Kraken Notebook – Exit interviews, reflection on team’s collapse, Bobby McMann’s future

When the Stanley Cup Playoffs got underway this past weekend, the Seattle Kraken could only watch from afar (if they were watching at all… Matty Beniers said on Friday that he doesn’t like to watch because it’s salt in the wound). That’s because the Kraken came up short of the postseason for the fourth time in their five-year franchise history and were left to once again reflect on what went wrong.

Seattle had its locker clean out day on Friday, where an assortment of players and head coach Lane Lambert addressed the media and gave their thoughts on a myriad of subjects. They consistently expressed disappointment with how things ended up, especially considering the Kraken were in the thick of the playoff hunt heading into the Olympic break before stumbling to an atrocious 7-17-2 record down the stretch and nosediving out of contention.

“I mean, we failed. That’s just the reality of it,” Adam Larsson said. “We missed the playoffs for the third year in a row. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing that went wrong. We were going through spurts in the season where some things would go wrong, and the next day it could be fixed. But overall, I know we took some strides, but we ultimately missed the goal here.”

Lambert—who looked visibly frustrated at different points in games for several weeks down the stretch—did remind us that there were positives to take away from this season.

“It’s fresh, and obviously disappointment would be a word that I would use,” Lambert said. “But then I would also have to look at the season as a whole and go back to what we talked about right at the very beginning, about being in the mix and playing meaningful games, which we were and we did. I think that’s going to be extremely important for helping the growth and development of our younger guys, and getting that experience and being able to do that was very important for us.”

Lambert is right. We were all hoping for meaningful games down the stretch, and Seattle did provide that. Still, it was infuriating to watch the team crumble in the last two months.

What fueled the collapse?

There was a lot of theorizing about what actually led to Seattle falling apart, and although nobody was able to specifically diagnose what happened, captain Jordan Eberle had some interesting commentary.

“For me, it’s trusting,” Eberle said. “It’s trusting that your game, in tight situations, whether you’re playing aggressively and having support, and trusting that you’re a five-man unit playing together that’s going to get the job done. I mean, I think later on, especially the last 10 games, we were dinged up pretty good with goals and odd-man rushes and breakaways, and that trust factor blew up. And our gaps got worse, and we gave teams time and space, and they took advantage… When your team’s playing as a five-man unit, you trust that the next guy is doing his job in front of you.”

It was a sound theory, but it also ties in with the mental flimsiness of the team, which in turn ties in with the culture of the locker room—all factors that I believe led to the losing.

Lambert agreed to some degree with Eberle’s interpretation of the poor late-season results, but added, “I thought our team was a little fragile at times. We run on confidence, as do most teams. But this team here really runs high on confidence, and when we lack it, struggles happen.”

And boy, did those struggles ever happen. Remember, it wasn’t just the late-season meltdown that hurt this team. The Kraken also had to overcome a stretch during the holiday season in which they lost 10 of 11 games before remarkably rebounding and ripping off points in 10 straight.

That’s nothing new for this team, though, which has found itself in long losing streaks in all of the years that it has missed the playoffs.

“I can’t speak of the past before I got here, but I think one of the, really, I guess, most proud moments I have of the season and with our guys is us digging ourselves out of that hole, so to speak, in December, and getting ourselves right back in the mix,” Lambert said. “There is such a fine line between winning and losing, and if you don’t find that line, and the little, simplest of mistakes happen, they can continue to manifest or multiply.”

Will Bobby McMann return?

While trade deadline acquisition Bobby McMann—who racked up an impressive 10 goals in just 18 games for the Kraken and 29 total goals on the season—had great things to say about his time in Seattle and left the door open to conversations and a potential return for next season and beyond, I remain unconvinced he’ll come back.

“I think the biggest thing is winning,” McMann said. “I want to be in a spot that there’s a chance to win, or at least have a competitive approach to every season to be a team that can can be in the mix and in the conversation of being in the playoff picture.”

That feels like a big strike against Seattle; McMann, who will be one of the top free agents available in a very thin class, didn’t exactly get to see the best of what the Kraken can do on the ice, instead experiencing a fall into complete disarray after his arrival.

McMann continued. “But then it’s also [about having] a chance to go for it all. And then on top of that, I want opportunity, and I think most players do. You want to be a contributing factor, and I think for me, the best feeling, and what I love most about the game is when you win and you help contribute. And I think that there’s maybe a chance for opportunity here that I could see, and I was lucky enough to get that coming in here.”

So, you’re telling me there’s a chance…

The Kraken do have that working for them. They showed McMann he would be put in a position to succeed personally in Seattle, and he did just that while playing top-line minutes under a familiar coach in Lane Lambert.

Is that opportunity enough to sway McMann into returning to the Pacific Northwest? Probably not, but perhaps a big bag of money can also help the cause. Remember, McMann has only recently cemented himself as a full-time NHLer and is coming off a two-year contract that paid him $1.35 million AAV. At 29 years old, this is likely his only chance to properly cash in.

“Looking back five, 10, 15 years ago, and thinking about telling myself at that time that this is where I’d be at, I don’t know if I really would have expected it,” McMann said about his journey to his first true unrestricted free agency opportunity. “I think I always kind of had the dream of it happening, but you never really know, especially when you’re so far away and a few leagues removed, or you’re not even playing pro yet.

“And you’re putting in hours and hours of work, not really sure if it’s going to pay dividends, or if you’re really going to get there, and if it will all be for nothing. But being at this point now and being able to enjoy that success, it’s a special feeling, and it’s very rewarding to feel like the work that I put in over basically my whole life to get to this point has been— It’s been a fun journey. I also enjoy it, and I think that’s part of the reason that it’s gotten to this point.”

Eye brow raisers

There were a couple of moments on Friday that raised eyebrows in the room. One was when Jared McCann came limping up to the podium and announced that he had undergone a procedure in Utah the day prior. He said that the injuries he was dealing with all season were related to the procedure he had following last season, but he expects to make a full recovery and be fully ready to go for training camp. He was never fully right this season, so here’s hoping this truly clears things up for him as he heads into the final year of his contract.

But McCann really got people to exchange glances when he seemed to imply that a big reason for Seattle’s late-season downfall was because of the young players in the room.

“When you lose year after year, things change, right?” McCann said. “For me, [former general manager and president of hockey ops Ron Francis] has been here since the beginning, he’s the guy who signed me to my first extension, and I think the younger guys can take it more seriously when it comes to— things change if you don’t win.”

An appropriate follow-up question to this would have been, “Uh… what?” But I unfortunately missed that opportunity.

He also had a line about how when things weren’t going well. “Maybe we need to start screaming at guys. And I know that’s not always the answer, especially with the younger generation coming in now. But yeah, maybe it’s something to learn from.”

I’m not certain McCann meant to explicitly blame the young players on the roster for the team’s failures, especially considering that the struggles should absolutely fall squarely on the shoulders of the veteran leaders. But still, two negative-sounding mentions of the youth were perplexing.

Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer once again took a couple of pot shots at… [checks notes]… 2024-25 head coach Dan Bylsma, reminding us again that he felt his terrible season last year was mostly related to the lack of structure from the team and consistent playing time for him.

When I asked Grubauer if he made any technical changes, which may have led to his remarkable turnaround this season, he said, “I think [I was] maybe not as aggressive anymore because last year, I don’t know what system we played, if there even was a system, right? So this year, with Lane coming in, and our identity is playing defensive, and defense wins you games, too. So we were eliminating a lot of plays. Maybe we didn’t do it as much the last part of the season, but when you look up until the break, there aren’t many crazy chances. And honestly, I think last year there was a breakaway like each period, right?”

It’s fair to say Grubauer did not enjoy his time playing for Bylsma last season.

Palate cleansers

Remember how Nikke Kokko took a shot at the empty net in his first NHL start, in which the Kraken defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1? Well, after that game, he told Piper Shaw in an interview in front of all of Climate Pledge Arena that he wanted to score “before Joey [Daccord]” gets one.

I asked Joey on Friday what he thought about that.

“Yeah, that was crazy,” Daccord said, getting a big laugh from the room. “That was nuts. I told him, I was like, ‘Dude, if you would have scored, I would have been so rattled.’ But I was pumped for him. I was pumped to see him get his first start and win.”

On a separate note, it was an honor to present Brandon Montour with the second annual Andy Eide Memorial Stick Taps Award, selected by the local media as the player who was best to work with throughout the season.

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Brandon Montour is the 2025-26 recipient of the Andy Eide Memorial Stick Taps Award, presented by the local #SeaKraken media to the player we deemed was best to work with this season. pic.twitter.com/ogR71YynrN

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) April 18, 2026

Montour truly has been great to work with over the past two seasons. He’s the only guy that consistently goes out of his way to greet media members, and his willingness to talk about anything and everything—including the unthinkable tragedy he endured this year with the passing of his brother Cameron after a battle with ALS and the joy of his third child being born (‘Baby Cam,’ as they’re calling him for now)—is so admirable.

Congrats to Brandon, and stick taps to Andy.

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Kraken general manager Jason Botterill will give his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, alongside CEO Tod Leiweke, so we will likely have additional commentary to share after that. Plus, stay tuned to soundofhockey.com this week, as we continue to dissect this roller coaster of a season.