The 2025–26 Seattle Kraken season didn’t end the way anyone hoped. A team that spent most of the year in the playoff mix unraveled after the Olympic break, leaving fans frustrated, confused, and staring down another long offseason.
But seasons are rarely defined by a single stretch of games, and they’re never as simple as “good” or “bad.” So, before diving into the roster questions, coaching debates, and offseason hypotheticals, we’re kicking off a short series looking at what actually happened this year: what went right, what went wrong, and a deep dive into some of these areas.
This first installment focuses on the positives. Yes, there were some.
Meaningful games in April
A realistic goal entering the season was simply to play meaningful games in March. The Kraken cleared that bar comfortably. On March 1, they held a playoff spot; on April 1, they sat three points out of a wild card.
We all know what happened after the Olympic break, so there’s no need to rehash it. The games remained meaningful, even if the performances didn’t always match the stakes. And yes, the Pacific Division’s overall mediocrity helped, but meaningful hockey in April is still a step forward.
Team goaltending
If you had predicted last summer that goaltending, and specifically Philipp Grubauer, would be a bright spot, you would’ve been laughed out of the room. Grubauer ended 2024–25 with a career‑low .875 save percentage and spent time in the AHL to “re-find” his game.
This season, Kraken goaltending finished at .903, eighth in the NHL. Before the Olympic break, they were even better at .909, good enough for fourth at that point in time. The post‑break dip mirrored the team’s collapse, but the larger story remains: Seattle got stabilizing, above‑average goaltending for most of the year, and that alone kept them competitive.
As for Grubauer, he finished the season with 14 goals saved above expected which was the team best.
A glimpse of a real power play (for three quarters of the season)
Since the franchise’s inception, the power play has lived near the bottom of the NHL. Chemistry matters with the man advantage, and the Kraken have rarely had it prior to this season.
For most of 2025-26, though, Seattle iced a legitimately dangerous unit, converting at 23 percent before the Olympic break. It felt strange, almost suspicious, to see the Kraken near the top half of the league in power‑play efficiency. And, as it turned out, it wasn’t sustainable. After the break, the unit cratered to 10.5 percent, last in the league over that span.
Still, for the majority of the season, the Kraken finally had a special‑teams weapon. That’s progress.
Back‑to‑back games
The 2024–25 Kraken went 0–12–0 in the second half of back‑to‑backs. Zero points. Not even a pity OT loss.
This year, they collected 12 of a possible 26 points in 13 such games. That’s not elite, but it’s a massive improvement. Predictably, this too dipped after the Olympic break, just two of eight possible points, but the overall trend was positive.
Arrival of the kids
With five drafts now in the books, it makes sense that the pipeline would start producing NHL contributors. Seattle got 437 total games played from players drafted since 2021, the fifth‑most in the league from that draft range.
Four of the seven players drafted in 2021 made meaningful contributions. Ryan Winterton established himself as an everyday NHLer. Jacob Melanson brought a different element and, at times, forced the coaching staff to keep him in the lineup.
Berkly Catton, the No. 8 overall pick in 2024, played 66 games, which was far more than most of us expected. His 17 points don’t jump off the page, but he showed flashes throughout the year and, in the later stages, cut down on the careless mistakes that were prevalent over the first two‑thirds of his season.
It’s still too early to fully evaluate the Kraken’s drafting, but the initial returns, especially from 2021, suggest the organization is trending in the right direction.
Closing it out
The ending of the season will dominate the conversation for a while, and understandably so. But it shouldn’t erase the progress the Kraken made in several foundational areas: internal development, stabilizing goaltending, improved power play, and the ability to stay in the playoff mix deep into the spring.
In the next installment of this series, we’ll shift to the other side of the ledger: what went wrong.
Go Kraken!!!
Goaltending went right, Daccord had a good seasons Grubauer had a great season.
I liked how the power play looked this season, even at the end when we were not scoring I liked the chances we were developing.
Still don’t think it’s relevant that we were ever in the playoff picture as we got well over half our points from a historically bad pacific division. Without the kraken feasting on the pacific we would have been almost dead last in the league. That was with some of the top goaltending in the entire NHL!!!! We were really really bad all season long, a boring coach just made it look like we weren’t quite as bad as we were by keeping the score low. I don’t think we should really be saying we were playing meaningful games. We had excellent goaltending and still were one of the NHL cellar dwellers, not a good thing.
Grubauer literally went on record attributing the improvements in goaltending to the system Lambert implemented, not any specific adjustment in how he played or prepared. I’m not sure why every post you make about Lambert has to be hyperbolic, but it’s ok to add some level of complexity and nuance to your views here. Last year goaltending killed us, this year it helped keep us afloat due to the systems Lambert implemented. What we lacked this year is the same thing we have lacked since our inception – elite players capable of driving offense. I just don’t see that as a coaching issue, that’s a roster issue.
Ok a couple things here.
Lamberts system is a goalies wet dream, low event hockey. Second anyone who knows anything about goaltending clearly saw that Grubauer was in much better position and stayed on his feet much better this season. Clearly an improvement potential from his goaltending coach. Daccord did not have any improvement in his stats.
I don’t feel there is anything relevant to Grubauers improvement other than less shots but that was both ways and our offense was brutal.
Did you listen to Grubauer’s comments? He addresses his positioning and attributes it to Lambert’s system.
I also don’t think “less shots” is accurate – the Kraken were bottom 5 in the league with respect to shots against. Goalies saw way more shots but they were from more predictable areas and had a clear view of them (again, a system thing). The low event hockey only applied to the O-Zone and that was pretty much on par with every other year and coach this org has had.
Regardless the impact on your offensive game and the actual bottom line is still a net negative regardless if the system helped one of our goaltenders. I still feel there is more to Grubauers improvement than LL simply because he was the only goalie who improved. Don’t matter regardless because we were still a very bad team under LL, possibly the worst in team history when you take into account the pacific division and goaltending… I’m referring to the worst in team history in front of the goalie.
I find it odd that you “feel” something is right even though Grubi’s words directly addressed why that feeling is not correct. And it does matter – firing a coach who underachieves is understandable and justifiable. Firing a coach who basically meets all analytical expectations for a team who has a known roster problem would just be a performative act and not addressing the main issue.
I’m not disagreeing that LL helped with goaltending just not sure that the full reason for Grubauers improvement.
I’m regards to coaching you could make the same argument for every coach we’ve had. I feel LL was and always will be a mistake because he is not a developmental coach. We very much need a coach that will be willing to play kids and be ok with a few mistakes. He is not a good fit for the direction we need to be heading in. I also feel he is just a bad coach, that’s another story.
You’ll quickly realize bringing facts and data into discussions aren’t welcome by certain people here. You’re spot on with everything you wrote though.
All right hold up Koist, you promised me yesterday that you were not ever going to reply to another one of my posts… you made my day why ruin it so quickly. 😂
What facts and data are you talking about, we are both talking about opinions.
While I’m sure the “system” Lambert implemented was a part Grubauer’s improvement, I don’t know how that reconciles with Joey’s slight drop off year over year. I really don’t know the first thing about goaltending, but I’m not sure how the system eliminated flopping face down in the crease a dozen times a game or adventuring half way to the dots on a regular basis. Reading between the lines, to me it sounds like Grubauer is saying, ‘I’ve been fine the past four seasons, it’s the team in front of me that was the problem’. Well if that’s the case I don’t know how to explain what has been a fairly consistent Joey and a night and day Grubauer.
To me, it’s a combo of Joey always having a better glove hand and Grubauer having some pretty bad injuries the last 2 years. I think Joey’s strengths help him in a chaotic environment but his weaknesses get exposed in the structured environment. Gru is the inverse.
People love to blame Gru for the first two years but the D was truly for awful on letting guys just camp the back door. Most people seem unable to see past SV% which is one of the worst metrics in hockey. xGA is only marginally better using public data.
I think Joeys regression is just Joey actually show his normal level of play. He had an insane run for a while but the past two seasons have proven he can’t maintain that over a full season as the primary goalie.
I think even to an amateur eye like mine it’s obvious he changed his game. I’m not fully discounting the system aspect, but I’m also not buying he’s the same Gru he ever was.
SOH posted this on X but:
Grubauer’s quote when asked about any changes to his game:
“Not anything crazy, I think maybe, I was not as aggressive anymore because, like last year, what system did we play, if there was a system, right?” Followed up with it being a “night and day” difference playing behind Lambert’s defense.
I read not being as aggressive meaning not getting as far out in the crease, and therefore not being out of position as much when things get hairy.
In terms of actual technical aspects to his game like glove positioning or something of the like, I don’t think any of us have the eye to claim something changed, all we really know is he let in fewer than last year.
With how different the team played before and after the Olympic break it really feels like it killed all momentum the team had. I wonder if the break had been shorter if the Kraken would have continued playing well or still regressed to the mean.
On another note, a high point for me this season was the (slight) turn-around of the Penalty Kill in the first half of the season. I can’t find a rolling graph of team PK% anywhere to see how much it improved, but with how bad it felt for a stretch it feels good that they were able to pull themselves out of the bottom spot with the structure change.
I will put the rolling 10-game PK in the “what went wrong” post and I agree with you. It was really good during stretches but also catastrophic during small stretches.
Kakko and McMann went right. Both excelled after the Olympic break. Bobby M’s contributions are obvious. He was great after the trade.
Kakko is not as well understood. Let’s start by saying he had points in 16 of his final 17 games. Almost a point a game pace. He also finished with 40 points in 65 games. His best, ppg, showing as a pro. He is an ascending player at 25 years old.
Also, remember two facts about Kakko’s season. First, he took a two hand slash, on his hand, in a preseason game. That slash broke his hand. And it caused him to miss five weeks, in the regular season. That injury, and a subsequent one, negatively impacted Kakko’s first half.
Second, the way Lambert uses Kakko does Kakko no favors. After the injury, Kakko was mostly moved off the top line, with Matty B.. Remember he was on Martty’s line the prior season. And Kakko played mostly on a third line. He was centered by Shane Wright, Freddy G., and a little time with Chandler S. Not exactly all star caliber players.
Additionally, Kakko plays almost exclusively in 5 on 5 situations. Aside from the second unit power play. He gets very little non-5 on 5 time. For example, no 3 on 3 overtime. No 4 on 4, in regulation time. No 4 on 3. No 5 on 3. He’s also not generally out there when the other team pulls the goalie. So, Kakko has to do his scoring in 5 on 5 situations. That matters, when you evaluate players on their point production. And people do that.
So, consider what Kakko could produce if he was used differently. If, for example, he played more in the top 6. And had more ice time, with more non- 5 on 5 time. Kakko, along with Bobby M., went right this year.
Misspoke on Kakko’s points. He had 16 points in his final 17 games. Not points in 16 of his final 17 games. Some games had multiple points. Some no points. My bad.
Kakko’s puck possession is pretty good, too.
Great results by McMann. Too bad Kraken mismanaged his visa and he missed 3 games after being traded.
Agreed. Kakko is hard to move off the puck. And he’s an excellent passer. Sets guys up for grade A chances. The lines he is on, get a lot of O. zone time. And they score 5 on 5 goals.
Kraken would do well to bring back McMann. He’s the type of player they need. Big, fast, shoot first, tough, and hard to play against. And he scores.
I agree Bob, I would put Kakko in my do not trade list and it’s a very short list.
I fully agree. It is a short list. I’m betting the Kraken will, at least, listen to trade offers on the vast majority of the team.
Yesterday, when I was watching marathon playoff games, I heard an amazing stat; Colorado is 41 – 0 when leading going into the 3rd period. Yesterday they made it 42 – 0. That’s incredible.
I was wondering if the players who excelled due to the Olympic break were buoyed by different coaching and systems? But that’s hard to analyze because they were on the same team. The other player, Fisker-Molgaard isn’t a regular yet. How many current playoff teams have the most non-olympic participants?
Thank you for a reminder that there were (several) bright spots during season. Unfortunately, recency bias makes it difficult to keep things in perspective.
Also, reflecting personally, I am reminded that being a fan is about more than just winning games. It’s also about connection and community.
I made 2 amazing new friends who I met very randomly at a public practice and we’ve now been to more practices together, and their first and second kraken and first silvertips games.
I also made friends with a Dallas-based Kraken fan who happened to be seated next to me at a game and are planning on getting together next season for another game (hopefully in Dallas).
I built on my player autograph collection, and added Montour, Winterton, Fleury, Meyers, Molgaard and Kokko. And Tye Kartye twice (once in Seattle and once in NYC).
And speaking of NYC, my trip there allowed me to reconnect with another friend and take her to her first ever game. I expect that I’ll be back there for more games next season.
I’ve got a lot more thoughts, but I’ll wait for the more critical assessments to share them 🙂
Thanks for your comment! NHL practices are a lot of fun. And your team never loses a practice.
Nice article!!! It’s easy to get overly pessimistic with this team and you’ve reminded me that there has been improvements. I would even go as far as saying that Lambert should get a pretty good share of the credit for most of these. For sure the goaltending and back to backs.
Lambert was not the problem this year but I’m also not sold the he is the solution either.
Great article. I just don’t understand why Turbo is so angry!? 🤣🤣🤣
Turbo obviously didn’t agree with my take but is a respectful poster. We all do not have to agree and honestly it would be kinda boring if we all did, posters like turbo who you can have a conversation with without being a troll is what we should aspire towards.
The first one is kinda silly. They did not play meaningful games in April. They were 3 points back, yeah, but with 4 teams to pass and only 9 games to play. Their odds were like 5%. They would have needed 15 or 16 points in those last 9 games. They were dead in the water by mid March at the latest. That 4 game losing streak in early March at home was the dagger.