When an NHL team gets scored on nine times in a game, one anticipates some changes to the lineup the next time out. Indeed, coach Lane Lambert seems to be sending a message to his veterans that their spots are not safe if they don’t do their jobs in the way he expects.
It appears defenseman Jamie Oleksiak will be a healthy scratch Saturday when the Kraken welcome the Detroit Red Wings to Climate Pledge Arena, marking the first time the 32-year-old, 6-foot-7 blueliner will be scratched since coming to Seattle at the Expansion Draft in 2021.
When I asked Lambert about the decision, he played coy, saying, “Well, it’s a game-time decision, so really there’s no reason talking about it right now.”
It was plain to see at morning skate, though, that Oleksiak is not in the lineup and that he will be replaced by Josh Mahura, who will skate alongside Ryker Evans on the third pair. Mahura has been a healthy scratch since Evans returned from injury on Nov. 8.
For this Kraken Notebook, I chatted with Mahura about his expectations for getting back into the lineup, and I also talked to Freddy Gaudreau about an interesting week of firsts for him.
Josh Mahura excited to get back in
Mahura is known to be a great locker-room guy and a fantastic teammate, so it’s unlikely anyone has heard him complain about sitting out 12 straight games that have spanned an entire month since he last played. But deep down, any professional athlete wants to compete, so you know he’s champing at the bit to get back in Saturday against the Red Wings.
“I feel great,” Mahura said. “Honestly, just [going to try to] get right back into it. I’ve been putting in a lot of work, regardless of if I’m playing or not, so I’m just excited to get back out there.”
His return comes at an awkward time for the Kraken, who have lost four straight games (0-3-1) and just gave up more goals to Edmonton on Thursday than they ever have in a single game in franchise history. Seattle took a day off to refresh and reset Friday, though, and Jordan Eberle said the team’s recent struggles should spark “desperation” against Detroit.
As for Mahura, slotting him in at this time also injects positivity into a lineup that’s surely a bit broken right now.
“[We’ve got to] just completely move on from it,” Mahura said. “It’s a new game today, new opportunity. We play 82 games in a year, so sometimes you’re going to go through those spells, dry spots or losing games. But, you know? Like I said, you have 82 chances to get back at it, so there’s just excitement tonight to get going.”
Though Lambert wouldn’t commit to the scratch for Oleksiak, it certainly looks like it’s happening, and that’s a big statement from the coach to pull one of his veteran defenders. Officially, Oleksiak was minus-three in the 9-4 loss and was on for one of the four power-play goals against (the other three were Adam Larsson and Ryan Lindgren).
Meanwhile, Mason Marchment will return from a mysterious one-game absence that was supposedly due to injury (though Lambert declined to put a designation on the type of injury it was), and Shane Wright will slide back down to the fourth line.
It’s looking like Jamie Oleksiak will be a healthy scratch tonight. #SeaKraken https://t.co/Jji4tR5GaA
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 6, 2025
A week of firsts (and fists) for Freddy Gaudreau
The two consecutive losses to the Oilers brought a couple of interesting plot points in Gaudreau’s first season in Seattle, with the most recent being his first goal as a Kraken on Thursday. The goal briefly got the team back into the game before things completely unraveled in the second period.
FREDDY BE GOOD! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 5, 2025
Joey robs Matt Savoie at one end after a hocus focus play creates a breakaway.
Freddy Gaudreau strips Draisaitl and scores his first as a #SeaKraken at the other end.
Seattle JUST MISSED tying it in the closing seconds of the 1st.
3-2 Oil through 20. pic.twitter.com/QUebFuGsli
While Gaudreau has mostly played a depth role in his career, he has shown the ability to put the puck in the net, potting 18 in 2024-25 with the Minnesota Wild and 19 in 2022-23. So, going goalless through the early part of December had been surprising.
“It’s weird. I’ve always believed in doing the right things and keeping your head where it’s at in the moment, and not overthinking all those things,” Gaudreau said. “And somehow, when I’ve been doing so versus overthinking, it seems like it comes back more naturally, so that’s kind of been my mindset.
“Obviously, we’d love to score all the time and help the team win offensively all the time, but it’s just not reality. So when it’s not going your way, there’s still a lot of things you can do, whether it’s in games or practices, to keep the energy rolling. And like I said, results just come when they have to come, but you can’t lose the focus of the rest of the important stuff when they’re not there.”
So, that all-important first goal in Deep Sea Blue has come. But what else happened for Gaudreau over the last week? After the Kraken had gone down 4-0 in a game filled with shenanigans and Marchment-related extracurricular activity last Saturday, Gaudreau fought Edmonton rookie Connor Clattenburg.
Believe it or not, while it was Clattenburg’s first NHL fight, it was also the first fight of Gaudreau’s nine-year NHL career.
Freddy Gaudreau drops the gloves with Connor Clattenburg and… does not fare particularly well.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 29, 2025
But, he gets the #SeaKraken their sixth power play of the game. pic.twitter.com/sMyoQnmWIS
“It just happened. I don’t know what to say, it just happens. That’s kind of my take on it,” Gaudreau said. “And boom, then you get a text from your parents, like, ‘Are you… What’s going on?’”
Gaudreau shared that his parents watch every game from afar despite a challenging time difference. On this particular night, though, they were attending a special event for Gaudreau’s mom’s twin brothers. That event caused them to miss the game, so all they saw was a five-minute fighting penalty in the box score.
“I got the same from my brothers, and my sister didn’t know. And my wife, when I got out of here, she’s… kind of the same thing, ‘What’s going on? You want to talk about it?’ [She was] kind of laughing about it.”
While Gaudreau maintained that “it just happened,” he did divulge that he saw Ryker Evans get hit from behind and went in to stand up for his teammate. In a flash, he recognized that Clattenburg’s stick was down on the ice, and without even thinking, his own gloves were suddenly off and fists were flying.
“It’s just instincts after that. It’s not like I know much about it, to be honest, it was just instincts, and I was on the ground pretty quickly, and then in the box after that pretty quickly.”
So now that he has that first bout under his belt, is Freddy looking to become a regular pugilist?
“I can’t predict the future, but it’s not a point of emphasis,” Gaudreau said. “But if it happens, it happens.”
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.
It’s crazy Oleksiak has never been scratched. We need to keep scratching until message received. Larsson next??
Let’s go Joshy!
🙄 LL is such a Dick. Won’t be long before he loses the room. Great choice in a coach RF 👍
Nice to see mahura back in the lineup he had a solid season and should not have been taken out of the lineup.
The coach is a dick for scratching someone? That’s an interesting take. Is this the first time you have heard of this kind of thing happening, Nino?
Somehow, I don’t think the other players will be too fazed.
Seriously…. It’s how he said it and says everything. He’s just a Dick, nothing to do with the rig getting scratched. I’m actually really surprised he hasn’t been scratched in previous years.
And Bylsma wasn’t a dick for scratching Bjorkstrand last year – especially when there were other players playing worse than he was?
I don’t know what your problem is with Lambert but it certainly seems to be out of proportion with what is actually happening with the team.
That is the oddest takeaway from a coach scratching a player who a lot of fans have been railing on the whole season
There’s some serious Ron Francis daddy issues on here.
The 4 game skid ends tonight!
Go Kraken!!!
Hmmm, two upcoming UFA’s – and former Dallas Stars – scratched in consecutive games under extremely vague circumstances, just as Dallas is trying to make a decision about full cap relief for Seguin…
Marchment, Oleksiak and one (or two) of our firsts for Robertson or Johnston????
I thought the team played well with Evans out. Even though this was a message, I do not think Oli and Evans play well together, If those two, Josh and Evans do not play well maybe Evans should sit. Freddie in a fight? That Rookie should have been pummeled, but we have no tough guys so maybe this is where I over all the problems lie. No net presence also needs toughness, again something this team lacks. both O and D. Edmonton PP scores when they put a big guy in to take the stick of the defender out of play in front of the goalie allowing for side to side passes. Clean it up boys or I’ll start watching more Canucks games, haha, just joking. Giddy up Kraken!
Wright on the fourth line and Nyman scratched is not the Way. Marchment is a talentless clod, albeit a Noble & Honourable Veteran in the eyes of the coach, eh? Oleksiak and Marchment have to be the first bodies out when the TDL season begins, preferably before – but with this management group… I’ll believe it when I see it. Chances are they’ll convince themselves Marchment somehow is an integral part of the future and sign him long term (because it’s an easy and lazy thing to do).
I get what you’re saying Witt, but look at who this management has sent out in the past. I would assume half the appeal of Marchment is they could move him if things went that way.
I think there’s plenty for folks to have legitimate complaints about, but this “easy and lazy thing to do” argument. It seems to me it’s just that.
Imo they should move vets out simply out of principle. This coach loves his vets, even when they are very limited. Management has to do what they said they would do – focus on bringing up the kids, with this dino HC taking away his vet toys is clearly the only option. Letting an important youngster like Shane Wright rot on the vine is simply nuts. What good will come out of de-developing him?
I don’t know much about much. And lots of times I don’t even know what I don’t know. But I can say for sure, I don’t know enough about developing players to think for one second I know better than ANY organization in the NHL. That was the absolute most absurd thing from Chuck’s cashews and cigarettes video. The development takes. For a short while this season, a third of this team’s skaters were from their first four drafts. Show me another organization that is averaging two NHL players a draft. They’re playing the young guys, they’re just not hanging them out to dry. Six of tonight’s lineup is picks plus one in the press box. That guy’s “Shane Wright only got 38 games in his draft plus one year”. Wright got 24 games in the CHL, eight regular season games with the Kraken and – off the top of my head- five preseason games. Plus eight in Coachella and seven at World Juniors. That’s 52, and the reason he didn’t get more is because he was injured in Kingston.
Like I said before, there’s plenty to take issue with, but some of thus stuff… I don’t get it.
And by the way… Logan Cooley in the very same draft plus one year played in 46 games between Minnesota and World Juniors… but nobody complains about him not getting enough games.
I watched the interview that Paul Silvi with Lambert this week and they talked about the equation of practice time plus playing time balanced against a finite level of overall energy.
Essentially, the extra energy in practice working on skills development with younger players = less energy available from them for games = more energy needed from the veterans for games. So that extra 20 minutes Catton spends working 1:1 with Coach Campbell at practice after the rest of the team has hit the showers = more playing time for the likes of Chandler Stephenson or Jordan Eberle.
I guess this is kind of a “duh”, but the way it was expressed gave it new clarity (personally, I’d love to see a feature story on this – a week in the season for 35-year-old Jordan Eberle vs 19-year-old Berkeley Catton).
And who is going to take ALL of those spots if you move the vets out? CV is one of the youngest teams in the AHL right now and very few of them are even close to NHL-ready. Many of them are in only their first or second year playing professional hockey.
It takes at least 2 teams to make a trade and, if you’ve taken a look at any of the trade boards, a lot of the available players are OLDER than our veterans.
In terms of early season transactions, Seattle actually has one of the more notable recent histories – getting Tolvanen off of waivers and trading for Kakko last season. And keep in mind that in order to get Kakko, they traded away Borgen who was their second-youngest defender.
Well, they have a lot of vets signed long term. Cups, Monty, Larsson, Lindgren, Gaudreau for starters, Mahura and Evans have two years and they can keep one of Schwartz/Eberle even Tolvanen. It’s not as if they have to strip everything to the bones. They already have a young and deep prospect pool that unfortunately lacks a few crucial elite prospects.
This would not necessarily be a hard nuke like San Jose or Chicago did. But trading McCann and Dunn for young prospects and picks would be a start. And of course moving on from the Marchments and Oleksiaks.
Indeed, more trades like the Kakko trade would be welcome. A serious issue is that gap between the young “core” Matty, Wright, Kakko (>24) and the aging vets Schwartzy, Eberle and McCann, Dunn who are over or approaching 30. The youngsters need more help in their age range.
I often read comments without seeing who wrote them. What someone has an extremely dumb take, then I’ll look. I was not surprised to see the author of this one.
So what’s your genius plan then?
In any case, the way they are playing the tank is happening by itself. Maybe, after all, ripping it down to the studs the hard way is just smart husbandry at this point, at least they would get extra ammo for the rebuild… It’s been how many seasons with the same old, same old going on now? Are the fans pining that hard for that one 2023 playoff run like Al Bundy looking back at his high school football day of glory? So again, what’s the plan here?
Dom’s model has the Kraken finishing 28th this season. I poohpoohed that when I first saw it – now I’m not so sure. Our “first” line is effectively a third line on a decent team, the team is leaking cheap goals, and the coaches are not impressing exactly.
Do you think the Ducks should get rid of their vets, too? Trouba, Kreider, Vatrano, Gudas, Granlund, Killorn? They don’t need those guys, eh? They’re not helping at all. What a genius. Too bad we can’t make you GM.
On a positive note, at least they are playing the very erratic Red Wings so they have a chance to bounce back! For some reason I thought they were going to play the Wild, which would have been a very different situation…
Who had the bright idea to make WSU night against Detroit? There is a LOT of red in the crowd tonight!!!
Great observation!
Yes I noticed that as well, what a stupid idea to give out red jerseys when you’re playing a team in red!!! Seriously do they have anyone that has a clue?
It’s still odd to see fans out there who think 30 is old in the NHL, contrary to the endless evidence that it isn’t. On top of that, actually thinking a team without these players and made up only of super young players is the secret recipe to NHL success. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this awesome strategy before? Because it’s not.
If you want to use The Ducks as an example, they have a great core of young players from being terrible for over a decade (and an empty arena, by the way), but they aren’t so stupid to not have a good group of vets to help guide them and give them confidence. Trouba (31), Kreider (34), Gudas (35), Killorn (36), Granlund (33), Strome (32), Vatrano (31), Johnston (31). Don’t be surprised if they keep back-filling these vet roles, even trying to get players like Dunn, Montour, Stephenson and McCann when they are 33-36. Maybe even a 36 year old Jaden Schwartz. They will try to get the players they think they need to win, regardless of age. A 36 year old Montour could be one of the top D-men in the league.
I have been hoping that Fluery would get some ice time. He played very well during preseason and showed that he has become a dependable defenceman. He should have been replacing Olekziak when we play fast young teams. He has proven his skills and worth in my opinion.