We know win-loss preseason results don’t matter. I would also caution against overvaluing individual performances. The sample size is small; quality of teammates and competition vary much more widely than in the regular season; and players may be playing their first games with new teammates or trying to work on a certain aspect of their game instead of their normal approach.
That said, preseason data is all we have to go on so far, and it’s typically unavailable in aggregate form in the public sphere. So, with a healthy heap of salt, let’s take a look at the preseason performance of Seattle’s skaters and highlight a few standout areas to see what we can learn about the Kraken. Unless otherwise noted, the data was drawn from Natural Stat Trick.
Tilting the ice
Among forwards with at least 20 minutes of 5-on-5 time on ice, no one boosted the team in terms overall shot share more than Tye Kartye. We brought him up on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast as a player looking for his shot more going into his second full season. Hopefully, the preseason is a springboard for him into the regular season.
On the other end of the spectrum, the team gave up far more than it generated in terms of overall shot count when Matty Beniers and Chandler Stephenson were on the ice. As seen in the chart below, neither generated much at 5-on-5 in terms of shot quality off their own sticks, nor was the team generating positive overall shot quality share with them on the ice. These are two key players to Seattle’s success, and the team will be looking to them to start tilting the ice in the other direction once the games start counting for real.
Defensively, Brandon Montour has been delivering offense, as expected. Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn (in limited ice time) fared well, particularly defensively. The most notable performances were by Ville Ottavainen, who was an offensive boon for shot attempts, and Maxime Lajoie, who interestingly killed shots both for and against with equal measure.
When looking at individual shot quality and overall team success, Montour and Jamie Oleksiak–who quietly performs well while rarely ever being discussed–stood out. The early returns suggest this could be a very strong two-way defensive pair.
Overall, Kartye and Shane Wright drove the most offense when they were on the ice at 5-on-5. Beniers and Jared McCann struggled, though I have few concerns about McCann, given his track record.
Carrying the power play
Shifting focus to the revamped power play unit, among players who logged more than two minutes on the man advantage, no one stood out for his shot quality contributions more than Wright. He led the team with four high-danger chances on the power play, per Natural Stat Trick.
This matches the eye test from the preseason, where he was a menace down low, particularly on rebound opportunities. From my vantage, Wright should be getting heavy minutes on the first unit power-play until he proves he can’t do it.
Standout young players
While I didn’t include them in the charts above due to exceedingly small sample sizes, a couple players who only saw one game created truly excellent outcomes when they were on the ice. Nathan Villeneuve earned the goal he scored, with .54 individual expected goals created in just over 12 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. His 2.67 expected goals per 60 minutes was by far the highest rate on the team, surpassing Kartye’s figure in three games. And no player tilted shot quality farther in favor of the Kraken than Lleyton Roed. The Kraken had almost 92 percent of shot quality share when Roed played 5-on-5.
Team-level shot quality indicators show areas for growth
Overall, the Kraken shot quality share was solid. The team took 52.4 percent of total shot attempts and 53.6 percent of shot quality overall when playing 5-on-5 this preseason. The numbers were similar in all situations, with the Kraken remaining above 50 percent in each category.
Seattle’s special teams units are still a work in progress, though. The power play generated only 5.87 expected goals per 60 minutes according to Natural Stat Trick, which is a poor rate, significantly trailing last year’s mediocre 7.03 rate, per HockeyViz. Likewise the penalty kill struggled, conceding 8.94 expected goals against per 60 minutes, which trails last season’s 7.75 rate–again per HockeyViz. The sample size is extraordinarily small, and it is clear the team is still working on new things–particularly on the power play–so some ramp up time is to be expected. But this underscores the importance of growth on special teams if the team is going to get to where it wants to go at the end of the season.
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Anything else you’re curious about in the team’s preseason data? Drop us a note below or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
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.