Welcome back to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. Today, we’ll get you news on Ty Nelson’s recall from the Coachella Valley Firebirds, along with additional updates on early-season roster shuffling in Coachella Valley.

We also have video and analysis from college hockey debuts for a few top Seattle Kraken prospects, including Chase Reid and Casey Mutryn. After that, we’ll have a quick look back at the Kraken’s successful 2021 draft, your Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and more news, data, and video from around the system.

As always, if you have a Kraken prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey. Let’s dive in.

Seattle Kraken recall Ty Nelson following Brandon Montour injury

Defenseman Brandon Montour departed the Kraken’s Oct. 15 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a lower-body injury. Assuming he misses some time, Cale Fleury is a roster option to replace him, but the team would then have no extra defensemen available. In this context, the team announced Friday, Oct. 16, that it is recalling 2022 third-round pick Ty Nelson from the AHL.

The #SeaKraken have recalled defenseman Ty Nelson from the Coachella Valley @Firebirds. https://t.co/qCtRH1aFDF

— Seattle Kraken PR (@SeattleKrakenPR) October 16, 2026

Nelson takes an open NHL roster spot created when Ryan Lindgren was placed on injured reserve. It’s Nelson’s first NHL call up. I’m high on this player. You can find our summer scouting report on Nelson here.

Firebirds shuffle the roster in the early going

Last week, we highlighted the challenge facing the Firebirds’ staff in finding ice time for all of the team’s forwards in light of Logan Morrison’s impending return. As it turns out, Morrison was back in the lineup for all three games over the past week. The cascading effect on an already overstuffed lineup caused a rotation of healthy scratches: J.R. Avon (once), Devin Kaplan (twice), Carson Rehkopf (once), Ryden Evers (once), and Nathan Villeneuve (once).

Evers was a late lineup scratch from a second game on Oct. 14, but he was replaced by a seventh defenseman (Charlie Wright), so I suspect that absence may have been injury- or illness-related. Separately, the team did announce that Caden Price missed the Oct. 14 game with an illness.

The ice time crunch has been felt most acutely by 2023 fourth-round pick Andrei Loshko. Loshko had not gotten into the lineup even once over the team’s first five games, despite playing 51 regular-season AHL games last year. Thus, it was not surprising that the team announced Loshko would be loaned to the ECHL affiliate Kansas City Mavericks to begin the season. Kansas City begins its season on Friday, Oct. 16 (tonight).

When he plays Loshko will be the third player signed to an NHL contract to play with the Mavericks. Victor Ostman and Tucker Robertson previously played for the Mavericks while on their NHL entry-level contracts. Loshko will also be just the fourth Kraken-drafted player to play in Kansas City, joining Robertson, Justin Janicke (2025–present) and Kyle Jackson (2023–24).

On the plus side, recent trade acquisition Devin Kaplan and 2024 third-round pick Alexis Bernier made their Firebirds debuts this past week with solid results.

College hockey seasons underway for Chase Reid, Casey Mutryn, and others

With the exception of the Ivy League, most Division I men’s college hockey programs are now underway. (Ben MacDonald and the Harvard Crimson do not begin their season until next Friday, Oct. 23.)

Chase Reid debuted for Michigan State University last Friday in the Spartans’ matchup against Northern Michigan. The Spartans are loaded with talent and figure to be a national title contender. They are currently No. 3 in the USCHO Division I poll. Ethan Belchetz, Cayden Lindstrom, and Cullen Potter are just a few of the nine first-round picks on the roster. Nine first-round picks on one roster is a college hockey record, surpassing Matty Beniers’ 2020–21 Michigan Wolverines, which had seven.

Notwithstanding the depth of talent, Reid is playing an important role immediately, from his first game as a freshman. He led the team in time on ice across the two games of the opening weekend, averaging just over 22 minutes per game. No other Spartan player played more than 20 minutes per game. He also began as the team’s No. 1 power-play quarterback. (There was some question as to whether fellow freshman and offensive specialist Tommy Bleyl might win that role.)

As for his performance, Reid drove offense, particularly on the power play. He tallied three assists in two games, which was tied for the most on the team, and had eight shots on goal, which was second on the team.

Looking beyond the numbers, what impresses me most about Reid are his defensive-zone retrievals and puck-moving skills. He diffuses opponent attacks and turns play back toward the opposing goal with terrific composure and intelligence. We will see how he progresses as the quality of competition increases, but he gets high marks on his first test following the leap to college hockey.

You can find our summer Chase Reid scouting report here. You can watch Reid’s shifts from his first regular-season college hockey game below. He is the right-shot defenseman wearing No. 27 in white.

Casey Mutryn also debuted last weekend for Boston College in the Eagles’ game against the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Mutryn skated on the Eagles’ third line and second power-play unit. His physical profile continued to stand out against college competition, and he showed a sustained willingness to work to the net front with regularity. That said, he has some work to do to catch up with the pace and skill level of the college game if he is going to be anything more than a grinder in Chestnut Hill and beyond.

Some of the pace and processing issues I noted in his first game are likely due to the fact that the Eagles were using him as a center. He may have played the position on occasion for the U.S. National Team Development Program and certainly did so at times over the summer for Team USA in international competition, but the vast majority of his recent ice time had been on the wing. Add it up, and Mutryn is going through multiple layers of adjustments right now. Keeping his head above water (which he has) is probably a good outcome in this context. If he ultimately masters the center position, it is nothing but good for his professional projection.

Mutryn was back on the wing for the Eagles’ Thursday, Oct. 15, game against St. Cloud State.

You can find our summer Casey Mutryn scouting report here. You can watch Mutryn’s shifts from his first regular-season college hockey game below. He is the right-shot forward wearing No. 19 in white.

Elsewhere in college hockey debuts, 2026 fifth-round pick Hawke Huff played for St. Thomas last weekend in two games against the Air Force Academy. The blueliner was playing top-four minutes and recorded an assist and two shots on goal. Will Tomko first appeared in two games for Ohio State University, playing bottom-six minutes with only one shot on goal on the scorecard. For his part, 2025 second-round pick Blake Fiddler debuted two weeks ago, skating on the University of Denver’s third defensive pair and recording one shot and two penalties.

Ville Ottavainen’s NHL role highlights Kraken’s success at the 2021 NHL Draft

2021 fourth-round pick Ville Ottavainen has emerged as an NHL lineup regular (for now) following the injury to Ryan Lindgren. He also scored his first NHL goal this week.

watching Ville’s 1st @NHL goal for the 1000th time 🤩 https://t.co/0uGj5YfJg3

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) October 14, 2026

The tall blueliner’s milestone recalls and underscores our earlier analysis of the Kraken’s 2021 draft class. Despite using only their originally allocated seven draft picks, the Kraken may have selected and developed six NHL players. It’s a remarkable achievement.

Notes on three more Kraken prospects

Rylan Singh | D | Guelph Storm

Lost in the shuffle when I missed an update two weeks ago was a significant injury concern for 2026 seventh-round pick Rylan Singh. Singh’s junior team, the Guelph Storm, announced on Sept. 25 that Singh had undergone shoulder surgery. The team has not yet provided an update with a recovery timeline, though one local post I saw suggested it could be six months before he returns to play. If that is true, Singh could miss all or almost all of Guelph’s regular season.

Finn Kearns | D | Sudbury Wolves

2026 fifth-round pick Finn Kearns has played in four games in the OHL so far this season. The hard-nosed blueliner has 30 penalty minutes in those four contests. He stepped over the line in his last game, taking an instigator and game misconduct penalty in the last five minutes of the game. This triggered a two-game suspension under OHL rules.

Jakub Fibigr | D | Ohio State Univ.

Jakub Fibigr did not join Will Tomko in the lineup for Ohio State University’s first two regular-season games. I have not been able to determine whether his absence is injury-related, but this is a situation that bears watching.

Kraken prospects data update

Reid’s three points in his first two college hockey games earns him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.

Unfortunately, no games played and nothing new to share on forward Jake O’Brien. He remains designated as “injured non-roster.” When and if he is healthy enough to play, we expect he will be activated and assigned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Semyon Vyazovoi had an uncharacteristically shaky week that included being pulled from an outing for performance reasons.

Victor Ostman has outperformed his running mate, Nikke Kokko, in the very early going for Coachella Valley, posting a .928 save percentage across two starts.

Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker

1: Jagger Firkus, Viktor Fyodorov, Jani Nyman, Chase Reid, Kim Saarinen, Semyon Vyzaovoi

Previewing the week ahead

Your Deep Sea Hockey Games of the Week are the weekend’s two NCAA matchups between No. 1 Denver and No. 2 Michigan. Clarke Caswell and Blake Fiddler play important roles for the Denver Pioneers. The Michigan Wolverines have former Everett Silvertip and probable 2027 top draft pick Landon Dupont on the blue line. You can find those games on NCHC.tv.

Elsewhere, if you subscribe to FloHockey for junior hockey or AHL games, there are a couple of matchups to circle: (1) Chase Reid and Michigan State University take on RIT on Saturday at 4:05 p.m. PDT, and (2) Karl Annborn and HV71 square off against Loke Krantz and Linköping HC in an SHL matchup of Kraken prospects on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Tracking 2027 NHL Draft prospects: Ryerson Edgar

Ryerson Edgar is a speedy and skilled forward who plays for the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL and is committed to the University of Michigan for next season. He was a point-per-game player at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament to begin the year and has kept up that scoring pace in the OHL. Add in a sound defensive game and relative youth for this older-skewing class, and he offers a solid all-around profile. His size (5-foot-11, 170 pounds) may limit his stock and upside projection.

Recent prospect updates

October 9, 2026: David Goyette traded, Firebirds season begins

September 25, 2026: Post-camp Kraken prospect stock watch

September 18, 2026: Ryan Jankowski on the Kraken prospect pool