Statistically, the Seattle Kraken power play wasn’t horrible last season. Over the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign, it converted on 20.7 percent of its opportunities, ranking 17th in the NHL. But as the season progressed, even an untrained eye could recognize what the team was trying to do. The play became stagnant and—at times—downright predictable.

Players would get into their 1-3-1 positions, barely move their feet, and look for a pass, usually to Jared McCann, who would be sneaking down from the blue line to the top of the left circle. If that didn’t work, they’d scamper back to their positions and try again.

Now, the Kraken have a new coaching staff at the helm, and Dan Bylsma has tasked Bob Woods and Jessica Campbell with making the power play units more dynamic.

“Jess and Woody have done a great job of just giving us the tools and just giving us the options to kind of keep moving and open up plays that maybe we wouldn’t have seen before,” McCann said. “And they’re giving us some leeway with doing our own thing, too, which we like… We’re not just looking for the same plays anymore.”

We began to see this more fluid approach in the preseason when the Kraken mixed and matched NHL, AHL, and even CHL personnel on their power play chances, which resulted in an uninspiring 2-for-26 success rate.

“We’re only going to talk about the percentage, but the power play and penalty kill are factors in every game,” Bylsma added. “And that’s not just from scoring goals or keeping goals out of the net. It’s about gaining momentum for your team and creating opportunities.”

Let’s dig in to understand the updates the Kraken have made to their power play this season.

Upgraded personnel showing some flashes

Bylsma highlighted a few specific preseason power plays that looked the way he wanted them to look. These included opportunities in the last meaningless game against Edmonton, in which the team nearly scored on multiple occasions, and the final power play in Calgary in Seattle’s penultimate exhibition game. Ironically, the Kraken went 0-for-5 in that game against the Flames with the man advantage, but then came out for a sixth opportunity early in the third period and immediately converted.

On that goal in Calgary, all five players touched the puck, using a mix of exterior and seam passes. Shane Wright ultimately cleaned up a rebound for what looked like an easy goal.

In Seattle’s season-opening 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, the Kraken only got one power play opportunity, and neither of the two units converted during the two-minute advantage. But even in that small sample size, you could see what the team was trying to do, and both units came within inches of tying the game.

For that contest, the units consisted of Brandon Montour, Chandler Stephenson, Shane Wright, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Jaden Schwartz on one, and Vince Dunn, Andre Burakovsky, Matty Beniers, McCann, and Jordan Eberle on the other. We had previously assumed the Dunn-backed unit was the No. 1 power play, but Montour’s group went over the boards first on Tuesday. On paper, these two groupings present a greater scoring threat than what Seattle iced last season.

“Chan is so, so smooth with the puck, he’s such a great skater. He’s going to help us a lot on the entries, and he can make a play. He can also shoot the puck pretty well, too,” McCann said. “Monty back there adds a little level of poise, and he’s got a missile, too, obviously. You saw that in the last [preseason game] when he blew one through the goalie. So I feel like we’ve added some threats to our team, some bigger options, and it’s going to open up everybody else too, myself included.”

Regardless of which group is PP1 and which is PP2, both have so far looked notably different from last season.

More movement, more “freedom”

During that lone 5-on-4 Tuesday, there were two great opportunities to score, both of which came after stretches of strong player and puck movement. The first chance came from the Montour unit.

In the below clip, you’ll see the initial 1-3-1 setup. Montour is the “one” at the blue line, Stephenson (right halfwall), Wright (middle/“bumper” position), and Bjorkstrand (left halfwall) are the “three” in a line across the hashmarks and face-off dots, and Schwartz is the other “one” as the net-front presence. This is similar to what we saw last year and to what all NHL teams run to some degree.

In both groups, the blue line and right halfwall players act as “quarterbacks,” with the puck typically returning to them for distribution or shooting.

With 12:50 left on the clock, the stylistic change from last season becomes apparent. While last year’s team might have stuck rigidly to the 1-3-1, Stephenson shifts to the blue line, Montour moves to the left halfwall, and Bjorkstrand and Wright both push low toward the goal line. Bjorkstrand attempts a cross-crease pass to a crashing Wright, Montour reads the play and slides into the slot, and the result is a high-danger chance that rings off the crossbar.

From the PK perspective, it’s chaotic. Players are moving all around the zone, and with the numerical disadvantage, it becomes nearly impossible to stick to assignments.

“Movement is key,” Montour said. “Obviously, we’re snapping it around. You’ve got to play quick… You want to make plays and find that perfect play, but in the end, power plays are simple. You’ve got to get shots to the net and move the puck, which is what we were doing there.”

When the other unit took the ice on Tuesday, it also created confusion for the Blues killers, ending with Jordan Binnington barely fighting off a high shot from Dunn.

This group stuck more closely to the 1-3-1 formation but still showed creativity. McCann continued to act as the “climber,” starting high in the zone and looking for an opportunity to drive toward the circle. We saw this often over the last couple of seasons, to the point it became obvious Seattle was trying to get McCann the puck when he started rolling toward the net.

“I just feel like I open up other options if I’m that guy climbing because I can score coming down from pretty high,” McCann said of the theory behind the climber play. “I feel like I can get the puck to the net, and obviously, it depends on the screen, and if I can get it through the defenseman’s layer, but it’s just something I’ve always worked on.”

What’s different now is that McCann isn’t the only shooting threat. In the clip, Beniers is in the bumper position and Eberle is at the net-front. As the puck moves up the wall (11:58 left on the clock), Beniers shifts, and the Kraken overload the left side with four players (Dunn, McCann, Beniers, and Eberle).

Beniers is now in a spot we rarely saw him in last season, playing along the same wall as McCann. As expected, McCann gets rolling downhill, drawing attention from the Blues. Dunn capitalizes by finding Beniers, who walks in and shoots, putting St. Louis on the ropes. Initially, the Blues are too condensed, and then they overcompensate, becoming too spread out when the puck goes back to Dunn at the blue line. Dunn gets a great look from the top of the slot, but Binnington manages to deflect it.

**Editor’s note: How did Justin Faulk’s crosscheck to Matty’s back as the previous penalty was expiring not get called?**

Here’s the difference this season from Dunn’s point of view: “I think it’s just more freedom… We still want to be really predictable until we get into the flow of things, and then we can look to think outside the box a little bit more. But it’s nice that we don’t feel any pressure to be so stationary.

“Where guys are, they’re comfortable, and they know that if they get flipped around, they’re not running back to their spots. Everyone has the ability to play in different positions.”

Will the new Kraken power play approach work?

What we’ve seen from the Kraken power play in games and practices has been encouraging, but the results haven’t come yet. They have the personnel and game plan to confuse and challenge opposing penalty kills but need to score a couple of power-play goals to build confidence in this new approach.

Bylsma knows that improvement here is essential if Seattle wants to score more this season.

“Teams can play well by just having a good power play… some teams can,” Bylsma said. “And so the power play can establish your team game with how you operate, how they execute, and how they play.”

Has the team made enough advancement for Bylsma to like what he has seen?

“Difficult to say… That will remain a work in progress.”