The “Seattle Kraken” came away with a pair of 4-2 preseason wins this weekend over the “Vancouver Canucks” at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday and the “Calgary Flames” at the not-long-for-this-world Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday.
The quotation marks around the three team names feel necessary for context, because none of the involved clubs iced anything close to NHL lineups in either game. Instead, lots of youngsters got looks. Eight Kraken skaters (plus Nikke Kokko) dressed both nights to get a proper chance to show team brass why they deserve a shot with the big club, either out of camp or later in the season.
Here are Three Takeaways from a pair of 4-2 Kraken wins over the Canucks and Flames.
Takeaway 1: Bubble players making their cases
At this point, it’s no secret which players are fighting for the last couple NHL roster spots, with guys like Jani Nyman, Jagger Firkus, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, Ty Nelson, Tyson Jugnauth, and Logan Morrison all with designs on staying in the Pacific Northwest when camp breaks in a little over a week (I LOVE the shorter camp, by the way).
It has not surprised me to see Mølgaard putting together solid performances in Rookie Camp and Training Camp, especially after he was downright effective in his 13 NHL games last season.
But my eyebrows have been raised the most by Ty Nelson. The always affable and well-spoken 22-year-old defenseman scored both nights on a pair of great reads to step up at exactly the right time.
On Saturday, a loose puck skittered to the top of the slot, where Nelson was on it in a flash, picked his spot, and quickly snapped a blistering shot past Vancouver goalie Nikita Tolopilo. On Sunday, with a rush developing between Morrison and Nyman, Nelson jumped into the play to create a 3-on-1 advantage. Morrison—who racked up three points on the weekend—made a nice backhand dish to Nelson, who dusted it off and sniped it past Devin Cooley.
Ty Nelson continues making a strong case for himself, scoring his second goal in two nights.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) September 21, 2026
Good read to join the rush and another nice finish. Logan Morrison with another nice play too.
1-0#SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/z1j4jjj6GC
Meanwhile, all of the aforementioned players have contributed in some way offensively, including Mølgaard, who has shown nice flashes of creativity.
“I thought Oscar was really good [Saturday], I thought Firkus was really good,” coach Lane Lambert said at practice on Sunday morning. “Morrison’s good— Morrison understands the game. I thought [Ville Ottovainen] played well, and I thought [Cale Fleury] and [Josh Mahura] both played well as well. So there’s a variation of guys— I thought Jani Nyman, for me… it’s really good for Jani this year, coming in here for a second year with me because I think he has a lot better understanding of our systems and things like that.”
As for Nelson, Lambert said after the game Sunday: “He certainly has a little bit of a knack for joining offensively, but [he has a] really good head on his shoulders defensively, and he skates well so he can close quickly. And that’s important to be able to do in this league because if you don’t, and you’re a step behind, the puck ends up in the back of your net.”
The decisions on who should take those last spots on the initial roster will be encouragingly difficult for the Kraken coaching staff and front office. I wondered about the team’s depth going into the season, so knowing this many players look like they can at least fill in if needed gives reason for optimism.
Takeaway 2: Strong starts for Kraken goaltending
I seem to recall some starts to past preseasons where Kraken goaltending has created more questions than answers.
Now, Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer have each started a game and played two periods before being replaced by Nikke Kokko to close things out. It can be a process for goalies to get their timing back when they hit game speeds, so having Daccord and Grubauer both look sharp in their respective outings is a very good sign.
Daccord was tested early Saturday with a point-blank shot from the right circle that he calmly kicked out of danger. He tracked it well and controlled his rebound, then looked dialed in for all 14 of his saves on 14 Vancouver shots.
“He played very well,” Lambert said. “I thought he was square, and I thought he was quick, focused, and I thought he moved the puck real well. So it was nice to see him play well.”
Grubauer followed that up with a solid performance of his own, allowing one goal from the middle of the slot to Aydar Suniev, who scored twice for the Flames (his other goal came in the third period against Kokko). Grubauer also got some puck luck early when a shot went through his legs and hit the far post, though he sprawled to get a piece of that one too.
“Yeah, he was good,” Lambert said. “I think they were crashing the net pretty hard, and I think there were quite a few shots that he didn’t, maybe, see. But that was a good test for him right off the hop to get some traffic like that and have to battle through it. I thought he looked good. I think him and Joey have both looked good.”
Takeaway 3: Lineup already taking shape?
Though we’re only four days into Training Camp, we can already see the Opening Night roster starting to take shape. On Sunday morning, the team had two groups on the ice, but the players heading to Calgary—which included all the bubble players plus Ryan Winterton (I don’t think Winterton is on the bubble anymore)—did not skate at Kraken Community Iceplex.
Instead, the first group was made up almost entirely of players I would consider to be “regulars” (the lone non-regular was Lukas Dragicevic, though I don’t think there’s much to read into there). The other non-playing group was made up entirely of players I don’t consider to be in the conversation for the NHL roster.
“I mean, you can read a fair amount into [who was on the ice], for sure,” Lambert said. “I thought the group was good, I thought the practice was good. Again, it’s a short camp here. This is Day 4, and we are having a day off [Monday], so it’s important to put in some good work. By my calculations we probably only have about five more practice days until Opening Day, with two games included.”
We are expecting the first round of cuts from Training Camp to come Monday.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Bitter sweet will be the inevitable times a few of these young prospects get a shot at the NHL when players on “the big squad” have unfortunate injuries or, more hopefully, personal non-injury related breaks like new child births. Then we’ll find out how the youngsters play against serious NHL’ers, and that will probably in turn only increase our odds of a better 2027 draft selection.
The most interesting thing to me about tonight’s game was basically the CV Firebirds being coached by Lane Lambert. I was wondering how he was feeling about that when his mind is probably REALLY on his actual Kraken team. It has definitely been a great experience for the kids, and I think has shown Lane does have a youth development aspect to his coaching repertoire.
There was never a doubt that Lane had a youth development aspect IMO. Last year had Catton, Wints and even Melanson taking steps in the right direction. I think the narrative around it is tired and is the same old nonsense you hear out of every fanbase that coaches prefer vets over kids. No, coaches prefer consistent performance over not NHL ready erratic play. Lane has given the NHL ready kids every opportunity that they’ve earned.
This is simply not true, there were a few kids that”earned” at least another game playing against NHL vets to see how they could preform. They are out there earning it but…..
We’ve been over this and I’d hate to embarass you again. Take your own advice and stop replying.
😂
Šalé has been pretty invisible out there. It seems like he’s really struggling to adapt to the speed and physicality of the North American game. I was saying last night that if I had to project his career right now, he’ll carve out a decent career for himself… in Brno. I’m aware of his junior-level international resume, but that doesn’t always translate to the NHL. I hope he proves me wrong.
Ty Nelson stood out, mostly for his defense but over all two-hundred feet. Usually when a defenseman gets noticed a lot he is having a bad night, but Nelson jumped off the screen for looking like he was playing at a significantly higher level than his opponents. That dude ate his Wheaties over the off-season. And did you see that tattoo? He ready.
Poor Kaden Hammel! I felt for the guy as I watched the game spiral away from him after he turned the puck over on the play that gave Calgary their first goal. Then he blew the play that caused the second goal. It was a bad, no-good, awful night for him, and it was clear that he was miserable about it.
I was surprised that John Hayden did not get an ejection for how he shoved his way past the officials to get at the guy who elbowed Ville Ottavainen in the head. Good on him, though. That hit was despicable and all too typical of Calgary. Someone needed to shut that noise down, and Johnny took care of it.
It was good to see Gustav Olofsson back, and he played well. The Firebirds were short on veteran players in general and veteran defensemen especially, and they really need him, especially if Nelson gets called up at some point which I am expecting after the first two preseason games.
Oh, one more thing I have to bring up: Jani Nyman’s defense. Yeah, he was playing against prospects, but he won every puck battle I saw him get into. He used that big body along the boards to great effect. It looks like he heard the criticism and made it a point of emphasis for himself. We will see how it translates when the games start to matter, but it was a promissing start to his season.
all the guys i wanted to show up did for the most part. O’Brian wasnt super obvious but i see he may have a nagging injury. good to see him parked in front of the net and on the scoresheet. Nelson looked great as did Jugnauth, i constantly noticed them moving into attack mode and remaining active in the offensive zone.
Nyman looked better and didnt seem lost without the puck on his stick like last season.
i feel like i just saw Sale in a kraken jersey for the last time. im sad at the loss of a 1st round pick but i only noticed him when he let Suniev score. if he took 2 more strides and took the body that wouldnt have been a goal, hell it wouldnt have been a shot. he got back on defense which is commendable but he took his foot off the accelerator and just coasted trying to get a stick on the puck. if that were Melanson he would have rode him into the boards and probably separate him from the puck. thats a mindset issue
I figure they’ll keep Šalé around a few more years to see if he progresses. He has no trade value to speak of, and is signed though 27-28. At that point he’ll be 23, and they probably won’t qualify him if he hasn’t made demonstrable progress. If he draws no other interest, then it’s back to Brno.
Nelson is looking good for sure. He seems to have good instincts. Also, he’s built like a fire hydrant.
Curious about the (actual) Kraken practice lines – has Catton been actually been centering with Kakko and Wright, or are he and Wright swapping out at center?
when i was there saturday it looked like he was on the wing with wright centering, however i didnt see a ton of faceoffs with that line and i showed up 15 min late to the party. i saw a fight and the benches seemed pretty excited about it lol.
Gotta love the kraken sending the two best players home early….. this is one of the things I’ve hated about the kraken, they seem to make up their mind on paper and don’t allow kids to fight for a spot and possibly beat out some vet. All this talk about not doing what they just did… lip service.
who are you referring to? firkus and nelson?
Yes exactly who I was thinking about, apparently they stood out to you as well.
I just feel like they just sent a message that they should not have, this was all just a formality thanks for coming out.
On the positive side if LL ends up getting fired we might have NHL players in those two. Still a lot to prove but if you’re not getting the chance to prove it then what’s the point.
i think we will see both of them up this year. they both played really well, but firkus doesnt fill the role that would have to open up for him to make the line up. i wouldnt place him above any of the top 9 wingers (yet) and i think the plan for the 4th line is to be a demolition derby. would like to see Freddy G go as i had more fun watching the line centered by myers last year, plus molgaard would be my choice over firkus. as far as the D go: i could have seen Nelson staying up over ottavainen and compete for the 6/7 spot with Fluery and Mahura but its possible they want ottavainens size since oleksiak is gone. thats just a guess. ive never been super high on ryker evans so if he goes out id like to see ty take his spot.
while i was hoping a handful of the CV guys had more time i know the camp is shorter now. if anything else its nice to know we dont have absolute bums in the system in case of injury or a trade deadline firesale
first round of cuts:
D Alexis Bernier (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Lukas Dragicevic (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Ryden Evers (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Jagger Firkus (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F David Goyette (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Kaden Hammell (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Tyson Jugnauth (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Finn Kearns (to OHL Sudbury)
F Andrei Loshko (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Ian McKinnon (released from PTO to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Julius Miettinen (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Ty Nelson (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Jani Nyman (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Gustav Olofsson (released from PTO to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Caden Price (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Carson Rehkopf (to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Lleyton Roed (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Will Reynolds (to QMJHL Newfoundland)
F Eduard Sale (to AHL Coachella Valley)
D Rylan Singh (to OHL Guelph)
F Mitchell Stephens (released from PTO to AHL Coachella Valley)
F Nathan Villeneuve (to AHL Coachella Valley)
nothing too surprising, O’Brian, Fisker-Molgaard, Ottovainen, Morrison, Hayden staying up (if there are more forgive me, the remaining players were from memory) a little surprised to see firkus and nelson go down. regardless i know we will see some of these guys come up this year
Hayden, Morrison, Avon, and Ostman are on waivers and will head to CV if they clear.
didnt see they hit waivers, literally just saw a training camp roster cut list on hockey rumors and copied and pasted. good to know.
Maybe someone picks up Hayden or Morison?
Considering there are only two preseason games left and both those guys played all of the first two, I don’t think it should be all that surprising Nelson and Firkus are going back to Coachella.
Coachella Valley once again, looks on paper anyway to be a serious threat in the AHL this season.