s likely the only player left at 8 that if he hits his ceiling could take over games like a superstar can. His skills set is also quite a bit different than Beniers or Wright as a true playmaker and could even fit well on their wing. In the downside there is a ton of risk at his size. Hard to watch the later rounds of the playoffs this year and feel good about having undersized players at important positions.
Let’s be optimistic and say Beniers, Wright, and Catton all make it to the NHL and are top-6 talents. Then what? Name me one NHL team that has three high-end centers long-term. Look what happened when the Pens did and Staal wanted to leave because he was not playing high enough in the lineup.
To me, this ranks of the organization maybe not thinking of Beniers or Wright (or Catton) long-term centers. I just don’t see how the roster construction works five years from now. Is Francis falling back on his own playing experience here in favoring centers?
Maybe the other hidden message is that they are higher on Evans, Nelson, Ottavainen, Dragicevic, and Price than others are, projecting them to be NHL long-term D whose purpose is not to star but just hold the fort.
Can anyone chime in on how hard it would be to trade a “high end center” for a quality defenseman?
One thing I notice looking at top salaries, if you go down the list starting from the top, there are far more offensive players being paid the biggest contracts.
You may be right about that hidden message. I do remember Francis bringing up Dragicevic unprompted at a press conference before, so maybe he has game that folks who can’t watch Tri-Cities just haven’t seen yet. He has an important season in the juniors coming up.
Great write-up on the future Kraken star. The Kraken definitely needed someone with a little more flash to their game on the top 6.
I do wonder if the Kraken staff were smitten with Logan Cooley during the Shane Wright draft year and couldn’t pass on someone similar to Cooley’s play style. I don’t believe there were any reports of the Kraken having any preferences on the 2 centers, but now they get a “krak” at both.
For those suggesting we draft based on position need, I ask you: does the farmer grow all different crops so one day they can have a balanced dinner?
No!
They plant one crop and make sure the abundance of what is important so they can trade their surplus and get anything else for the table.
Actually, the farmer rotates crops. If you plant the same thing over and over it destroys the soil.
Oddly, this is an excellent analogy, just not in the way I think you meant.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_rotation
Curtis: Could you speak to where Catton would show up on your data-only ranking of Kraken prospects? I presume after Nyman and Wright but before Rekhopf and Goyette?
Also, I think a deep dive on the state of the Kraken D corps and potential reinforcements would be warranted. There’s the potential for a lot of turnover on the blueline over the next 2 years (5 out of 6 contracts!) so this draft pick seems to suggest that the folks in the Kraken organization are pretty confident in what we have in the existing defense prospects or the ability to trade for/sign future players. Is there something there in Evans, Nelson, Ottavainen, Dragicevic, Price, and Jugnauth that we’re missing in terms of potential long-term pieces on the NHL team? Or is trading/signing defenseman a realistic approach to team building the next couple of years?
Thanks!