This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Sound Of Hockey Podcast segment in written form. We will likely skip next week for the holidays, so this may be our last 2024 update. That means there is a lot to get to, including the state of the Seattle Kraken system after the Kaapo Kakko trade, how World Junior Championship camps are progressing, a reader question on Kraken prospect David Goyette’s progress in the AHL, and all of the statistics you can handle.

As always, if you have a prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on Bluesky at @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com. Let’s get to it.

David Goyette battling adversity in rookie AHL season

In the comments to last week’s column, Chuck H requested a “highlight on David Goyette, who seems to have disappeared down in CV.” I had been meaning to write on Goyette for a while, so thanks for the prompting, Chuck.

Before the season, I had Goyette as Seattle’s ninth-best prospect, just behind his Coachella Valley teammate Jagger Firkus. At the time I praised Goyette’s easy four-way mobility but said he “needs to prove he can produce without the space his junior play speed afforded him.”

Fast forward to today, David Goyette has played 20 AHL games, been scratched several times, and only has one goal and one assist to show for it so far. (For the sake of comparison, Jagger Firkus has six goals and eight assists in 25 games.)

What has held Goyette back? To me it looks like he is still trying to catch up with the pace of the professional game mentally. Similar in a way to the adversity Shane Wright faced in his early dose of NHL action in the 2022-23 season, you can almost see Goyette processing the play and responding, rather than anticipating and moving instinctually. This costs him a step or two, which is particularly devastating to him because it negates his greatest strength—the ability to beat players with speed and in space.

This inability to leverage his speed to create advantages also seems to have taken a toll on his confidence, as he is hesitant working through contact of any kind and frequently looking to defer rather than possess. (Here, again, his struggles remind me of Wright’s transition period.) Goyette is never going to be a grinder on the boards, but he is a non-entity when checked right now. During the run of play, he often defaults to floating off the puck, rather than pressing a play, which lessens his touches and overall impact.

These difficulties have taken a toll on his ice time and production. In the last few weeks he has not had a special teams role, and his even-strength time on ice has topped out in the 12-minute area. (This is an estimate; the AHL does not make time-on-ice data available.)

The silver lining here is that the pure movement skills are still evident, and presumably the creativity and playmaking that made him a standout junior player are still in there somewhere if he can start playing faster and can get himself the space to use those skills. Wright has more physicality and a broader skill set, but the template is there for a player to take a leap once he “gets it” at the professional level.

It has been a disappointing start, but I’m not writing Goyette off. Most players of his ilk spend a couple years at the AHL level before getting a shot in the NHL. If he can start putting things together over the second half of the season, he could lay the groundwork for a much more productive 2025-26 season in the AHL and be right on track. We’ll be watching closely.

The Kraken system after the Kakko trade

Earlier this week, the Seattle Kraken made waves by acquiring 23-year-old forward Kaapo Kakko from the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen and two draft picks, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2025 sixth-round pick. Darren Brown covered the dynamics of the deal here.

From a system perspective, it makes sense to me that Seattle would be looking to consolidate its broad base of system assets into a potential impact piece at the NHL level. As we have covered in this space previously, the Kraken have as many high-scoring, high-floor prospects as virtually any team in the league. They have done well “hitting” on likely NHL players in the draft and undrafted free agency. But the team is still searching for true difference-makers. So, whether that means moving a few draft picks or a few top-10 prospects, I think the Kraken are wise to start taking swings, particularly on players in Kakko’s age range.

As for the 2025 draft, the Kraken still have their first- and second-round picks, as well as two fourth-round picks. So, the team still has plenty of capital to make further improvements—whether in making those selections or otherwise. If the season trends away from playoff contention before the deadline, the team will almost certainly be able to recoup the lost draft picks by moving “rental” players like Brandon Tanev, while still having Kakko under team control into the 2025-26 season. This was a fine piece of business by the team.

Looking ahead to the World Junior Championship

Last week we covered the eight Seattle Kraken prospects on national team rosters for the 2025 World Junior Championship. Since then, national team training camps have gotten underway in earnest. Team Canada played an exhibition game against Team Switzerland, and Berkly Catton scored. Canada has taken a long look at line combinations that paired Catton with Carson Rehkopf, though it moved away from that pairing on Friday.

Since we are unlikely to have another update before the tournament gets underway, here is the schedule of games. In the United States, NHL Network will carry all Team USA games and many others.

Last weekend, Team Denmark qualified for the 2026 World Junior Championship thanks in no small part to the contributions of Oscar Fisker Mølgaard. (That said, Mølgaard will be too old to participate in next year’s tournament.)

Let’s Get Quizzical

Kraken prospect Nikke Kokko has appeared in 10 games at the AHL level. He is one of only two goalies under the age of 22 to play that many games in the AHL so far this season. Can you name the other one? (Hint: There is a Seattle connection.) The answer comes later in the post.

Kraken prospect data update

With several prominent players participating in the World Juniors, it was a relatively light week of club hockey play for Seattle’s prospect pool. Andrei Loshko scored three goals and added four assists in his last three games, which earns him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.

Ollie Josephson hasn’t played since Nov. 30, 2024, which suggests he is likely dealing with some sort of injury.

The sample size is relatively small still due to injury and international play, but Mølgaard’s .67 points-per-game pace is impressive for a player his age in the SHL. The 19-year-old ranks third in points per game among all players 23 years old or younger in that league.

Kraken goalie prospects had anther strong week. Semyon Vyazovoy got two starts in the VHL (the second-level professional league in Russia) as he continues to look for more KHL time.

As mentioned above, Kokko is one of only two goalies under 22 years old to have started at least 10 games so far this season. The other? Former Seattle Thunderbird Thomas Milic.

2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker

Clarke Caswell: 2

Berkly Catton: 2

Alexis Bernier: 1

Andrei Loshko: 1

Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1

Tyson Jugnauth: 1

Victor Östman: 1

Caden Price: 1

Previewing the week ahead

Here is your preview for the next two weeks of Kraken prospect hockey. Thank you so much for following along, and from everyone here at Sound Of Hockey, we wish you and yours a happy and restful holiday season.

Previous prospect updates

December 13, 2024: Three Kraken prospects make Team Canada WJC roster

December 6, 2024: Seattle Kraken goalie prospects progressing in the professional ranks

November 29, 2024: Data check in at U.S. Thanksgiving

November 22, 2024: Projecting the Seattle Kraken’s right defense prospects

November 15, 2024: Will an NCAA ruling change the landscape for Seattle Kraken prospects?

November 8, 2024: Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus is doing the little things necessary to succeed

November 1, 2024: ‘No days off’ approach for Kraken prospect Clarke Caswell

October 25, 2024: Kraken prospect Eduard Sale’s “tryout” in Coachella Valley is going well

October 18, 2024: Kraken prospect Andrei Loshko filling the stat sheet in the OHL