With the NHL on break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, I intentionally waited until now to provide an update on the playoff chances for the Seattle Kraken (spoiler: they aren’t very good). Since the start of 2025, the Kraken have played 19 games, going 7-10-2 and falling out of the playoff picture. With 25 games remaining, they are not mathematically eliminated—winning out would give them 102 points. Since the Kraken joined the league in 2021, the lowest point total for a playoff team was 91, recorded by the Washington Capitals in 2023-24. Using that as a benchmark, the Kraken have just five losses to spare, meaning they need to go 20-5-0 (or any combination that nets 40 points) over their remaining games.
“So, you’re telling me there’s a chance!” – Lloyd Christmas, Dumb and Dumber
January and February play
To stay on pace for 95 points, the Kraken needed 20 points in January but earned only 13. In their first four games of February, they picked up just three points when they needed six. That leaves them 10 points off pace and tracking more realistically toward something in the 80’s for the second straight season (they finished with 81 in 2023-24).
There are some positives from the first part of 2025. Goal scoring is up slightly, with the Kraken averaging 3.15 goals per game, totaling 60 goals in 19 games. Joey Daccord has continued his fantastic play, posting a .917 save percentage and a 7-5-1 record over this span.
On the other hand, Philipp Grubauer has had another rough season. He went 0-5-1 in January, was pulled twice, and has since been sent down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. He struggled mightily, posting an .827 save percentage—his worst stretch of the season. It was not entirely the German goaltender’s fault, as the Kraken failed to provide goal support. During Grubauer’s starts, the Kraken managed just 13 goals or an average of 2.79 goals per game, while they scored 49 in front of Daccord, an average of 3.44 goals per game. 3.44 is a high number. For the full season, only three NHL teams have a higher goals-per-game average than 3.44: the Winnipeg Jets (3.61), Washington Capitals (3.56), and Tampa Bay Lightning (3.56).
Only time will tell if Grubauer’s tenure with the Kraken is over, but in Coachella Valley, he has posted a .933 save percentage and won his first two games.
Team tears
No, “tears” was not a typo; it was my sadness hitting the keyboard, as I officially relegated the Seattle Kraken into the “Tankers” tier.
Upcoming Schedule
There’s no sugarcoating it—the upcoming schedule is brutal. Of the remaining 25 games, 12 are against teams in the Playoff Bound tier, six against teams in the Bubble tier, and seven against teams in the Tanker tier. Unfortunately for Seattle, they only have 10 home games left, meaning 15 will be on the road. This makes the rest of the season even more challenging, as illustrated in my recent piece on home-ice advantage. On the bright side, 20 of the remaining games are against Western Conference opponents, minimizing travel demands.
Playoff Bound tier
The Kraken will face eight of the 10 teams in this tier, with the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Los Angeles Kings, and Edmonton Oilers each playing Seattle twice. These teams rank among the league’s best, but the Kraken have proven capable of scoring and are comfortable playing from behind. In fact, Seattle leads the NHL with seven wins after trailing by two goals at any point in a game.
With the #SeaKraken come from behind win last night, they now lead the league in wins after being down 2 goals at any point in a game.
— Sound Of Hockey (@soundofhockey.com) February 9, 2025 at 9:12 AM
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Bubble tier
The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the cusp of moving up to the Playoff Bound tier. They can score in bunches but were recently on the outside looking in at a playoff spot. The other teams Seattle faces in this tier are all from the Western Conference, meaning the Kraken get to embrace their new role as potential spoilers.
The Vancouver Canucks currently hold a three-point lead over the Calgary Flames for the final wild card spot. The Kraken’s recent comeback win against Calgary before the break must have stung. Utah is trying to stay competitive but sits six points out of a playoff spot and is slipping fast.
Seattle has finished its season series with the Colorado Avalanche, who just missed the Playoff Bound tier. The Western Conference playoff picture seems mostly set, with seven teams comfortably ahead. That leaves Vancouver, Calgary, Utah, and possibly St. Louis battling for the final spot.
Tankers tier
The Kraken are newcomers to the Tanker tier with this update. Their remaining games against these teams include two against the St. Louis Blues and one each against the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, and San Jose Sharks. It will be interesting to see how these teams approach the trade deadline, as many will likely make moves to reshape their rosters for next season.
Personally, I’m not a fan of tanking. I want to see the Kraken compete in every game, and I wish the NHL would find a way to reward teams that strive to win rather than tearing things down for better draft positioning—but that’s a topic for a future article.
Expectations have been lowered
Since the beginning of 2025, the Kraken have played really well, really poorly, or somewhere in between—but they’ve remained entertaining. Their two-goal comeback against Calgary is fresh in fans’ minds, but even their 2-1 loss to Winnipeg on Jan. 16 was a hard-fought, competitive game. More of that effort down the stretch is what I want to see.
With the trade deadline approaching (March 7), expect some activity from Seattle. Will they go after more prospects, target a goal scorer, or secure a backup goaltender? Sound Of Hockey’s Darren Brown recently wrote about which Kraken players could be on the move.
The Kraken’s next game is set for Feb. 22 versus the Florida Panthers, their first game back from the 4 Nations Face-Off break, which runs through Feb. 20. Kaapo Kakko is the only Kraken in the tournament and will represent Finland, whose first game is Thursday versus Team USA at 5 p.m. Pacific.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below or reach out to me on my socials.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
Seattle is very much in the running for one of the top four draft picks — (Hagens, Schaefer, Martone, and Misa) — players who have kind of separated themselves from the rest of the draft class. They’re currently in the #5 pick position. With even semi-competent play by the Preds and Sabres, the Kraken could move up a spot or two. The playoffs aren’t a realistic possibility, They don’t really even have to “tank.” The just have to keep playing the way they have been for the first 2/3 of the season.
I look forward to a fresh look next year. Too many poor starts and underperformances means that the blame has to be put on someone higher that the coaching staff but they can take the for the poor starts. This team is far away from competeting in a years to come due to the age of some of the core players.
Tank is a term that I hate because it is disrespecting their fan base. I am unsure of the talent pool of this years draft but after the top 5, it is undershelming, Utah, Vancouver and Calgary seeem to have some young players we could trade for.
Curtis keeps a close eye on the NHL Draft and recently put together The 2025 NHL Draft Big Board (https://soundofhockey.com/2025/01/16/the-2025-nhl-draft-big-board-mid-season-edition/), which gives a great breakdown of this year’s class. From what I’ve seen, the talent level drops off after the top four.
As for trades, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, but teams typically prefer to move players outside their own division before considering intra-division deals.
“He struggled mightily, posting an .827 save percentage—his worst stretch of the season. It was not entirely the German goaltender’s fault, as the Kraken failed to provide goal support.”
More undeserved Grubauer apologia. I’m not sure how his lack of goal support has anything to do with an .827 Sv%. Maybe you meant it can affect his record, but that’s like shifting blame for a pitcher’s W-L record to the team when the pitcher has an ERA of 9.00, which is just plain silly.
All I want from the rest of the season is continued progress from Beniers and Wright, and maybe a couple interesting call ups (Winterton, Nyman). I also really hope this entire coaching staff is canned after the season.
I was more pointing out that both the team and Grubauer struggled during that stretch. The Kraken have consistently played better in front of Daccord than Grubauer, which has always been a bit baffling. In theory, goal support shouldn’t be affected by the goaltender if the system remains the same—aside from potential momentum swings.
It would have been nice if they could’ve scored four goals for Gru in a game… I’m sure he wouldn’t give up five on that night including a clear-sighted game loser from 50 feet.
I’ve got to go with Boist on this one… the habitual excuse-making for Grubauer has got to stop at some point… he is what his numbers say he is.
The Kraken actually scored four goals for Grubauer twice during this stretch—a 5-4 loss to Vancouver on Jan. 2 and a 6-4 loss to Anaheim on Jan. 28. But in the other four games, they managed just five total goals, and he was pulled in two of them. So while he did have goal support in those two games, his average goal support in the other four was just 1.89. To be clear Gru has been bad, not trying to apologize for that. Just saying the Kraken could be more consistent at times as well and that does play a factor.
I think the argument to this is really that teams play a different game when they play scared annd feel that any shot on net could be a goal. Yes they looked different many games with Gru vs Daccord but that’s also because of who’s in net. Not even worth getting into the fact puck handling takes pressure off the defenders and creates quicker zone exits……
Nino makes a good point that I hadn’t considered. Shame on me since even as a former beer-leaguer I always asked our players to mind the defense when our backup goalie showed up (wearing pajamas).
So in two of the four where he didn’t get four plus goals in a loss he got pulled… so the team that’s playing from behind – a huge early hole in one of those – is having a hard time scoring on the team with a comfortable lead… weird.
If memory serves… I think three of his five wins he surrendered four or more… can we please just dispense with trying to qualify his performance?
I’m sure when he comes back he’ll be upright and tight to the crease, probably even track the puck – just like last season… it’s a mirage. He needs to be bought out… period.
Hey, totemforlife, did the pajamas have good luck or bad luck? You never know; goaltending is weird.
Despite the poor standings picture, there are a few fun things to look forward to.
1) Continued development of the young players. I’d love to see Matty and Shane get 20 goals each. I predict Kakko will continue to excel and become an important piece on The Kraken, as well as get signed anywhere from 3-7 years. Shane already arguably better than Slafkovsky…so take that Habs fans! It was kind of hilarious how Burky in his post-game interview after the Calgary game was like “I just let Shane make mistakes and let him figure it out.” Look who’s talking! Newsflash…Shane has 12 goals, and you have 5, Burky, and you make WAY MORE “mistakes” than he does. Yes, you just continue letting Shane make mistakes and maybe focus on your game.
2) As pointed out, possibly another high-ish draft pick. Maybe top 7? Top 4 would be exciting, but I think our young players and Eberle potentially returning will drag this team into some wins. Caleb Desnoyers looks great, if he’s available. Yes, he’s another center, and I can already hear the “but we already have Matty, Shane and Catton down the middle!” whining from fans. Kids who play center in Juniors can play wing in the NHL. It’s funny how people automatically assume a player like Catton (or even Matty and Shane) have to remain at center.
3) We have two more games against Vancouver, including a Saturday home game on March 1st. It might even be fun to hit Vancouver for a Wednesday road game on April 2nd. Maybe a “Welcome to The Union” trip. They should appreciate that, right? Let’s go Kraken!
Ha! Burky always has a lot to say after he’s done something good. I think might be the player with the biggest (but not deserving) ego.
I think that was humility on his part, honestly. He was saying that Wright’s success is his own doing and that Burky himself, as the veteran, is not responsible for Wright’s accomplishments.
Anyone think there’s a chance they’ll look at Ryan Donato? He might be a good one to go for, he’s in the right price range, age, and he’s played well. Blackhawks might be game.
I am concerned at what the right price is. In Chicago is he playing with Bedard on the top line. I have a hard time thinking he would be in our top 6, so paying much over his current 2 million would be a stretch for me. I don’t think he moves the needle for the Kraken either.
Does he take someone’s spot in the top 9, especially when Ebs is back? I would prefer Donato over Burakovsky, but that might be hard to engineer. He’s sort of another Yanni but can score, and I have a feeling we might just re-sign Yanni for another two years, similar to the Ebs signing. I don’t mind Yanni coming back, considering all the roles he can play (center, wing, PK).
I’d be interested to know how often teams re-sign a player – bringing them back to the fold.
You should have kept Kailer Yamamoto and given him a fair chance!
I like Yamamoto but he wasn’t going to be a factor moving forward, I think it was the right decision to move on. Why do we always watch back our old players that moved on? Yes Donato could fit into our lineup but players of his caliber are not hard to find, he’s a streaky player he has his moments. The only player I feel we really messed up on is Geekie, he’s would have given us an option at center in our top nine and a young and less expensive option to “chandler”.
Ah yes. The two most important things you want in a hockey player on your team. Younger and less expensive. Why doesn’t everyone think of this?
Not every team but the kraken yes… the bruins are a deeper better team then the kraken overall and have a better record although they will hopefully miss the playoffs. Geekie is playing on their top line… you can’t honestly say you would not prefer him to Chandler at half the price and basically twice as much playing time ahead of him? He was looking good at the end of his time with the kraken and looked like he was just starting to figure out how to use his size, it was a very poor decision to not resign him.
They tried to resign him – Geekie wanted out. That’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Turbo, he wanted off the 4th line and he deserved to be off the 4th line. He probably would have resigned if we made a commitment to more playing time. But yes your right water under the bridge, we move on.
Despite his 3 assists and MVP award, Crosby looked like an old man in Canada’s 4 Nations win over Sweden. He’s 37! They should have a younger guy in there, like Morgan Geekie! Geekie is 11 years younger! At least he’s only 7 years older than Chandler. 😂
So now you’re comparing Crosby to Chandler and Geekie 😂 keep trying.
You started it by comparing Morgan Geekie to a 2-time Stanley Cup champion who is only 4 years older.
11 years is more than half of some players’ age!!
To me tanking done right is giving young players a chance to develop. It always involves great effort, just not maximizing chances to win with your best players on the ice.
It also involves trading players who would bring more wins but don’t fit culture or fit well in the future.
Tanking is focusing on the future more than the now. So hard work and committed are still there, it’s just focused differently.
What if you “tank” and you still suck in the future? Does that mean you tried your hardest but failed? Is there a time limit on the tanking?
I’m not part of the intentional tank team. I think we should trade a few parts that are not in our long term plans, try to get younger. I’d be happy to keep around a few vets as long as it’s not long term over inflated contracts only brought in to try to sell tickets.
So it’s looking like the Ducks are gonna finish sixth, seventh or eighth in the Pacific for the seventh season in a row… that sounds like a serious commitment to tanking. They landed phenom Trevor Zegras, managed to trade for a top prospect in Cutter Gauthier and even finished No.1 in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes only to watch Chicago take him while they got Leo Carlson at No.2… who in his second season is posting numbers trailing Shane Wright’s…. and Beckett Sennecke is still at least a couple years away.
But maybe the solid pick they’re gonna get at No.6 this draft will be the missing piece… it doesn’t really seem like having their young guys get caved in year after year is really working to “develop” them… but it’ll no doubt be different when Seattle does it. Anaheim seems like they’re the team of the future… and always will be.
I think you can develop players without stripping away every player of value and throwing the young to the wolves.
But maybe not… I’m not against trading away veterans to maximize their value. I do think teams who engage in wholesale “tanking” are typically worse off for it rather than better.
Speaking of which I was just looking at our 2022 draft class. Wright/circus/Nyman/kokko, I would not be surprised to see all 4 of those players in our top six if not nine eventually. Obviously not kokko he’d probably not do well on the wing 😂. The circus is a bit of a question mark but I feel he’ll develop into a second or third line winger, hopefully anyway.
There is some confusion out there that Seattle is in a position for a “rebuild” in it’s 4th season. It’s just called “building”.
Exactly!!! I find this so annoying. This is kind of hand-in-hand with Wyshynski’s comments in the interview… ‘I don’t know what they’re doing’… and that is the national perspective, but it’s also the take from folks at the Times.
They’ve been pretty clear… they are BUILDING through the draft. They have been accumulating picks and developing prospects. Somehow folks seems to think Chandler Stephenson was some sort of “going for it” signing when – as Elliotte Friedman conveyed – he was brought in to help develop Wright and Beniers. Shipping out any winger other than Kakko, buying out Grubauer, or trading away Oleksiak IS NOT REBUILDING! It’s simply sticking with the plan.
It seemed to me Ron Francis was pretty flummoxed by the season two performance in just about every interview I saw him in. I think he recognized that as a SH% fluke and more of a “bump in the road”, but I think most folks – myself included – thought of that as actual progress… and so now this idea of “rebuilding” is based on something that was never actually built.
I’d like it if someone would actually points out to folks in the national media – and the local media – that the core of this team isn’t Eberle, McCann, and Larsson… it’s the back end (Daccord, Dunn, Montour) and down the middle (Beniers, Wright, Catton) and the players they develop will round out the lineup… and then – and maybe soon – you add some high-end help on the wing.
This isn’t a “Buffalo” rebuild, it’s an expansion build.
Go Kraken!!!