What started as an excellent week with a 2–1 signature win over the Carolina Hurricanes ended with an absolute thud in a humiliating 7–4 loss to the Ottawa Senators in front of a packed house on Saturday night. Sandwiched between those two games was another disappointing regulation loss to the St. Louis Blues.
The Kraken began the week in the second wild‑card spot and, somehow, finished it in the same place despite collecting just two of six possible points. On the surface, it’s nice that the brutal week didn’t kill them in the standings, but it was still a squandered chance to create a little breathing room over the Sharks, Kings, and Predators.
Here’s how the Pacific fared this week:
I might have been able to stomach the St. Louis game, since the Blues suddenly look like world‑beaters with four straight wins over the Wild, Kraken, Sharks, and Ducks, but the Kraken looked completely uninspired against Ottawa. Every team has the occasional stinker, and maybe there really was something to the illness going around the room that day, but this one felt especially flat.
Quick thoughts on the Trade Deadline and Bobby McMann
For those who missed it, the NHL Trade Deadline came and went on Friday, and the Kraken added speedy depth winger Bobby McMann, who can finish and bring some flat-out speed. The cost, a second‑ and fourth‑round pick, was reasonable for a player who’s only signed through the end of the season. It’s not exactly what I expected, but it’s pretty darn close. They’re on the bubble with a legitimate shot at the playoffs, so a sell‑off didn’t make sense, and neither did pushing all the chips in for something splashy.
McMann also gives them one more winger to consider re‑signing before free agency. As of now, the Kraken have three forwards on expiring contracts, and they likely need to extend at least one of them before July 1, or they’ll be staring at some significant holes next season.
Where McMann fits in the lineup
Darren already gave his two cents on where McMann might slot in. He started the year on Toronto’s fourth line but worked his way up to playing alongside Auston Matthews. He can fit anywhere. With Lane Lambert’s familiarity with him from Toronto, he probably already has a strong sense of how he wants to use him, but deciding who comes out will be difficult.
Depending on Jaden Schwartz’s status, two of the following four players will need to sit when McMann enters the lineup: Ben Meyers, Ryan Winterton, Jacob Melanson, and Berkly Catton.
Meyers kills penalties, drives play, and has been excellent since returning from injury. Before Saturday, I would have said Melanson was the odd man out, but he was one of the few Kraken players who actually showed up and even scored the opening goal. It’s hard to pull him now.
That leaves Catton and Winterton.
If Schwartz can’t go Tuesday (and/or Thursday), I think you have to keep the Meyers–Winterton–Melanson fourth line intact and scratch Catton. It sucks to say it, but he’s not helping this team win right now. He missed at least two assignments that directly led to goals on Saturday night, and he continues to make careless passes that hurt the team. I love his offensive flashes, but defensively he’s been a liability.
Other musings
- Of all the players moved at the deadline, I’m not sure there was a single one that made me wish the Kraken had jumped in. The only player I was genuinely intrigued by was Robert Thomas, and he didn’t end up getting moved.
- The Kraken scored first in all three games this week. Normally that’s a good omen since they’ve earned a .703 points percentage when scoring first this season, but they managed just two of six points (.333) this week.
- It would be nice if the Kraken could mix in an overtime game or two. They haven’t played one since Jan. 14. Meanwhile, the Kings, Ducks, and Sharks have each played at least four overtime games in that span.
- The Kraken are 17‑10‑3 since trading Mason Marchment on Dec. 19, the best record in the Pacific Division over that span.
- I was surprised to hear some fans were disappointed in the deadline, expecting either a bigger splash or a significant sell‑off. As I said last week, this team is in a playoff spot but not a Cup contender, so a measured move made sense.
- The Kraken are tracking at the exact same pace as the 2023–24 team. Fortunately for them, the Western Conference is significantly weaker this season.
- For the heck of it, I refreshed an old visual comparing Kraken draft‑pick performance to the rest of the league. It’s far too early to make any sweeping declarations, but the Kraken are punching well above the league average so far.
- Season‑ticket holders received renewal notices last week, and most ticket prices are going down next season.
Goal of the week
Sometimes you really need a greasy one and situationally, that can be pretty.
B-B-B-BEN MMMMEYERS! 🚨
It starts with a physical, hard-nosed play in the defensive zone by Melanson. Gaudreau feeds Meyers, who sticks with it and gets a good bounce.
2-0 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/zcKAMZt55u
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 3, 2026
Congrats to Ben Meyers for signing a two-year extension last week. He has been a pleasant surprise contributor to the lineup this season.
Player performances
Ollie Josephson (ND/SEA) – The 19‑year‑old center, drafted by the Kraken in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft, had one goal and four assists in North Dakota’s two games over the weekend. He now has 20 points in his first NCAA season.
Logan Morrison (CV/SEA) – “LoMo” posted two goals and two assists in Coachella Valley’s two‑game series in Calgary. He leads the Firebirds in points and is on pace for 34 goals this season — not bad for an undrafted player.
Kim Saarinen (HPK/SEA) – A third‑round pick by the Kraken in 2024, the Finnish goaltender stopped 57 of 62 shots in back‑to‑back wins for HPK in the Finnish Liiga.
The week ahead
Every week from here on out is critical, and this one is no exception. Tuesday brings a big game against Nashville, who is still in the hunt but starting to fade. On Thursday, the league‑leading Colorado Avalanche come to town. As of Monday morning, they’ve won five straight and are 8‑2‑0 in their last 10.
Saturday looks significantly easier with a trip to Vancouver to face the Canucks, but do we really expect any game to be easy down the stretch? I sure don’t.
The standings remain tight, and eventually the Kraken need a week where they take more than 50 percent of the available points. This is a good week to do it. They can survive with less, but four of six points, including a regulation win on Tuesday could all but eliminate Nashville. That would go a long way.
Although McMann was a step up in spead, I think they Kraken skept through the Free Agency, We Cheaped out getting Pannarin. If they management thinks this team is good enough, then they we not watching the games I watched. We lose to all cup competetive teams, what more data do they need.
Panarin did not want to go to Seattle. Full stop. There is a maximum amount of the cap that a team can spend on a single player, and even if the Kraken had offered that (which would have been A Very Bad Idea), he wouldn’t have accepted.
Culture-wise, he wasn’t a fit for the PNW. We have a certain ethos here and looking across all of our various teams in multiple sports over the years there’s a pretty consistent profile across the athletes that have resonated with the fan base. We appreciate scrappy, hard working, team-oriented and a bit quirky. Panarin is none of those things.
You really should listen to 32 Thoughts. Would instantly stop you from having uniformed takes. Panarin only ever really wanted to go to LA. Many teams were on in him but they never got to the trade part of the discussion because LA made it work. I feel like half the fanbase has themselves riled up over their own ignorance. It makes me wonder if someone is doing the riling.
“ I feel like half the fanbase has themselves riled up over their own ignorance. It makes me wonder if someone is doing the riling.”
Can you really call the perpetually negative misanthropes that continually pollute the forum with the same tired complaints “fans”?
I’m not saying everyone has to be sunshine and rainbows all the time in order to be a fan, but the fact they either only pop up when the team loses, or continue to bitch and moan even when the team does well leads me to believe they will ALWAYS have something to be mad about.
Relax. Let’s have some fun out here! This game’s fun, OK? Fun goddamnit!!!
Who wants fan when you can swim in a pool of your own tears?
“On the surface, it’s nice that the brutal week didn’t kill them in the standings,…” this is so funny. They will find a way! I hope this team does not make the playoffs. If that happens, the only winners will be the ownership and FO, and frankly, they don’t deserve it.
Looking at the draft, tanking the rest of the season is not going to yield a high enough pick to get top-end talent.
Winning IS the best option right now. Seattle needs to make themselves as attractive as possible as a destination to have any hope of drawing a current star. If I were a player looking for a new home, which would be more enticing – the team where adding my talent is the missing piece that can push them to the next level in the next 2-3 years, or the team that may be able to contend in the next 5+ years, I’m going to take a serious look at that first team.
Virtually all of the top-line forwards in the league on contracts with term have no-move/no-trade clauses. To get past those, Seattle needs to be a more attractive destination and building a winning culture helps that. Ditto for trying to entice any UFA’s or to offer sheet an RFA.
“Seattle needs to be a more attractive destination and building a winning culture helps that.”
Agree but are you not a little short on the details?
Do you really think barely squeaking into the playoffs to get hammered by the Avs suddenly makes players think they have to come to Seattle?
Let’s take it as a given that players see everything we do plus they talk to each other. They would know which teams have a winning culture and who does not.
Why has Vegas been a magnet for available players? It is quite simple, because from day one, from the owner on down, they insisted on winning as the only thing. Remember what they did to Fleury and several other players? If you don’t help us win, you are expendable. May sound heartless to us but players buy it.
That will never happen in Seattle. The owner seems too inexperienced to take charge. So the Kraken keep drifting along, with a mediocre roster and uninspiring prospects.
There are about 10 teams were inspired leadership has turned their teams into exciting young clubs with lots of upside, mostly through high draft picks. There are about 10 other teams where the leadership has managed to keep the team playing at the highest level for years through skillful trades. A few others like Calgary and Chicago are still on the bottom but will likely rise soon enough.
The Kraken fit in none of those buckets. They are in the bucket of teams going nowhere, with uninspiring leadership and no clear plan to success (e.g. Canucks). The reason is always the same, poor leadership. Just wish the Kraken ownership would change from patient money to a succeed or be fired attitude towards its execs. Nice rarely wins in sports.
They have a clear plan. It’s been both clear and consistent since the day they hired Ron Francis and it’s pretty straightforward. It’s Hockey 101 – you build from the backend first and then out through the middle. Draft and develop.
First of all, they hired Ron Francis who patiently built the core of the Canes. The approach they’ve taken is consistent with the General Manager they hired.
Goaltending was considered a real strength at the outset with many positioning Seattle as one of the top tandems in the league. Unfortunately, we all know how that started out. The blueline has been an obvious priority from the get go with Giordano, Dunn, Larsson and Oleksiak all arriving in expansion. While the shortcomings in net undermined a lot of it, establishing a backend has obviously been the plan.
Building out through the middle is the real challenge because as anyone who pays attention knows, quality centers are hard to come by. They’ve taken pivots with each of their four top ten picks. but it’s also easy to accept the argument for each of these selections as “best player available” at the time. Yes, in hindsight that may not be the case, but only fool chases the idea of drafting in hindsight. Building out through the middle has also been the plan.
Filling in on the edges – the wings – is where the final attention goes. Here, as with the centers, draft and develop is part of the plan. It’s been five seasons now and players are starting to arrive through the system. Down the middle, but also on the wings. Along the way they’ve added here and there and shipped out players here and there, but they’ve also been drafting and developing the players according to plan. They haven’t had the good fortune of nailing an elite talent like Celebrini, but they’re deep down the middle already, Catton and O’Brien are still unknown quantities and they have all the assets necessary to make a move when the opportunity presents itself. Either through trade or development, the missing top end talent will need to arrive at some point.
You can certainly disagree with the plan. You can even disparage it, but if you can’t even recognize it, why should anyone take anything you say seriously? If your idea of a plan is tanking, that’s understandable, but for me that’s an unrealistic plan for this organization at this time.
Spot on
I don’t think they should tank. I hate tanking, on purpose anyway. I think they might be able to tank without trying because they have enough trouble just being prepared to hit the ice. I just think that the management’s first priority, after 5 years, to build a contending team, they have failed. They might end up being the Mariners of the NHL. I don’t think the ownership/front office deserve to congratulate themselves on making the playoffs. Plus, this division is so soft. In Central div, the Avs are 28 points ahead of SEA. If UT was in our division they’d be winning. Anyway… soft.
The suggestion that they will start healthy-scratching Catton in favor of McMann is not exactly surprising but it’s still super disappointing. Yeah, Catton had a really rough game against Ottawa, along with most of the team. But even in other recent losses, Catton was really good and definitely not the problem. If this team has any chance to make some noise, it’s with Catton –their most promising young player — hitting his stride. If they write him off after one bad game, they are doomed anyway.
P.S. the Kraken PR posted that Schwartz is “out indefinitely” so the dilemma is partially moot. I still think they should consider scratching Gaudreau rather than any of those 4 players you listed. But Lambert’s “wily veteran” bias is strong.
I agree on Catton, sort of. To me, other than the mistakes, he’s looked great lately… very exciting, very dynamic. I don’t think they’d be “writing him off” in any sense. He just turned 20 two months ago and has a long future with the Kraken. Limiting Leo Carlsson to just 55 games in his first NHL season didn’t seem to hurt his development.
To me, the best thing right now for Catton’s development would be getting into some playoff games, but I’m just some guy sitting on a lounge chair by the ocean.
Vacation on the coast? Where at?
Mexico… the safe part.
I don’t think it was just the Ottawa games. My biggest issue since he’s been back in the lineup is his prayer passes that he makes all the time. They might not be classified as a turnover but that is essentially what he is doing. I love the skill and creativity he shows but if getting into the playoffs is a priority, I think one of the other forwards gives you a better chance to win.
Once he comes out of the lineup, do you see any path for him to return without injuries? Or would you ideally bench him for the rest of the season (and probably the playoffs, should they get there)?
I think regardless of who comes out of the lineup, it will be a relatively short-term scratch with a steady rotation of Catton, Winterton, Melanson, Meyers, and maybe Gaudreau being in an out of the lineup (assuming no injuries). I think all those players deserve to be in the lineup and hopefully one or two making it impossible for Lambert to take them out of the lineup.
Fair enough. I don’t hate the idea of a rotation.
I think you grossly overreacting here. Scratching a 8th pick who shouldn’t even really be in the NHL isn’t giving up on him. It’s doing the best thing you can do to help your team and it gives him time to actually learn as opposed to more trial by fire.
Learn by sitting in the press box? Ridiculous.
John, do you mean a better chance to actually WIN, or a better chance of just losing a little less?
I didn’t say they would be giving up on him permanently; I know they aren’t doing that regardless. I mean even focusing on this stretch run right now, success would require them to have Catton — who provides some of what little dynamism they have — getting hot, like he seemed to be doing for a bit before the Olympics. That seemed to be the reason they brought him up and started giving him regular playing time to begin with. If they chicken out and start scratching him now because they are scared of his mistakes, they are basically giving up on the season anyway. This team with Catton is probably bad, but without him it’s DEFINITELY bad. And it’s bad for his development because if he’s not playing, he’s just sitting, because AHL is not an option.
But since you don’t like turnovers, John, presumably you’d be cool with scratching Stephenson, our perpetual turnover machine who is also not good at defense? Har har.
Yep… they’re scared.
This is a pretty telling analysis. Lots of depth in the thinking here.
Stephenson has the fewest giveaways/60 of any center on the team…
…and led the league in completed passes last season.
Why do you keep throwing John around here? You ok? Did you mean to reply to another comment?
I stopped reading when you thought he couldn’t learn by observing the game and working on skills with the skills coaches. No point really contesting points when someone is arguing in bad faith.
I think scratching any of the young guys in favor of the old ones is a mistake. Stop taking the future out and then expecting them to build. It’s dumb. Catton is good, but it’s interesting how all the youngsters have been on a drought lately.
It makes no sense to bench Catton, I hate that reflexive, lazy conventional thinking (bench the rookie, play the vets – just because). Assuming they make the playoffs, the Kraken will be overmatched regardless of their opponent – just like they were in ’22 when they beat the Avs. Tye Kartye – a player no one really knew – was the X factor in that series- they don’t beat the Avs without him. Catton has the best chance being an X factor in the playoffs.
It has nothing to do with benching the kids to play with the vets and everything to do with putting the best roster in the ice that you can. Factually, Catton has been very error prone and isn’t contributing enough offense to make anyone want to look the other way. My suspicion is it will be a revolving door of players sitting for a couple weeks as we find the best lineup combos with McMann in there. At this point Melanson is looking like much more of an X-Factor who is also a rookie.
Wasn’t really thinking of Catton/Melanson as the tradeoff – but you make a fair point.
I agree with John that Catton seems to have been a liability at times lately. It definitely jumped in person sitting in the 200 center ice area where you really see spacing/positioning. On the D zone it jumped out that he totally blew coverage on multiple plays and one gave the Sens an easy goal. He also just threw the puck away multiple times in the neutral zone or during the breakout – not like Dunn trying to force a tough pass but just gave it away with a terrible choice. Sitting him a game or two isn’t going to kill his confidence. Last year it was a big benefit to Wright. Having him watch and process the game from a different angle may act as a reset.
“For the heck of it, I refreshed an old visual comparing Kraken draft‑pick performance to the rest of the league. It’s far too early to make any sweeping declarations, but the Kraken are punching well above the league average so far.”
While I see your intent, isn’t this comparing apples to bananas? The pool of teams to compare the Kraken to are the other lower half teams. As your metric would include all the playoff teams who have lower picks, they can’t compete with the worse teams drafting top picks.
So I would like you to re-do this comparing it to other teams that regularly don’t make the playoffs instead of all teams.
Also, playing NHL games is a metric that really does not have a great significance in the short-term. Lots of poor teams play draft picks because they are stuck (e.g. Catton) or lacking talent. It would be much better to compare the Kraken draft picks against other players picked the same year on some measure of success like goals or points (e.g. Wright vs. Slafkovsky vs. Cooley vs. Gauthier)
Obviously, there is context and nuance that is challenging to objectively compare teams. I would also argue the only draft you can compare right now is the 2021 draft since the road to the NHL tends to be much longer for anyone drafted outside the top 10.
Berkly needs to spend some time in CV to find his scoring and build some confidence. He still seems a bit overwhelmed in the big league. God knows the Firebirds need him too.
He’s not CV eligible.
It seems so obvious, and yet….
Now that Dallas traded our pick to Nashville I wonder if we will trade for it.. I have a feeling that Botts might want to throw out an offer sheet this summer, Bedard and Robertson are both RFAs.
A Robertson offer sheet is four firsts… period. That pick is of no consequence in that scenario. Bedard isn’t even a conversation.
i concede we probably cant outbid Chicago. However Dallas is in cap hell, from making 3 consecutive cup runs.they were already in a cap crunch last summer. if they signed him to 11m aav they will have to manage the cap elsewhere. another aspect to this is that a team can still match even if they would have preferred a lower hit. i.e. if we offer robertson 14m aav dalas could match but be left paying the bill, hindering thier ability to sign depth players and making the team too top heavy.
I think Seattle could absolutely make an offer on Robertson that Dallas would be very hard pressed to match and that would still work for Seattle – 7 x $15m even. I think the hardest part would be convincing Robertson to sign a sheet with Seattle. His recent move to Andy Scott as his agent could help maybe.
Dallas could be in a pickle capwise and the fact they haven’t gotten anything done yet sure makes it seem like there’s an issue there. On the other hand, whatever is going on with Seguin could change everything.
…furthermore, offer sheets will be following the draft and be encumbered by 2027 picks.