We just had a very busy week covering the Seattle Kraken, and something that might have been overlooked was the official release of the NHL schedule for the 2024-25 season. As I do every year, I enjoy looking at a few key data points across the league to see how the Kraken schedule stacks up against that of other teams.
Travel distance by NHL team
Based on the location of some NHL franchises, it is expected that certain teams will log more miles in a season compared to the rest of the league. Seattle is one of those teams that needs to travel more than most.
The Kraken have consistently fallen in the top 10 for travel miles, and coming in at third place for most miles traveled in 2024-25 will be the highest Seattle has been on this list. The Kraken will travel 3,000 more miles this coming season compared to last season.
Here is a look at all the teams by division.
The Pacific Division teams, as a whole, end up traveling more than the three other divisions.
Number of road trips
A side benefit of being based outside the northeastern corner of North America is that you tend to have fewer road trips.
As you can see, Seattle has the second-fewest number of road trips across the league. Of course, that means the actual road trips themselves will be longer.
Note that because of the league-wide break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, Seattle will have no home stands that start in February this coming season.
Back-to-back games
Another element of the NHL schedule I like to review is the number of back-to-back games for each team. The Kraken come in close to the league average on this.
Other odds and ends of the Kraken schedule
- As many people have noticed already, the home opener is at 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday as the NHL hopes to recreate an MLB Opening Day-type vibe with a triple-header on ESPN.
- The Kraken have 11 Saturday home games this coming season, up from nine during the 2023-24 season. I’ve joked that this is bad news, considering they did not win any of those Saturday games last season.
- Alex Wennberg’s first game as a visitor to Climate Pledge Arena will be on Nov. 30 when the Sharks visit Seattle.
- The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers visit Seattle on Dec. 10.
- The Utah Hockey Club makes its first appearance at Climate Pledge Arena on Dec. 30, and the Kraken’s first game in Utah is not until April 8.
- We discussed it on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, but if you are looking for a fun road trip, the Kraken play three games in four days when they visit the New York area for an extended weekend in early December.
- There are three days when the Kraken, Seattle Thunderbirds, and Everett Silvertips all have home games this coming season: Nov. 27, Jan. 18, and March 14.
What did I miss? Are there any home games you are particularly excited about? What about a possible road trip you’re considering? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Two things jumped out at me when the schedule came out.
The first ten games they have five against non-playoff teams. I’ll be looking to see if they can do better than .500 to start the season – something no Hakstol coached NHL team ever achieved.
They start out on the east coast coming out of the All-Star break – again. That’s hasn’t been great in the past, but at least this season Florida won’t get a “warm-up” game first.
Also, the Kraken play three home games at the beginning of February and the chart has too many home games in October… oops.
Go Kraken!!!
Oops on the oops… December has too many, not October
that should be fixed. Originally the month game count was based on the “trip/stand start” so a home stand that started at the end of Jan and then went into Feb, those Feb games would actually show up in January. Don’t know why I did that, but I’ve updated it.