We were due for a week like this. I mentioned last week that I was concerned about the week ahead, and it played out exactly how I feared, as the Kraken dropped both games in regulation to the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers. Both are formidable opponents, so I knew there was a decent chance the Kraken could lose them both. That said, I’m not nearly as disappointed as I’ve been in other weeks when the Kraken actually came away with points.
Let’s start with the Stars game. Dallas has owned the Kraken in the regular season. Seattle was 2-9-2 against the Stars heading into Wednesday, with the lowest points percentage they have against any Western Conference opponent. And honestly, I just don’t remember the Kraken competing well against them, aside from the 2022-23 playoff series. Despite the loss, maybe that’s why I was so surprised to see the Kraken play as well as they did. There were long stretches where Seattle genuinely looked like the better team. Deep into the third, it felt like the game was destined for overtime, but Vladislav Kolyachonok floated an innocent-looking wrist shot from the point that went past a screening Adam Larsson, hit the post and found its way in.
Kolyachonok scores to make it 3-2 with five minutes left.
Larsson set a perfect screen and didn't get the block. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/hQfNdLniM0
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 27, 2025
Haters are going to point out it was the second half of a back-to-back for Dallas and that they had their backup in net. All true. But with that much firepower and the lopsided history between these two teams, the game left me feeling pretty good about where the Kraken stand. It was still a disappointing result, but it reinforced that the Kraken can hang with anyone. And considering they’ve beaten Anaheim, Vegas, and Winnipeg twice already, we shouldn’t be shocked that they have that level of compete in them.
That set up a perfect trap game on Saturday against Edmonton. The Oilers were coming off an embarrassing 8–3 loss to Dallas, and when you poke the bear enough, eventually it bites back. Edmonton’s top four forwards each scored, and the Kraken were shut out. I don’t think the game was as one-sided as the score suggests, but you’re not winning many games when you get shut out. Seattle certainly had chances to get back into it, but they went 0-for-6 on the power play, including an extended 5-on-3 while down just 1–0. At the end of the day, though, it’s still a loss.
Power play challenges
Over the last 10 games, the Kraken have run at a meager 14 percent on the power play and haven’t scored a power-play goal in their last four games despite 14 opportunities, including five against Dallas and six against Edmonton. There’s no question the power play is struggling, but there were moments Saturday when they actually had stable possession and seemed to be generating shot attempts. So I spent part of my Sunday digging into the numbers.
First, I wanted to see whether they really did generate a lot of shot attempts on Saturday. The Kraken had 22 power-play shot attempts, their second-highest total in a game this season. It was also their second-highest total power-play time, so to evaluate it better, I calculated shot attempts per two minutes of power-play time. That came out to 4.29 attempts. It’s not their highest rate of the season, but it’s close.
Next, I widened the scope to see how their shot-attempt rate stacks up league-wide.
Based on the visual above, they’re sitting pretty close to league average in shot attempts per two minutes. That suggests quantity is fine, but the quality might not be there. I’ve already gone long here, so I’ll save that for another day.
Inaugural Torrent game
Hopefully you were lucky enough to make it to the inaugural Seattle Torrent game Friday afternoon. The Torrent lost 3–0 to the two-time defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost in front of a PWHL record 16,014 fans. The atmosphere was incredible, the arena was filled with seasoned hockey fans, new fans, kids, families, the whole thing. The Torrent came out buzzing, but the Frost got a favorable bounce late in the first and never looked back.
I have a lot of thoughts, but this feels like another huge step for hockey in the region. The kid-friendly start times and reasonable ticket prices should give more families a chance to check out a game. And I’m excited to see how having the PWHL in town boosts female participation in the sport.
There was also quite a bit of constructive fan feedback about the arena experience. I’ve got my own wish-list items too, but I also know they don’t have the budget or institutional experience the Kraken have. Let’s be patient, give feedback when asked, and see how things evolve. For a team announced five months ago, I’m honestly blown away by how much they’ve pulled off.
Other musings
- In case you missed it, Jaden Schwartz is the latest Kraken player to land on IR, another significant blow. Schwartz, expected to miss six weeks, has been one of the most underrated players in franchise history, and this team will feel his absence. Before the injury, Schwartz was on the ice for about 40 percent of Seattle’s power-play time.
- One silver lining: Jared McCann returned Wednesday against Dallas after missing 18 games. He brings an element this team has been missing. (Check out this pregame feature on Jared that aired before Saturday’s game.)
- I’m always stunned that there’s not even a hint of suspension for a malicious elbow aimed at someone’s head, even if it doesn’t land. If the league wants to minimize concussions, make those actions consequential—not just the ones that result in injuries. I’ve held this stance forever, no matter which team is involved.
Leon Draisaitl throws an elbow at Marchment and takes EDM's fifth penalty of the game.
Marchment may have been clever by not accepting a fight. He's under the skin of the Oilers, who are more worried about revenge on him.
PP absolutely has to convert here. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/On3X3PAkPL
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 29, 2025
- Big congrats to former Seattle Thunderbirds Thomas Milic and Reid Schaefer, who made their NHL debuts for the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators, respectively.
Goal of the week
Nice sequence from Coachella Valley: David Goyette finds Lleyton Roed for his first of the season.
ROED KICKS US OFF WITH THE FIRST GOAL OF THE GAME AND HIS FIRST GOAL OF THE SEASON!!
1-0 pic.twitter.com/64GA9oRztT
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) November 29, 2025
Player performances
Julius Miettinen (EVT/SEA) – Five points in three games for Everett. He’s fifth in the WHL in points per game and a huge reason Everett is the best team in the league this season.
Zeb Forsfjäll (Skellefteå AIK/SEA) – The Kraken’s 2023 sixth-round pick scored his first two goals of the SHL season.
Zeb Forsfjäll skjuter sin första fullträff för säsongen och dubblerar Skellefteås ledning 🚨 pic.twitter.com/7D8975PJ9a
— SHL.se (@SHLse) November 29, 2025
Nikke Kokko (CV/SEA) – Posted his first AHL shutout on Friday, stopping all 31 shots against San Diego.
Week ahead
It’s a light but tricky week. The Kraken head to Edmonton on Thursday, and if the Oilers win in regulation, they’ll leapfrog Seattle (although Edmonton could also move ahead with a win against the Wild on Tuesday). Seattle is just 1-5-1 at Rogers Place, and after Saturday’s win, Edmonton might be ready to go on a run… or the Swiss-cheese defense could return, and the Kraken could show the resilience they’ve shown all season.
The only other game this week is Saturday at home against Detroit. The Wings are on a bit of a skid at 0-3-1, and the Kraken already lost 4–2 to them in November. Detroit has solid special teams; Seattle… does not.
The target for the week should be two points. Anything above that is gravy. The Kraken are playing their worst offensive hockey of the season right now, and until they fix their issues, expectations should stay pretty low.
And finally…
The Kraken are still in a playoff spot and still competitive in games where they don’t have much firepower. They’re in a lull, so no one should be panicking… yet.
Am I the only one trying to keep a level head here?
They are 31st in goals/game, dead last in PK%, middle of the road PP% and still somehow in a playoff position. It’s truly a miracle…or perhaps an exploited loophole of playing a ton of low scoring games and collecting loser points.
Not sure which is scarier…that we fall out of contention by the end of the month or that we stay on the fringes of contention and do some buying at the deadline. I don’t have the same optimism about the Edmonton game, I thought it was a poor performance where our inability to make an offensive play resulted in Skinner making a ton of easy saves. At least Catton was a bright spot despite him possessing the same inability to finish as the rest of the team. He’ll get there, probably sooner rather than later.
I’m excited to watch the Torrent. My 4 year old daughter asked me when the girls are playing again. And we didn’t even go to the game, it was just on TV for a little while. I’m curious what was wrong with the arena experience or was it just too big of a crowd to handle. We’ll likely go the next time they have a weekend matinee.
RE: The Torrent commentary. I saw lots of complaints about the lines to get in, lines for the store, lack of ushers, quality of the food and merch and some items around the in-game entertainment. I thought it was all fine and things that are typically of a brand-new team without a bottomless budget. I think most people had appropriate expectations and had a great time. I would like to see quicker replays/highlights and some way to track who is on the ice (even for the other team) but I don’t know if either of those are reasonable in year 1.
There is a similar situation during the Storm games – fewer ushers, fewer vendors, etc.
First, I appreciate the updates and your optimism. Thank you.
I was very steamed watching the Oilers come into Seattle and basically walk all over us in their attempt to recover some dignity after their 8-3 home loss the preceding Tuesday. I would like to see A LOT more pushback from Seattle in a game like that, especially in our own barn. Larsson and Oleksiak, two of the guys who should be on the giving end of said pushback, were basically invisible, other than Larsson playing peewee hockey and abandoning his position to chase a puck no where near him, allowing Nugent-Hopkins to be totally open for an easy goal. Catton was plowed by Nurse at one point, and no one did anything. Draisaitl also should have received some punishment following the blatant elbow throwing. Instead, he was allowed to wander right into the slot with plenty of room to bury one. Part of me would still like us bring up Melanson for the game in Edmonton Thursday, and set him free to do Melanson wrecking ball things. If I were coach, I would want to put the league on notice that this will not be tolerated, and Seattle will not be pushed around like that.
Despite all of that, there are plenty of bright spots with this team to be happy about.
1. We regularly play with pace. Something other teams often struggle to achieve.
2. We have solid forechecking, good neutral zone structure and we are generally difficult to play against.
3. Our young players look pretty good, and definitely don’t look out of place in the NHL. They will continue to improve.
4. We have decent goaltending for once.
5. We have a solid veteran presence in the locker room.
6. I hear a lot of teams and fans worrying about their center depth. I don’t think we are going to have that issue.
7. We have good coaching. I also don’t think it’s fair to expect Lambert to get this team into the playoffs his first season as coach, given what he was handed. He deserves at least a season or two to get the house in order.
Dallas beat the Sens 6-1 on Sunday. Leafs beat the Pens 7-2. Canes beat the Jets 5-1 on Friday and Devils beat the Sabres 5-0. These losses happen in the course of an 82 game season.
On the Torrent game, it took forever to get in. They didn’t even have half the doors open at Gate 1, and I heard from other fans all the entrances were jammed up. Otherwise the game was awesome, even though they lost. Great crowd!
For the Kraken, John asked if it is panic time. I will suggest that it depends on expectations. If you’re hoping they make the playoffs, I think it’s panic time, we are dead last in goals for, and bottom 3 in any offensive category you can find. But we’re third best in goals allowed, so at least we’re playing hard working defensively responsible hockey, which, when you look at the roster and the cap sheet, that’s our only chance to be competitive. If that’s your expectation, and you’re hoping to play meaningful games in March, I don’t think it’s panic time yet. I fell for that earlier this month when we scored just 2 goals against Dallas and Columbus in consecutive games and I was panicking and then we scored 4 against Hellebuyck (plus an empty netter) and then 4 more against the Sharks 2 days later.
Well put. I think my expectations/hope is they play meaningful games in late March and I think they can do it.
I don’t want them to tank. And I want to believe that tanking is the not the only way to get better in the NHL. I love live hockey, which is especially fun when your team wins, so I’ve really enjoyed the home wins this year so far. And I’m a sicko who will keep going pretty much no matter what.
But, man, focusing only about the long-term outlook of this team, this season so far has been pretty much worst-case scenario. Best case scenario was them being actually better than expected, and the reason being the young players taking a leap so we can also get excited about the future.
That has not happened. The surprising spot in the standings has little to do with the young players. The best you can say about them is they do not look “out of place”… but there is still no real evidence that this team has any elite talent on the roster, either now or in the foreseeable future, only very optimistic projection. Beniers has bounced back a bit, but has basically confirmed at this point that he is a solid middle-six, defensive center, without much scoring punch. Wright has regressed. Catton has survived OK, and we can’t really EXPECT him to break out already, but again — no big leap yet (indeed not even a single goal yet). I’ve liked Winterton’s game a lot, but he’s not a top-six player. Nyman has been benched, not without justification.
In terms of the underlying numbers and how they are actually playing, they are one of the worst teams in the NHL (dead last in expected goal differential, for instance). The coaching and tight/conservative system has helped them grind/luck their way to a few wins and a bunch of loser points, but this is not a great defensive team either.
This slide was inevitable, and perhaps it’s here. Yet, the standings points banked already, Lambert’s grinding system, and Joey Daccord, mean they will probably go yet another year without drafting a big-time talent.
Nevertheless, I’ll finish back on the positive — I chose to keep hoping someone takes a leap in the future and stuff works out, without us ever having to endure the multi-year (or forever) tear-downs other teams have been doing. I do think management is trying to make that happen and is pretty clear-eyed about the quality of the current roster. (If they trade future assets for someone like Steven Stamkos, that is when we know we are truly screwed.) I’m telling myself: just don’t look at the standings. I’m trying to just take it game-by-game, and hope the next one is a good one.
I think that is all fair and I totally get where you are coming from. My position is much different than a lot of people that are in the “tank or show more potential” camp. For me, they already tanked with the accumulation of three top 10 picks. One of them needs to pop and although it might not look like it now, they hope and maybe expectation is that one of them does end up popping. Or maybe it is from one of the many second rounders in the system.
IMHO: Without the guarantee of a generational talent, tanking strategy doesn’t guarantee success and it takes much longer than people think. Florida tanked in 2013 (Barkov) and 2014 (Ekblad). Edmonton 2014 (Draisaitl), 2013 (McDavid) and 2011 (RNH)…not to mention Taylor Hall and Nail Yakupov. I am not trying to change anyone’s opinion, just sharing why I don’t think a tank is the way to go.
Thanks for the reply, John. I think we’re basically in agreement. Tanking is no guarantee of success. But here is perhaps the more interesting question — is NOT tanking a guarantee of NO success? In other words, tanking is not sufficient, but perhaps it is necessary? I still think probably not, but it’s a tougher call. But if the answer is “yes,” and the best you can hope for without tanking is occasionally squeaking into the playoffs (e.g. the Calgary Flames), is that still better than a tear-down rebuild that takes several years?
“Is tanking necessary” is a good question that I’ve wanted to dig into that from an analytical standpoint for sometime. I plan to do but likely won’t be until the Olympic break. Here are two questions that I would love to hear your/other people’s opinions:
1) How do we define tanking? My thoughts: three years of bottom 5, maybe 8 in the standings.
2) What is the success we hope to accomplish? My opinion is that Stanley Cup Championship is too narrow of a view, so you at least need to go to conference championship and maybe even conference final.
Regarding the squeaking into the playoffs team. There is a wide spectrum between squeaking into the playoffs and being a perennial contender. I think there is real value in establishing a team that consistently makes the playoffs. It builds a winning culture and becomes a team that players want to play for. Plus it’s a little easier to make tweaks to the roster via trade when there are smaller type upgrades to make. That could be the old Sharks fan in me coming through.
I cannot imagine what it would be like as a player to know that your team was tanking for better draft picks. I don’t think it’s in their DNA to not care about winning. And what kind of culture does that bring? Then next year when you’ve got some good players you ask them to not “suck”? It’s just crazy. And I haven’t even mentioned the STH (which I am).
I think the message is that they are building around their youth not that they are tanking. The young players appreciate being on a team that they get ice time and develop, the vets that stick around are collecting a check and mentoring the youth. Obviously not the ideal situation for a vet but if they had good value they wouldn’t be on a team that’s “tanking”. I also feel that there are a number of vets that like the idea of being a mentor on a team and like playing a game with a little less pressure.
I don’t feel the kraken should full on tank but I’m worried that we might be thinking of making a trade sending off some of our young assets for short term goals, I don’t want that happening and I don’t trust RF’s oversight.
Let’s be honest, if this team was any good it wouldn’t need any pumping. We would know it from the way they play and their position in the standings. We would see the young talent on the ice. We would see a firm direction. As it is even GM Botterill admits this team does not have a first line. Meanwhile the Kraken are playing Marchment on the top line and Tolvanen in the top-6. Shane Wright is relegated to 4th line C and Jani Nyman isn’t even playing. Catton looks good but is getting limited minutes.
The only thing worse than to tank is to be a perpetual half-arsed hope springs eternal bubble on a prayer team with no particular identity or future… Hello, Arizona Coyotes PNW.
This is what the Kraken are doing pushing a middle-6 vet heavy limited team as some kind of answer and saying – SEE! we are not so bad!? – every time they manage to win a game. No, but that doesn’t mean you are particularly good either. It’s been 5 years of the same old, same old with no end in sight. Are we looking at ANOTHER 5 years of this groundhog day approach? NOT tanking is looking very circular indeed.
During the last five years Chicago, San Jose and (to a lesser degree) Anaheim took it on the chin, they have restocked and are now having a clear direction – and fun! with their kids Bedard, Celebrini, Carlsson et al leading the charge. Chicago and San Jose also have very impressive pools (better than the Kraken, for all the promising kids we have) on top of having tons of kids (22 and younger) already in their NHL lineups. In contrast, the Kraken’s future is much more… diffuse and distant.
Where’s the foghorn? Who will lead the Kraken out of this mist?
Gavin McKenna? Is that who? From everything I’m reading we already drafted him in 2022.
You either have the talent, or you don’t.
Somehow teams managed to add Bedard, Celebrini, Carlsson, Schaefer, Gauthier, Demidov etc etc during the last few drafts.
So just suck and cross your fingers? And Schaefer went to a team that finished solidly in the “mushy middle”. If only the Kraken had won a few more games last season.
A legit No.1 center and a solid No.2, a Norris caliber defenseman a Vezina quality goalie and a Jack Adams coach… this is what it takes to be a Cup contender or the Canucks two years ago. It seems to me there’s more to building an organization than just getting “the guy”. And by the way, every one of those players you mentioned is on a team that is TBD. Also, where’s Cooley and Utah? Chris Johnston declared the Mammoth have arrived at end of October, and then they won just four of 15 in November. I get the tank, but I think that Kool-Aid isn’t as sweet as it sounds.
This league is built on the draft, it doesn’t matter how much you deny it, that’s still the way it is. Hopium, Copium and heartfelt wishing are no substitutes for actual talent.
(Imo Utah jumped the gun and fell into the trap of “going for the playoffs” with a team that wasn’t quite there yet. However, Cooley and Guenther are very nice talents indeed. And yes, they drafted those talents.)
The draft is essentially the only way to get top talent – the odd once in a blue moon supersmart deal apart (e.g. Gauthier, M.Tkachuk – and even those took highly drafted talent going back the other way)
In a draft system, being mediocre (hi Kraken) is worse than being bad. And nobody said it is going to be easy or that you don’t need a healthy portion of luck.
So you think what RF has done is good so far? You hand pick random teams but take a deep dive into what RF has drafted and put on the ice. He overwhelming desire to draft a center and a safe one at that has put us exactly where we are. There is no sugar coating this he’s just not a good GM.
Picking up on what RyRy was saying.
I think we can cherry pick and speculate on a lot of these options and what they should have done and what they should be doing. I also think some examples may be more valuable than others. The “master GM” is one thing that’s had me thinking lately.
They need someone – a master GM – who’s done it before. Someone who has taken a broken roster and turned them into a perennial contender with a Cup to show for it.
Someone who’s willing to come in, cut out the the “dead wood” but hang on to the premier pieces.
Someone who is willing to tank, and when they’re making those high-profile picks, someone who’s not afraid to “go off the board” and take a name nobody expects.
They need a “4-Nations” quality No.1 C with a young hotshot on his wing and a true No.1 D who they can build around.
Someone who will bring in a 40 goal scorer to add some punch.
They need Steve Yzerman.
They need Dylan Larkin.
They need Lucas Raymond.
They need Moritz Seider.
They need Alex Debrincat.
…so seven seasons on they can still be out of a playoff spot at Thanksgiving.
They need Steve Yzerman, and I have a feeling he might be available soon.
Stay tuned
Yes, I agree, you build through the draft and Seattle already has four centers taken in the top ten that they continue to develop. They also have five first round picks in the next three drafts they can either draft or trade. Maybe they can be in on a Kyrou or maybe a Robertson and even though Shane Wright is clearly a bust, his 19 goals last season as a 20 year is a lot better than Geekie’s nine as a 23 year old in Seattle. Maybe O’Brien is “the guy”. Just maybe developing players is about more than surrounding them with castoffs so you can get a high pick.
Yes, teams are built through the draft and this season Seattle has iced eight different skaters it drafted in it’s first four years. I’d call that building through the draft. There’s a lot of maybes, just as many as you get when you go the tank route and there are examples of successes and failures on both sides. I can see the path you’re advocating and I also see it’s potential. I also understand there’s more than one way to draft and develop. I have more faith in the players they have and the opportunities ahead than I do in going the tank route.
This is an honest question Wittmont. Right now what would you do – specifically – to build this team the way you think it needs to be built. Specifically… Chuck’s bring in a “master GM” is not an answer. Win a bunch of trades is not an answer. Do something “bold” is not an answer.
Just driving by and noted you quoted me, so I guess I have to enter the fray. As always, it is Wittmont, Nino, and me saying Francis screwed the franchise and you and Seattle Gastrointestinal-disease mocking our positions but coming up with exactly none of your own. Why don’t you two ever come up with ideas instead of your constant ad hominem attacks? That just shows a lack of originality.
To your points:
1. Bring in a master GM. That is exactly the problem. Look at every successful franchise and you will see a master GM behind it and vice-versa for the unsuccessful franchises. So your suggestion is to bring in a dimwit and success is sure to follow. Well, that is what the Kraken did and where are we 5 years on?
2. Win some trades. Of course this is part of the answer. Case in point is that it has leaked that the Kraken were offered Jordan Kyrou for their 1R pick in the last draft. A 1C for a project seems like a no-brainer. How many prospects have the Kraken had that lit up the CHL but could not translate that to the NHL? Far too many.
3. Morgan Geekie at 23. Geekie leads the NHL in goals at age 27. A GM has essentially two required skills, talent evaluation and negotiation. As the expansion draft proved Francis does not have the latter, he hung his reputation on the former. Where is the evidence of that? The Kraken have had lots of draft picks but are any part of a first line or first pairing? If so, please point them out. Geekie could have been signed for a song.
4. Shane Wright is clearly a bust. At the time, seeing how smart-guy Kent Hughes passed on Wright, should have led a any succeeding GM to look beyond the hype of a player who developed early (full beard at what, 17?) and go with a different choice. Cutter Gauthier has 30 points this season while Wright has 11. What does that say about Francis’ talent projection skills?
5. Doing something bold. Imagine a different GM, the one who retained Geekie at low cost, traded for Kyrou instead of drafting O’Brien, and drafted Gauthier instead of Wright. The dynamic of the team would be totally different now and those are just a few of the many misses by Francis. A franchise that showed it would doing everything to win might have attracted a Marner as a UFA.
These discussions have happened many times and while it is clear what we are advocating for, it is not clear what you are advocating for. More of the same? Wait five more years? Explain exactly what you are proposing and how it works instead of just attacking the good ideas of others.
Chuck is bending over backwards in attempt to ignore who actually drafted Cutter Gauthier. Not to mention, the fact that you are deeming Shane a bust 20 games into his second full season (at 21 years old) while pointing to Morgan Geekie’s 23 y/o season as a reason we should have kept him is a clear indication that you are just a living embodiment of hindsight bias.
Chuckles I don’t know if its an issue with reading comprehension, but nobody has an issue with saying we should “Hire a Master GM”. The problem is that this is a platitude on par with saying “Sign Better Players”, “Score More Goals”, “Play Better Defense”, and “Hire Better Coaches.” Making this kind of statement is so blatantly obvious that it’s essentially the same thing as saying nothing at all. The disagreement isn’t that we shouldn’t be trying to do these things, it’s how to do these things and what options are actually available that are advantageous.
None of the teams you are mentioning have done anything but lose. They aren’t fun to watch, and there’s no guarantee they are going to win anything. No matter what, I’d rather have a team trying to win than one trying to lose. There is no “winner switch” you can flip, either. It’s a continuous pursuit, and it’s complicated. One thing is for certain. You don’t get there trying to be a loser.
You say the Kraken haven’t done anything, but they have been to the playoffs (and a 2nd round game 7) more recently than any of your favorite losers. Maybe you didn’t think that was exciting, but a lot of hockey fans would disagree with you.
I think some of the people in here aren’t actually fans of watching hockey, but just like to find players for their fantasy hockey league.
You do realize we have as many top half of the draft picks as all those teams you just listed during our existence… right? They’re a bit further along only because of dumb luck and having more time sucking f.
Ad hominem attacks Chuck? You’re the one on here name calling. Wittmont and I have been, I think, engaged in a strident and opinionated argument over our views of the teams prospects. There’s been no character attacks, no questioning motives, no name calling. I mentioned you because, as you yourself verified, you have made expressions about what the team should do in vague terms like hire a “master GM” and have pointed in hindsight at all things that should have been done. I find those sort of criticisms and solutions suspect. That’s not a personal attack, I just don’t find value in those approaches.
As far as what I think of the direction of the franchise. I’ve gone over it multiple times Chuck. More than once when the media was parroting one another about how they, as professional hockey writers, couldn’t understand what the Kraken are doing I explained how I thought it wasn’t that hard to understand, and while you may not agree with their plan, it’s completely understandable. Personally, I think it’s the better option. I’m not going to waste my time spelling it out again so you can claim I’m “attacking the good ideas of others”.
And by the way, Kyrou is a winger, not a center.
And for clarity sake Chuck, when I say “argument over our views of the teams prospects” I mean the Kraken’s opportunities for success, not their young players.
The Kraken were the last team in the Western Conference to not have a losing streak this season. Even the almighty Avalanche had a four game losing streak back in October. Three in a row doesn’t worry me, it’s the way they played against Edmonton that concerns me. That was the first time all season I’ve seen them put together a full sixty minutes playing like last season’s team. With the exception of Catton’s breakaway and a couple other chances, Skinner was squared up and parked for every shot on goal. I’m no goalie expert, but Kevin Woodley is and his breakdown of him is the lateral game is abysmal. Seattle did almost none of that. Even though Seattle outchanced Edmonton 13 to 10 in high-danger, most of those were just up close “shots” shoveled into an already positioned netminder’s chest and teeing up the one-timer on the powerplay is not working. Finally, what did Ron Francis say when they made the coaching change?… way too much time in the defensive zone. I felt really good about team after the Dallas loss… not so much after this last one. As much as the Oilers must have been up for that game, the Kraken made it easy for Skinner to notch a shutout.
I’m anxious to see how they bounce back after four days of rest and practice, but if they’re convinced the way to create more scoring opportunities is simply a matter of volume, I’m worried.
Agree on feeling okay after the Dallas game with how the team performed but the Edmonton game was a hot mess. And like you I also got very strong last-season vibes from that game – the atrocious puck handling, the full rearrangement of the forward lines mid-game and topped off with Kartye getting into a fight.
What I’m curious about is why nobody has bought up what a pile of crap Marchment is for starting something he was too afraid to finish. Putting teammates in danger by angering the opponent just for vendetta for his former team, making his teammates answer his bell when he just smiles misses passes and turns the puck over. Again why is he on the PP???? What kind of coach would put Marchment on the PP?
Put him on the 4th line where he belongs until the trade deadline and be rid of the pile of 💩
Stronger than I would have said it, but I don’t disagree one bit.
I thought it while the game was happening and continue to wonder several days later: what would that game have looked like without Marchment?
Even the penalty in the first that set the tone of the game. How does that call go if it was a player that doesn’t have Marchment’s reputation for mayhem?
LL seems to really like him. He even isn’t too bothered by the instigation. Even putting him on 1st line. I don’t know. Sometimes I think Marchment is great and others, I’m wondering why he’s on the team. VS Oilers I watched from home I couldn’t decide if his antics were helpful or hurtful. Personally, I hope they reshuffle the deck and try a new combo.
To me The Kraken has 5 big problems:
1. Generating offense. U can’t win games if u can’t score. The problem is the lack of talent and skill in the lineups. We have a lot of veterans who’re good at grinding and defensively but they’re not the most offensive or skillful guys. And that hurts our young players cause they need more skilled players around them to learn from and help them develop.
2. The tactics/ mentality at the club.
Being good defensively is great, but that has never been our main concern. We need to be an offensive minded club, wich goes hand to hand with point number one. Be an offensive minded club, bring in more skillful players (we have the cap) to help our young guys develop and the future will look better. Beniers and Wright have Elite potential but none of them are THE guy in their lines. They need someone around them to drive the line, especially Beniers. Bring in people who can do that and their offense will be much better.
3. Ownership/ management need to be on the same side of the direction of the club. It feels like there’s no real direction, cause they draft for the future but bring in players to win now. Doesn’t make any sense unless there’s disagreement on the approach. I believe ownership wants to get to the playoffs as fast as possible because of revenue and stuff like that, while management wants to build, but ownership is meddling. That’s why The Montour and Stephenson signings were made. Montour was okay, not good cause of his age and the terms but he’s been good. Stephenson has been catastrophic, he’s taking away ice time from Wright and has not been performing. It’s time for ownership and management to realize 22/23 was a fluke and to focus on development and building the future.
4. Special teams. This should be higher if we want to win now but our special teams is terrible. PP makes sense cause we lack offensive talent , but there’s also no speed, no creativity nothing there. We can barely get the puck in sometimes, it’s crazy. PK is more about tactics I think, and being to conservative and letting the other team do as they want. That needs to change, and FAST if we want any success.
5. Goaltending. This has been good this year, mainly due to Lamberts defensive approach, but it’s still something we need to look at, ESPECIALLY if we become an offensive team (probably never will be, but a guy can dream) We need good goaltending to be competitive, just look at Edmonton.
No.2 is exactly what Bylsma tried last season. As far as that top line talent that drives play… I’m all ears. It’s not like you just pick that guy up off the shelf or hoodwink some team out of one. The closest thing sounds like it might have been an option on Kyrou, but that would have cost at least the No.8 pick in the draft and this is just based on Friedman speculating the whole thing, he said he had no actual information of what a trade would have been. He also said if the cost was Jake O’Brien, he sees why it didn’t happen. Kyrou’s a nice player, but do you really trade a guy who has true No.1 center potential (something almost impossible to acquire) for a 27 year old right winger if you’re a team that’s still a couple years away? Chuck says that trade is a “no brainer”, but he also thought Kyrou was a center. The way things are going in St Louis, they might get another crack at him with more favorable terms. And then there’s Robertson, but this, like all the anticipation over offer sheets, may just be folks misreading the tea leaves. It seems most likely he’s never actually been available and never will be. Marner? Please. I’m open to ideas for who this player is that they can actually add.
I completely agree, they need some true top end talent, but there only seems like three paths to get that now that UFA doesn’t seem to be one anymore:
Trade for it. Unfortunately, the team has to be a place players want to go and and the best way to become that is to at least be a playoff team.
Develop from within. Have they drafted that guy already and we’re just not being patient enough? Maybe, maybe not.
Tank. Ice a team bad enough for long enough so eventually, even with the odds against you, that player becomes available to you as a prospect.
I think it’s pretty clear ownership and the front office are on the same page when it comes to the third option. I also think they’re actually on the same page as far as a combination of the first two options go. I don’t disagree with any of your points, I just see the. “landscape” of them differently.
John replying to you way down at the bottom, not sure if you read this far down…..
I do not think we should full on tank I believe we had a good opportunity to out of the start gate when we realized that RF didn’t do a great job in the expansion draft but I believe that it would be hard for fans to start again so soon.
What I don’t like is the direction we’ve chosen… make the playoffs as top priority. We’re not there yet. It was obvious before the season it’s obvious now. I feel like only a small handful of people don’t see that we’ve gone down a poor path that doing nothing to help long term. What exactly was the Chandler signing about when we have nothing but centers drafted? It was about trying to make the playoffs with disregard for the long term success of the team.
We have been winning more games but we’re getting out chanced during most games and only in games because we have had better goaltending and have slowed the game down to a snails pace.
We’ve benched one of our best offensive young players in favor of basically grinders who have no long term potential with the Kraken in an attempt to possibly get closer to the playoffs.
I think we should be playing the game to win but using players that we want and need to develop in more meaningful positions. Get Nyman into the game, use Wright in a 2nd or 3rd line center roll. Play the game to win but don’t worry about the playoffs this year or next. We will probably get a decent draft pick and a shot at 1st overall and developing in the right direction. Nobody can tell me the right place for Nyman is the press box.
They’ve never said making the playoffs is a top priority and I am not sure that was even an expectation coming into the season. But I do think they want to prioritize winning, but Botterill has mentioned that he wants to become a perennial playoff team (not necessarily this year). That to me is the direction they have communicated and by looking at where they are at in the standings, I think it is safe to say there are directionally headed that way.
I get it. I don’t feel giving minutes to young guys is the best thing for their development. I would personally want to see Jani sent back down to Coachella. IMHO, he has been unnoticeable in games he has played lately.
From my memory I seem to recall that they said many times that the priority was to be a playoff team. They from my memory have said it every year and frequently, their signings and trades (Marchment) have pointed to that desire as well even if the player they bought on long term is a head scratcher and a roadblock for our youth.
Nyman is an offensive player that isn’t suited as a 4th line player, he needs minutes and to learn from his mistakes it’s what young players go through with little exception. Under LL he really hasn’t been given the ice time or roll that needed for his development. We’ve seen good offensive ability and an Ovi quality shot. He’s young and has a great deal of offensive potential, he’s exactly the type of player that the kraken need in their lineup long term and he’s sitting at our doorstep rotting away. Yes we probably won’t win as many games if his roll were to increase but I’m more focused on what we look like in three years than today.
We know what we are now, a team with no offensive talent that’s only winning games when our goaltending steals it. That’s not good enough sorry, let’s stop pretending that it is. If we have to play the style we’re playing now (lowest shots in the league) to win games it’s just not worth it. Play the game as it should be played and accept that we need to still build our team, the playoffs will come when we’re ready.
I’m also getting tired of the hater comments the John seems to like throwing around lately, is this viewpoint hating? I think sometimes when you don’t understand something it’s easy to just point fingers. He’s a fantastic writer but sometimes gets on a track.
John was a typo I meant Darren. Truly though we are very lucky to have all the writers on here you all do a fantastic job.
“What I’m curious about is why nobody has brought up what a pile of crap Marchment is”.
As I said when this was posted, stronger than I would have said it, but fair enough. I do think, however, it’s a bit duplicitous to post stuff like this and then get “sideways” over the term “haters”. I think there are plenty of sound arguments about what this team is on all sides. I also think there’s a place for the term “haters” when it comes to some of the sentiments on here.
Marchment need a little hate, he’s pretty much a spineless waste of space on our roster when we have players that should be getting his ice. And (yes I’m starting a sentence with and) I’ve asked this now maybe 4 times but nobody has yet to answer… why is he on the PP?
In all fairness we’re a long way into our journey so far and it’s pretty obvious that there have been mistakes made. I’m kinda referring to the tone of his message, are we haters because we recognize that better decisions need to be made?
We all support this team that’s why we post and care about becoming better. I don’t feel like we should be called hates because we don’t jump up and down when we’re a borderline team with no offense and only winning games by parking the bus and hoping our goalie plays a vesna caliber game as we get out chanced all game. If that’s hate then maybe what we need is a writer or two to jump on board and start asking questions that matter and make an impression.
Nobody that posts on here wants the team to lose that I’m aware of and calling out things that need to be changed in an organization that is just spinning it’s wheels is really what should be done, it’s not hate it’s calling for change. We have no direction and have chosen a coach who plays the most boring style in the entire NHL to try to cover RF’s mistakes.
😂 you’ve got me on a tangent, well played.
This a reply to the following post. Never heard of this userid before, so likely one of the regular posters trying to be anonymous.
“RyRy on December 4, 2025 at 11:45 am
Chuck is bending over backwards in attempt to ignore who actually drafted Cutter Gauthier. Not to mention, the fact that you are deeming Shane a bust 20 games into his second full season (at 21 years old) while pointing to Morgan Geekie’s 23 y/o season as a reason we should have kept him is a clear indication that you are just a living embodiment of hindsight bias.
Chuckles I don’t know if its an issue with reading comprehension,”
1. “Chuck is bending over backwards in attempt to ignore who actually drafted Cutter Gauthier. ” Yes, Cutter Gauthier was drafted one spot after Shane Wright. It is irrelevant who drafted him, what is relevant is that the Kraken passed on him. The Kraken would have been better off drafting the player with a better projectable NHL skillset. I don’t see you are making any useful point.
2. “Not to mention, the fact that you are deeming Shane a bust 20 games into his second full season (at 21 years old)… Chuckles I don’t know if its an issue with reading comprehension.” Spreading of a lack of reading comprehension skills, I was quoting Daryl W,’s post, who had said Shane Wright was a bust. I was not saying he was a bust yet, as I still have hope he can turn it around. Guess you screwed that one up as well.
3. “Morgan Geekie’s 23 y/o season as a reason we should have kept him is a clear indication that you are just a living embodiment of hindsight bias.” Not at all, it is another example of Francis’ poor skills at talent projection. A 23 year old center who was subsequently signed to a $2m a year contract by the Bruins but instead Francis signs 38 y.o. Pierre-Édouard Bellemare. Another pointless point by you. Next time use your normal userid.