It’s almost time to start asking the question… Are the Kraken good?
With their never-a-doubt [wink, wink] 5-3 win over the Utah Mammoth—who definitely are good—on Thursday, Seattle is officially off to its best start in franchise history at 7-3-1 through 11 games.
National pundits don’t yet believe in this team, and that’s probably fair, considering the way Seattle faceplanted down the stretch last season. But for those of us who are watching them every game, this group does look very different than the 2025-26 iteration.
Within the uncertainty, the Kraken have faced scrutiny based on the strength of their schedule so far, with four of their wins coming against Calgary and Detroit and one against Philadelphia. But after taking down the Washington Capitals in their building on Oct. 11, they’ve now added a win against the high-flying (and first-place) Utah Mammoth.
These Kraken are faster than last year, they’re more creative, and they can score goals. They continue to get ahead in games with timely contributions from all four lines, they bend but don’t break (more on that in Takeaway 1), and they’re getting rock-solid goaltending from Philipp Grubauer, who coach Lane Lambert has continued to roll with as the “hot hand.”
So… are they… good?
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-3 Kraken win over the Mammoth.
Takeaway 1: Third-period woes
In each of the two games since returning home from a 10-day, five-game East Coast road trip on which the Kraken went 3-1-1 and earned seven out of 10 points, they have looked very good through 40 minutes. That was true against the Red Wings on Tuesday, when Seattle carried a 3-0 lead into the final frame, and it was true against the Mammoth on Thursday, when the Kraken held a 3-1 lead at that same juncture.
In both cases, Seattle allowed a goal relatively early in the frame, which gave the opposition the momentum needed to mount a big comeback before the Kraken bounced back and found a way to win. This was also the scenario at the Philadelphia Flyers 10 days ago.
“If you want to look at it from a positive standpoint, we’re getting into a position where we’re able to give up a multi-goal lead and still win,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ve got to continue to play the game the same way that got us the lead, and that comes with a little bit of experience, a little bit of time. What it says about our team’s resilience in these situations, it says a lot.”
Against Utah, Seattle entered the third on a penalty kill after Jared McCann high-sticked Logan Cooley with 30 seconds left in the second. Cooley must have taken that personally, because he scored his first of two goals—this one off a mid-air tip of Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the point—just 27 seconds into the third. That was the second time Utah’s NHL-best power play connected in the game, after Vincent Trocheck got a PPG to momentarily tie it 1-1 at 17:57 of the first.
Cooley scored again at 7:42, finishing a give-and-go play high in the zone with Sergachev after Utah hemmed Seattle in for a very extended stretch.
But… Lambert called a timeout after that.
“We were standing there watching them play, and we needed to be reminded that we’re actually pretty good too,” Lambert said.
Indeed, the Kraken got things back on track after that. Bobby McMann appeared to score at 8:39, but Utah successfully challenged for Chandler Stephenson entering the zone offside. Yet instead of letting that sap the momentum, Seattle continued to push, and McMann ultimately set up Mackie Samoskevich for the game-winner with 5:25 left.
Now, as we try to answer that big question about the “goodness” of this team, this is an area where Seattle can improve: playing with a lead in the third period. After Lambert gave his team a lot of grace for fumbling away the three-goal lead over Detroit on Tuesday, he was less understanding of its third-period performance against the Mammoth.
“Obviously, they scored right away at the beginning of the period on a power play, and then I just thought we—unlike the last game, where I thought we came out in the third period and went after them, had opportunities to make it 4-0 against Detroit—I thought we sat back [against Utah],” Lambert said. “And I didn’t like that very much. So, obviously we had a chat at the timeout, and I thought we played better hockey from there.”
Takeaway 2: Timely (and pretty) scoring
While the Kraken have had a hard time with multi-goal leads in the third period, you have to give them a ton of credit for pulling out victories in all three of those contests. Though the previous two required shootout heroics from Grubauer and McMann, this one was decided thanks to impressive resiliency down the stretch.
Samoskevich’s goal was nice in its own right because McMann made an unselfish play, finding his new linemate flying toward the net when he absolutely could have just spun and stuffed the puck into Vejmelka.
“I just saw him out of the corner of my eye because I wasn’t sure if I could spin and shoot that one,” McMann said. “I would have tried to, but then he was there, so I’d rather it be on his stick.”
“It was a bit chaotic,” Samoskevich said. “The puck was bouncing everywhere and then came to Bobby, and he kind of just made a perfect play to me. I didn’t have to do much there, so credit to him.”
But Matty Beniers’ power-play goal at 18:23 of the first was the real dazzler in this one and a good indicator of this team’s improved skill this season.
After Beniers won the face-off back to Brandon Montour, Montour gave the puck right back. Then Beniers sent it all the way across to Berkly Catton and headed toward the net. Lawson Crouse tracked Catton up the half wall, hoping he’d try to dump it back to Montour at the point so Crouse could jump the lane and take off on a breakaway. But Catton baited him beautifully, turned on a dime, and sent the veteran forward flying.
Catton wasn’t done there. He put a perfect no-look pass on Kaapo Kakko’s tape at the side of the net. Kakko flashed some skill of his own and sent his own no-look backhander across the crease to Beniers, who had a wide-open net.
“Really good deception [by Catton],” Beniers said. “He’s got a lot of skill, and then Kaapo made a great play to the backdoor. So two really good plays.”
This was a nationally televised game, so John Forslund wasn’t on the call. But if he was, he surely would have thrown a “That’s hockey, baby!” after that one.
Again, trying to answer the big question above, there is real skill here. It’s another indicator that the Kraken might—in fact—be good.
Takeaway 3: Grubauer keeps rolling
We actually got tricked at morning skate into thinking Joey Daccord would start this one (we shouldn’t have been tricked… that one was on us). But Lambert instead stuck with Grubauer and was rewarded for the decision.
Through one period, Grubauer didn’t get peppered with shots. But there was a stretch in the second when Utah was pressuring hard, and Grubauer stood tall with a few 10-bell saves. That allowed the Kraken to get to the third period with a two-goal lead.
“Well, he’s playing great,” Lambert said on why he stuck with Grubauer. “I saw his game as fantastic. I think that he was— full marks for winning the hockey game. He gave us a chance to win all night long.”
After facing just eight shots in the first, Grubauer ended the night with 33 saves and was once again a huge reason Seattle escaped with a win.
Grubauer improved to 4-1-1.
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.
Go Kraken!!!
Great game to be at. Utah were undisciplined with penalties and the Kraken did a good job capitalizing. Grubi was red hot and made some ridiculous saves and the overall game was feisty. Are we good? Yes, we are getting needed wins and banking points. Are we really good? Well, our pdo is still high so you’ll have to expect some drop off as the season rolls on. Maybe that means we’re lucky but I think you make your own luck and we’re doing that with our play right now and that includes when we give up leads. If you can make it good you can make it bad. Every game seems to have its teaching points for this group and they seem to respond well. Its all very encouraging and fun. Keep this up and mgmt will have some tough choices come trade deadline.
As good as Grubauer has been, part of the Kraken’s pattern has been to ride the hot goalie until they get tired and the wheels fall off. I’d like to see Lambert keep with a pretty clean rotation. I think it would pay dividends later in the season.
Mr. President! I was just watching a documentary about you.
“Did you say ‘Abe Lincoln?’”
Argh! The Kraken are going to kill me. It’s like watching the Holmgren Hawks all over again with their tendency to make every last little thing crazy dramatic for good or for ill. To their credit, the team believed more in themselves than I did in them, because I thought they were cooked when that McMann goal was disallowed. Instead they got to work and fixed their issues. It didn’t even take a shootout this time. Admirable and impressive.
Yeah, they just beat the top team in the Central in regulation, and they currently have more standings points than any team in the Central. I haven’t really bothered to pay attention to their position in the standings since a bit after the Olympics break when it became clear that they were not going to turn things around. I know it doesn’t really mean anything right now; the standings are going to be completely different at the trade deadline. Still, the Kraken are currently the fifth place team in the league in a year when everyone had been predicting they would finish fifth in their division.
I love that “we were standing there watching them play” line. Coach Lambert has been dropping killer soundbytes lately. In the pregame press conference he said that Josh Mahura is one of the best teammates he has ever coached.
How about that Stephenson line? I am starting to think we are seeing the formation of a team identity focused on speed. There are some very fast players elsewhere as well–Berkley Catton, Ben Meyers, and Ryan Winterton spring to mind–but the Stephenson line carries the standard. It plays into the whole “being hard to play against” ethos. Even good opponents are having to dig deep to keep up with them, Vegas and Florida notwithstanding.
I think everyone predicted they would finish sixth in their division… or worse.
Lower than the Flames or the Canucks? That’s crazy. Even before the season began it was clear that those two were tanking like Bob Semple. Man, I hope the lottery gives Landon DuPont to someone other than the Flames or the Canucks.
Most of the takes I came across had them just above Calgary and Vancouver, but I also remember seeing them lower. To be fair, I also remember someone used “playoff bubble team” when taking about them, but I think it was an accident.
Yeah, Vancouver certainly found out last year tanking doesn’t quarantine the top pick. Go Kraken!!!
Everyone’s know this for a long time, but the loudest fans online sure forget it despite our draft pick being pushed down on multiple occasions.
A lot of the clown media had them 26-30 in the league (most on the lower end of that). They can’t be bothered to actually watch games anymore. The state of hockey media in general is pretty bad.
Berk, Berk, Berk, Berk … only gonna get better
Catton is so good. He has the highest offensive skill level of any Kraken player; his passing is just fantastic – always direct, weighted properly, attacking the net. He’s got fantastic edges and he’s not bad on the boards at all. Yeah, he’ll never be a physical force on the ice, but he holds his own fairly well in the corners.
Grubauer keeps rolling… tough decisions are on the horizon.
Yeah, what do they do? Grubauer was supposed to go gentle into that good night, but instead he’s raging.
Re-sign him for 2-3 years? Never thought I would be saying that. But it could make sense considering none of our young goalies could be ready for regular NHL games before then.
I honestly would not feel worried about elevating Victor Ostman as early as late this season if there were room for him. Nikke Kokko is still waiting for his chance. Then you have Kim Saarinen who has already said that he expects to come to North America by next year. On top of that, the Kraken are running out of time to convince Semyon Vyazavoi to pursue a career in North America instead of just re-upping in the KHL and staying there. Vyazavoi and Saarinen are lighting up their respective European pro leagues, so if they do indeed arrive in North America next year they will not be expecting to spend long with the Firebirds before their elevation to the big club. Two or three years will cost the Kraken at least two very exciting goalie prospects.
BUT… what is having a possible Vezina candidate like Grubauer for a few more years worth? He is stealing wins and steering momentum, and there is no reason to believe that will not continue in the near future. He may well be better right now than any of the prospects ever will be in their careers.
Whatever Botterill does with the only two roster spots on the Kraken and the only two roster spots on the Firebirds for netminders, it’s going to hurt.
As well as he’s played this year and a lot of last year I’d be very hesitant to resign him. He has also played incredibly poorly for most of his time with the kraken and I’d be worried about a potential return to form. I would be happy seeing him finish out his time with the kraken playing well and move on to the next chapter.
By goalie standards, Vyazovoy and Saarinen are babies. Goalies don’t really hit the NHL as regulars until they are 25-26, and that still seems young. Vyazovoy is a little closer at 23, but he could sign for another 2 years in the KHL and Seattle still retains his rights. Eventually he will want to come to the NHL. Kokko still unripe. I’m not sure where Ostman fits, other than maybe a placeholder if needed.
Last night was the kind of win I’ve been waiting to see if they could pull off. The opponent was good, CPA was loud, and the team played hard, entertaining hockey. I hope we get more games like this.
They are definitely not a bad team and they are actually entertaining to watch unlike last year. They seem to have found the combo of the right acquisitions and breakouts from their young talent.
I think it’s sustainable enough to make the playoffs if they can avoid injuries.
I was surprised it took so long for Lane to call that timeout. I was yelling at the TV like an idiot while we were getting shelled “call a timeout!!”
Why do they wait so long?
It’s been a good ride so far, but GSAx and S% will likely revert to the mean at some point. The Kraken are currently getting timely goals and goals from the 3rd and 4th lines combined with stellar goaltending to win games. To be a really good team they need to solidify the defense core.
I hope GM Boterill is able to put together a trade package that brings in a 1st or 2nd pairing shut down D-man in exchange for picks and prospects. A trade that reduces our logjam of CV forwards will give the ones left more/better ice time and improve their development.
The shooting percentage is high but the GSAx is 1… 1 goal in 11 games and their .893 save percentage is 12th in the league.
I’m sure that includes the two stinker of games….
I feel like we are reverting back to last season a bit too much in many ways. We simply can’t sustainably play a system that requires our goaltender to steal wins. It’s all well and good if it happens but it’s not going to long term and we will revert back to what our record should be.
I’d rather be seeing games where we outplay our opponents win or lose than games that we hang on by our fingertips hoping our goalie steals the game. This has been my frustration with LL, he doesn’t seem to be able to commit to a system that is balanced enough to have long term success. I thought I saw something different happening earlier in the season but it’s drifting away. It’s early let’s see what happens.
Agree with you 1000% on the D comments. We need to take a big swing or two.
Regarding the prospects getting more time, I’d be curious to know who you are referring to. I watch CV games sometimes and other than possibly Mølgaard and Avon, I don’t see anyone who looks remotely close to being an NHL caliber player. Nyman is too slow. Firkus passes like a 13 year old. Would the Panthers allow any of these guys to play, for example? Not a chance. And who are you sitting? Freddy Gaudreau? Want spaces are available?
Kraken are going to need help on the back end eventually, these defensive lapses need to be fixed, i did read the article about trading for simon edvinsson. can you do one for Nikishin? kraken could use a good stay at home shut down Dman
Monty signed for awhile, Dunn probably will resign, ottavainen is to me anyway looking like he could develop into a very solid shutdown defender. Oh don’t we have some stud kid playing college this year? I’m not so sure we are going to be hurting on D in the foreseeable future. Injuries come and go so that could obviously impact that.
O’Brien needs to get healthy. Monty is good, but not what he was.
I would avoid Nikishin. Who just wins a Cup and says “I don’t want to be here anymore”? Seems like an idiot.
So… are they good?
By record so far, they certainly are, no doubt about it. 5th best team in the league. Looking closer, the goals for looks good (6th best in the league on a per game basis) but the goals against is concerning (6th worst in the league).
But that’s all looking backwards, how about going forward? I’ve got to think the scoring is going to take a step backward. The shooting percentage would be best in all of hockey the last 5 years if they keep it up. I don’t think this team is the most efficient offense the NHL has seen since COVID. Even if they performed like the playoff year team did, that’d come with a 20-30% drop in scoring.
The defensive and goaltending metrics don’t look like they’ve been particularly lucky or unlucky. Save percentage is 12th in the league and goals against pretty much matches exactly the number of expected goals against. So something is going to need to change fundamentally for them to improve. Outside of that, this team’s eventually not going to score enough to overcome their goals against.
All in all, they look better than I expected and I’ve enjoyed watching them. But it seems like “bubble playoff team,” finishing in the 80-90 points range is still the most likely outcome.
I think overall scoring will drop off once other teams begin to gameplan for the Gaudreau line. Right now, Freddy’s line has been taking advantage of other teams’ bottom-six pairings and their poor passing to generate speedy offense in transition that results in some ultra-high danger scoring opportunities, hence the sky-high shooting percentage. Usually, when a team gives its third line an offensive zone draw against a fourth line, they expect to be able to take advantage of a mismatch. Instead, what we are seeing is the surprisingly aggressive checking of Gaudreau, Meyers, and Winterton generating turnovers which turn into odd-man rushes before they know what hit them. Opposing scouts and coaches are going to notice this, especially with Gaudreau posting superstar numbers (Freddy is currently shooting a bonkers 50% at 5-on-5), and they will get thier centers to start playing a bit higher. Their wings are going to start being more careful about popping passes off the wall when facing the Gaudreau line. Their defensemen will know to stay high above Ryan Winterton when he starts pushing up the boards. The flip side is that it will mean that the other team will have to sacrifice their own scoring opportunities by playing more responsibly. So yeah, the scoring should taper off, but that may not end up being a problem because of what teams will have to do to make that happen.
The big, huge, enormous worry in my mind is the penalty kill. That is going to cost them standings points. Giving up a couple power play goals to the Mammoth is, in isolation, nothing to be too concerned about. The Mammoth power play is one of the best in the league. What is concerning is when the PK also regularly gives up goals to lesser teams. I put a lot of the issue on the Lindgren injury, because he had looked so effective on the PK before he got hurt. Hopefully, once he gets back the unit will stabilize. That cannot be the only issue, though. The team needs more good killers who will not get caught watching the puck.
I still, very much, think they should pursue Dylan Larkin.
Please no. Why would we want to pursue someone who just wants the easy street to winning (even though the team he is on doesn’t look that bad) and is signed to a contract he is trying to weasel out of? Character means something, and he has none. He made a huge mistake.
Luckily that will never happen.
And Mr tea leaves reader enters the room. 🍂
I get you’re not the most informed but Larkin has a NMC and Seattle ain’t on the list and won’t be for a long time. Educate yourself lest you make yourself look more the fool.
Well the thing is never implies NEVER.
The word “never” is an adverb meaning at no time, not ever, or not in any circumstance.
It’s funny you’re saying I need to be educated but you don’t even understand the meaning of the words you’re using 😂.
Sadly thorough I agree that he’s PROBABLY never going to play for the kraken. I’m not actually sorry that he is PROBABLY never going to play for us just sorry that I agree 😂
It’s funny watching your mental gymnastics time and time again. You distort and twist words, you dodge ever owning your wretched takes… it would quite a study for a psych student. You keep picking fights you can’t win. It’s kind of adorable