Welcome to the first edition of Monday Musings for the Seattle Kraken’s 2024-25 season.
For those who don’t know, Monday Musings is my weekly column filled with half-cooked thoughts, insights, and, well… musings.
The season is here-ish
The dreaded hockey offseason is over, and we finally got to experience Kraken hockey for the first time in five months on Sunday. I was in pure bliss as I rode my Lime scooter to Climate Pledge Arena to watch some preseason Kraken hockey. I enjoy other sports, but nothing quite hits like hockey. Preseason games serve as a stress-free appetizer to the regular season, and while winning is fun, for me, the preseason is all about seeing how younger prospects compete against NHL veterans.
Last night, we got to see Berkly Catton, Jagger Firkus, David Goyette, Nathan Villeneuve, and Lukas Dragicevic all suit up for the Kraken. Dragicevic has since been returned to his junior team, the Prince Albert Raiders, while the other four are sticking around in Kraken camp, at least for now. While there were some mistakes from the group, there were also flashes of their potential. It’s exciting to see them without the immense pressure of winning or losing a regular-season game.
As the preseason progresses and the regular season approaches, we’ll start analyzing and scrutinizing the lineups and gameplay. But for now, let’s just celebrate the fact that hockey is back.
TV broadcast
On Sunday, we also got our first taste of the new Kraken Hockey Network (KHN). To be transparent, I didn’t watch it live but caught up with the broadcast Monday morning to share my initial reactions. As mentioned in the Signals from the Deep Podcast, we won’t see all the bells and whistles of the new broadcast until the final preseason game. The production quality in this first one felt very similar to Root’s broadcasts from last season, which is a good thing.
One notable improvement was the lack of the annoying audio-video sync delay that plagued past broadcasts. I’ve heard this issue was related to the NHL’s digital board advertisements. Since there were no digital ads in this broadcast, it remains to be seen if the delay will return once those ads are reintroduced.
The Kraken are betting big on the Kraken Hockey Network, and I’m excited to see how the final dress rehearsal goes and how the broadcast evolves over time. This is a massive undertaking, so don’t expect perfection right out of the gate. I encourage everyone to be patient. The most important aspect of KHN is the expanded access it provides to Kraken fans. With the move to over-the-air and Amazon Prime Video, the games are now available to 96 percent of households across Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. While I don’t know the exact percentage of homes that had access last year, I imagine it was significantly lower—likely under 50 percent.
Here is where you can find Kraken games over the next 30 days:
Signals from the Deep
I’m really excited about the reboot of the official Kraken podcast, Signals from the Deep, hosted by Piper Shaw. For whatever reason, last season’s version didn’t quite resonate with me. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with it—it just didn’t click. I’ve mentioned this on the podcast before, but I think Piper has even more to offer the fans. Giving her another platform to share player and team stories is a great opportunity. She has a unique ability to get players to open up and show more of their personality than we typically see in interviews.
The first episode featured the one and only Alison Lukan and a fun interview with one of the Kraken’s newest players, Brandon Montour. While I think they still have a few kinks to work out, the show is headed in a great direction and should be a fun listen every two weeks. If you haven’t already, check out the first episode of this season.
Who will be captain?
Another major theme of the preseason will be who steps into the captain’s role. Based on Ron Francis’ comments during his postseason availability, it sounds like he wants to name a captain for the 2024-25 season. We’ve discussed it a lot, but the challenge is that there’s no clear frontrunner. My running theory has been that the team would sign Adam Larsson to an extension, then name him captain before the regular season begins. The first part of that plan is done, but after speaking with Jordan Eberle for an upcoming episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, I think he’d be an excellent choice as well.
The complication with Eberle is that he’s only signed for two more seasons. However, he’s incredibly well-spoken, honest with the media, and I assume that translates to the locker room. While being a great speaker isn’t a requirement for being captain, what really stood out to me was how much Eberle understands the importance and opportunity of growing the hockey fanbase here in Seattle. For now, I’ll stick with my Larsson prediction, but Eberle would also make a fantastic captain.
Other Musings
- I don’t put much stock into preseason or even early season lines, but the combinations taking shape look pretty exciting. Eberle and Shane Wright seemed to click last spring when Wright was called up toward the end of the season. Wright had a lot of chances inside the slot against the Flames.
- Another line that looked good was Oliver Bjorkstrand, Matty Beniers, and Jared McCann, but that wasn’t surprising.
- I could be wrong, but Nathan Villeneuve might be the Kraken’s first non-first-round draft pick to play a preseason game immediately after being drafted. He led the Kraken in shots and scored the only goal.
- Each season, there’s usually a prospect or two I follow by watching their junior games. I can already tell Villeneuve will be one of them this year. He’s fun to watch and plays with a bit of an edge. They didn’t show it on the broadcast, but after Villeneuve scored, he gave Flames forward Dryden Hunt a little tap with his stick as they skated back to the bench. It seemed to annoy Hunt—exactly what Villeneuve wanted. He’s going to be fun to follow.
- I was hoping we would get to see Tyson Jugnauth and Andrei Loshko in the lineup on Tuesday, but both were returned to their respective junior teams on Monday morning. Neither of them have an NHL contract but both looked good in training camp.
- Aside from Jugnauth, Loshko, and Dragicevic, others sent back to juniors on Monday included Kaden Hammell, Julius Miettinen, Ollie Josephson, Clarke Caswell, Caden Price, Jakub Fibigr, and Alexis Bernier.
- It’s way too early to draw conclusions, but Andre Burakovsky has looked impressive in training camp. Regular readers know I’ve always been a fan of his and believe he’s one of the best shooters on the team. His puck handling has stood out and should open up more shooting opportunities. If the Kraken are going to make the playoffs this season, a rebound year from Burakovsky will be crucial.
- The only downside this weekend was hearing that one of the Kraken’s top prospects, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, got injured in his first SHL game. Looks like he’ll be out for eight weeks.
- The WHL kicked off this weekend, and the Thunderbirds played a fun opener in Vancouver. They took a 2-0 lead in the third period, only to give up three unanswered goals before scoring an equalizer with six seconds left to send it to overtime. Vancouver scored in overtime to claim the extra point.
- Vancouver also played in Everett the following night for the Silvertips’ season opener. The Giants spoiled exceptional-status player Landon DuPont’s WHL debut with a 4-3 win over the Tips.
- Make sure to keep an eye on Landon DuPont this season. He’s young, but he’s projected to be an elite talent, not just in the WHL but also in the NHL one day.
Goal of the week
Nathan Villeneuve led all Kraken players in shots on goal with five, including this one.
Player performances
Jesse Puljujarvi – In his first preseason game as a Penguin, Puljujarvi scored a hat trick.
JJ Peterka – In the same game as Puljujarvi’s hat trick, Peterka also scored a hat trick for Buffalo in a 7-3 Sabres win.
Bobby Brink – Two goals in his first preseason game. Brink’s middle name is Orr, as in Bobby Orr. That name was intentional.
You don’t see that every day
The Utah Hockey Club scored their first ever goal in franchise history, but there was a catch.
It’s so good to be back, and I’m still buzzing from being in the arena on Sunday. The next preseason game is Tuesday night when the Kraken head to Vancouver. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts or reactions about the upcoming season in the comments below.
Finally!… my Mondays are back.
Conspicuously, no Martin Pospisil in the lineup last night. Curious to see if he’s on the ice next Monday in Calgary.
Go Kraken!!!
Thanks for the details on KHN. I was underwhelmed because I expected a full rollout. They did stumble on wiring up Bylsma. We never got that sound. Oh well.
Yes, I also wanted to see Loshko and Jugnauth play a preseason game. The thing about Jugnauth is that he is part of the 2022 draft class and the rest of those guys who are signed are heading to the Firebirds, so I am curious why they would send him back to juniors for an overage season instead of the AHL. Any thoughts?
Neither have a contract with the Kraken so they can’t assign them there without one. So the next question is why not sign them? That I don’t have the answer for other than it could be related to the number of contracts they have signed, or it could be roster space in Coachella that might limit their playing time. They have more time with Jugnauth since he was drafted while playing NCAA but for Loshko, they must sign by June 1st of 2025 or they lose his rights.
Rehkopf got a preseason game last year (https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401558957/kraken-flames) and Firkus the year before (https://www.espn.com/nhl/boxscore/_/gameId/401461469).
I am feeling Shame! Shame! Shame!