Saying the past week perfectly encapsulates the season might be a bit dramatic, but the Kraken’s pendulum swings over the past few games felt wider than usual, reminiscent of the vibes earlier this season. This team has some signature wins against great opponents—Carolina, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Vegas—but also some brutal losses, including Chicago and San Jose… twice. I know this is the National Hockey League, where anyone can beat anyone on a given night, but I can’t recall another Kraken season with such extreme Jekyll-and-Hyde performances.
In case you missed it, the Kraken opened their light week with a brutal 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues in what was arguably their worst game of the season. The Blues are a desperate team fighting to stay in the playoff race, but that’s no excuse for how poorly the Kraken played. The players knew it, too, and acknowledged as much in postgame interviews.
After a 7-2 loss on Monday, Jared McCann described an “embarrassing” performance in St. Louis:
“We’ve got to play for the logo on the front, right? It’s an honor obviously to be in the NHL.” #SeaKraken
» https://t.co/2VLyCfNYz3 pic.twitter.com/0CS2PX5vKU
— 93.3 KJR (@933KJR) February 26, 2025
The Kraken then returned to Climate Pledge Arena for their first home game since Feb. 6 to face the Vancouver Canucks. From the opening puck drop, the tone was set with hustle and physical play, as players finished their checks. The Kraken struck first on a slick backhand pass from Shane Wright that set up Andre Burakovsky for a one-timer.
Though the first period ended with Vancouver leading 2-1, the game had a different feel—there was fight and effort, something completely absent in St. Louis. If the Kraken were going down, they were going down swinging. They responded with three second-period goals and never looked back. The atmosphere inside CPA was electric, and the win—Seattle’s first at home since Jan. 30—felt long overdue.
Other musings
- It’s been clear for a while that the Kraken won’t make the playoffs this season, and in terms of long-term success, the best outcome would be losing more often to improve their odds in the NHL Draft lottery. But I don’t care. I’d rather see them go on a run and miss the playoffs than win the lottery.
- The win against Vancouver marked Seattle’s fifth home victory on a Saturday night this season. Last year, they didn’t win a single Saturday home game.
- The 6-3 win was also the 14th time this season the Kraken have scored five or more goals in a game. They only did that 10 times last season.
- Three of those goals were tip-ins—the most tip-in goals they’ve ever had in a single game—and they were all beauties.
the seattle kraken are *excellent* tippers 💅 pic.twitter.com/dDq9Oiz3oF
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) March 2, 2025
- Since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the Kraken have had just six power-play opportunities—their fewest in any four-game stretch this season. The downside? We haven’t gotten much of a look at the new power-play unit, specifically Kaapo Kakko, Shane Wright, Matty Beniers, Jaden Schwartz, and Vince Dunn. That group will be something to watch down the stretch.
- Eeli Tolvanen’s two goals on Saturday night were his 17th and 18th of the season, matching a career high with 21 games remaining. Not bad for a waiver claim.
- With Mitchell Stephens back in Coachella Valley and Yanni Gourde still on injured reserve, Tolvanen played on the penalty kill for the first time this season. He logged 2:17 of ice time as the Kraken successfully killed off all four minutes of Vancouver’s power plays.
- If you haven’t seen Kraken coach Jessica Campbell on Hockey Night in Canada, you should. It’s a great segment.
- It’s hard to imagine heading into the offseason with “backup goalie” as the Kraken’s top priority, especially for a team likely to finish in the bottom seven. But that might be the case. The Kraken’s points percentage with Philipp Grubauer is just .262, compared to Joey Daccord’s .566. It’s tough to say exactly what a serviceable backup would have meant for the team, but with a league-average option, they’d probably still be in the playoff picture. By the way, Grubauer was recalled from Coachella Valley on Sunday and is now back with the Kraken.
- The battle for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference has turned into a chaotic mess, with no team seizing control. Calgary currently holds the last spot, but they’ve been struggling lately.
- Not sure if anyone caught the NHL’s outdoor game over the weekend, featuring the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets at The Horseshoe, but it was a fantastic game with some incredible tributes to Johnny Gaudreau. While outdoor games have lost some of their mass appeal, I still enjoy them and think two or three per year is the right number.
Goal of the week
I already mentioned the tip-in goals, but I loved the entire Shane-to-Burky sequence. It really set the tone in the building that night.
1-0 #SeaKraken
Hughes' pass is off target. Wright jumps on the loose puck, rushes into the zone, and feeds Burakovsky with the cross slot pass
— Alison Lukan (@alisonl.bsky.social) March 1, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Player performances
Jani Nyman (CVF/SEA) – Li’l Jani put up three points in the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ 6-5 win over the San Diego Gulls on Friday night. I expect we’ll see him in Seattle for a handful of NHL games down the stretch.
Clarke Caswell (SCB/SEA) – The Kraken’s fifth-round pick from the 2024 NHL Draft tallied four assists in two games over the weekend. The forward now has 75 points in 56 games this season.
Ryan Donato (CHI) – The former Kraken forward has two goals and three assists in his last three games. With a trade expected this week, he remains an easy player to root for come playoff time.
The week ahead
The Kraken have four games on the schedule this week, starting with a home matchup against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. They’ll then hit the road for three games—Thursday in Nashville, followed by a back-to-back against Philadelphia and Washington over the weekend. Seattle already has wins against Minnesota, Nashville, and Philadelphia this season, so there’s an opportunity to string some victories together.
Now that Philipp Grubauer has been recalled, I wonder if he’ll see game action before the back-to-back. There’s no sugarcoating his struggles this season, but I’d like to see him play and hopefully regain some confidence.
Trade deadline
As much as I wish the focus this week was solely on the games, that won’t be the case with Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline looming. Things have been quiet on the Kraken front, but movement is picking up around the league. Nothing has changed since we published our Kraken trade deadline primer weeks ago, but that won’t stop me from speculating.
One potential trade partner for the Kraken could be the Washington Capitals. They’re reportedly looking for a depth center, and Yanni Gourde fits that mold. The Capitals expect Ryan Leonard to join the team after his season at Boston College, making him a key part of their future at center. If that happens, Hendrix Lapierre could become a valuable trade chip. While a Kraken trade for Lapierre specifically might not be in the cards, that’s the type of move I hope Seattle makes at the deadline.
There is still a good possibility that Gourde signs an extension to stay in Seattle for a few more seasons. If that happens, the Kraken could be in for a quiet deadline.
That’s all for this week! If you have any thoughts or questions, drop them in the comments.
At this point, great move bringing Gru back up. Losing at this stage is potentially winning, and it’s still fun to watch a team trying to win, as you point out. Gru satisfies those contradictory objectives nicely, plus I think he’s missed in the room.
Hopefully we can re-sign Yanni. I would like to see two years. We need to have a proper roster of pros to help develop our young players. I don’t think that means we will have a quiet deadline week, though. Turbo, Oleksiak and maybe even Burky (who has won two Cups) could be attractive depth pieces for contending teams. Turbo to Winnipeg for a real chance at a Cup would be cool to watch. I might even buy a Tanev Pegger jersey if that happens.
After another win where he surrendered five, I’ve got to think bringing Grubauer back is all about the bobble-head.
He even had a sub-.900 Sv% down in CV. Methinks his career as an NHL goalie is coming to an end after this season. I can’t imagine him getting much more than an AHL tryout contract next year.
I’d be okay with him getting a nice “Grubauer appreciation start” against Minnesota… but beyond that, I don’t know that I want to see him on the road trip for the back-to-back this weekend.
Or he might be able to play in Europe. No shame in that, especially if a team in Switzerland wants you. There are way worse things in life than living in Lugano or Davos and getting paid to play hockey.
As I thought earlier in the season, the only sure thing about this team is they would drive me crazy. How many times have we seen abject brain fart scenarios, e.g. losing players during line and D changes leading to embarrassingly easy goals by the opposition. This gets down to players’ lack of focus and discipline and it’s been happening for two seasons now. Which means bad coaching. I’m certainly no expert, but I think this team needs a John Tortorella type coach. A coach who – if players make these types of mistakes – will crawl so far and so hard up their asses they can taste him for breakfast. This is a team of veteran players who should know better. If nothing else works maybe a little fear factor will help.
Dunn needs this big time. He has been such a disappointment defensively this year. He had yet ANOTHER cookie that led right to Suter’s goal. How many is that for him this year? 5? 10?? He’s become a turnover machine.
Off topic, one has to admire and be Thankful that we have John Forsland! He broadcast the Kraken Saturday night game against Vancouver, Sunday he was in Dallas for a national TNT game, tonight he will be doing his regular Monday night game aired weekly in Canada, then tomorrow night right back home for the Kraken game against the Wild. Busy Busy Busy…
After the regular season he will be busy doing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for TNT as well.
Hopefully Seattle can hang on to him and keep him here long term!!!
I think given that Forslund could likely have gotten the Bruins job but is still in Seattle is a good sign. I’ve also wondered if the Monday night gig is possibly related to the Kraken’s streaming deal with Amazon. Having him doing both the Kraken games and the Monday night Prime games adds a controlled variable into Amazon’s foray into being a streaming provider both at the team and national levels.
Good call out. Coincidently I was thinking about how lucky we are to have him while I was watching the Kraken-Blues game when they went down 5-0. As challenging as it was to watch the rest of the game, Forsland (and JT) made it more entertaining.
One reason for some optimism at the deadline: it may well be a seller’s market with so many teams within reach of a wild card. That should mean more demand for any assets Seattle is willing to trade. I’d love to see Yanni sign for less (3x$3m?) to keep him in Kraken colors. If he goes, it should be for a 2nd (or a nice prospect) and not a 3rd. Extra seconds have gotten us Nyman, Rehkopf, Kokko & Goyette. Our FO has made the most of these trades in the past.
Approaching the trade deadline I often find myself browsing over the national takes – and I’ve got to say – it doesn’t give me a lot of faith in the media.
A while ago we were treated to the ridiculous “Yanni fetches a first” take from Seravalli… a take he recently back-peddled hard on. Today we go to the other end of the spectrum from “FOTP” Greg Wyshynski.
It’s a trade proposal that was characterized as, “a logical trade that could happen before the trade deadline and benefit all teams involved, keeping salary cap implications in mind”.
With that in mind, Wyshynski thinks Yanni Gourde with 50% retained is worth a 3rd in NEXT year’s draft and Cam Atkinson.
Now… this trade involves Buffalo and J.J. Peter Peterka ending up in Tampa Bay, so it’s obvious the Kraken have been included – and their return has been structured – to make that happen… but this is typical. The idea that Ron Francis would actually pay to ‘throw a player away’ is ridiculous, and the complete lack of ‘logic’ is about what you’d expect to find on a fan forum. And hey, maybe I’m wrong here. Maybe Yanni longs for his old home so much and isn’t willing to resign for two seasons in Seattle that Ron Francis “does him a solid” and takes it in the shorts to appease him… but that don’t sound beneficial or logical to me.
If Wyshynski was actually pressed on the Seattle angle of this trade I think he’d have to be embarrassed… if he were the sort of person that felt shame… I’m not sure he is.
For a long time I was in a career that was frequently reported on in the media and one thing I found… when you know what they’re talking about, it’s bracing to realize how little the media actually knows what they’re talking about.
I feel the same way when I listen to the national media talk about the Kraken.
Go Kraken!!!
To the national media, Seattle is a remote hinderland. Pretty much every time a Seattle player is mentioned in a national article, it references their play before joining the Kraken or where they were drafted, but very little about their performance here. Which was fine the first year or two, but it’s been nearly 4 years now, and none one is the same player they were 4 years ago (for better or for worse).
I saw the ESPN trade proposal as well. Technically there were multiple contributors to that article, so I am not sure who represented Seattle in that proposal because that seems to be a joke. That type of Salary retention is worth a 3rd on its own as a pass through (i.e. two teams using a 3rd for retention). Atkinson is worthless to the Kraken so it makes no sense.
I’ve learned that most national guys don’t know what they are talking about with Seattle which makes me wonder how much they know beyond Seattle. I did find it funny to hear EF mention that Seattle could be interested in re-signing Yanni….something I’ve been saying for about a month now. I also could have told anyone that Larsson would have no interest playing in Toronto.
There were three names on that article – including Ryan Clark – but each trade had a name tagged to it at the end… that one was Wyshynski’s. The funniest thing about it… it wasn’t a joke.
When I heard Friedman mention resigning Yanni I immediately thought of you bringing that up way back. At first I was skeptical, but I’ve been coming around on that for a while. Unfortunately, the national folks won’t understand it as a “bridge” and think of it as Francis keeping his old guys.
Why on earth would anyone think a guy the club likes, who has a full no move, and didn’t like the “attention” in Edmonton would, under any circumstances, end up in Toronto?… puleeze.
The “national media” relating to anything Kraken (and by “national” I mean US and Canada…and still distinctly sovereign countries) is pretty hilarious. No one seems to know much about the Kraken or what to say. This was especially fun to watch when we took Dallas to seven games in the playoffs.
Recognize that no national writer is going to know the Kraken the way die hard fans and local reporters know the Kraken. This shouldn’t be an indictment of those journalists, who would all be more plugged in if the Kraken were more relevant (i.e. consistent winners and/or with star power) and games didn’t start at 10 pm ET. There is a limit to what they can do with the bandwidth they have. My biggest lament is that the Athletic never replaced Ryan Clark with another Kraken beat writer. Grateful to SOH and others that are willing to provide more comprehensive coverage, but I certainly don’t expect journos based in NYC, Toronto, etc. to be dialed in on Seattle, Utah, etc.
The Kraken are definitely neglected by the national media (can’t really blame them for the last two season), but even local media coverage is pretty scarce. It’s basically SOH, KHN, and occasionally a staff writer for the Seattle Times who doesn’t seem to follow the team closely or know very much about hockey.
Yes, I thought it was a very poor short sighted move for the kraken to hire Baker. As a young franchise you want the most impartial news coverage as possible, bringing him under their umbrella kind of makes his coverage worthless. We are lucky to have SOH and DJLR but really the more local coverage the better.
Baker complained a lot, but didn’t offer constructive suggestions. I really like Kate Shefte’s feature writing, but it would be nice for the Times to have a columnist covering the team with the ability to provide critical analysis of the team but also also some informed takes on the player markets and which players in the trade/ufa/draft pools the team should/should not target and why.
I think that’s a little unfair to Kate Shefte. I think her articles are pretty good. And not infrequent.
I don’t expect someone in Wyshynski’s position to know all the “ins-and-outs” of the Kraken and I even sympathize with the late games and market demands as barriers… but the absurdity of his “logical” trade proposal doesn’t just reflect a lack of insight. To me it betrays a willingness to simply dismiss the Kraken because, after all, nobody pays attention to them. Considering the national ink that has been spilled regarding Gourde over the last couple of months, it’s hard to believe Wyshynski really thinks Yanni is worth a throw-away player and a third in next year’s draft with 50% retained. What seems obvious is he wanted to fill some holes in Tampa Bay and didn’t really feel compelled to seriously consider the Seattle side… after all… it’s Seattle.
I recognize journalists have limited bandwidth, but something that would get laughed off a fan board is an embarrassment.
Now I just need to sit back and wait for that trade to actually happen this week…
This is it exactly. National media in this area is an exercise in imaginative thinking as opposed to researched journalism. All this is fine unless you market yourself as a knowledgable journalist. What’s most surprising to me is how easily a lot of these rumors can be seen for what they are – clickbait.
Re: Wright-Burky sequence, yet again, a winger looks vastly improved once he is unshackled from Chandler Stephenson. There is absolutely no WAY that the Kraken version of Stephenson has the speed and skill to make the play that Wright makes there. Stephenson would have made a half-hearted attempt and then Suter would have taken the puck right back.
Um, it’s nowhere near as big of a difference as you think. Stephenson is surprisingly fast when he needs to be: https://edge.nhl.com/en/compare/skaters/20242025-regular-8476905-20242025-regular-8483524
I don’t like this “fast when he needs to be” he needs to play with more energy it’s painful watching him, how many more years?