As we approach the dog days of the NHL offseason, I wanted to take a deep dive into the Seattle Kraken’s scoring to identify some areas of opportunity for improvement. Specifically, I want to look at the key drivers of scoring — things like volume, quality, and special teams — to see how the Kraken compare across the league.
Establishing a baseline
The Kraken ranked 16th in average goals scored per game last season with 2.99. They also had the fourth-highest improvement in goal scoring from the previous year, adding +0.38 goals per game compared to 2023–24. While there’s still room to improve, the situation might not be as grim as you would have expected for a team that finished 27th in the league in standings points.
Goals by situation
Let’s take a look at how the Kraken scored across different scenarios over the last four seasons.
The data shows substantial season-over-season improvement in even-strength goals, with a smaller uptick specifically at 5-on-5, though there was a decline in power-play goals per game. But how do these categories stack up across the league?
The charts show that the Kraken were middle of the pack at even strength, ranking 15th in the league for even-strength goals per game and 13th at 5-on-5. An optimist could point to a healthy season from Vince Dunn and Jordan Eberle, plus steps forward from Matty Beniers and Shane Wright, as reasons to expect even-strength scoring to improve. That might happen, but for the sake of caution, let’s assume those numbers stay flat. That leaves the power play as a clear area of opportunity.
Kraken power play performance
The Kraken averaged 0.52 power-play goals per game during the 2024–25 season. That number depends on two things: how often the team gets on the power play (opportunities), and how well they execute once they get the manpower advantage (power play percentage).
Seattle averaged 2.76 power-play opportunities per game, ranking 14th in the league. On the execution side, their 18.9 percent power-play conversion rate was 23rd, well below league average.
Last season’s 18.9 percent power-play rate was on the lower end, but it’s worth noting that Jordan Eberle missed half the season and Vince Dunn missed 20 games. Kraken fans may reasonably expect some bounce-back in 2025-26 if the power-play units stay relatively healthy. There’s also speculation that newly acquired Mason Marchment could slot into a power-play unit and provide a complementary skillset.
All-situations shot volume
Zooming back out to broader scoring trends, let’s look at shot volume across all situations.
As the chart indicates, the Kraken ranked 25th in the league in all-situations shots on goal per game. Notably, two playoff teams, the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens, had even fewer shots per game. But to really assess the impact of volume, we need to dig into shot quality.
Using data from NaturalStatTrick.com, the Kraken ranked second-lowest in high-danger shots on goal per game. Only the San Jose Sharks, the worst team in the league, had fewer.
Generating more chances from the “inside” — the high-danger areas — has been a recurring message for a few seasons now. It came up during Jason Botterill’s introductory press conference and was echoed by Lane Lambert in recent interviews.
It’s easy to say, “The team needs more high-danger shots,” and yes, a coaching staff can implement systems to create more of those looks. But personnel still matters. Enter Mason Marchment.
The Kraken acquired Marchment early in the offseason to help create that inside threat and bring a little edge in front of the net. While he wasn’t acquired as a direct replacement for Oliver Bjorkstrand, he could effectively fill that role from a production standpoint — both have scored around 20 goals in each of the last two seasons. Marchment’s net-front presence stands out in shot density charts when compared to Bjorkstrand.
Will Marchment’s gritty, crease-crashing style from Dallas translate to Seattle? We’ll see. But if the Kraken are trying to better establish themselves around the net, adding someone comfortable in that space is a smart move.
Outlook for 2025–26
Saying the Kraken need to score more goals is an obvious diagnosis. Could they use more scoring? Absolutely — but so could 20 other teams.
On paper, the team didn’t do enough to guarantee a big scoring boost, but they likely did enough to maintain what they had. Without the addition of a high-end scorer, expecting a massive jump in power-play efficiency might be unrealistic. However, natural growth from younger players could result in subtle but important improvements.
As we get closer to opening night, I’ll publish my annual per-player goal forecast. From a personnel standpoint, just staying healthy could be one of the biggest boosts for the team next season. If Jani Nyman and/or Berkly Catton make the opening night roster, they could contribute more than those they replace. A bounce-back year from Jared McCann, plus the impact of a new coaching staff, could also move the needle.
Right now, it looks like the Kraken will aim to re-create the four-line scoring magic from their 2022–23 playoff season. Improving in some of the areas mentioned could help them get closer to that level, but a lot of things will have to go right.
The only coach we retained from last season was our power play coach…. Maybe not deserving on a results basis?
I’m very curious how we improve scoring with a more defensive system sure to be following Lambert. Scoring isn’t something his coaching history has been known for.
Last season I felt like we look way too many low danger “Eddie O” shots. The NHL game has evolved past that style, if you don’t have a lot of traffic in front you’d be best not just throwing pucks at the net. That’s definitely an area that can be improved.
I feel like our best chance to improve our scoring is on the PP but I’m curious as to who’s going to be coaching it, is Jessica getting another chance at it?
The Kraken don’t need to improve scoring, they need to improve scoring differential in whatever way they can.
The Panthers scored one more goal than the Kraken did last season in all situations but gave up 29 fewer. The Canadiens, Devils, Senators, and Wild all scored fewer goals than the Kraken.
The Kraken defense was absurdly worse last year than under Hakstol’s last season in every single metric… shot prevention, shot quality… you name it, it was bad. And the PK stunk.
The PP is probably not going to improve much this season, but there’s no reason with a goalie like Joey that the PK should be as bad as it was.
They can’t cure all their ills in one season, but tightening up on defense by not letting other teams roll into and set up camp in their zone would be a good start to moving the goal differential back in their favor.
The Kraken could easily win an additional 5 to 7 games this season if they improved nothing the but the defense. Play better defense at 5v5 and have the PK improve from 21st to, say, 14th and they will win more games.
I’m not convinced the defense was dreadful. They were right in the middle of the league in shots against (17th) and high-danger shots against (18th). They were however 24th in goals against. If you swap out Grubauer’s -17 GSAA for a zero (which still wouldn’t have been top 30 among goalies with 10 starts) this team finishes 17th in goals against.
Apart from Grubauer, I think the worst thing about the defense was how much time they actually spent on it. Only Anaheim, Chicago, Columbus, San Jose and oddly Washington spent a higher percentage of time in their own zone at 5v5. Given that and the fact they were still where they were in shots against… I think maybe the defense kind of held their own. Not great, but not dreadful. If the offense could manage to maintain the o-zone, I think that would be a big boost to the defense.
On the PK they were 10th in goals against. This may seem surprising; however, they were 28th in time on the PK. The best thing about the PK was not being on it very much.
Speaking of Florida…
The Panthers were second only to Canes in offensive zone time percentage but scored just one more goal than the Kraken – who were near the bottom of the league.
Sometimes the best defense is being on offense.
Jessica had supporting role on the PP – it was reported in many spaces that Bob Woods ran the PP. I think she was running video side which with the creation of the new video strategist position will be interesting how that plays out.
People keep saying she was the PP coach but she assisted to Woods in the PP. It’s fascinating watching the casual misogyny.
I’m all for Campbell but is it true to say she was secondary to Woods?
From descriptions I’ve seen, sounds like they were complimentary? He maybe had more in-game adjustment responsibility while she had more scouting & overall strategy design? Seems like it’s a legitimate argument to say they shared responsibility for Seattle’s performance on the man advantage. Disappointing in absolute terms but did show some improvement from previous season.
Again, to be clear I think she did a fine job especially when factoring in the development of guys like Wright. Way bigger issues on last year’s team than her coaching!
When has the PP ever been good. Even in 2nd year the PP was avg. Good PP’s have elite scorers which kraken do not have.
Yes it is true and how it was announced. She was said to be assisting Woods which means Woods had final say. It’s not a legitimate argument unless you ignore reality.
…but I saw her with the whiteboard.
This is a quote in a Lukan interview with Campbell?
“For me specifically, working with Bob on the power play and sharing that duty, I do a lot of the pre-scout video and presenting, and he’s been a really great sounding board for me, and another set of eyes on it.“
https://www.nhl.com/kraken/news/from-the-front-office-jessica-campbell-ft
Would love to see this analysis from the defensive side, which is where I’m hoping Lambert can make significant improvement.
Yes I agree, it all comes down to goal differential. This article was about goal scoring….
The weird thing is, the shot rankings aren’t all that different than the team that made the playoffs.
Using all situations per 60 rather than per game for simplicity sake, the rankings comparing the two seasons with the playoffs season first are:
LDSF 8th vs 10th
MDSF 18th vs 25th
HDSF 25th vs 31st
Overall 20th vs 25th
While the numbers are worse across the board and shooting percentage was a huge thing, it’s not nearly as dramatic as the difference in the shots against comparison.
LDSA 4th vs 23rd
MDSA 2nd vs 17th
HDSA 3rd vs 18th
Overall 2nd vs 17th
I think maybe the largest contributing factor to the fall off in shooting is something Francis specifically mentioned in the post season press conference, the team spent way too much time in their own end. Last season was the first time the Kraken spent more even strength time in the defensive zone than the offensive zone. While special teams obviously need improvement, personally, I think improvement need to start with zone time and figuring out what happened there.
Thanks Daryl! Even more dramatic than I thought/remembered. Gives me even more optimism that the team has at least a chance to play as well as they did in the playoff year, especially if Daccord stays healthy and elite.
I really wanna see Wright getting way more time on the PP than Stephenson. It would also be good for McCann to be more aggressive with shooting this year. It seemed he was looking to force the pass more than in previous seasons. While it seems like Matty/Schwartz/Kakko are solid bets for #1 with Dunn on D, I am curious who slides in to play the 5th. McCann seems solid bet with his shot. For second line would be great to see Eberle/Wright/Marchment with Nyman or Tolvenan rounding it out with Montour.
I am just glad that we won’t to suffer with Burky driving in doing a button hook and turning it over every other time they try to get zone entry.
Agree. Burky’s moves lost the puck for us in many ways on offense. Yes, a big reason the offense struggled, yet the coach kept playing him in those same situations constantly. We have the players to succeed on the pp, just need coaching to pay attention to the chemistry that can create that. Chemistry isn’t magic, it’s smart players paying attention to each other. We have many smart players.