A week ago, the Kraken were all but eliminated. This week didn’t save the season, but it reminded us why we still watch. The Kraken split their four games with two wins and two losses, but the two wins came at home, which matters more. As the saying goes: if you’re going to stink, stink on the road.
The week opened with back‑to‑back losses to the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild. As ugly as the 6–2 and 5–2 results were, there was noticeably more compete than we’d seen in the games leading up to them. That set the stage for a return home to face the Vegas Golden Knights.
Vegas struck first and eventually went up by two early in the second period. To the Kraken’s credit, they rallied from down two and won in a shootout, only their second shootout victory all season. It was the most fun I’ve had at a Kraken game in months, and it snapped the losing streak that had effectively sunk the season.
Seattle followed that up with a 4–1 win over the depleted Calgary Flames on Saturday in Nikke Kokko’s first career NHL start. It was a chaotic week, but it ended with some genuinely happy fans walking out of Climate Pledge Arena.
Importance of winning… even now
I know there’s a subset of fans who want the Kraken to lose for draft‑position purposes, but I’ve never subscribed to the idea that fans should root for losses (even though Darren said we should in Three Takeaways). The fans who showed up Thursday and Saturday certainly weren’t rooting for losses, and I think there’s a bigger reason why these wins still matter.
I attended both games, and in each one I sat near fans who were attending their first Kraken game. I chatted with a few of them; both groups had been looking forward to their games for months. Watching them experience Kraken hockey for the first time was genuinely cool and they left overjoyed with the Kraken win.
Separately, as I was leaving Seattle Center, I saw two kids skipping down the sidewalk chanting, “Let’s go Kraken! Let’s go Kraken!” Those fans don’t care about draft odds. They came to see the Kraken win a hockey game, and some of them walked away with a memory they’ll keep for life. That matters.
To be clear, I don’t care about ticket sales or ad revenue. This is about creating fun, meaningful interactions with the sport I love: hockey. I’m not going to tell anyone how to root for their team, but I know winning was important to those fans, and I am sure they weren’t the only ones.
Thoughts on Ron
I’ve shared plenty of thoughts on the mutual departure of president of hockey operations Ron Francis on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast. Since then, I’ve had fans, friends, and teammates ask me about the move. My overall feeling is that something needed to change.
There’s no hiding from the fact that the on‑ice results over the first five seasons have been disappointing, with very few highlights since the 2022–23 postseason. The move also made me reflect on the franchise’s first five years.
As someone who cares deeply about the hockey community in the Northwest, I can’t help but feel there were squandered opportunities to grow the fan base and the sport, on and off the ice. Season 1 brought a wave of enthusiasm as new fans discovered hockey. Wins and losses didn’t matter much; the novelty carried the experience.
Season 2 brought a different energy. Out of nowhere, the Kraken became one of the biggest turnaround stories in 20 years. It was magical and entertaining, and it exposed new fans to everything I love about this sport. The playoffs amplified that even further.
Since then, the momentum has slowed. Growing the fan base wasn’t Ron’s job, but it’s undeniably tied to the team’s success. When the team doesn’t win, people stop tuning in.
As for roster construction, the mix of players simply hasn’t worked. There are moves you can criticize, but they’re relatively rare and not solely responsible for the team’s decline. The bigger criticism is about the moves he didn’t make, but we’ll never know what was actually on the table. Regardless, this is the roster that was built, and the results are what they are. Something needed to change, and it did.
Is the change enough? Fair question. I’m taking a wait‑and‑see approach, and I expect more changes before the NHL Draft in June.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Darren’s conversation with John Forslund. John has seen a lot of hockey and offers a level‑headed perspective on the current state of the team.
Quick quiz: Nikke Kokko became the first Kraken goalie to win his first career NHL start. Only one other goalie has made his first career start with the Kraken. Can you name him?
Other Musings
- The Kraken still have some intra‑Pacific matchups left, but as of now, they have the highest points percentage against Pacific Division opponents this season.
- Seattle is now 3‑0‑0 against the Golden Knights this season, with the final meeting coming Wednesday in Vegas.
- Counterpoint: the Kraken have the fourth‑worst record in the league over the last three seasons. Only Anaheim, Chicago, and San Jose are worse. This is part of why change is needed to attract players.
- I don’t have the data to prove it, but I’m pretty sure Ryan Winterton, Berkly Catton, and Oscar Fisker Mølgaard formed the youngest line to play an entire game together in Kraken history.
- The Kraken have won 10 games this season when allowing the first goal, two of them in their last two games.
- As mentioned above, the Kraken got the rare shootout win against Vegas on Thursday. It required five rounds before Berkly Catton buried his opportunity. He is now 1-for-1 in shootout attempts. Matty Beniers is 3-for-12 but 2-for-2 this season.
- Congrats to Kraken prospect Clarke Caswell and the Denver Pioneers on winning the NCAA national championship Saturday night. Caswell had a goal and an assist in the 4–3 OT semifinal win over Michigan.
Goals of the Week
These two goals are very similar, and I loved both. The first one was Bobby McMann’s game-tying goal halfway through the third period against the Golden Knights on Thursday night.
The second Goal of the Week was Matty Beniers’ goal with just 4.4 seconds left in the second period to put the Kraken up by two on Saturday.
Performances of the Week
Jake O’Brien (BRA/SEA) – A regular in this section, O’Brien posted two goals and five assists in three games against North Bay in the OHL second round.
Nikke Kokko (SEA) – Won his first career NHL start and showed plenty of personality to go with his calm play.
Julius Miettinen (EVT/SEA) – Two goals and an assist in two second‑round games against Kelowna. Everett leads the series 2–0.
Quiz answer: Ales Stezka made his first career start for the Kraken on Feb. 23 of last year against Tampa Bay. It was the second half of a back‑to‑back while Philipp Grubauer was in Coachella Valley. Stezka made 19 saves on 22 shots in a 4–1 loss. He was 28 years and 48 days old compared to Kokko’s age of 22 years and 28 days on Saturday.
The week ahead
The Kraken finish the season with three games: the Kings on Monday, then a back‑to‑back in Vegas on Wednesday and Colorado on Thursday. If Seattle beats L.A. on Monday, they’ll set a franchise record for highest home points percentage in a season. An overtime or shootout loss would tie the 2022–23 mark.
Winning is important, but winning at home is especially important, and simply more fun. If the Kraken only win one more game, I hope it’s Monday.
I’m also hoping for one more call‑up from Coachella Valley before the season ends. My preference would be Tyson Jugnauth to see how close he is to making the leap. There isn’t an obvious roster spot for him next year unless a defenseman is moved. Jagger Firkus is the other candidate, but he’s injured and unlikely to return in time.
Other storylines to watch:
- Playing the spoiler: The Kings are in control of the final playoff spot. Depending on the Nashville–San Jose result, L.A. could clinch with a win in Seattle. I’d prefer not to see that celebration at Climate Pledge.
- First goal for OFM: I am sure everyone realizes by now how big of a fan I am of Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, and I would love nothing more than seeing him score his first goal in the National.
- Another Kokko start? He looked calm and composed Saturday, though he wasn’t tested much. According to Natural Stat Trick, Calgary generated just 1.68 expected goals in all situations, the second‑lowest total against Seattle this season.
The season might be ending, but the team still gives me reason to watch.
Great stuff all season John.
Thanks.
Go Kraken!!!
Ok I’m going to disagree with your take on winning at the end of the season after we are eliminated.
Yes I completely understand that kid in section 101 row 5 that had more fun because they won. You obviously want to cheer on your team at games that’s a given.
Where I stop agreeing is if that is actually better for growing the fan base and growth of the organization. First we have 41 home games really how much does a few extra losses at the end of the season effect the overall fan experience especially when 90% of the fans at the game would be just fine with a high effort loss watching a few prospects get some NHL experience at the end of the season. Knowing full well that a few losses today improves the team tomorrow.
Leading to the next point… let’s just project that a little run at the end of this season drops us 4 draft spots, I’d argue that that 4 spots increases our chances of drafting a player that could bring fans out of their seats. Honestly what has a greater impact in overall fan enjoyment, two home wins now or getting a player that can excite fans for years to come.
If we truly want a better fan experience we should be looking at replacing LL, the general consensus this season is that kraken hockey is really boring. Not exactly the best selling point and I’d say a much bigger impact to fan enjoyment than dropping a few games at the end of the season.
Bring up Firkus bring up Jugnauth, sit the Rig and Schwartz. Play Catton for more than 10 F’n minutes a game!!! Let’s try to win but do it with some prospects. Very good time to see how some young players would do in NHL games that’s matter.
Good grief.
“I know there’s a subset of fans who want the Kraken to lose for draft‑position purposes, but I’ve never subscribed to the idea that fans should root for losses”
This is just plain wrong.
Let’s take real example so you understand the problem with winning games when you are eliminated from the playoffs. Last season, the Kraken won the majority of their last 5-6 games (doing from memory). What resulted? They ended up tied with the Flyers and Bruins and “won” the tiebreaker.
This meant they drafted lower those other two teams, who took Porter Matrone and James Hagen, both who have future NHL star written all over them. We had to settle for Jake O’Brien, who at best is another 2C/3C the Kraken already have three of.
Losing matters this time of year. With their win, the Kraken again moved down drafting slot, which may be two. This is just the kind of organizational stupidity the Kraken have practiced since Day 1. The smart play is to tank when it is in your long-term interests. The Kraken have never understood that.
Lose the rest of the season is the best strategy for long-term success. Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Incredible I can be “just plain wrong” for stating a preference in how I choose to root for a team.
I even stated “I’m not going to tell anyone how to root for their team, but I know winning was important to those fans”
Root how every you want to root. I don’t care.
I’m with you, John. Players and coaches should play to win. GM’s not rostering “best possible” line up and testing minor leaguers is OK in my opinion. I also do not care about Denny D’s opinion.
Denny the fact that your post doesn’t even mention the lottery tells me you don’t understand how this works.
The Kraken jumping up 2 spots dropped their odds for the number 1 pick by a whopping 2%, and if you’ll remember last year, that didn’t really matter to the Islanders who finished 4 spots above the Kraken in the standings but still got the #1 pick. It’s a crapshoot.
It is about baseline position even if you don’t win the lottery though. 3rd OA means the lowest you’ll pick is 5th. 10th OA is still within reach as of this morning. That’s a big difference.
I would rather see losses at this point, personally. But I will say, minimizing how toxic the locker room gets is another benefit of wins. I don’t know what that’s worth next to draft order, but it’s worth something.
Everyone understands the dynamics and idea behind losing games at this point. I think it’s kind of obtuse to think folks need a lengthy explanation about what is an obvious and simple idea.
We get it! Like Turbo said, “Good grief”. At the end of the day, no matter how much folks fancy themselves GM-worthy, it’s still just the opinion of some guy on a couch… unless of course you’re talking about the “beer league guys” who “know” hockey.
But Daryl this kind of thinking is why the kraken don’t have any top notch prospects. When a season is lost it’s los, not coming back and gone for good. A smart GM will make the best of the situation and play for the future.
Good grief.
We literally have all of the healthy kids playing in the NHL. It feels like you don’t actually know much about the team. What’s ironic is playing the kids often causes teams to win at the end of the season. They want to prove themselves and play hard while some of the bets may be checked out.
This gets at something I’m curious about.
So the idea is to bring up these “kids” because you want to lose games… I get that. Now, I know the Kraken don’t know anything about development, but is that the best way to handle prospects? Is it good for Ty Nelson or Jagger Firkus to come up and get “caved in” so they can lose? Or maybe you get lucky and those guys excel. Is “get lucky” the way you manage an organization?… or does that just confuse matters? It feels to me like if you’re in an NHL front office, there’s more to the decision making than just “to tank or not to tank”. Obviously they’re morons; otherwise, how else could you explain this “not good team management in any way whatsoever”, but just maybe there’s more to it when your decision are more than just message board fodder.
Daryl we are talking about first line AHL players, it’s a national progression that they get brought up to play games in the NHL. This isn’t something new or odd many NHL teams do this. They actually want this opportunity and we are in a position to be able to give them the opportunity to show what they can bring because of our misfortune, it’s an opportunity that should not be wasted.
Why would anyone care about players that we have no intention of bringing back, just turn the page it’s better for everyone.
Daryl no it isn’t. You want to bring up players you think are ready but if people paid attention they’d know most of the players that city that category in CV are either already called up, injured, or named Jani Nyman
Koist you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. Just absolute dribble coming from you.
Daryl are both grown ups we don’t need trying to get involved.
Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t expect a manager to rationalize calling up players because it’s the opportunity the player wants. Certainly there are situations where that may be the case, but the idea that it’s ALL about draft position seems, to me, incredibly simplistic.
Well I don’t recall saying it was all about what a player wants, point being every player wants that opportunity. We just happen to be in a position it works for everyone.
I also don’t recall saying it was all about the draft position. There are so many benefits to taking a look at players you normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to.
I’m with you this time, John. I like going to hockey games to root for my team to win. That’s the experience, that’s the point, that’s what makes it fun. I went to the Calgary game, and it was fun — for me, and even more so for my kids. Was it the MOST fun, compared with other, more well-played and more consequential wins? No, but it was fun.
Yes, intellectually, I understand that the stupid draft system means a loss might marginally help the team’s long-term outlook, but that has nothing to do with the visceral experience of going to a game. I would quibble with John’s phrasing — “I’ve never subscribed to the idea that fans should root for losses” — because it sounds like a debate over an ethical imperative. To me the point is, and I think your point it, that rooting is an emotional response, and it’s pointless to argue about how fans “should” root or not root or “subscribe” to ideas about it. And every home win builds more positive emotional experiences for fans, particularly new fans.
At the other end of the spectrum, when I’m not even watching on tv and just checking the score… yeah, my reaction is: great, they lost.
I was also surprised at how insightful and spot-on John Forslund was about the team outlook, strategy, and so on. Cool to see a different side come out. Totally with him on “too much change.” Is Lane Lambert a great coach? Maybe not, but who really knows. I don’t think we as fans can possibly know. I get the point that Lambert is more defense-focused and may not allow for as much offensive creativity, but we had the offense-focused, let-the-young-guns-fire-away guy last year, and they were also bad that year. The offense was a little better, but the defense was atrocious, and that coach was fired too. Regardless, they will probably be bad next year too. Firing the coach for the third year in a row would be a terrible look and would not help attract talent. It would just exacerbate their reputation as a flailing organization.
Exactly! I couldn’t agree more. Personally, I’m always rooting for the team to win. I don’t need it explained to me how losing is actually good for the team. As I said elsewhere I – along with everyone – get it. I like second guessing the organization as much as the next guy, but I’m a fan and I try to recognize the limitations that come with that.
I thought the Forslund interview was very frank and honest and I think it showed a ton of respect for Darren. Well done.
Well put.
I was also surprised how forthcoming Forslund was with Darren. I’d like to think us at SOH are fairly grounded and take a more measured approach but it’s nice to see similar (but not the same) kind of analysis and perspective from Forslund.
I’m not suggesting that the team should try and lose games and I even said as much. What I’m saying is that now is the time to test prospects in nhl games and not worry about wins. It becomes a win win we have a better chance of getting a good draft pick and we get that all important nhl experience for our future. The players should definitely try and win and so should the coaches, the coaches should be giving more then 10 minutes of ice time to our young players when the games don’t matter anymore though.
We should not be doing what we’re doing now and grinding on old vets that won’t even be here next season. Sit those guys and try out some different options, play for next season.
On the coaching front there are good defensive coaches and bad ones. There are good offensive coaches and bad ones. We hired a bad coach who was also bad in his only other head coaching position, enough said.
Almost totally agree, Foist. Darren scored a hat trick with the Forslund interview. Great job, Darren! John Forslund is an excellent announcer because he is articulate, funny, and insightful. I’ve read more than enough vitriol regarding Lambert, Botteril, and Francis by fans seemingly with conviction but perhaps without perspective nor information. I really appreciated Forslund’s perspective on the Kraken organization.
The “almost” part of not quite totally agreeing is the forecast for next season. Too many off-season moving parts for me to have confidence in 26/27 forecast: stability in coaching/GM, signing of FA(s), extending vets, retaining RFA’s, maturing farm talent, trading future drafts/farm talent.
They could shock us with bold moves, and there are a lot of unknowns, but in all likelihood, however you slice it, they have just too far to go to be good next year.
I hate that we are incentivized to cheer for losing. It is a big problem that should be fixed through changes to the draft system. Quit rewarding losing.
The draft lottery already fixes this. No changes needed.
No it doesn’t. You get better odds for finishing lower in the standings.
And you also get a better pick even if you don’t win the lottery, hard for some people to understand that…. Very difficult concept.
Barely. And the difference between 5th and 8th this draft is meaningless. We don’t need changes to the draft. It’s working just fine.
Barely…. 😂
I kinda feel there are lots of things that go into that and barely is just a simplistic idea. Why exactly do you feel that there is no difference between 5th and 8th? This is a very difficult concept for me to grasp, to me it adds up to 3 but I know math is hard.