Last Monday, the Kraken’s playoff hopes were wobbling but still technically alive — thin ice, sure, but not fully cracked. I said three points would be acceptable, fewer than two would be devastating, and… well, here we are. Devastated.
I didn’t expect much out of the midweek games against Edmonton and Utah. Aside from a brief 2–0 lead against the Mammoth, there wasn’t a lot to cheer for in either game. The malaise carried into the weekend, when the Kraken lost 4–2 to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks.
It’s an oversimplification, but the team just isn’t competing right now. One thing I valued about this group up until the Olympic break was that they competed in just about every game. Even during their losing slide from late November through mid-December, where they went 1-8-1, six of those losses were one-goal games (excluding empty-netters). This team was competitive up until the break which adds to the frustration of being a fan right now.
Best of both worlds?
At the beginning of the season, a realistic hope was simply to play meaningful games in March. They did that, and as painful as the last month has been, there was a legitimate path to the playoffs throughout March, which gave us a reason to tune in. Plenty of people have pointed out how weak the teams competing for the last Western Conference wild card spot are this season, but once you get in, all records reset.
The disparity between the two conferences has created a strange scenario: two weeks ago, the Kraken were within striking distance of a playoff spot; now they find themselves fifth from the bottom of the league. That also means, as of now, they have the fifth-best odds of winning the NHL Draft Lottery. The ultimate spin on the season would be to say that, based on expectations, 2025–26 went well: compete for a playoff spot into late March to keep our interest, and still end up with a top-seven draft pick.
Not-so-special teams
The special teams have been brutal lately. Over the three games last week, the penalty kill allowed four goals on 10 shorthanded situations, while the power play went 0 for 8. The Kraken haven’t scored a power-play goal in seven games. At one point, they had a top-10 power play in the league, but it has cratered since the Olympic break. Injuries played a role for a bit, but everyone has been back for the last three games.
If you zoom out to the post-break stretch, the penalty kill has actually improved, but the power play has been the worst in the league since teams returned to play.
I wouldn’t pin the entire skid on the power play, but it has absolutely been a contributing factor.
Other musings
- Philipp Grubauer deserved better Saturday night against Chicago. He made several big saves on defensive lapses in front of him, and it was a miracle it was still a one-goal game when he left the ice for the extra attacker late in the third.
- By combined save percentage, the Kraken have the fifth-best goaltending in the league and the best in the Pacific. Pretty sure no one saw that coming this season.
- In the Utah game, the Kraken had two goalie interference calls go against them. The first was when Jacob Melanson appeared to bump the goalie before tipping it in. The second was a Utah goal that was initially waved off before being successfully challenged. By the letter of the law, I think both calls were correct, but I don’t love how the rule is written. Both calls felt ticky tacky when you consider the impact they had on the outcome of the game.
- Those two successful challenges were the first time in the NHL this season that a team had two successful goalie interference challenges in the same game.
- The Kraken are now exactly on pace with where they were at this point in 2023–24 and seven points ahead of where they were last season.
- Regardless of what’s best for the franchise, I will always root for the Kraken to win. But I also keep an eye on the teams around them in the standings, who could bolster Seattle’s draft position.
- I’m still not an expert on the X’s and O’s at the NHL level, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want all five of your players within 10 feet of the boards.
- Seattle is one of four teams without a hat trick this season (though fans did get tricked into throwing their hats on the ice for non-hat tricks two separate times). They had two last year.
- Eeli Tolvanen has been cold as of late. The pending free agent hasn’t scored in 13 games… Maybe he’ll give us that elusive hat trick in one of the final three home games?
- For the fourth time in their four-year franchise history, the Coachella Valley Firebirds have clinched a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs. You can catch their games on FloHockey.
- Speaking of FloHockey, I’ve watched a lot of Brantford Bulldogs games this season, and draft-eligible Caleb Malhotra has looked outstanding. I haven’t watched a ton of prospects this year, but Malhotra is expected to go around fifth overall. I’d love to see the Kraken draft him if he’s available… but again, I haven’t watched a lot of prospects.
Goal of the week
You’ve probably heard coaches talking about getting to the front of the net a lot over the years. This is how you do it.
This is a very Jaden Schwartz goal if I’ve ever seen one.
Player performances
Tyson Jugnauth (CV/SEA) – Jugnauth is putting together an impressive rookie season in the AHL. On Saturday, he factored into all three Firebirds goals, including the overtime winner in their 3–2 victory. There will be plenty of time to debate the 2026–27 Kraken roster this offseason, but I’m starting to wonder if Jugnauth’s development might put him in position to make the jump next year.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Kakko had only a goal and an assist over the last three games, but I’ve really liked his play since being paired with Bobby McMann and Chandler Stephenson. He has seven goals in 18 games since the break, compared to six in 40 before it. Not all of those were with McMann and Stephenson, but he looks the best he has since the Kraken traded for him last season.
Jake O’Brien (BRF/SEA) – The 19-year-old Kraken prospect had six points in Brantford’s four-game sweep of Sudbury in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. Brantford is expected to make a deep run, so we could be watching him for a while this spring.
The week ahead
With a reasonable shot at the playoffs now out of reach, I just want to see this team compete through the end of the season. They start the week with a tough back-to-back: Winnipeg on Monday and Minnesota on Tuesday. My expectations have been significantly lowered, but I’d still like to see them get back to the level we saw in January.
After the back-to-back, they return to Seattle for the final homestand of the season. They face the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Believe it or not, the Kraken are 2-0-0 against Vegas this season, but the Golden Knights recently hired John Tortorella and have since rattled off three straight wins. Then the Kraken welcome the Calgary Flames on Saturday, another bottom-of-the-league team, and we all saw how the Chicago game went.
The playoff chase is gone, but the season isn’t. Give me effort, give me one more home win, give me something that reminds us of January before we all turn our attention to lottery odds and prospect clips. And if a Firebird or two wants to show up and make things interesting, I won’t complain.
Oh Kraken!?!
All that is left is to speculate on what type of player the Kraken draft in the first round. Craig Button has D for 5 of his first 8 prospects and Elite Prospects has 5 of the first 9 prospects. Is this the year the Kraken finally take a D in the first round?
If Caleb Malhotra is hands down the best prospect available for our selection I would not complain but we need another center like we need a hole in our head. We desperately need some high end prospects on the wing and on defense. Changing positions and playing centers on the wing doesn’t always work out the way you want it, sometimes players are better in their natural position.
Macklin Celebrini is a center. If he was in this draft would you pass on him because you don’t need another center? This is the sort of thinking the Devils used to take Simon Nemec instead of Logan Cooley or Shane Wright and now they’re short down the middle and overloaded on the blueline. This is an exceptionally thin draft at center from what I’ve read so I don’t know that it’s going to even come up for the Kraken, but when it comes to center, it seems to me if you pass on one because of positional need that can be a huge mistake.
Great argument, except one thing. Caleb Malhotra is no Macklin Celebrini. Classic example of straw man bull-shittery here.
And neither is Tynan Lawrence… which is exactly why I pointed out this was an exceptionally thin draft at center and probably wouldn’t be an issue. I pushed the “straw man” over myself, the argument beyond is still the same. You don’t pass on a center if he’s the best player available just because you think you might have a bunch already. The argument wasn’t “what if Celebrini is still there?”
I think you do if you’re looking at comparable player, I feel we need so top talent elsewhere. Like I said if it’s hands down the better option then ok.
We’ve only selected centers in the first round I think our shelves are pretty stocked at the moment and we’re definitely not in the same situation as the Devils.
You can never have too many centers until you have too many centers.
Like I said though if he’s the clear best choice but is that really going to be the case, players in that range all have plus and minus.
You suggested an absurd, ridiculous hypothetical tradeoff in an attempt to characterize Nino’s comment as stupid and extreme. What he ACTUALLY said was he would choose CM if he was clearly the best pick, but (given their glut at the center position already) if they are players (at other positions) rated comparably they need to be an option as well. So, your argument is either straw man, insulting or just dishonest – or some combination of all three.
The real underlying issue is if the Kraken brain trust decides to take a C (Maholtra) even if he’s not clearly the BAA because, well, he’s a center. Basically “tie goes to the center.” Roster construction by cliche because “well, you can never have enough centers”. Per Nino -“until you do”, that is. Particularly if your drafting prioritizes position over actual player evaluations. Many thought that Zeev Buim would have been a better choice than Berkly Catton. I thought there were better picks than Jake O’Brien. Oh well, time will tell.
Picking another center will subject the Kraken brain trust (legitimately) to criticism that they’re too rigid regarding the team’s roster construction. It would also be an unwitting self -indictment of either their own player evaluations (at the center position) or their inability to adequately develop centers they’ve already drafted. I have just (barely) enough faith in the FO to think it won’t come to that.
People love to forget that Macklin Celebrini wasn’t Macklin Celebrini either until…he was. He was firmly considered a good player but not likely to sniff Bedard-level status. It’s looking more and more like the opposite is true.
Point being that there is no certainty when it comes to prospects.
Best player available. Unless it’s McKenna or Stenberg whoever they draft is 18 months away, at best. This team is far from 1 position away from being adequate
I can understand selecting for position if “all things are equal”. Unfortunately, I believe the miss rate on top ten defensemen is a lot higher than forwards. As I understand it, the development curve for a D is longer and as such more difficult to project. I think it’s difficult to know where things actually equalize. Of course I’m not a hockey professional and this is just from what I’ve read… which was probably bull-shittery.
Before we move on I think it would be cathartic to have an airing of grievances and I would invite fans and SOH contributors to participate. Who is to blame? Who do you want to see move on from the organization?
I am not trying to say this season has been a success but I think “who is to blame” needs to actually be spelled out. Not making the playoffs? Not finishing lower? The goal differential? The post-Olympics collapse? Running out of “meaningful” games at the beginning of April?
Again, I’m not saying there isn’t “blame” to go around, but the idea of blame needs to start with something more specific than just who. We need to know what for and it needs to be more specific than “they suck”.
That said, I like the idea for the most part. I do, however, dread it a bit too and I think it’d be more interesting if it’s more “granular” than “the roster is terrible” and “blame management”. That grievance has been getting aired for quite some time and if those folks think the deserve a “told ya so” catharsis… I’m not intersted.
Look at where the Kraken are likely to end the season, maybe around the 5th worst showing in the league.
I think the decision makers who opted to buy instead of sell at the deadline should be sacked. We had a fairly significant amount of UFA trade value didn’t we? I don’t mind a mixed approach if you are getting guys on multi-year deals. So I don’t hate the McMann signing except for draft positioning.
I also hold the coach responsible for Wright justifiably wanting out of this organization. To my inexperienced eye, he has too much talent to largely serve as a bench warmer on a team like this.
There could be behind the scenes things I don’t know, but the appearance sucks.
There seems to be a lot of unsubstantiated speculation around Wright. I do not recall reading a credible report that Shane has indicated he wanted out. It’s easy to believe that’s the case if that’s what you want to believe, but I personally haven’t seen that. Maybe I missed it.
I think it’s questionable to expect a team like Seattle – an expansion team trying to build a fan base – to sell at the deadline when they’re sitting in a division playoff spot. Furthermore, given what was a “soft market”, throwing in the towel to fetch few picks outside the top 50 hardly seems like negligence.
If I have a “grievance”, it starts with a question – what the hell happened over the break? Regardless of all the complaints about the front office, this has been a totally different team – to my viewing – since the break. Is it on the players checking out OR what the hell happened during the week they were on the ice before they resumed playing games? There could be plenty of other explanations, but I’m surprised no one has been speculating on just what they “worked” on in that time. Nino, how have you not been riding this horse?
😂 sorry Daryl I was busy.
I do appreciate your request.
Obviously I blame management and to me this wasn’t a question that we should have sold a few players at the deadline. We have never been a good team all season long. We had a very up and down season with more than one long stretch of let’s say 💩 hockey. We’ve only won because of excellent goaltending but team play has 💩 all season. Why would a competent GM not realize we’re not ready for the playoffs? Isn’t it the job of the GM to be able to properly evaluate the roster!!!!!
I didn’t mind the trade for McMann but some vets should have been made available.
I’m not even going to get into coaching mostly because the management is also responsible for the coaching staff. This many ups and downs is on coaching though.
There is no credible source for Wright wanting out. You fell for some rage bait there. I also highly doubt he’s mad at being given a majority offensive faceoffs to show himself off. Your definition of benchwarmer needs work too. Shane is the problem here. He hasn’t taken that step up despite being given every opportunity. I feel like a certain other podcast poisoned the well here
What? (Head shaking right now)
What we have seen is a player that was starting to figure it out last season. Then we brought in a coach that’s focused on defense and only defense. He’d rather play Winterton than wright even though Wright had 10x more talent. He’s never been given a true fair shake and LL even admitted he had asked Wright to play defense and just focus on that aspect of his game. This is just not the right coach to be coaching young offensive players, look a Nyman as well he was looking good last season…. The real kicker here is that we need to be developing our young offensive players, we can’t be treating them like this or we will never have any offense.
This is why I wasn’t a fan of sacking Bylsma at the end of last season. Maybe he wasn’t the right coach, but I am never a fan of getting rid of a coach after one season before he can get his system established. Unless there this some type of scandal thats a PR nightmare for the organization or something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about, that the players don’t like him, I thought he should have gotten at least the start of this season. Wright, Nyman, Winterton, OFM I believe would have excelled
Starts with Francis. As long as he’s around there’s no changing.
Then keep going down the organizational chart. Go younger, hungrier. Add a figurehead if you need to keep the owner happy but it can’t be RF.
On the player side it starts with Stephenson. Trade him, even if you take junk like Morgan Reilly back, buy him out, whatever. Regardless of whether you move Wright. CS position is too important, he’s inadequate at what this team needs and he’s actively blocking the future with the useage
If ownership remotely has the pulse of the fan base (at least the heavily invested fans) they will move on from Francis. Botterill seems worthy of giving a longer leash to since he has only had a single season. I have appreciated that he moved on quickly from Marchment when that was clearly a disaster. His McMann pickup was a great tradeline deal and proved productive despite the teams overall lackluster effort. Lindgren has been better than I anticipated after his past season. Freddy Gaudreau seems like a great depth piece for cheap money and term. I doubt we see much turnover in the coaching roster – Zulianello especially seems safe after the year Gru had this year.
Repeat after me… Francis isn’t running hockey ops. Say it about 1000 times until it sinks in.
President of Hockey Operations? You’re either a member of his family or an imbecile. Or both..
If he truly has nothing to do with Hockey operations then he won’t be missed. 5 years around the team is enough.
I should have been more clear. He is not managing the roster. That’s Botterills job. This has been made clear several times. It’s fascinating seeing the hate boner you guys have for a man. It’s unhealthy and “see a therapist” worthy.
Koist is correct here.
John what!!! Koist is not correct. RF has been running this team from the start. This is his team, he’s built it from the ground up he is truly responsible for this roster. He’s also the boss of the GM and is think that trades get run through the boss before they are finalized… no? Also how do you go about redoing your bosses roster, excuse me Boss but I kinda hate what you have built so far and I think we need to redo the crap you’ve done? This team can’t change with RF in the franchise.
I think Daryl is on to something. The question is blamed for what and that really comes down to expectations coming into the season. I’ve tried to find out. I know they did not “expect” to make the playoffs but were hoping to see some improvement and try to compete for a playoff spot. They did that.
Now if the expectations were too low, that’s a fair argument but something that should have been dealt with last offseason. I also think it is fair to question how the team is still bottom 5/10 in the league after five seasons. Then the question is where did they go wrong. Opposed to popular belief, the answer is not signing Chandler Stephenson. That might be on the table a year or two from now but having him on the team to date, makes the team better.
The drafting has been good so far but still requires a few more years to see how some of the draft classes pan out.
I guess you could say they went wrong buy not trading for better players but I know “just trade for someone” is not as easy we like to think it is.
Ok John I think you are totally off base on this. We are not changing for a playoff spot and the only reason we were ever even close was because the pacific division is absolute garbage. I don’t feel that we can use the argument that “well we’re really that that much worse then the garbage dwellers” hand have it hold any water.
We’re looking worse than last season when you look at the whole situation, I think the expectations should be improvement or at least showing a play for development. We’re just showing we are happy with the low middle by all actions we’ve seen.
Just to be clear, are you saying I am off base about them challenging for a playoff spot and that they improved over last season or I am off base about the expectations going into the season?
Don’t do it John!
Don’t get drug down into the mud with the rest of us.
Don’t do it!
What I’m saying is this whole challenging for a playoff spot is stupidity. We’re grading on a very low bar and still failing. In any normal year we would not be near the playoffs and we’ve had all these cellar dwellers to play all season, 32% of our games actually. It doesn’t matter that we were challenging it matters where we are in our growth and that’s not looking great. I just don’t think the team deserves this sugar coating that you’re sprinkling.
still not sure what you say I am off base about…I am guessing that you don’t believe the expectations were to improve and hopefully compete for a playoff spot? is that correct?
I don’t think they have met expectations or even get close to them, the pacific division is a sliver platter and they fails miserably. There has been no improvement this season. I’m starting to not even understand what you are asking, you fully know what my disagreement is with your take.
I honestly do not know what you are saying. They wanted to improve: +7 points at this time last season. They wanted to compete for a playoff spot: in playoff contention just a week ago.
I think you are saying that it shouldn’t count because the pacific division stinks. seems like an odd requirement.
did you expect this team to make the playoffs?
Maybe I expected that at the start of the season or was maybe just being hopeful? Quickly that feeling departed me.
I don’t think that 7 point increase means anything with how weak the pacific division has been and I don’t think being in playoff contention a few weeks ago means anything with how weak the pacific division has been. Throw in the improved Grubauer and we aren’t even treading water, in terms of actual team play we’re horrible. What is there three teams in the west that weren’t in playoff contention? We are if we’re graded on a curve as we should be just as bad or worse, absolutely no improvement but hey we got to watch some very exciting hockey.
I think you are a fantastic writer but sorry just don’t agree on this.
Unfortunately the relative success up to the Olympic break paired with really weak field in the West put us in a terrible situation at this point. Had we clearly been out months ago we would have sold Oleksiak and Schwartz (both of whom I wanted to deal anyways), and potentially Tolvenan. It also has led us to try to play lines that we think gives the best chance to win so has resulted in low usage of Wright and Catton in favor of 19min+ of Stephenson every game. His contract isn’t that determinantal to us financially and he is producing about as much as we should have expected, but hopefully they aren’t afraid to really shake things up this year. There should be only a few untouchables on the team at this point. Dunn (his turnovers have been atrocious this year) and Stephenson are top of my list for trade candidates for addition through subtraction. One positive of the false hope is the addition of McMann. He would be a great add for a 3-4 year contract even with an overpaying amount of money. However, I hope we don’t go for another 7 year deal on a 30 year old like with Stephenson.
I hope they go into next season with more open slots for prospects to break camp with the team than they did this year. OFM seems like he will be a great 3rd line d-centric center / PK specialist even if he is not a huge points producer. During the game against the Blackhawks it really stood out how well he scans the ice and positions himself – he made a great read to intercept a pass off the boards in the O-zone that led to a solid scoring chance. But he barely saw the ice. Jugnauth was great in pre-season and seems like he is worthy of giving a real shot to next year instead of signing another 30 year old to a 5×5 deal. I really hope the let Firkus come up for a few games to see what he can do in the NHL. It might be fun to bring up Nyman, Firkus, and Morrison and let them play as a line together to see if their dominance in the AHL translates to a solid NHL line.
I believe better mgt and coaching would not have made those mistakes pertaining to sitting the youth and deadline trades. They bought the fools gold in a year they didn’t have a truly competitive team.
I haven’t seen any youth being sat that actually deserved a roster spot. This is a phrase people throw around a lot but Catton has been a permanent roster player sans a handful of games and so has Shane. Nyman has been given regular opportunes and every time has show he’s not ready. Exactly who’s being sat? And the same with the comments about the fools gold. Neither Montour or Stephenson are blocking anyone from a roster spot and both have made the team better.
Nyman looked brutal last time he was called up. Like he has gotten slower. Wasn’t he a minus 4 over 13 minutes of ice time. Unfortunately, Firkus and Morrison are hurt.
Yes I think it’s a hard system for young players that think offense. I blame coaching for not putting him in a position where he could succeed. He didn’t look that bad last season……
I blame his poor defense and slow skating on Ron Francis….he’s the one that drafted him after all.
There are a number of very skilled forwards that a not fantastic skaters. What he has is an incredible shot and he’s a player that you could build a line around, I’m not saying he’s going to be our saving grace or even that we would end up keeping him long term but we don’t have many options on the table in regards to offense, maybe trying to develop what we have isn’t a bad thing?
I agree with a lot of what you say there. One thing I’ve heard over and over again from people that work across the league is that players need to know how to play defense to make it in the NHL which is probably why he isn’t with the team right now.
I can mostly agree with that but I think why he’s not on the team is because we hired LL. Same reason that I can’t see the circus coming to town. We do need these guys unless something better comes along.
It seems to me that players coming up from the Firebird cannot play the LL defensive system. Last years free agents have been non-productive. Hockey is too fast to be thinking while on the ice. The rookies are feeling that. Now if we find a new coach the whole system in the whole organization has to shift to a new system. I do not think Management has grasp on the saying. “the best defense is having a good offense. Defense is always on their back foot and never hold the blue line to keep on pushing for offence. When I see the Kraken hustling back to help the D-men, I see a weakness. WE gave away all our good forecheckers each year. Those players are on other teams and most teams are heading to the playoff. Why did we trade Yani? The Kraken are a soft team and are easy to beat because they have a fragile mentality. When LL broke up that forth line, he took out the fire the team had. Now the rarely hit, hold the zone or even control the boards. Those are losing team traits