After trading away Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Brandon Tanev, Ron Francis told the media that he made it more difficult for the Kraken to win games. Apparently, he didn’t tell the players, because the Kraken are probably playing their best hockey of the season right now.
The Kraken have a points percentage of .556 in the 18 games since the deadline. At the time of the deadline, they had just a .444 points percentage. In the grand scheme of things, these games don’t mean much, but it’s a reminder that the Kraken are probably better than their record would indicate.
The Kraken went a respectable 2-2-0 over the past week, with a win against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday and a thrilling shootout victory against the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday. That was the Kraken’s fifth shootout game of the season and just their second shootout win. The first came way back on Oct. 12 against Minnesota, the second game of the season. Seattle is now 4-2-1 at home since the trade deadline and has really served up some fun games for fans at CPA lately.
Their losses this week came in the form of a 7-1 stinker to the Utah Hockey Club and a tough battle with the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights. I gave the team a pass on the Utah game. It was the second night of a back-to-back, and several players were impacted by a stomach bug going around the locker room. The Vegas loss was a tight 2-1 final, and the Kraken had a golden opportunity to tie it up late but just couldn’t get it done.
Reverse standings watch
The standings are tight around the Kraken’s current position, which will determine their lottery and draft placement. The Kraken are currently sitting 28th overall and could finish as low as 29th or as high as 24th. Per tankathon.com, if they land in 29th, they’ll have a 9.5 percent chance to win the lottery and draft first overall. Their most likely draft position would be fifth. If they climb to 24th, they’d have a five percent chance to win the lottery and would likely draft ninth.
Draft analysts are projecting a drop-off in talent after the top five this year. Given the option, it’s always better to draft high, but as we know, there are always players who should have been selected higher and top picks that don’t pan out. Don’t worry too much about it. Let the chips fall where they may.
Other musings
- Saturday night’s win over the Blues marked the Kraken’s 35th win of the season, one more than they had last season.
- For as well as the team has played lately, the power play has been atrocious. They’ve scored just one power-play goal in their last 24 opportunities, spread across eight games. That’s their worst stretch of the season in that regard.
- Jaden Schwartz notched his 25th goal of the season on Saturday, his highest total since scoring 28 back in 2014–15. He’s been excellent for the Kraken this year. Assuming he plays on Tuesday, it’ll be his 81st game of the season, a new career high.
- If you haven’t seen Darren’s piece on Mikey Eyssimont last week, go check it out. He scored another goal Saturday night. He had five goals in 57 games with Tampa Bay before being traded to Seattle, and now has four in just 19 games with the Kraken. He’s basically a more skilled Brandon Tanev, for a fraction of the cost.
- Speaking of goal scoring, the Kraken will finish the season averaging around 2.96 goals per game, up 0.37 from last season. That’s the fifth-largest increase in the league. It probably says more about last year’s team than this one, but 2.96 is right around the league average.
- Shane Wright scored his 19th goal of the season Saturday night. I think it’s safe to say he has exceeded expectations. Before the season, I often pointed out his ability to get shots off from inside — the high-danger area. Take a look at his goal location chart.
- Shane and Matty are both sitting on 19 goals. It sure would be nice to see them each hit 20 on Tuesday.
- Joey Daccord has played a ton this year, but there are still nine goalies around the league with more starts than him.
- Congrats to Kraken prospects Carson Rehkopf and Nathan Villeneuve, who both played their first professional hockey games with the Coachella Valley Firebirds this past week. These are two of my favorite Kraken prospects, and I think Villeneuve has an outside shot at making the Kraken next season.
- Another one of my favorite prospects, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, scored his first AHL goal on Sunday. It was OFM’s fifth AHL game, and even in that short time span, he’s looking more comfortable as he adjusts to the smaller North American ice and the different AHL playstyle.
HIS FIRST IN THE AHL!!!
WE TAKE BACK THE LEAD!! 3-2 pic.twitter.com/Pwn1lvjBQM
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) April 14, 2025
- Stick taps to all the staff around the Kraken Hockey Network. The production has been excellent in its first year. I’ve heard viewership numbers for Kraken games have tripled compared to when they were under ROOT. Making the games available over-the-air was a fantastic decision. Not exactly a hot take, but making the game more accessible is the best way to grow the game.
Goal of the week
This one comes from our old friend Morgan Geekie, who scored his 32nd goal of the season with this blast that defies physics:
Boston goal!
Scored by Morgan Geekie with 08:04 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm.
Pittsburgh: 0
Boston: 3#BOSvsPIT #LetsGoPens #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/zLdITv1NRY— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 13, 2025
Player performances
Joey Daccord (SEA) – I’m giving Joey a pass on the Utah game. Throw that one out, and he’s 3-1-0 with a .961 save percentage in April. Where would this team be without him?
Berkly Catton (SPO–SEA) – Two goals and 10 assists in his last three playoff games for the Spokane Chiefs.
Julius Miettinen (EVT–SEA) – The second-round pick from the 2024 NHL Draft scored the overtime game-winner Saturday night in Everett’s 3-2 victory in Game 2 of the second round of the WHL playoffs. He also had a secondary assist on the overtime winner Friday night.
The week ahead
One game remains on the Kraken schedule: Tuesday night at home against the Los Angeles Kings. It’s hard to say what kind of effort we’ll see from L.A. The Kings and Oilers are locked into a playoff matchup, but their seeding isn’t finalized. The Kings currently hold a two-point edge on the Oilers, with three games remaining for L.A. and two for Edmonton.
As luck would have it, the two teams face each other Monday night. If the Kings win in any fashion, they’ll clinch second place in the Pacific and home-ice advantage in the first round — making Tuesday’s game against the Kraken meaningless for them. But if they lose in regulation, the two teams will be tied, and that Tuesday game could determine home ice.
The game means very little for the Kraken, and plenty of people will argue that losing helps their draft odds — but you already know I don’t subscribe to that kind of chatter. Winning is still more fun than losing, and going out on a high note feels like the best way to end the year. If you were in the building Saturday night, you know how fun the environment can be at Climate Pledge when the boys put on a show. The players have shown some real compete lately, and I’d like to think that’s partly because they care about playing for the fans.
This is likely the final Monday Musings of the season. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you readers. I spend a lot of time putting this together, and I love doing it. It means a lot that you take the time to read and comment on the topics I explore, the theories I come up with, and the random collections of thoughts that go through my head.
Although Musings will take a break during the Kraken offseason, I’ll do my best to go deep into a few topics along the way. First up: a deep dive into Kraken scoring this season. If you have any other topics you’d like me to explore, drop a note in the comments and I’ll build a plan to dig in.
Thank you all. Go Kraken!