“Down on the Farm” is your weekly update on all things Seattle Kraken prospects. This week we’ll check on the progress of Kraken prospect Oscar Fisker Mølgaard in Sweden, get you notes on Tyson Jugnauth and Kim Saarinen, scouting video on Clarke Caswell, data from the last week, and the schedule ahead. 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 or BlueSky @deepseahockey. Let’s dig in.
Scouting Oscar Fisker Mølgaard’s two-way game
As Kraken director of player development Jeff Tambellini noted to Sound Of Hockey in an interview last month, one of the Kraken’s most exciting but underexposed prospects is 2023 second-round pick Oscar Fisker Mølgaard. Mølgaard, 19, is a Danish-born center currently playing for HV71 in the SHL.
At the draft, Mølgaard was highly regarded for his maturity, intelligence, skating, and defensive skill, but there was some question at the time about his ultimate offensive upside. He’s not big and didn’t stand out as a finisher. While he had the foundations of a playmaker, there was reason for concern that his success in achieving a bottom-of-the-lineup role in the SHL at an exceedingly young age could actually stunt his playmaking progress. It is hard to develop that aspect playing in a low-minutes, defense-first role, particularly in the notoriously low-scoring SHL.
Mølgaard has beaten those doubts so far by progressing as a scorer this season. Mølgaard’s .65 points per game are fourth-most among all under-25 players in the SHL. He has come by many of those points by stressing the defense and creating space for pinpoint passes with his speed.
Equally important to Mølgaard’s scoring uptick has been his increased ability to engage physically on the forecheck. Right off the opening draw in the video above, Mølgaard uses his speed to limit the retrieving defender’s first option and then pursues finishing with a check to disrupt the alternative breakout and help force a neutral-zone turnover. These are vital ingredients for NHL success for a player like Mølgaard who doesn’t come with high-flying offensive skills.
There is significant development work still ahead. Mølgaard needs to get bigger if he is going to play his game and hold up at the NHL level; even in the SHL he missed significant time to injury earlier this season. His shot needs continued development too.
But Mølgaard has demonstrated a varied and translatable base of skills that give me a lot of confidence in his NHL future. Even when he isn’t scoring (he doesn’t have a point in his last six games), he’s still making an impact on the game with his hockey intelligence, skating, and effort level. I’m currently working on my mid-season Kraken prospect rankings, and he’s going to be (very) high on the list.
Notes on three Kraken prospects
Kim Saarinen | G | HPK (Liiga)
Goalie Kim Saarinen leads Liiga, the top-level Finnish pro league, with a .917 save percentage in 20 games played as an 18-year-old rookie. To put his performance in a bit more context, only five other goaltenders in Liiga history have equalled or surpassed Saarinen’s .917 save percentage in 20 games as an 18-year-old. One of them, Veini Vehviläinen, had only a brief NHL career. The other four are Kari Lehtonen (No. 2 overall pick, 649 NHL games), Tuukka Rask (Vezina Trophy winner, 564 NHL games), Juuse Saros (391 NHL games and counting), and Ville Husso (141 NHL games and counting).
Tyson Jugnauth | D | Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
Defenseman Tyson Jugnauth’s sustained run of offensive production for the Portland Winterhawks puts him in rare company. His 1.45 points per game is tied for the highest output of any WHL defender in the last 30 years. Only two other WHL defenders have topped 1.4 points per game in that span. Olen Zellweger did it twice, in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and Denton Mateychuk did it last season.
Jugnauth is older than both of those players were at the time they achieved their prolific scoring seasons and doesn’t come with the same scouting pedigree. But Mateychuk and Zellweger are rough facsimiles of Jugnauth’s profile as sub-six-foot, offense-first defensemen. Mateychuk is on the verge of establishing himself as an NHL regular after a highly productive AHL run, and Zellweger has been been playing a mid-lineup role for the Anaheim Ducks this season. The Kraken are certainly hoping Jugnauth’s career evolves along the same trajectory.
Clarke Caswell | F | Swift Current Broncos (WHL)
Forward Clarke Caswell continues to drive offense for Swift Current. The playmaker’s 63 points are second on the team and 19th in the WHL. Check out his shifts from Swift Current’s Jan. 17 game against Lukas Dragicevic and the Prince Albert Raiders.
Kraken prospects data update
With this update coming a day late to make room for Kraken trade analysis, it actually spans the last eight days, rather than our usual seven. A couple notable performances made it in under the wire Friday night, including Berkly Catton’s four-goal game in Seattle against the Thunderbirds.
"My goodness was that a work of art" 🎨
— Spokane Chiefs (@spokanechiefs) February 8, 2025
#27 with goal 27 on 2/7 and that's the first 4-goal game in @TheWHL for Berkly Catton.#GoChiefsGo | @SeattleKraken pic.twitter.com/kMNHQwyBjI
To preserve the integrity of the esteemed Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week award—which is intended to recognize the best performance from last Friday through Thursday—I tried to ignore this offensive outburst from Catton. I’m not sure I was successful, but I think Catton earned the award anyway, since he put up 2.33 points per game in the seven days before Friday’s game. Catton now stands alone with three Prospect of the Week awards. His 1.95 points per game is third in the WHL behind only teammate Andrew Cristall and 2026 NHL Draft prospect Gavin McKenna.
The other “notable” Friday-night performance came from Carson Rehkopf who had a hat trick and three assists in a Brampton Steelheads win. Remarkably, Rehkopf now has 10 hat tricks in his OHL career. His 1.67 points per game this season is eighth in the OHL.
Despite ranking near the top of the KHL in save percentage, goalie Semyon Vyazovoy is still struggling to take firm control of the net for his KHL team Salavat Yulaev Ufa. In fact, this past week he was sent down to the VHL, the second-level Russian pro league, where he got three starts and performed well. The KHL isn’t a “developmental” league, and that sometimes leads to odd personnel decisions if the KHL team thinks there is a chance the player will be leaving for the NHL. I’m not sure that’s what is going on here, but Vyazovoy’s status is worth monitoring.
He’s not exactly a prospect, but Philipp Grubauer has been in net twice for the Firebirds since his waiver, and so far so good. The Firebirds won both games, and Grubauer has a .933 save percentage.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Berkly Catton: 3
Clarke Caswell: 2
Tyson Jugnauth: 2
Alexis Bernier: 1
Andrei Loshko: 1
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1
Victor Östman: 1
Caden Price: 1
Kim Saarinen: 1
Nathan Villeneuve: 1
Ryan Winterton: 1
Semyon Vyazovoy: 1
Previewing the week ahead
While not on the schedule below, Ben MacDonald and the Harvard University Crimson will take on the Northeastern Huskies on Monday, Feb. 10, in the third-place game at the 2025 Beanpot tournament.
Recent prospect updates
January 31, 2025: Measuring the performance of the Seattle Kraken prospect pool
January 24, 2025: Tyson Jugnauth is putting on a show in Portland
January 17, 2025: Jani Nyman’s scoring, 2025 NHL Draft coverage
January 10, 2025: Interview with Kraken director of player development Jeff Tambellini
January 3, 2025: Stock Up, Stock Down for Kraken prospects at the World Junior Championship
December 20, 2024: Kraken system after the Kaapo Kakko trade, David Goyette’s progress, and World Juniors
December 13, 2024: Three Kraken prospects make Team Canada WJC roster
December 6, 2024: Seattle Kraken goalie prospects progressing in the professional ranks
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.
Berkeley Catton looks like he can be the real deal. Hopefully not in the to distant future.
Go Kraken!!!
I can’t recall if this has come up before… any murmurs on Catton moving over to the NCAA next season? I feel like that might be a worthwhile step between Junior and the AHL for him.
Catton is ineligible to go the NCAA route since he signed his pro contract already. Thus it’s possible you could see someone like Clarke Caswell (who is currently unsigned) take that route while Catton is “stuck” back in the WHL next season. Not ideal for Catton to go back but we could be headed for that if he doesn’t make the Kraken. He’s ineligible for the AHL under the transfer agreement as it currently exists (though it’s possible that changes too; a lot to be figured out this offseason after the NCAA rule change).
Thanks… forgot he already signed. That’s something I hadn’t considered with the new arrangement… will teams or CHL players delay signing to maintain eligibility to transfer? I do think Catton could be better placed with a college team rather than going back to junior.
Lots of unknowns still to sort.
Any chance of an exception for Catton to go to the AHL early? Didn’t Wright get something similar?
I tend to doubt that an exception would be made based on the Shane Wright precedent (Wright was *such* a unique case relating to COVID, among other things; and it involved the OHL, not the WHL), however it’s not impossible dynamics change this offseason due to the NCAA rule change. I still doubt he makes it to the AHL next year, but it’s within the range of possible/wouldn’t be shocking.
This sucks for BC.
Coincidentally, a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by CHL players (and related junior player associations in US and Canada) against the CHL and NHL was dismissed last November in New York court. The presiding judge dismissed it because of insufficient evidence, i.e. because junior hockey doesn’t have a sufficient nexus (footprint) in the state thus a NY court wasn’t the appropriate jurisdiction to hear this case. Obviously, the suit was filed in New York because (legal arguments or not) no Canadian court would ever risk killing their country’s Golden Goose.
Given the NCCA’s ruling to allow CHL players to play college hockey, college hockey now becomes the most obvious path for any high-end prospect (side note: going forward it shouldn’t matter whether or not a player has signed a pro contract – the courts will take care of this in due course). Play two years in the CHL and then move on to college hockey and escape the toxic, abusive culture the CHL propagates (and has tried to hide for decades). Earn a modest amount of NIL $, and if good enough, take the pro hockey route. If not, make progress toward a college degree (sounds quant, doesn’t it?)
Add on top of that not being beholden the asinine, exploitive CHL-NHL transfer agreement. Play (at age 20) in whatever league is best for THE PLAYER’S development and be liberated from the CHL’s self-serving, indentured servitude model. Given its proclivity to protect the current system (the status quo is just too lucrative) external dynamics (NCAA and legal system) will have to force the change. To have any chance of surviving, the CHL needs to reform itself. If not, in 10 years it will look more like Junior A hockey.
Thanks for the great weekly column, I really enjoy it. Is Firkus really over 6 feet tall? Can’t wait to find out next year who will be playing for the Kraken.
No; good call out. The data in the ‘overall’ skater chart got misaligned when I was updating it to include Fridays games. Will fix it.
I saw that too, ha.
Also… big oof forJakub Fibigr… I assume he scored an own-goal as his lone mark on the stat sheet this week (EDIT: I forgot he had an assist as well. The underlying point [or lack thereof] remains)? Not great, Bob!
Oof. I had that fixed on Friday and then forgot about it when I updated the stats Saturday morning. My theory is one of his earlier goals was changed from a goal to an assist (maybe because it was tipped?) and that threw off my “last seven days” numbers. I’ll fix that (again) too. Thanks for the call out.
No worries! A clerical error is far preferable to my alternative theory when we’re talking about baby squids.
Thanks for putting these together each week… I’ve been really enjoying getting to know the kids down on the farm (I’ve learned about myself that I tend to be a prospects-guy for my chosen teams. Mariners minor leagues, NFL draft prospects, Kraken prospects… these are my jam and where I derive enjoyment it turns out!) and this has been an educational and entertaining series.
How does Vyazovoy keep putting up great numbers and keep getting sent down? Could it really be deliberate career sabotage? Francis has got to get that guy out of Russia. Unless Saaranen is ready for the AHL, the Firebirds are going to need a good young goalie to play behind Nikke Kokko anyway once Stezka leaves. Vyazovoy is unproven in North America, but, if he can’t make it right away in Coachella Valley, Kansas City would be a good place to learn, and we can trust that the Mavericks will be committed to developing his game.
Curtis,
Regarding Tyson Jugnauth Folks always seem to discount performance numbers for players in their “over-age” season. In terms of ability, do you see any similarities to Ryker Evans (and his trajectory) or are they completely differenct players?