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.