If the Seattle Kraken are going to have any success this season, it will be in large part because their top offensive player is performing at the peak of his powers. Jared McCann, 30, who missed 30 games last season and could often be seen flexing his leg between whistles in the 52 he played, is back in Training Camp and says he’s feeling 100 percent.

“Last year was obviously disappointing for me,” McCann said. “It was the first time in my career I had that injury bug where it was just every night, something was happening. And I mean, to be honest with you, I’m kind of blessed that it was only one year [of my career]. Obviously, knock on wood, but I feel great.”

Right from the jump last season, you knew McCann wasn’t fully recovered from whatever was ailing him at the end of 2024-25. As the season wore on, he still racked up 20 goals and 20 assists, but there’s no question it was a down year for him statistically. And as the team packed up its lockers on the last day of the 2025-26 season, McCann shared that he had already undergone an end-of-season procedure to address the quadriceps issue that nagged at him all year.

“If I got hit in the quad, my leg would go kind of numb, and it would just— it’d be stinging for a while. It would go away eventually, but then we’re playing the next day or playing a couple days later, and it just kept snowballing.”

After the procedure, McCann hung around Seattle longer than usual to stay close to the Kraken training staff (he also credited them with getting him through as many games as he ended up playing). Once he felt like he could rehab away from team staff, he moved back to Toronto. Through rehab and training, he started to feel like himself again around the 10-week mark after the procedure.

McCann specifically noted that he had lost the ability to jump last season, something hockey players do a lot to strengthen their lower bodies in off-ice training. Once that capability came back, he knew he was close to full recovery.

“I feel like that part of the summer, you know, 10, 12 weeks, was where I was like, ‘Ok, I feel like this is coming back. Like, it feels good again.’”

Is McCann primed for a big season?

On Day 1 of Training Camp on Thursday, McCann skated on a line with Matty Beniers and newcomer Mackie Samoskevich, a potential top-line trio. For his sake, this would be a great season for McCann—who is entering the last year of his contract—to mesh well with his linemates and aim for the 30-goal threshold that has eluded him since he potted 40 in 2022-23. But while Kraken fans have high hopes that a healthy McCann can regain his high-scoring form, he says he doesn’t focus on that stuff.

“I know what makes me successful on the ice, and that’s what I’m focused on is just, ‘What can I do to help this team win more games?’ … I’m not worried about all the other stuff going on right now. I’ll leave that up to [general manager Jason Botterill] and my agent. That’s why I pay him so much.”

Meanwhile, coach Lane Lambert knows how important McCann is to the success of his team.

“He’s a guy that we count on,” said Lambert—who really has never had the benefit of a top-form Jared McCann in his lineup. “I see his production when he’s healthy, and he’s a guy we need from that standpoint.”

“I put the work in this summer, and I’m excited,” McCann said. “I’m excited to feel good again.”

Matty doubles down

The next thing Sound Of Hockey talked to McCann about was Matty Beniers’ recent comments to The Athletic about high-profile players like Jason Robertson shunning Seattle. Beniers told Mark Lazerus in the article, “If you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you, anyway.” The comment got a lot of traction and made its way around social media.

McCann echoed Beniers’ sentiments on Thursday.

“We feel like Seattle has a bad rap right now, but nobody can really understand why,” McCann said. “Because everybody who plays here loves it… Even guys that have moved on to other teams, they even say to us that this was an amazing place to play. Our fans are great, I mean, look at the facilities we have around, right?

“The team does whatever they can to make the players feel comfortable, make the families feel comfortable, and we added some pieces on the management side of it. I wish I had a straight answer for you when it comes to why guys don’t want to be here, but I don’t.”

At the very same moment McCann was saying that to SOH outside the dressing room, Beniers was inside addressing the supersized Day 1 media scrum and doubling down on his initial comments.

“I heard a lot of people liked that,” Beniers said. “It was just the honest truth, right? It wasn’t necessarily a dig at [Robertson] or anybody else, but it was just like, ‘Hey, we want guys that want to be here that love this city and want to be here and want to win here.’ So it was just an honest answer to the question, and it seemed like people kind of grabbed onto it and ran with it.

“It sucked when it happened, and the media had a big, fun day with it, saying, ‘Hey, look at how bad Seattle is. Robertson doesn’t want to go there for all this money.’ So I think it was kind of our duty to say, ‘Hey, no, it’s great here. We love it, we want to win here, we’ve got great fans here.’”

The comments from McCann and Beniers came on the heels of Botterill telling the Sound Of Hockey Podcast on Tuesday:

“I don’t know what the right word is, whether it’s frustration, disappointment, I’m not quite sure. All I know is, hey, we’re going to continue to look to improve this team. We’re going to try to find all avenues from that perspective.

“To say that players don’t want to come to Seattle, I disagree with that. If you look at our history here, we’ve had free agents come here, whether it’s Brandon Montour, Chandler Stephenson, Ryan Lindgren. The players, when they’ve gotten here, I think they’ve been treated extremely well. We can talk about Bobby McMann, but it’s also Joey Daccord, Vince Dunn, Adam Larsson, these players have re-signed within the organization… The things that we added to the mix here and stuff again this year just help, hopefully, build our reputation on this is where players can maximize their ability and be in a winning environment.”

Of course, the perception of what it’s like to play in Seattle would change quickly if the team can start winning. Whether that can happen this season is a big question mark, but regardless, the players, coaches, and management appear to be coming in with a big chip on their collective shoulder. They seem determined to change the perception of playing in the Pacific Northwest.

Shane Wright is back

The timing of Shane Wright having to “face the music,” so to speak, and address the media for the first time since his agent publicly requested a trade out of Seattle for the 22-year-old forward was a bit ironic. Beniers had just reiterated his stance that the team only wants players who want to be here, and in comes Wright, for whom the desired offseason trade never came to fruition.

What we’ve learned over the last few days is that the organization and Wright at least appear to be on the same page in wanting to make the most of an awkward situation.

“I mean, whatever outside noise, I’m not really caring about that, not really focused on that at all,” Wright said. “I’m here and committed to the team, and I want to make sure I have a good camp and get ready for the season and do what I can to help the team win.”

To Wright’s credit, he handled himself well in the presser, though he did imply that the noise was a creation of the media, and that’s simply not true; remember, it was his agent who opted to make the trade request public. Even so, he faced difficult questions with poise and reiterated multiple times that he’s committed to performing to the best of his abilities for the organization and his teammates.

“Hockey’s a business,” McCann said. “I’ve been through it, like a lot of guys have. You’ve got to do, sometimes, what’s best for you. But at the end of the day, Shane’s come in here, he’s worked his butt off, he’s battling the guys on the ice. He’s doing everything to show that he wants to be here. Honestly, if [the news about the trade request] didn’t even come out, you wouldn’t have been able to even tell.”

Watching Wright, he does appear to have taken a step in his development this offseason. He looks fit as a fiddle and was absolutely flying in his first official on-ice session of camp. His first day aligned with what Botterill told the Sound Of Hockey Podcast about Wright earlier this week.

“My conversations with Shane are certainly private, with Shane and with any other player,” Botterill said. “But I think I’ve been very consistent throughout the summer and throughout last year that we’re very excited to have Shane in our organization. And our job is to continue to develop Shane into the best player possible. He has these attributes that are very impressive, speed, shot, hockey sense, and I think… he came in in amazing shape. He looks like he’s dedicated here and excited about the season and to get going here.”

Added Wright: “Nothing’s changed at all. I’m here, I’m a member of the Kraken, and I’m committed to the team. And these are my teammates, and that’s it.”

Training Camp Tidbits

Though the group was split into two sessions, we can already begin piecing together what the coaching staff is thinking about for its initial forward lineup.

Jared McCann // Matty Beniers // Mackie Samoskevich
Bobby McMann // Chandler Stephenson // Jordan Eberle
Berkly Catton // Shane Wright // Kaapo Kakko
Jani Nyman // Freddy Gaudreau // Ryan Winterton
Curtis Douglas // Ben Meyers // Jacob Melanson

Of course, we’re way too early to start etching anything in stone, but from those five lines (there were more assembled with players expected to play either in the minors or juniors), we can already start to see combinations that could end up together, as well as which players are on the bubble.

Mackie Samoskevich getting his first “official” action with the #SeaKraken.

Skating on a line with Matty Beniers and Jared McCann. pic.twitter.com/bvdY7xHxp3

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) September 17, 2026

Notably, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard was on a line with Jagger Firkus and Eduard Šalé. Is this an indication that all three are destined for Coachella Valley? Or will we see any of them skate with solidified NHLers at some point over the next couple weeks?

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Vince Dunn and Brandon Montour were officially added to the leadership group as alternate captains on Wednesday.

Dunn shared that he’s never worn a letter in his life and called it a huge honor. “I’ve always looked at myself as a leader, even last year, trying to lead by example. Now there’s just a more visual demand on my chest. I’m very honored to wear it, and I don’t take those things lightly.”

“It doesn’t change anything,” Montour said. “It’s nice to obviously be recognized, and hopefully my teammates feel the same way [about me]. I’ve experienced a lot in this league… I’ll try to share my experience and help out as much as I can.”

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The Kraken hired veteran hockey executive Chuck Fletcher as a senior advisor to Jason Botterill earlier this week. Fletcher, Botterill, and Patrik Allvin all worked together in Pittsburgh earlier in their careers. Fletcher previously served as GM of the Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia Flyers and most recently held the same advisory role with the New Jersey Devils. News of the hiring brought a… shall we say… mixed reaction on social media, especially from Wild and Flyers fans.

Botterill implied that the hiring was another result of the internal audit performed in the offseason by Sportsology.

“We’ve talked about different ways we can strengthen our organization. Bringing in both Chuck and Patrik, yes, I have a familiarity with them. But obviously, they’ve had a ton of different experiences since that time. If you look at our group, I think we have a group that does a very good job at evaluating players, but having a couple people come into our organization that have that experience as general managers, have the experience of sitting in the chair, certainly helps me out in different situations.

“With Chuck, it’s a situation where obviously [he’s] been a general manager before. I think, especially with some of the things that we’ve talked about and looked at off the ice on making sure there’s a smoother transition from our player development from Coachella Valley up to Seattle… I think Chuck could help out Troy Bodie and our staff down in Coachella Valley there. Chuck’s experience at evaluating players across so many different leagues can be very helpful there. Patrik Allvin will work closely with me at the team level here.”