Going into Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, the Seattle Kraken were riding a four-game losing streak, capped by an embarrassing 9–4 drubbing by the Edmonton Oilers just two nights earlier. The team had been sliding down the Pacific Division standings, and it felt like one of those “must-win” games to stop the bleeding, at least temporarily. As you probably know by now, the Kraken came up short again, dropping another one in regulation despite a mostly solid effort.
They now sit sixth in the Pacific after being as high as second just two weeks ago. It feels like the team is in a full-on death spiral and drifting toward irrelevance again. But is it really that dire? No, not quite. If you’re in “must-win” territory in December, the problems run deeper than standings position.
When you sort the division by point percentage, the Kraken are actually fourth, and they’ve played the fewest games in the league. Is there reason for concern? Absolutely. But if you’d offered this position in the standings before the season started, most fans probably would’ve signed up for it on the spot.
The real anchor this week was that Oilers game, giving up nine goals, including four on the power play. That set a franchise record for most goals allowed in a single outing, and if not for a last-second Jani Nyman tally, it would’ve matched their worst-ever goal differential too. If you could magically erase that one from memory, the narrative around this losing streak would look a little different.
A sign of some offense?
For as rough as the week felt, the Kraken did show some signs of life offensively. Seven goals in two games isn’t exactly fireworks, but compare that to the two goals they mustered over the previous three games. Their 74 and 77 shot attempts against the Oilers and Red Wings, respectively, are actually their top two totals of the season.
Vince Dunn summed things up well when he talked to Piper Shaw after the 4–3 loss to Detroit: “I think we’re finally fixing the things that we weren’t doing so well, and then now we’re maybe slipping a little bit with the things that we were doing so well. So it’s about balance right now and battling through the adversity that we’re going through.”
Now, it’s only a two-game sample, so we can’t exactly call it a trend. But in a week where silver linings were scarce, the uptick in shot volume does stand out. If they can pair that with the defensive structure we saw early in the season, maybe they can pull themselves out of this skid.
Face-off possession challenges
Face-offs continue to be an issue for the Kraken, and more specifically, what happens after the actual draw. The league doesn’t publicly track post-face-off possession, so I usually use shot attempts within 10 seconds of a face-off as a proxy. By that measure, Seattle ranks 28th in the NHL with 6.7 face-off shot attempts per game, and they sit 26th in allowing face-off attempts against. Not ideal.
I am not sure if anyone caught it but several times in the Detroit game Kraken head coach Lane Lambert sent out Freddy Gaudreau and Chandler Stephenson together for a face-off to increase their chances of possession and to have a true center available in case the first one got booted out of the circle.
Other musings
- Seattle scored two rebound goals in that same game, giving them 10 on the season, which is tied for eighth in the league. That’s one of the perks of actually getting pucks to the net.
- The Kraken are the only team in the Pacific Division that hasn’t scored six or more goals in a game this season, something they did 10 times last year.
- With Freddy Gaudreau scoring on Thursday, Berkly Catton is now the lone forward on the roster without a goal. The good news: he’s generated more shot attempts in his last five games than in any other five-game stretch this season. The bad news, though, is that the team announced he will miss a week with an upper-body injury. We believe the injury came on his third-period shot block against the Red Wings.
- Catton will not be loaned to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship this month. The Jaden Schwartz injury seems to have shifted the calculus there, and plus, Catton is now injured.
- Speaking of Schwartz… I’ll probably keep saying this for the next month, but the Kraken really miss him, especially on the power play.
- It’s been a hot topic on this site and the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, but the penalty kill has been rough lately. Here’s a look at the numbers over the last 10 games.
- There’s been a lot of chatter about Shane Wright’s ice time. What I do know is that it’s not as simple as “just play him more.” My hunch is that Lambert doesn’t fully trust Wright in face-off situations, and with the Kraken killing penalties more often lately, that matters. That’s speculation, sure—but it’s rooted in the data.
- On the topic of uneducated ranting, I’m a little surprised Philipp Grubauer hasn’t gotten a start recently (he will start Monday against Minnesota). Joey Daccord has had more than a couple games where he hasn’t looked particularly sharp, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to give him a breather. Grubauer has looked good enough to at least get a turn in the net.
- I really love Adam Larsson goals.
29 ➡️ 6 ➡️ 🚨
and with the assist on Adam Larsson’s goal, Vince Dunn has officially tallied his 300th @NHL point! Congrats, Dunner 👏 pic.twitter.com/vA6REEB6Ko
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) December 7, 2025
- The Kraken haven’t scored the first goal in five straight games—and they’ve lost all five.
- After a slow start to the season, the Coachella Valley Firebirds have turned things around, going 7-2-1 over their last 10. As is usually the case in the AHL, the scoring is coming from a mix of vets and young prospects. Jagger Firkus has 11 goals in 21 games, and Ben Meyers has nine in just 11.
- Congrats to 2025 first-round pick Jake O’Brien on being invited to Canada’s World Junior camp. O’Brien leads the OHL with 45 points this season.
Goal of the week
Seattle’s 2022 sixth-round pick, Barrett Hall, scored a slick shorthanded goal against North Dakota over the weekend. He’s now up to seven goals halfway through the season, already matching his total from 2024–25.
What a play by @BarrettHall11! 🤯#SCTop10 | #HuskyHockey 🏒 pic.twitter.com/9ehwPNjcKW
— St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey (@SCSUHuskies_MH) December 6, 2025
Player performances
Ben Meyers (CVF/SEA) – Meyers had four points in three games this week and has picked up at least one point in every game he’s played for Coachella Valley this season.
Semyon Vyazovoi (SYU/SEA) – The Kraken’s sixth-round pick from 2021 posted a .913 save percentage over three games for Salavat Yulaev in the KHL last week. He has the eighth-best save percentage in the league right now and is expected to come to North America next season.
Jesse Heslop (EVT) – The Everett winger put up four points in three games this past week and is riding a seven-game point streak.
The week ahead
After back-to-back two-game weeks, things are about to get a lot busier with four games this week and nine in a 16-day stretch. By the time we hit the Christmas break, we should have a much clearer sense of what this team actually is.
Seattle faces Minnesota (Monday at home), Los Angeles (Wednesday at home), Utah (Friday in Utah), and Buffalo (Sunday at home). I’m not taking anyone lightly these days, so “easy outs” don’t exist. The Kraken have been better at home this season, though, so with three home dates, you’d hope they can snap the losing streak sooner rather than later—preferably before Sunday rolls around.
Minnesota is 7-2-1 in its last 10, but those two losses came in their most recent games against Calgary and Vancouver, so maybe they’re not quite the buzzsaw they looked like a week ago. Still, nothing is guaranteed.
Regardless of what happens Monday, getting a regulation win over LA on Wednesday would be huge. The Kings enter the week five points ahead of Seattle but have played two more games. The two teams are also among the lowest-scoring clubs in the league. I’m told someone has to score to win, so something needs to give… or maybe not.
Utah sits ahead of Seattle as well, holding the last wild card spot with 31 points—three more than the Kraken—but they’ve also played four extra games, so that cushion is a bit inflated. What could go wrong in Utah?
As for Buffalo… I genuinely don’t want to imagine losing that one, but we’ve all lived through a “no way they lose this” meltdown before, so let’s just not tempt fate. The Sabres are one of the worst teams in the league, but they’ve actually won five of their last 10, which—sadly—is one point better than Seattle over that stretch.
At this point, I’d be content with four out of eight points this week. That won’t move them in the standings, but it at least keeps them in the fight. I’ll be popping champagne if they find a way to grab six. And no matter what the results are, I really hope they can figure out the penalty kill. One kill in your last eight is, without exaggeration, a disaster.
What say you? Any predictions for the week?
Is Daccord our goalie of the future? We supposedly have a goalie-friendly defensive scheme and he’s sitting near the bottom of the NHL in goals saved above average. He’s not exactly young…nearly 30 years old. His workload is on par with other starting goalies this year. I’m pulling for Joey to turn it around, but if our goal is to win games, he should be dropped to #3 when Murray returns.
He isn’t playing bad he’s just not stealing games like he was earlier this season. We have been giving up very quality chances all season long…. We have not been a good team just have been bailed out.
That’s a shame Catton is injured. It was bound to happen at some point. He has looked great. I don’t really care about the goals, or lack there of.
Everything in the context of an 82 game season. Teams are going to go on heaters. Teams are going to go on skids. Players are going to get injured. The trick is building a team with the resilience to weather all the storms and not get too down, despite their fans thinking they are too old, too weak, not skilled enough, not drafted in the right order, etc etc.
I’ve been trying to figure out Shane Wright for a while. A few things I’ve noticed:
I agree with the observation on faceoffs – he’s often replaced on those, particularly in the defensive zone.
Even though he’s been practicing with Kartye and Winterton, and has been in the lineups as the 4C for at least the last couple of games, he’s only played a couple of shifts there and then swaps with Gaudreau. I don’t know if this is planne, if it’s because there have been some early power plays/penalty kills that are disrupting things, or if there’s some other reason.
More generally, I think his tenacity and focus are great assets, but I think that focus is sometimes what gets him into trouble – there are a lot of cases where he gets so lasered in on where he’s headed next that he’s not fully attentive of what is going on behind and around him. Which is partly why so many passes hit him in the back.
I was curious and went back and read some of his pre-draft scouting reports and one of the words that came up a lot was “methodical” and there were also a lot of mentions of being on the right spots on the ice. Which connects to the above. With the Kraken’s generally sloppy pick handling, I think he struggles to adjust when others aren’t as methodical or are not where he expects them to be. Additionally, the fact that he keeps bouncing all over the lineup and has had a musical chairs of linemates probably doesn’t benefit his methodical mentality. And certainly not playing on a line with the chaos gremlin that is Marchment!
It would be tough being Wright and playing for LL, you can see his yelling and cursing on the bench and honestly I’d be a little nervous being a young player still trying to adjust to the NHL and have to come back to that. As you said he’s been all over the ice and he’s probably overthinking everything because of the intensity/ focus on details/accountability that his screaming coach demands. He’s not a coach for kids I don’t even think he’s capable of being a head coach he should have stayed as a defensive coach and been happy with that.
That’s weird. I see Lambert come over to the young players all the time, put his hand on on their shoulder, try to give them guidance. I don’t see the yelling and screaming. I don’t understand why you try to make Lambert out to be some lunatic, and Ron Francis apparently doesn’t know anything about hockey. It says more about you than them, I think.
Watch the game more closely, he constantly yelling and has a mean looking snarl on his face. Pay attention to this and come back to me after a few games and then tell me I’m wrong.
That’s cause they usually show him right after they give up a stinky goal. I’d rather have a coach try to fire up the guys to not suck than…whatever Bylsma was doing last year.
Boist I’m replying above you not sure why? You think the team looks fired up? They are playing the most boring non intense hockey we’ve ever seen from the kraken, if that’s fired up then we’re comparing it to hockey in a morgue.
Oh I’m not saying that’s it working, but pacing up and down the bench with a quizzical look on the face didn’t really work either.
Interested in seeing the tanking analysis proposed on the most recent episode.
PHR says that Catton is out “week-to-week”, not for 1 week as you say above. Which is it? Sucks either way, he’s looked better and more comfortable lately.
Though I agree Joey should get some days off, Grubauer didn’t exactly look great against EDM either. The hat trick McDavid goal was classic Gruby, way overcommitting to a shot and basically leaving the net totally empty.
To spin this recent stretch positively, I think this losing streak is good for the team outlook. I don’t think anyone honestly and truly thinks this is a good team, just because of a bunch of 2-1 wins and OT losses. It’s still either too young or too old, plus too slow and unskilled. The losing at least gives them direction, and more importantly, opens the doors for trades and young players developing at the NHL level. Nyman and Catton (when healthy) need to play every day. Mahura needs to play over Oleksiak, permanently. Even Kartye needs to play every day, maybe higher in the lineup. I’m not convinced he’s a fully finished product yet, but he’s been blocked by their veteran-filled/clogged top 9 for 2+ years now. The FO and coaching staff need to focus more on development, and less on putting a slightly more competitive but also much older roster on the ice.
Recently on the Hockey PDOcast, Jack Han was on discussing what was ailing the Oilers – this was before they played Seattle twice – and he mentioned a video of one of their assistants. The guy was talking about the scoring analytics around “quick strike offense” and Han went on to say it reminded him of the analysis in soccer a century ago. The idea – that has since been discredited – was that because goals come from going quick to the net this must be the way to win games; however, it was found that actually controlling the ball and space leads to more victories and simply because goals come from “the rush” doesn’t mean wins do.
I found this very interesting for a couple reasons. First of all, the coach on the video was former Kraken assistant Paul McFarland. Second, this really seems to me to tie directly into what Seattle seems to be doing for, what is now, the third straight season.
I’m no coach, strategist or analyst and I’m not even particularly good at observation, but it seems to me once again, this team is going in the tank as soon as the start trying to jack up their shot volume. When it started coming up a few weeks ago I said it made me nervous for this very reason… and here we are. I get the paradox. They need to score more and shooting more leads to scoring more… it’s the soccer analysis from a century ago. Unfortunately – and the PP is a whole other problem – they are now getting trucked on the scoreboard, giving up too many breakaway chances, and spending way too much time, again, in their own end.
They’ve been upping the volume and sneaking a few through, and in this five games losing streak they are averaging two goals a game. They were SHUT OUT by Stuart Skinner! I don’t care about shot volume… period. Again, I’m some moron sitting on his couch who would need to up his game to get to cashews and cigarettes, but we’ve seen this three times now.
It seems to me they need to (in this order) focus on controlling the puck, getting it out of their own end, and “creating” chances rather than hoping for them. Maybe it’s the personnel and this is just who they are, maybe it’s the “new” league, maybe it’s just they’re unlucky… whatever it is, when this group focuses on “shooting the f-ing puck”, they lose.
I agree, the “shoot the puck” nonsense drives me crazy. The opposition wants you to shoot the puck from low danger spots. We know because we preach the exact thing to our players on defense.
It seems me the point Lambert was trying make was they shouldn’t “defer” to the pass all the time. Sometimes you just have to get the puck and bodies to the net to get a goal, and it doesn’t have to be pretty. There’s some truth to that. Pucks not going to the net are not going in, generally.
I think some of these things are nuanced. As a coach, you are probably trying to get your team to work together in a variety of ways, and you are dealing with “current mindset”. Are your guys aggressive about attacking the net? Are they trying to put the goalie and the defense on their heels or “under assault”? Are they getting shots off quickly or giving the goalie way too much time to get set up? One line of thinking may be “let’s just get pucks to the net and make sure we have guys there to bang in the rebounds, and we will go from there” because you want to build that offensive, let’s get the goalie feeling under assault mindset.
I will say it seems we ourselves keep the puck to the outside along the boards and behind the net a lot in the offensive zone, and no one is net front or they are getting there too late. This might be a systemic issue with the current offense that could be corrected with more structure. It would be nice to see more urgency to focus play to the net front, regardless.
You can’t score from the shot you don’t take, and no matter the sport ball (or puck) control is important
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”… Wayne Gretzky.
Coming from the all time assist leader…..
“You surrender possession of 100% of the shots you take”… Daryl W.
Now I know… Wayne Gretzky and Daryl W. Puleeeze.
Nonetheless, they’re both correct.
Nice Nino… and who’s No.2 on that list?
Nothing wrong with passing the puck, just don’t give it away.
Anaheim had 53 shots on goal last night and won 7-1.
52 shots on goal against another “exciting” team that doesn’t defend.
That’s just reinforcing bad habits.
Remember when the Kraken scored three in the third against that same team? Remember when that same Ducks team jumped out to a 3-0 lead to that same team and them surrendered five unanswered?
I honestly don’t know who is number 2 I’d have to look it up, nobody ever talks about who finishes 2nd.
No.2 is Ron Francis Nino.
The issue is the team is not good. There really aren’t any metrics at this point to say otherwise. You have to shoot to score, period. We’re not good on offense so our more volume doesn’t produce enough.
We can defend OK if that’s all we do. Sure we’re less bad that way but to what end? Do you enjoy watching this team shoot 15 times a game, spend most of the time in our own zone. And then lose in OT?
A longterm focus is needed. Let the kids play and run a system that is balanced. We will lose more, get better draft capital, and develop a future.
This type of team will just chase off fans.
Exactly, this system is just a smoke show to cover up RF’s mistakes. Doesn’t help us with anything other than getting a worse draft pick and we get stuck with boring hockey at the same time.
We’re still just as bad if we lose 2/1 rather the 5/3…..
jleau, I agree with what you’re saying on a couple things here. There certainly is a talent issue as there is with a lot of teams that are developing. I hear the complaints about “playing the young guys”. It seems to me they’re playing a lot of their young guys. Play Shane more. Matty has been “playing more” for the past three seasons. Is that working? I think second guessing development is easy to engage in and impossible to quantify. I wish they were better.
I agree, you have to shoot to score, period. That’s an obvious truth. And as you said, our offense isn’t good enough, so it seems to me just “not passing up chances” isn’t going to work. What I think, and this is worthless couch coaching, is they need to focus more on controlling the puck and worry less about getting it to the net, the volume will follow. Right now they’re coughing it up constantly. Marchment has a 96.4 expected giveaway percentage when he touches the puck. (I made this stat up, but I’m sure you get the point)
Yes they need add shot volume and no they aren’t talented enough to just score more, but it seems to me if they just concentrate on having a “shooters mentality” they’re gonna end up spending the rest of the season in their own zone.
I think we want the same thing. Marchment is a shining example of what this team consistently gets wrong. He’s not a terrible player but there’s no way he can be successful on this team. We can’t surround him with skill and they ask him to do what he’s not good at.
If I have to watch a player play badly, I’d rather watch a kid learn. Marchment playing more than Nyman is a joke! It’s better for the coach’s shot term job prospects and that’s it. It’s not even helping Marchment get another contract.
I agree that we need possession and puck movement to improve before shooting will help much. What i would like is Catton to learn to do that. It’ll be ugly but at least he’s getting the experience. Shane’s defense needs work, we need him to do that not sit the bench.
Lambert was always a wasted hire, it just took longer to see it in the standings than I thought it would.
I don’t have a problem with the Lambert hire so far. I think 27 games and one losing streak is a bit soon to pull the rip cord, especially given what he’s working with. I do think, however, what they do to address special teams and the lack of scoring is going to have to show up sooner rather than later.
I also think they’re still trying to figure out the roster. I’m fine with Nyman getting some games off and Catton, on the other hand, has now played 260 minutes and has zero goals. They’re sure giving him plenty of rope.
I think there’s obviously a likely chance this team is out of it before the Olympic break. Once they get to that point, I’m all in on “sell em’ all” and skate the kids, but until then, I’m gonna continue to hope they get this group dialed in. Given everything I’m reading so far, this next draft isn’t sounding like something worth losing for.
Daryl I agree for the most point, this isn’t a 6 game losing streak it’s actually much worse. We have been playing poorly all season just getting bailed out by goalies, Gru tried last night and was the better of the two goalies but we still lost.
We’re 5 years in at this point, that was the year I predicted that we’d be a good team when we first got the franchise. You seem to want to protect everyone and post no blame but it’s the coaching RF or both… who would you post blame on? We should be better by this point I feel like we are actually getting worse and I feel that coaching but we’ve been spending to the cap every year basically on players that don’t deserve the money. RF hasn’t put us in a position where we can succeed.
I think building a team takes time AND I believe the front office has done a decent job given their constraints. I mentioned it last week, what some folks on here are clamoring for is Detroit.
I don’t think that’s much to aspire to. The way Seattle is set up capwise and rosterwise, I think next season is when things need to start being realized.
We should not be this bad after year 5, I’m not sure next season we will be better. How’s he going to make us better dip into the FA market? I don’t trust that direction at all I feel like that route hasn’t been working for teams like the Kraken, we’d just be forced to overpay.
I honestly can’t see how we will be much better until we do what the hurricanes did to get over the hump… fire RF.
Timing is always difficult to judge. What can be said for certain is that by now there should be a coherent plan.
I’m not anti Lambert, but seriously why him? We went from Hackstol, to Disco Dan, back to Hackstol. Unsurprisingly, this team looks a lot like it did 2.5 years ago.
The Kraken look like a mess across the board. I can’t see the path to something different. Ownership needs to figure it out. They are the problem.
Just please no more loser points. If we are not going to get the enjoyment of a win, please don’t hurt our lottery odds for no reason.
… Oh, you said “prediction.” My prediction is 0 wins, 2 loser points.
I get the point on “deferring” and passing up shots. I think, however, there’s a lot more to it. Again, I don’t know much, but at the extreme you have a team like Carolina. They have some really nice players, but their record seems to be pretty consistently beyond the comparative talent level of their top end players. So getting back to shot volume… they are consistently at the top of the league in shot volume, and they shoot it from everywhere. They’re also top of the league in possession time – offensive zone and defensive zone. Do they get a lot of zone time because they’re taking a lot of shots or do they get a lot of shots because they have the puck. It seemed to me the Kraken were doing a better job of controlling the puck before they cut down on “passing up chances”, but that’s purely speculation.
I think it’s like you were saying, it’s more than just throwing the puck at the net. It’s having bodies in front, but it’s also: controlling the puck, getting it out of your end, and scoring chance creation.
As John mentioned, they’re eighth in the league in goals off a rebound. Given their abysmal goals for total, that says to me A LOT of their chances are getting saved and a few are turning into goals. Without digging into it, I think a combination of those two numbers isn’t exactly a good thing.
Looking forward to tonight.
Go Kraken!!!
The ECH guys went over just how terrible Stephenson has been on PK faceoffs but that doesn’t seem to effect the mindset of the coaching staff to use him every PK so not sure why it would go into effect why Wright cant get any playing time.
It feels like we should try to unload Marchment and Freddy before their reputations take terrible drops offs as our classic Pre Christmas roster move.
Try to sell high on Ebs and Schwartz along with some of our draft picks and try to get a Josh Doan, Logan Stankoven or a Nick Robertson or a high prospect that could be NHL ready in the next year.
Wright getting hit in the back. Marchment cherry picking only to lose the puck after getting caught from behind. We have a lot of older, lets say “gritty” players who are not able to take advantage of some of our younger skill players. Kartye and Winterton seem to be about the only ones who can routinely pass stick to stick through zone.
You lost me at “the ECH guys”.
Emerald City Hockey. They the same style of commentary as Sound of Hockey but in youtube and podcast form
I’m very familiar with who they are.
Glad it’s not just me. I don’t know why ECH rubs me the wrong way but they are always the first Kraken-centric outlet I mute on social media.
Kartye and Ryker Evans have a long-standing ritual where they just pass the puck back and forth across the ice for a few minutes towards the end of every pregame warmup. Last season, Brandon Montour filled in when one of them was not in the lineup, but this year, Winterton joined Kartye when Evans was injured and since he’s returned, the three of them now pass it around.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the three of them are possibly the most consistent group on the team when it comes to completing clean passes down and across the ice.
Sometimes you just need to stick to the most basic things.
Two points
a) stats show quite clearly face off perecentages are relatively irrelevant to team success – seems counterintuitive, but look it up;
b) Wright is the top scoring player on a point per minute played ratio. Playing him on the fourth line is criminal. He should be looking for a trade.
Totally agree. Stop jerking Wright around. He’s far too important to the team to be treated like a red headed step child and jerked around by some dino coach. Give him the Matty treatment if anything and play him with Eberle and McCann. Shane needs to be developed into a confident scoring forward, not a fourth line grinder who wins faceoffs. Look at how Anaheim’s kids are growing by the game and having fun (good job by coach Q). Who said the NHL is not a development league? (That is such a cheap copout by poor coaches.)
Whelp… it wasn’t the bottom
There’s a game against Buffalo coming up…
😂
Yet another game last night where they just got outskated and outplayed by a flat-out better team (which has also been true in most of the wins that they lucked/goalied themselves into). Grubauer, of all people, kept them in it and gave up zero Grubie Goals.
We are now officially at the point where, according to the Athletic, the Kraken have a better chance at the first overall pick (10%) than the playoffs (7%). I don’t know if they have ever reached that point so early in the season. This is the worst team in Kraken history and the first real shot at a top pick with a franchise player at the top (probably? I know he’s off to a so-so start).
They just need to trade away the veterans who are UFAs this year or next. They are on the downslopes of their careers anyway. The losing streak is not fun but at least, for once, the direction is clear. I didn’t want them to tank but they did by accident due to sheer incompetence. They have no choice at this point because competing is not an option.
If more than 1 or 2 of Oleksiak, Schwartz, Eberle, Marchment, and Tolvanen are still on the roster after the deadline, we will know beyond doubt that this team’s management is hopelessly gutless and incompetent. If no team is stupid enough to take Marchment, just terminate his contract to save us from having to watch him. McCann and Dunn should be shopped too, as much as I love them. They are still good now (when healthy!), but they will not still be good when the rest of the team is competitive again in minimum 4 years.
Also, they need to ride Grubauer and start playing him at least half the time. He was great last night and he’s had a few other great starts. And Joey has been lousy lately anyway. If Grubauer can keep this up (I know, a big if), they could actually get some value for him. He only has one more year now and if he truly rebounds and the Kraken are willing to eat a little salary, there are contending teams desperate for goalies who might actually roll the dice on him.
Well, people are starting to see the obvious.
As the saying goes – when in a hole stop digging. This is where we are. We’ll see soon enough if management are going to dig the hole deeper by attempting to pour water into this leaky dam with dubious trades (that ultimately make zero difference) – or will they admit to the reality of the situation and move on from the expiring vets and plot a real course forward, for once. We’ll know soon enough if GM Botterill is a dud, or a smart GM, based on his actions over the next few months. Please no more of this milquetoast BS we’ve been fed for far too long.
Calle Järnkrok
Jeremy Lauzon
Mark Giordano
Colin Blackwell
Mason Appleton
Marcus Johansson
Alex Wennberg
Will Borgen
Oliver Bjorkstrand
Yanni Gourde
Brandon Tanev
Over three seasons these are the guys on expiring contracts they’ve shipped out. I expect if they’re out of the race they’ll continue to do what they’ve done in the past.
So what is the way forward, that will make the Kraken a strong team? So far I’ve only seen magical thinking – somehow a strong team will materialize in the future? If you don’t draft well and build through the draft, if you don’t hire good coaches that can grow the kids and the team you have, if no quality UFA wants to even look at the sorry mess you are offering – tell me how you are going to create that good team doing what the Kraken are doing.
By all means hang on to 36 year old Eberle, 34 yo Schwartz – they are our best forwards 5 year in… this is a pathetic and dire situation. But apparently it’s the way forward? Even our prospect pool is almost bare of top end talent, a horde of bottom 6/4 types that will play, sure. But little that will create a functionally stronger team that we see now.
This is the way of becoming the next Detroit Lite with Matty as Larkin, O’Brien as Raymond, Montour as Seider then a horde of middling non-descript “talent”. Detroit never bottomed out either.
Problem is they keep filling the holes with plugs like Marchment.
And to add:
Matty Beniers
Tye Kartye
Shane Wright
Ryker Evans
Ryan Winterton
Jani Nyman
Berkly Catton
Logan Morrison
Jacob Melanson
Ville Ottovainen
Oscar Fisker-Molgaard
Nikke Kokko
All drafted by Seattle or signed to ELC’s. All have played at least 1 game in the NHL.
Just under 200 players who have been draft-eligible* since Seattle joined the league have played at least one game. Based on 32 teams, that averages out to 6.25 per team. Seattle has 12.
38 of those players have played at least 100 games. 4 are Kraken.
*For “draft eligible”, I included undrafted players born 2001 or later.
Yeah that’s around the edges. But then they signed Larsson and Eberle to extensions, traded for an old, washed-up plug like Marchment, and signed horrible UFA deals with Stephenson and Lindgren, and an OK but probably ill-timed deal with Montour given the team’s position and contention window.
I should clarify, I was OK with the Eberle deal and can’t second-guess it now. Larsson… I don’t know, not sure. What I’m saying is that with a bunch of contracts running a bit shorter, and the prospect pool a bit more matured, they have an opportunity to “sell bigger” this year than they have in the past.
I was confused by the comments from Eberle and Lambert last night that not everyone was giving it their best last night. Outside of Marchment lollygagging it back to the bench after every shift (even accounting for when he was on the wrong side of the ice, he wasn’t making any attempt to hustle), everyone seemed to be playing hard and puck handling didn’t seem as sloppy as it has been. Not saying it was perfect, but it didn’t seem to be notably worse than other games where team efforts was positively noted.
I think the Nyman/Wright/Kakko line looks promising. Kakko’s heads-up playing balances out Wright’s heads-down focus. Nyman made several really nice forechecks. Amazingly, the lines remained pretty much in tact throughout. Gaudreau seems to be getting into sync with Kartye and Winterton and the three of them were still pushing hard just to finish out the last minute or so of the game.
Totally agree. Everyone — except Marchment — was giving max effort, but they are just not as good. I think they just will never admit that at press conferences. In hockey, it ALWAYS has to be about effort.
Exactly what are they going to say… if we had a better president and GM we’d be a better team and oh yeah I wouldn’t be here 😂
Get some new material. Please!!!
“Overall, the draft looks below average at the moment, with a handful of exciting prospects at the top but no clear star-caliber name.”
– Cory Pronman, the Athletic.
He now has McKenna No.4 overall.
Odd I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t go 1st, sure he’s falling off a little but he’s definitely a franchise player.
Matty Beniers at Michigan 1.16 ppg in 37 games (20 🥅/ 23 🍎)
McKenna at Penn State 1.13 ppg in 16 games (4 🥅/ 14 🍎)
The “franchise player” tag is so overused.
I think much like 2022, the upcoming draft may be in for a real shuffle following World Juniors.
Tonight’s game is only on TNT. Last night Forslund and Edzo paired together with the TNT network game between the Islanders and the Golden Knights. It will be interesting to see whom is calling the game tonight.
Come on Kraken get it together!
I don’t want the Kraken to lose, but I feel like they need to keep losing in order to convince the FO to do what needs to be done. They can’t just keep putting out this crappy product on the ice, try to polish it with awful aging FA signings and acquisitions, and tell us it’s the “effort” that’s poor. We’re not dumb. Many of us were following hockey for years before this team arrived. We know what bad hockey looks like, and this team is BAD, maybe worse than it’s ever been. And btw, this was obvious to many before the losing streak even started!
Blow. It. Up. And I know Barr likes to say they already tanked — it doesn’t matter! They clearly don’t have the talent yet, so what is the reason not to?? I’d much rather watch a team with a clear direction than…whatever this is. Beniers is a middle six C, a good player but not a cornerstone. Wright is maybe better offensively, but can’t get enough ice time for whatever reason. Catton has 5 assists in 21 games, and needs a couple years to develop anyway. O’Brien is probably 2 years away, if his overly patient game can even translate to this level.
I can’t wait to see the chat when they trade Marchment to the Leafs and he’s successful!
https://thehockeywriters.com/maple-leafs-should-target-krakens-mason-marchment/
I could care less if he’s successful on another team, check that I’d be happy if he was successful on another team it would mean he’s not here.