For those Kraken fans hoping the team will tank the rest of the season for the highest possible draft pick, Seattle’s game Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild was ideal. The game was fun to watch, and the home team put in a good effort, but spotting a strong defensive squad a three-goal lead and then trying to battle back was too big of a hill to climb. Ultimately, the pro-tank crowd got the outcome it wanted, with a Seattle comeback falling just short and the Wild skating away with a 4-3 win.
“I thought there was a lot of good [in our game],” coach Dan Bylsma said. “I just felt the puck went in a little too easily for various reasons at the beginning of the game.”
The Kraken tilted the ice and allowed just one shot on goal as they tried to find the equalizer in the third period, but Filip Gustavsson stood tall for Minnesota and stopped all 11 Seattle offerings.
The big storyline coming into this one was Yanni Gourde’s return to action and the implications of the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline, but Shane Wright did some things that also deserve mentioning.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken loss to the Wild.
Takeaway #1: Here’s Yanni!
Yanni Gourde played Tuesday for the first time since Jan. 2. The pesky veteran center missed 22 games after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia. Adding to the intrigue of his return, he has been widely rumored as a potential trade candidate before Friday’s deadline.
In terms of his performance, he looked like his old self. He was fast and physical, and in the middle of the second period, he went right to the top of the blue paint, where he ran into Gustavsson and mucked things up with his signature Yanni Gourde smirk.
“We missed him since Jan. 2,” Bylsma said. “To have his energy and his passion was noticeable for us to have him back in the lineup tonight.”
Gourde logged 12:53 of ice time and registered the second assist on Brandon Montour’s rocket of a shot that cut Minnesota’s lead to 4-3 with 11 seconds left in the second period, setting up an exciting third.
There’s a bigger picture to consider with Gourde’s return, though; with the NHL Trade Deadline looming on Friday, Gourde has been frequently mentioned in trade rumors, and if he were to move, then this would have been his last home game as a Kraken.
He was asked about this after the game and said, “I’m focusing on what I can control, and that’s— yeah, I can control showing up tomorrow, working hard, and that’s all I can control. So that’s what I’m focused on, and we’ll see what happens the next few days.”
He was also asked if there have been discussions about a contract extension with Seattle, and he said, “Yeah, we’ve been—“ before cutting himself off and adding, “There’s been communication. That’s all I’ll say.”
If I were a betting man, I’d say he sticks around, but stay tuned.
Takeaway #2: Shane Wright is blossoming
Shane Wright has been talked about a lot this season, but it’s remarkable to think back to how he looked before his series of healthy scratches earlier this year compared to how he looks now. The kid is flying around the ice, and every time he’s out there, he does something that makes you raise your eyebrows.
While I’ve always been cautiously optimistic about Wright’s future, I’ve also had reservations about how high his ceiling will be. But seeing him play with this level of confidence makes me think the sky is the limit for the 21-year-old center if this is the norm for him.
“I’m obviously trying to play confident, try to play my game and just continue to improve and continue to learn as much as I can and just kind of grow with every game I play,” Wright said.
After posting two assists in Seattle’s win Saturday over Vancouver, Wright scored a power-play goal Tuesday, one-timing Oliver Bjorkstrand’s seam pass and getting a little help from Brock Faber’s stick blade to fool Gustavsson at 14:10 of the second.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! ☔️ 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 5, 2025
Great seam pass by Bjorkstrand, and Shane Wright gets a little help from Faber’s stick for the power-play goal.
4-2 Wild. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/CmKneqXKtn
He now has seven power-play goals on the season, leading the team by three (Bjorkstrand and Montour are tied for second with four each).
If this is who Wright will consistently be—and I’m beginning to believe it is, as he has remained effective for two months now—then Kraken fans should have high hopes that he can be a cornerstone player for many years to come.
Takeaway #3: Goals going in “too easily”
There were some interesting quirks in this game. The Kraken didn’t challenge for goalie interference on Vinnie Hinostroza’s deflection goal at 12:27 of the first to make it 1-0 (Bylsma said they didn’t challenge because Jamie Oleksiak pushed Hinostroza into Joey Daccord). They did challenge for a missed high-stick call after former Kraken Devin Shore appeared to make it 5-3 in the third period and won that one. They also got a rare penalty shot and power play on the same play after Faber was called for slashing Eeli Tolvanen on a penalty shot and then boarding him, earning two separate infractions (Seattle failed to score on either).
The biggest issue was that Seattle gave itself too big of a hill to climb, falling behind 4-1 in the first half of the game before turning on the afterburners and trying to claw back.
Statistically, it was a tough night for Daccord, who faced only 20 shots and ended the game with an .800 save percentage. But he was disrupted on the first goal, had a dual-layer screen on the second goal with Hinostroza and Josh Mahura both standing in front of him when Jared Spurgeon banked a perfect shot off the post, then watched as Frederick Gaudreau got a bounce off Jamie Oleksiak’s skate, and Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Johansson executed a pretty give-and-go to make it 4-1 in the second.
To Seattle’s credit, it eventually clamped down on the Wild in a way we haven’t seen too often this season, controlling the last 27-ish minutes of the game. But in the end, it still wasn’t enough.
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.
Totally agree with your assessment. I went to this one and it was a really fun one. They didn’t get the win (or worse, a loser point) but, really, who cares.
That 4th goal was on Joey. He completely failed to track the puck. Not his best night. Honestly he’s gone a little cold lately.
Re:Wright, you didn’t even mention that incredible play in the first period when he stole the puck and created a breakaway for himself and rang it off the post. He is definitely getting me excited. Beniers was pretty good too. And Kaako. Definitely about the young guys now. But Burky also had a few moments where he outskated everyone to create chances.
Tanev was brutal. If any NHL scouts were watching, that game did not help his trade value. Sheesh.
Have to wonder if Daccord’s workload is starting to catch up to him. He’s going to easily surpass his career high in games and the backup situation is making so he starts almost every game that isn’t a back to back. With the playoffs out of reach I’d like to see Bylsma start to give him more games off.
Stat wise that wasn’t a good game but find me a bad goal, sometimes these games happen. First goal interference/second goal he didn’t even see with two bodies blocking his line/third goal back door deflection/forth goal I don’t think he saw the pass back to the back door because of all the traffic in front but even if he did it would have been almost impossible to get back to the far post after pushing off to get in position for the first shot.
As someone mentioned in DJLR why didn’t we challenge the first goal? We were short handed with only around 30 seconds into the penalty. If the goal stands we get the penalized player back on the ice but get a penalty for the missed challenge. This was basically a free challenge we were only risking 30 seconds of penalty time. It didn’t look like he was pushed into the crease, little contact but was definitely going in on his own accord. Mind blowing 🤯 non challenge. If it was for a better draft pick I guess I understand.
We had a perfect view of that entire sequence from our seats and the Minnesota player was deep in the blue and making no attempt at all to get out. So many other goals have been overturned this season on much less. For the amount of time the refs waited and the number of times they seemed to be asking the Kraken bench if they wanted to challenge, it seems even they were surprised Seattle didn’t challenge.
On the other hand, Joey is usually pretty…demonstrative…with the refs when he feels there’s been interference, and he didn’t put up much of an argument so 🤷🏼♀️
Well he did, we went right to the refs and indicated that it was interference.
Yeah Daccord absolutely did throw a small fit about it.
I’m not following the “free challenge” logic. Being down a goal and going on the PK is not equivalent to being down a goal at even strength. Those were the two outcomes of losing the challenge and where they were in the existing PK doesn’t really enter into it. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have risked it, but a challenge would not have been a freebie.
He was definitely pushed into Joey. It was obvious from the overhead view. Certainly enough to not overturn the call on the ice. There’s no point challenging when you have no chance to win it.
disagree about y. gourde don’t think he was 100 percent,he looked tired.
I’m surprised how well they played the 2nd periods in the last 2 games. Usually, those are frustratingly slow.
Here’s the thing about Wright that’s been a bit overlooked: He was scratched those three games in November and since he came back the Kraken have played 41 games and Wright has played in all 41. During those 41 games, Shane has:
13 G (1st on the team)
22 A (1st)
35 PTS (1st)
580.01minutes in Total Ice Time (6th among forwards)
Most points on the team but the 6th most ice time.
If Shane keeps up his current last 41 games pace, he’ll score about 54 points this season… and that’s with only two points in the first 18 games. So, he’s been scoring like a 70 point player that last 41 games… at age 21.
Shane Wright will be the #1 center on this team in two years time.
I will give you the stock answer to this question — that it is precisely because they are sheltering/managing Wright somewhat that he has been so good, with Stephenson taking the tougher minutes (and getting killed, but whatever, he is “eating” the minutes). For the record, I don’t actually buy that answer. Wright has been very good, and Stephenson has been terrible, in all situations.
He’s the #1 center now.
One last Wright note is the comparison of how Burky has played with Stephenson v. Wright (all at even strength via Natural Stat Trick):
Burky-Stephenson
45.50 CF%
35.89 xGF%
40.60 HDCF%
2.31 – 3.46 GF/60 – GA/60
Off. Zone Face Off%: 48%
Burky-Wright
53.28 CF%
46.87 xGF%
48.28 HDCF%
3.96 – 2.88 GF/60 – GA/60
Off. Zone Face Off%: 49%
I think it’s worth mentioning the “stock answer” here…
Wright – Burakovsky are probably getting better matchups than Stephenson – Burakovsky. The o-zone faceoffs are equal, but I’d wonder about the personnel and situations. That said…
Wright has looked outstanding and getting the chance to develop with controlled minutes and matchups is – in my opinion – the absolute best way to go about it. As Friedman mentioned when the Kraken signed him, this is exactly why they brought Stephenson in.
As good as Shane looks, I’m not convinced he’s in the same place if he’s splitting time with Beniers centring the top two lines and some combination of: Yanni Gourde, Ben Meyers, Mitchell Stephens, or Blake Lizzote is the middle of the bottom six.
The massive gap in stats for *all* of Chandler Stephenson’s lines, as compared with *all* of the other Kraken lines, is astounding. I did this exercise and noted it in the comments a month or two ago. It’s on par with the difference between Grubauer and Daccord. For whatever reason, Darren and John have started acknowledging the negative impact of Grubauer, but are forbidding any discussion of Stephenson. I think he’s just as big a reason behind the team’s poor record this year (as does Curtis, I’m sure, but he is only allowed to kind of hint at it).
Goodness gracious.
Very exciting game! It’s great having the team back together.
Report has Kraken sending Gourde and Bjorkstrand to Tampa for two 1st…
Don’t forget to send Burky.
If the reports are correct… Tampa Bay 2026 & 2027 first and Toronto’s 2025 second… I’ve got to think Chuck Holmes was right… “a top GM would get a first” for Gourde.
I like it Ron! You’re a “top GM”.