The first shoe has dropped for the still-spiraling Seattle Kraken, who announced on Wednesday that Ron Francis, their first general manager in franchise history and current president of hockey operations, will be stepping down at the end of the season.
Hired on July 17, 2019, two full years before the team’s expansion draft, Francis effectively built a hockey operations department and two teams—including the Coachella Valley Firebirds—from the ground up and was even involved in the designs for Kraken Community Iceplex and much more. Although he moved out of the general manager’s chair after last season, it is fair to say Francis has his fingerprints on almost every hockey-related facet of the organization.
“Ron and I agreed that this is the right moment to make a thoughtful transition for both Ron and the organization, and move in a new direction,” said Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke in a press release. “From a small office in Lower Queen Anne to the 32nd NHL franchise, Ron’s leadership and vision were instrumental in building this franchise from the ground up. Under his stewardship, we reached the playoffs in our second season, and he leaves behind a strong foundation of draft picks and promising prospects that will continue to shape the future of the team. We are grateful for his dedication and professionalism, and we wish Ron and his family the very best.”
The Kraken appear to be doing their best to make this a graceful exit for Francis, who even weighed in with a quote of his own in that same press release about his impending departure.
“It has been an honor to help launch and lead the Seattle Kraken over the past seven years,” Francis said. “I am proud of the culture we built, the people we brought together, and the milestones we achieved, including our historic first playoff run. I want to thank our entire ownership group, everyone throughout the organization, and our incredible fans for their unwavering support. This organization has a bright future, and I’m grateful to have been part of its beginning.”
It was a big undertaking
The job Francis took on back in 2019, creating an NHL team from scratch and soon being forced to navigate launching an expansion franchise in the midst of a pandemic, was a big one. And while he made plenty of shrewd moves along the way and seems to have set the organization up with a solid prospect pool and a handful of movable assets that could help the team improve, Seattle’s track record under his watch left a lot to be desired.
Indeed, the Kraken did go to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Year 2. But that’s about the extent of what the Kraken have had to boast about in a very long five years. There’s no doubt that ownership and fans would have expected more progress, and the way this season’s team has nosedived back into “hoping for losses for a better draft pick” territory signaled that at least this change was on the way.
Francis has been massively respected and looked up to throughout the Kraken organization, and I think that has had something to do with why it took so long to get to this. But it was past time for Francis and the Kraken to part ways.
Good at drafting (apparently), not so good on the pro side
I genuinely think Francis did a good job of building out the prospect pipeline for this organization. I know there are plenty who will disagree with that sentiment, but he created an environment where a significant portion of the existing roster has risen through Seattle’s system to begin playing regular NHL minutes. Meanwhile, there’s a whole host of players in Coachella Valley who have shown glimpses of one day being NHLers.
Will any of them be star players who will take this team to the promised land? It doesn’t seem like that will be the case, but at a minimum, there are effective pieces there that can eventually fill some of the void when the original veterans have filtered out of the Kraken roster.
Remember, only a small percentage of NHL prospects actually make it. The fact that Seattle has so many of its homegrown players already here and playing regular minutes does show that the team is drafting and developing in the way that Francis always claimed they would.
But my gripe with Francis’ approach comes in how he built the Kraken’s roster from the beginning and how he so rarely found ways to pry talented players away from other teams. To me, it showed a lack of creativity.
At the Expansion Draft, for example, Seattle made no trades with other teams to allow them to protect certain players by handing over additional assets. The narrative at the time was that GMs had wised up after the Vegas Expansion Draft, and nobody wanted to be made to look foolish this time. That’s true, but it could also be that Seattle’s asks were unreasonable. It could also be that the Kraken weren’t clever enough in their wheeling and dealing to talk other teams into handing over additional talented players in the way that the Golden Knights had. Francis ended up going straight by the book, selecting from what was made available by the rest of the league.
And as the years went on and the losses mounted, we saw how Francis operated. Every transaction was so calculated and careful—except for when he threw big bags of money at Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson in free agency—that it was as if moves could only be made if they were absolute no-brainers, with no special arrangements involved.
There were no cap-retention, three-team trades with 10 different draft-pick conditions. There were only “here is a draft pick or two, now send me a bottom-six forward” type trades.
Even when it seems like players aren’t moving around the league that much, there’s always a price that can get GMs thinking about pulling the trigger on trades. And we kept hearing about how—after they started stockpiling draft picks—the team wouldn’t end up using all those picks and would instead cash some of them in to acquire talent. But that almost never happened.
So where did that lack of aggressiveness and creativity leave the Kraken? With one playoff appearance in five years and no obvious path toward immediate improvement.
Now what?
It seems that Jason Botterill is now fully in charge of hockey operations, though we’ll likely get more clarity on that after Tod Leiweke addresses the media on Thursday morning. What concerns me is that Botterill has so far—in his one year in the GM’s chair—shown a similar lack of propensity for creative moves.
Botterill traded two draft picks for Mason Marchment, then got similar draft picks back when that didn’t work out. He sent a fourth-round pick to Minnesota for Freddy Gaudreau. He sent two picks to Toronto for Bobby McMann, who is on an expiring contract and who I am less convinced with every passing loss will want to re-sign in Seattle.
So what really is changing with Francis leaving? Is Botterill suddenly going to get aggressive this summer and start swinging deals that will drastically improve the culture of the locker room and the on-ice talent? Why couldn’t he do that with Francis still around, given that Botterill was already calling the shots this season?
This team has a long way to go to even be relevant, and this is a pivotal moment for the Kraken. If this change leads to bolder, more creative decisions, then that could finally move the team forward. If not, and Seattle comes back with a similar roster yet again next season, then it risks being another cosmetic change for a franchise still seeking a clear direction.
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.
That was about the best-case scenario for Kraken fans. Seattle played a pretty good game against a much better Minnesota Wild team on Tuesday, it was relatively fun to watch, and the Kraken continued to help themselves in the race for the bottom of the standings and the NHL Draft Lottery.
After the loss, the Kraken still have the fifth-worst record in the league, level in points with the New York Rangers, and have two more points than the Calgary Flames. If they continue this incredible tailspin—they’ve now lost five straight and 10 of their last 11 (1-8-2)—there is a very real possibility they’ll move into a top-three position in the Draft Lottery.
As for the game, the Kraken did look better in this one than they have in most of their previous games, but still made some bone-headed mistakes that led to too-easy goals against.
When Piper Shaw asked coach Lane Lambert what is causing the mistakes, whether it be fatigue or skill, Lambert paused briefly and then said, “I’m going to pass on that question.”
As the C+C Music Factory so eloquently sang in 1990, these are, “Things that make you go hmmmm…”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Seattle Kraken loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Takeaway 1: A legitimately strong first period
Seattle actually looked quite good in the opening frame and came out of it with a 2-1 lead.
“It’s another loss. And it’s a 5-2 loss, and another empty-net goal against, and I sit here, and I say, ‘I thought we played a pretty good hockey game,’” Lambert said. “And it’s like, ‘Really? You do?’ It’s another loss, but I do actually think we played pretty good tonight. We out-chanced them, and we just can’t get out of our own way.”
It’s well known that the power play has been abysmal lately, and although it still didn’t get credit for Brandon Montour’s goal that made it 1-0 at 10:23 of the first, the PP units looked downright competent. The ice-breaking tally came just one second after Vladimir Tarasenko’s penalty expired.
The play started with Joey Daccord, who recognized that after the Wild had cleared it down the ice and initiated a change, a quick-up pass could put them right back on their heels. Indeed, he found Kaapo Kakko at the far blue line, who ran a little give-and-go play with Jaden Schwartz, then found Montour at the point. Montour ripped it through Jesper Wallstedt’s wickets.
BRANDON BOMBTOUR! 💣🚨
One second after a downright competent-looking power play from the #SeaKraken, Montour rips home a one-timer.
Joey Daccord won't get a point, but smart play by him to get it back up ice quickly with the Wild changing.
Seattle did make a mistake (we’ll talk more about that in Takeaway 2) to create Matt Boldy’s response goal that tied it 1-1 just 1:34 later, but then the Kraken struck again with another brief flash of creativity. Adam Larsson pinched and got a piece of a clearing attempt to keep the play alive, then he and Chandler Stephenson crossed one another, and Larsson headed for the slot. Stephenson found Larsson for a one-timer, also through Wallstedt’s five-hole.
That goal gave Seattle a 2-1 lead at 13:10, which is where things remained after 20 minutes. But, as always seems to be the case with this team these days, it was pretty much all downhill from there.
Takeaway 2: More mistakes
On all the Wild goals, there’s a very obvious mistake made by the Kraken that leads to each one.
Goal 1: Jaden Schwartz tries to make a blind pass across the offensive blue line to Freddy Gaudreau and misses him by two feet, and Ryker Evans overcommits to the rush, creating a 2-on-1 that Matt Boldy scores on.
Goal 2: Berkly Catton tries to make a similar play at the offensive blue line, but hands it over to Marcus Foligno, who eventually walks right to the net and scores off a 3-on-2.
Goal 3: Vladimir Tarasenko is left completely alone at the side of the net.
Goal 4: Former Seattle Kraken Marcus Johansson is left completely alone at the side of the net.
Heck, even Goal 5, the empty-netter: Vince Dunn makes a terrible pass to Berkly Catton on a controlled breakout, and then Catton gets picked off at the red line by Joel Eriksson Ek when he lunges and tries to poke it past him.
Tie game. Berkly Catton hands it over just inside the offensive blue line, and Marcus Foligno scores at the other end.
“Same stuff,” Montour said. “Turnover at the blue line, odd-man rush, goal. A guy backdoor by himself, goal. Spin around in the slot to a guy backdoor by himself, goal. Empty net. I guess you could say another easy one for the opposing team. Mental mistakes that obviously have been hurting us for the last little bit.”
Oh, and another successful goalie interference challenge in the second period swung the game from 3-2 Kraken to 3-2 Wild in relatively quick succession, just like in the Utah game last week. Seattle now leads the league in goals overturned by goalie interference challenges.
The Kraken may never score three goals in a game again…
Takeaway 3: Losing now is good for business but bad for the soul
At this stage in another lost season, dropping games will do more good for the organization in the long run than wins will. But there are some players who care in that dressing room (no, I don’t think they all care at this point), and I have to wonder about the psyche of these players.
Take the younger guys, for example. You know they’re giving it their all, but mistakes keep happening that lead directly to goals, and the veterans aren’t exactly scoring the lights out to pick these guys up and cover up for those mishaps. What’s the long-term damage of that?
So, it’s good to keep losing and marching toward a potential top-three pick. And I especially liked this brand of loss, in which I was genuinely entertained for most of the evening and thought the guys put forth a solid effort, mistakes and continued lack of scoring be damned.
But it might also be nice to mix in one or two more wins this season, just to give the players who care a reason to smile.
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.
When Bobby McMann entered the Seattle Kraken lineup in the middle of March, he helped lead the team to victories on back-to-back days against Vancouver and Florida, while the team maintained the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Since those games, the Kraken have lost nine of their last 10, falling to now 32-33-11, eight points out of a playoff spot with six games remaining in the regular season.
While McMann’s production on offense hasn’t dipped — eight goals and four assists in 13 games with Seattle — the production of the rest of the Kraken lineup has, and they’re paying the price heavily now.
The losing ways continued on Monday night in Winnipeg, with Seattle falling 6-2 to the Jets.
What’s funny about the win for the Jets is these two have essentially swapped places from 10 games ago. Before this stretch, the Kraken were five points clear of Winnipeg in the wild-card race. After tonight, they are now five points back of them.
Kraken head coach Lane Lambert described the team as “Playing for pride,” at this point, which pretty much means they’re ready to throw in the towel on this season.
Takeaway 1: Change for change sake
We’re officially in the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” portion of this stretch for the Kraken. It really seems like they’re trying to do everything differently. Team leadership had been trying to be looser at practices and on the bench, including Jordan Eberle having more vocality to his leadership style of late.
Now the coaching staff is getting in on the action, as the team now seems to be more focused on trying as many different line combinations as possible, in hopes of finding some untapped chemistry, than it is winning games.
The Kraken switched the lines offensively, which was to be expected with Ryan Winterton back from personal leave and slotting back in on the fourth line. Some other reshuffling included Jared McCann and Kaapo Kakko playing with Berkly Catton on the third line, which did look good when they got their opportunities.
But the major change came on the back end, as for the first time since the inaugural 2021-22 season, Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson — in the same lineup together — were separated. Dunn was paired with Cale Fleury on the top pairing, while Larsson went with Ryker Evans.
Dunn was asked postgame by Piper Shaw of the Kraken Hockey Network what it was like when he found out he wouldn’t be with Larsson tonight.
“It’s definitely alarming when you walk into the rink today and you see that,” Dunn said. “Defintely very different.”
Takeaway 2: Philipp Grubauer injured
One player who has held up his end of the bargain for much of this season has been Philipp Grubauer.
Despite losing four of his last five games, he still had a .900 save percentage during that stretch and was still sprawling out to make miraculous saves. Unfortunately for him, great saves haven’t meant much with an offense as stricken as this one.
Against Winnipeg, he made three incredible point-blank saves on Jets leading scorer Mark Scheifele, keeping the score close at least while he was in the game, but he left halfway through the second period after a seemingly innocent, noncontact play. He froze a puck to get a whistle, and then skated straight to the bench.
Kraken PR later confirmed him out for the game with a lower-body injury. Lambert had no update on his status afterward.
Grubauer has dealt with his fair share of lower-body injuries before, and with the season pretty much dead in its tracks, it might be wise to shelve him for the rest of the season and have him start offseason recovery a little early.
Matt Murray is on the trip with the team, so he could be a backup in Saint Paul against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday (or even play?) if need be.
Takeaway 3: On the bright side…
If you want good news from this one, Seattle still has the fifth-best odds of winning the draft lottery, according to Tankathon, at an 8.5 percent chance. The New York Rangers are tied with Seattle in the overall standings with 75 points, but because of Seattle having more regulation wins, the Rangers have 9.5 percent odds.
The Kraken could still technically wind up with the second-best odds, though that would require Chicago to win all of its games at the end of the season … which is asking a lot, I know.
Anyway, if the Kraken keep falling, then this number will continue to climb. Coincidentally, my insanity levels will climb as well.
Oh well, there’s still time to catch a game at Climate Pledge Arena. After Tuesday in Saint Paul, the Kraken will have one last three-game homestand, wearing the thirds against Vegas on Thursday.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Nice individual effort there. Eberle gets his own rebound after a wraparound attempt, then scoops a backhander past Hellbuyck.
Bonus Takeaway: Jordan Eberle eclipsed the 25-goal mark with a pretty wraparound effort in the first period, which gave the Kraken their only lead of the game. It’s the first time he’s scored 25 in a season since doing so with the New York Islanders in 2017-18. The longevity of his career continues to be impressive.
Last Monday, the Kraken’s playoff hopes were wobbling but still technically alive — thin ice, sure, but not fully cracked. I said three points would be acceptable, fewer than two would be devastating, and… well, here we are. Devastated.
I didn’t expect much out of the midweek games against Edmonton and Utah. Aside from a brief 2–0 lead against the Mammoth, there wasn’t a lot to cheer for in either game. The malaise carried into the weekend, when the Kraken lost 4–2 to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks.
It’s an oversimplification, but the team just isn’t competing right now. One thing I valued about this group up until the Olympic break was that they competed in just about every game. Even during their losing slide from late November through mid-December, where they went 1-8-1, six of those losses were one-goal games (excluding empty-netters). This team was competitive up until the break which adds to the frustration of being a fan right now.
Best of both worlds?
At the beginning of the season, a realistic hope was simply to play meaningful games in March. They did that, and as painful as the last month has been, there was a legitimate path to the playoffs throughout March, which gave us a reason to tune in. Plenty of people have pointed out how weak the teams competing for the last Western Conference wild card spot are this season, but once you get in, all records reset.
The disparity between the two conferences has created a strange scenario: two weeks ago, the Kraken were within striking distance of a playoff spot; now they find themselves fifth from the bottom of the league. That also means, as of now, they have the fifth-best odds of winning the NHL Draft Lottery. The ultimate spin on the season would be to say that, based on expectations, 2025–26 went well: compete for a playoff spot into late March to keep our interest, and still end up with a top-seven draft pick.
Not-so-special teams
The special teams have been brutal lately. Over the three games last week, the penalty kill allowed four goals on 10 shorthanded situations, while the power play went 0 for 8. The Kraken haven’t scored a power-play goal in seven games. At one point, they had a top-10 power play in the league, but it has cratered since the Olympic break. Injuries played a role for a bit, but everyone has been back for the last three games.
If you zoom out to the post-break stretch, the penalty kill has actually improved, but the power play has been the worst in the league since teams returned to play.
I wouldn’t pin the entire skid on the power play, but it has absolutely been a contributing factor.
Other musings
Philipp Grubauer deserved better Saturday night against Chicago. He made several big saves on defensive lapses in front of him, and it was a miracle it was still a one-goal game when he left the ice for the extra attacker late in the third.
By combined save percentage, the Kraken have the fifth-best goaltending in the league and the best in the Pacific. Pretty sure no one saw that coming this season.
In the Utah game, the Kraken had two goalie interference calls go against them. The first was when Jacob Melanson appeared to bump the goalie before tipping it in. The second was a Utah goal that was initially waved off before being successfully challenged. By the letter of the law, I think both calls were correct, but I don’t love how the rule is written. Both calls felt ticky tacky when you consider the impact they had on the outcome of the game.
Those two successful challenges were the first time in the NHL this season that a team had two successful goalie interference challenges in the same game.
The Kraken are now exactly on pace with where they were at this point in 2023–24 and seven points ahead of where they were last season.
Regardless of what’s best for the franchise, I will always root for the Kraken to win. But I also keep an eye on the teams around them in the standings, who could bolster Seattle’s draft position.
I’m still not an expert on the X’s and O’s at the NHL level, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want all five of your players within 10 feet of the boards.
Seattle is one of four teams without a hat trick this season (though fans did get tricked into throwing their hats on the ice for non-hat tricks two separate times). They had two last year.
Eeli Tolvanen has been cold as of late. The pending free agent hasn’t scored in 13 games… Maybe he’ll give us that elusive hat trick in one of the final three home games?
For the fourth time in their four-year franchise history, the Coachella Valley Firebirds have clinched a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs. You can catch their games on FloHockey.
Speaking of FloHockey, I’ve watched a lot of Brantford Bulldogs games this season, and draft-eligible Caleb Malhotra has looked outstanding. I haven’t watched a ton of prospects this year, but Malhotra is expected to go around fifth overall. I’d love to see the Kraken draft him if he’s available… but again, I haven’t watched a lot of prospects.
Goal of the week
You’ve probably heard coaches talking about getting to the front of the net a lot over the years. This is how you do it.
THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨 🕺
A simple drive to the crease gets the #SeaKraken on the board. Schwartz's first since returning from injury.
This is a very Jaden Schwartz goal if I’ve ever seen one.
Player performances
Tyson Jugnauth (CV/SEA) – Jugnauth is putting together an impressive rookie season in the AHL. On Saturday, he factored into all three Firebirds goals, including the overtime winner in their 3–2 victory. There will be plenty of time to debate the 2026–27 Kraken roster this offseason, but I’m starting to wonder if Jugnauth’s development might put him in position to make the jump next year.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Kakko had only a goal and an assist over the last three games, but I’ve really liked his play since being paired with Bobby McMann and Chandler Stephenson. He has seven goals in 18 games since the break, compared to six in 40 before it. Not all of those were with McMann and Stephenson, but he looks the best he has since the Kraken traded for him last season.
Jake O’Brien (BRF/SEA) – The 19-year-old Kraken prospect had six points in Brantford’s four-game sweep of Sudbury in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. Brantford is expected to make a deep run, so we could be watching him for a while this spring.
The week ahead
With a reasonable shot at the playoffs now out of reach, I just want to see this team compete through the end of the season. They start the week with a tough back-to-back: Winnipeg on Monday and Minnesota on Tuesday. My expectations have been significantly lowered, but I’d still like to see them get back to the level we saw in January.
After the back-to-back, they return to Seattle for the final homestand of the season. They face the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Believe it or not, the Kraken are 2-0-0 against Vegas this season, but the Golden Knights recently hired John Tortorella and have since rattled off three straight wins. Then the Kraken welcome the Calgary Flames on Saturday, another bottom-of-the-league team, and we all saw how the Chicago game went.
The playoff chase is gone, but the season isn’t. Give me effort, give me one more home win, give me something that reminds us of January before we all turn our attention to lottery odds and prospect clips. And if a Firebird or two wants to show up and make things interesting, I won’t complain.
It is officially (well, technically it’s still “unofficially,” but it feels pretty darn official at this point) time for Kraken fans to root for losses. With yet another dreadful loss to the last-place-in-the-Central Division Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, Seattle dropped from four points out of the second wild card to six points out with seven games left to play.
It’s bizarre that the Kraken have stayed in the race for as long as they have, considering their ineptitude since the Olympic break—they’re now 5-12-2 in 17 games since returning from the three-week hiatus on Feb. 25—especially when you recognize that they’ve simultaneously sunk to 28th in the NHL. If they end up in that spot when the season ends, they will have the fifth-best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL Draft.
Then again, it’s also downright sad that we’re in this spot again, rooting for late-season losses for the fourth time in five years. And making matters worse, there’s no obvious bright, shining light on the horizon for this club.
But hey, maybe they’ll win the Draft Lottery? That would be exciting, right?
While the Kraken are still mathematically alive, they sent a clear message Saturday that they are not interested in fighting their way back into the playoff hunt, coming out—as Brandon Montour called it—“flat” to start the game, then again waiting until they were down 2-0 (against a bad team that had lost five straight) to finally show some life.
“Not enough desperation, didn’t start the game well, and our goaltender played fantastic for us,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Too many quality chances from them, and the power play didn’t give us anything, and our penalty kill got scored on. So really, not a really overly great assessment of the game in a game that we needed. It just wasn’t good enough.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the rebuilding Blackhawks.
Takeaway 1: “Clearly, there’s something that has to change”
As I reported in my Kraken Notebook article on Friday, the team has been trying a different tack the last couple days in a last-ditch attempt to shake themselves out of the emotional crevasse into which they’ve fallen and become lodged. They were more boisterous and jovial than usual at practice on Friday, and while I didn’t attend morning skate Saturday, I heard it was a similar mood. The group is usually quite stoic, so with execution and confidence in short supply, they decided to try loosening things up.
That too did not work. In fact, this loosey-goosey version of the Kraken came out looking dead as a doornail against the Blackhawks and only remained in the game because Philipp Grubauer was outstanding for much of the night, stopping 27 shots with several 10-bellers mixed in.
“We were flat, and you’ve got to give it to them, young legs, had some buzz,” Brandon Montour said. “They’ve got nothing to lose. I don’t know if we’re gripping our sticks too tight or just not playing fast. We created a little bit, but not nearly enough, especially against a team that’s below us, a team that’s already out, we’ve got to obviously be— we keep saying it, but desperate.”
It has to be maddening for a guy like Montour, who left a Cup-winning team known to have (for better or worse) so many big personalities to join a Kraken team that can somehow manage to come out “flat” with its season on the line.
Lambert, by the way, has been an absolute quote machine lately, and he again brought the heat Saturday. I asked him about Montour’s commentary and how he can wrap his head around the team being “flat” at this stage of the season.
“I can’t [wrap my head around it]. I can’t,” Lambert said. “A game of that magnitude, to come out flat, clearly there’s something that has to change.”
What even can change at this point? Hmm.
Takeaway 2: A classic last-minute killer goal
Despite the flat start, Seattle remained tied 0-0 against a poor opponent through half the game. But Vince Dunn took a tripping penalty at 7:52 of the second, and the penalty kill—which has been one of the many areas the team has struggled in of late—again had a lapse that resulted in too easy a look for Teuvo Teravainen.
Credit the Blackhawks for the play, because after Teravainen took a pass from Connor Bedard at the left hashmark, Tyler Bertuzzi suddenly started racing down the slot in lockstep with Teravainen. That made Jamie Oleksiak start backing up to cut off the passing lane to Bertuzzi, so Teravainen cleverly took the ice being given to him, walked all the way in to the top of the crease, and jammed the puck through Grubauer.
Teuvo Teravainen breaks the ice with a power-play goal. 1-0 Blackhawks.
But man, I thought Lambert’s head might explode after the second goal against at 19:37 of the second. He had been pacing up and down the bench, screaming instructions at his team to try to get them to sustain puck possession with the clock ticking down in the frame. But Chicago got possession and started a rush that Seattle seemed to have covered, with numbers back.
In fact, Ilya Mikheyev’s pass intended for Anton Frondell did get broken up, deflecting off Jaden Schwartz’s skate. But the puck sat in the slot, and Berkly Catton seemed to get fooled by the direction of the puck, cutting away from Tyler Bertuzzi instead of sticking with him. Bertuzzi jumped on the loose puck and snuck it inside the post.
“That same shift, we had chances the other way, and then I think it was a 3-on-3 play,” Schwartz said. “And it just went off… I think it was my skate to one of their guys that they weren’t even trying to pass to. Just a little bit of an unlucky break there.”
2-0 Blackhawks after a Tyler Bertuzzi goal with 22 seconds left in the period.
Thought Lane Lambert's head was going to explode on the bench after this one, and they *almost* gave up another one 12 seconds later. pic.twitter.com/KetiYTCc9U
It was actually the third goal—Sacha Boisvert’s first NHL goal, scored at 13:08 of the third to make it 3-1—that gave Chicago proper control of the game, but that one in the closing seconds of the middle frame is what put the Kraken too far behind the eight ball.
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz gets on the scoresheet
How about a little palate cleanser for Takeaway 3?
There were a few bright spots in this otherwise dreadful game, like Grubauer’s play and Schwartz getting on the scoresheet for the first time since getting kicked in the face and missing several weeks.
He got the Kraken on the board and gave them life with a simple drive to the net at 10:48 of the third, redirecting a pretty pass from Eeli Tolvanen past Arvid Soderblom. He also started the play that led to Kaapo Kakko’s rebound goal, picking up the second assist.
THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨 🕺
A simple drive to the crease gets the #SeaKraken on the board. Schwartz's first since returning from injury.
“When you miss time, it always takes a game or two,” Schwartz said. “Just doing what I can for this team right now, and wins is the only thing that matters.”
— I’m still thinking about what those “changes” were that Lambert was alluding to… Hmm.
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.
This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll update you on where Seattle Kraken prospects postseason update. In particular, we’ll highlight a couple of young forwards heading to the NCAA Frozen Four.
We’ll also get you up to speed with some shuffling of the Coachella Valley Firebirds roster as the team deals with a spate of injuries. Beyond that, we’ll have our Kraken prospect notes, video, and the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, as always.
If you’re interested in Kraken prospects, you should also check out The Athletic‘s system ranking, which has the Kraken ranked as the seventh-best prospect pool in the league.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column or mailbag, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
The Firebirds navigate injuries, opportunities for others
On April 1, the Coachella Valley Firebirds published an injury update that might have been confused for a prank. Regrettably for the team and players involved, it was anything but.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds PR (@AHLFirebirdsPR) April 2, 2026
If you have been following the team closely, many of these injuries were already known, affecting the roster for much of March. However, the bulk update did bring news of a week-to-week injury for Jagger Firkus. Add in a lower-body ailment suffered by Logan Morrison on Friday, Apr. 3, that the team has designated a week-to-week injury, and you have a club in triage mode.
Over the last couple of weeks, the AHL club has recalled forwards Jackson Berezowski, Justin Janicke, and Landon McCallum from the ECHL Kansas City Mavericks, as well as signed ECHL defenseman Drake Burgin and college free agent defenseman Valtteri Piironen to tryout agreements.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds signed college free agent defenseman Valtreri Piironen to a tryout agreement.
Piironen is a 24 year-old, 6-foot-4, left-shot blueliner who had 7 points in 29 games for Ferris State Univ. this season. He played three ECHL games before joining CV.
On Wednesday, Apr. 1, it seemed like the roster might have hit a breaking point, dropping a 7-0 blowout to the Ontario Reign. Undeterred, though, the team rebounded with a gritty 2-0 win over the Abbotsford Canucks on Friday, Apr. 3.
The team sits fourth in the Pacific Division, which is a solid playoff position. (Author’s note: The Firebirds clinched a playoff spot later Saturday, Apr. 4, after this article was originally posted.) At this point, the team needs to simply survive the final stretch, with the hope of getting Morrison, Firkus, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, and a host of defensemen back for the playoffs.
Kraken prospects advance to the NCAA Frozen Four
Two of Seattle’s three prospects who made the postseason field remain alive, with only four teams remaining.
NCAA Playoffs: Ollie Josephson, F, Univ. of North Dakota
Ollie Josephson missed the regionals with a lower-body injury suffered during the NCHC playoffs, but his teammates picked him up, earning victories over Merrimack College and Quinnipiac University. North Dakota now gets Wisconsin in the Frozen Four semifinal, with puck drop scheduled for 2:00 p.m. PDT on Thursday, Apr. 9. With any luck, Josephson will be out there.
NCAA Playoffs: Clarke Caswell, F, Univ. of Denver
Clarke Caswell and the University of Denver won perhaps the most competitive regional, with victories over Cornell University and Western Michigan University. Caswell was a big part of the story, scoring a goal and adding two assists in the two games. The Pioneers will now square off against the University of Michigan on Thursday, Apr. 9, at 5:30 p.m. PDT, with a trip to the NCAA Championship Game on the line.
Caswell’s performance makes him your Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week. You can check out his shifts from the team’s win over Western Michigan here.
NCAA Playoffs: Zaccharya Wisdom, F, Western Michigan Univ.
Wisdom and the Western Michigan Broncos defeated Minnesota State University before falling to the University of Denver in the regional finals—the team’s second postseason loss to the Pioneers after bowing out of the NCHC tournament against the same squad. It’s a frustrating end to a productive season for Wisdom. He was involved in three of the Broncos’ five goals in the NCAA tournament, scoring a goal and adding two assists.
Check out his shifts from Western Michigan’s last game of the year below.
Checking in on the CHL playoffs
Seattle’s junior players comprise a pool of players who could hypothetically assist the injury-ravaged AHL roster via assignment or tryout agreements. That said, few, if any, of these players figure to be available in the near term, as their junior teams cruise toward first-round playoff series victories.
The Chicoutimi Saguenéens swept the Halifax Mooseheads in the first round of the QMJHL Playoffs. Alexis Bernier was scoreless in the series but characteristically drove a positive goal differential when he was on the ice. He led the team with eight penalty minutes.
QMJHL Playoffs: Will Reynolds, D, Newfoundland Regiment
The Newfoundland Regiment lead their first-round series against the Cape Breton Eagles three games to two. The matchup continues at 10:30 a.m. PDT on Sunday, with Reynolds and his teammates one win away from the second round. Reynolds has four points, all assists, which are tied for the most in the series among Regiment defensemen.
OHL Playoffs: Jake O’Brien, F, Brantford Bulldogs
The Brantford Bulldogs swept their first-round series against the Sudbury Wolves. Kraken prospect Jake O’Brien had a solid series, recording six points, all of which were assists. He led the team in total helpers and was second in points. The Bulldogs await their second-round opponent in the OHL’s Eastern Conference.
OHL Playoffs: Nathan Villeneuve, F, and Jakub Fibigr, D, Windsor Spitfires
Likewise, the Windsor Spitfires swept their first-round series against the Guelph Storm, ending it with an 11-3 exclamation point on Thursday, Apr. 2. Defenseman Jakub Fibigr finished the series with a team-leading six assists and seven total points. Nathan Villeneuve contributed a goal for his only point of the series in his return from injury.
With all of the Western Conference series settled, we know Windsor will host the Flint Firebirds beginning on Friday, April 10, at 4:05 p.m. PT.
WHL Playoffs: Julius Miettinen, F, Everett Silvertips
Miettinen’s Everett Silvertips swept the Portland Winterhawks in the first round of the WHL Playoffs and will now sit idle as they await a second-round opponent. Miettinen led the Silvertips with four goals and seven points and was second on the team with a +7 plus-minus in the series.
WHL Playoffs: Ryden Evers, F, Penticton Vees
Evers and the Penticton Vees swept the Seattle Thunderbirds in the first round and will now await their next opponent, just like the Silvertips. Evers was second on the Vees in the series with four goals and six points.
Blake Fiddler has been out of the lineup since game two of the Edmonton Oil Kings’ series after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Rowan Calvert.
Now, without Fiddler, the Oil Kings are the only team in this update at imminent risk of first-round elimination. The Oil Kings trail their series against the Saskatoon Blades three games to two.
If Edmonton fails to advance, assuming health, Fiddler may be a prime candidate to sign a tryout agreement with the Firebirds. While I have not yet seen any reports linking Fiddler to a school, it strikes me that he could be a candidate to join an NCAA team for the 2026–27 season. With this in mind, I should note my understanding that an AHL tryout agreement would not jeopardize his eligibility. That said, if some risk exists, it could be a reason to avoid this path.
Updating the European leagues playoffs
As in North America, Seattle’s European prospects have found success in the postseason so far.
Liiga Playoffs: Kim Saarinen, G, HPK
Kim Saarinen and HPK trail their best-of-seven, second-round series against Tappara three games to one. Just as in the first round, Saarinen has drawn every start, and he has played reasonably well despite the disappointing team results thus far. He has posted a .910 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average in the series. They’ll look to extend the series on Tuesday, Apr. 7, at 8:30 a.m. PDT.
KHL Playoffs: Semyon Vyazovoi, G, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Semyon Vyazovoi and Salavat Yulaev Ufa prevailed over Yekaterinburg Avto four games to two in the Conference Quarterfinals. Like Saarinen, Vyazovoi drew every start and played well. He posted a .927 save percentage in the series, including a multi-overtime performance in the series clincher. Salavat Yulaev Ufa will begin the conference semifinals on Wednesday, Apr. 8, against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
SHL Playoffs: Zeb Forsfjall, F, Skellefteå AIK
Skellefteå, a top SHL team, won its first-round series against the Malmö RedHawks four games to one. Forsfjall played his typical checking role but also contributed three assists in the series. Check out his shifts from Skellefteå’s Mar. 29 game below.
Notes on three other Kraken prospects
Justin Janicke | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Justin Janicke, a 2021 seventh-round pick, recorded his first AHL point of the season on Sunday, Mar. 29. He has spent the bulk of the year in the ECHL, gradually improving his game.
#SeaKraken 2021 seventh-round pick Justin Janicke (No. 9 in red) had his first AHL point of the season, an assist, in the Firebirds game on Sunday.
Janicke has 15 goals and 19 assists in 56 games for the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL this season.pic.twitter.com/L6lxRhoZBS
Kaden Hammell | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Kaden Hammell was found on the dreaded bulk-injury update, but he has since returned to the lineup as of Friday, Apr. 3. He’s a key piece on the blue line as the team awaits the return of several other injured players, including Ty Nelson, Lukas Dragicevic, and Caden Price.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
As Fibigr looks to extend his OHL playoff run with Windsor as long as possible, he has arranged plans for next season, committing to play collegiate hockey with Ohio State University.
Kraken prospects data update
Lleyton Roed led the Firebirds in goals and points this week.
Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman have played an important role in buoying the Firebirds amidst the injury turmoil in front of them.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3 wins: Jagger Firkus, Jake O’Brien, Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Alessandro Di Iorio
Alessandro Di Iorio is a smooth-skating, two-way Canadian center who earned underage roles with the Canadian U18 team last year. Though Di Iorio is clearly well regarded for his overall game, the gaudy scoring numbers you expect to see from a high-profile junior center have not been there this season. He had just 31 points in 45 OHL games for Sarnia. NHL teams will need to decide whether he projects to provide more offense in the future before investing a top pick in the player. Di Iorio was No. 42 on our mid-season Big Board.
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
When a team goes from being firmly in a playoff position to effectively playing itself out of the conversation, one might expect the mood at a late-season practice—with eight games left, a four-point deficit, and four teams to leapfrog to return to the postseason picture—to be fairly drab. That’s not what we saw Friday, though. From the way Seattle Kraken players were acting on the ice, you’d think they were on a 10-game winning streak with their ticket punched. Players were hooting and hollering, ribbing each other, excessively celebrating goals, and even [gasp] smiling.
Now, this isn’t exactly a new thing. You always hear some chatter on the ice when the team skates together, regardless of the situation, but considering the circumstances the Kraken have put themselves in now, it was nonetheless a surprisingly chipper mood at Kraken Community Iceplex.
In a way, the positive energy of the skate was by design.
“It was important for us to get on the ice as a group,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Reality is what it is, but what is your perception of reality? We’re four points out of the playoffs. Clearly, if we had won seven of our last eight games, and we’re in the exact same position as we are right now, there would be a different mood. But we’d be in the exact same position we are now. So it’s our mental mindset and our perception, and [let’s] move forward. Past is past, and we have an opportunity moving forward here. That’s all we can think about, and that’s all the players were thinking about today… I thought it was a good day for them.”
Forward Jaden Schwartz echoed Lambert’s sentiment. “You don’t want to be so tight where you lose a game, you come in the next day and you’re down. You’ve got to get back up. We’ve got a lot of games in a short amount of days here, so you’ve got to turn the page quickly… be excited, and enjoy the days and the opportunity that we have.”
Players-only meeting
So with how things have spiraled since the Olympic break—the Kraken are 5-11-2 and have fallen from third in the Pacific Division to having the sixth-best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery—just where could this positivity be coming from?
Well, the Kraken players held a brief closed-door, players-only meeting in the dressing room immediately following their miserable 6-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday. That conversation may have sparked some improved perspectives and outlooks when the team returned to practice Friday.
“We’ve got eight games left, and we know where we’re at, so let’s put it all out there,” defenseman Vince Dunn said. “And that’s kind of been the mentality that we’ve had since the break, is to put it all out there. But we’ve really put ourselves in an interesting spot right now with somehow still a chance to make the playoffs.”
**Editor’s note: Dunn put emphasis on “still,” as if to indicate that even he is as shocked as the rest of us that this team has not been mathematically eliminated from contention at this point, considering its extended poor performance. Ok, back to Dunn.
“So keep that at the front of your mind, rather than the back of your mind. Let’s not be like, ‘Oh, we might make the playoffs.’ It’s kind of, ‘Play like we are in the playoffs,’ right? Like, it’s all more of a mentality right now.”
Continuing to dissect what has gone wrong, Dunn confirmed that the players feel what many of us see when watching the Kraken play.
“We just get a little deflated when goals are happening. And this wasn’t discussed in the locker room [Thursday], but I look back on games like the Columbus game, it’s a puck off a foot, and then it’s like bouncing everywhere, and then it goes in the net, and that’s the first goal against. Look at the Edmonton game, it’s a puck… off someone’s head. And then last game, it’s a forward trying his best to block a shot, and it’s off his hip. Those are the first goals you give up in a game, and all the guys are trying to do the right thing. So if you’re that guy, maybe you need to be the teammate beside him and be like, ‘Hey man, you did your best. Let’s go out and maybe try to score one, or let’s go out the next shift and really put some pressure on and not get deflated.’”
Indeed, watching the Kraken play against Utah, you could feel the tying goal coming in the second period. Jacob Melanson appeared to make it 3-1, but it was negated after a successful goalie interference challenge, and from then on, it felt like only a matter of time before Utah flipped the script from what was almost 3-1 Seattle to 2-2—and after that, a matter of time before Utah took the lead and grabbed hold of the game.
We’ve seen this from this club on many occasions over its five years of existence, including earlier this season when the Kraken went 1-9-1 in 11 games between Nov. 23 and Dec. 18 before getting hot and winning eight of their next nine. They seemed to settle the fragility in the stretch before the break, too, rolling with the punches and minimizing the damage of letdowns in games. But now, it’s like if any little thing doesn’t go their way, they collapse.
These conversations being had by the players are great, although they will almost surely end up being too little, too late. Still, it was refreshing to hear that the players are aware of their situation and their shortcomings as a team, that they care, and that they are not giving up.
Jaden Schwartz feeling good after “scary incident”
We chatted with Schwartz for the first time since he was inadvertently kicked in the face by Nick Cousins in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7. Considering how badly that could have gone if that skate swung in just a slightly different direction, fans should be very thankful that Schwartz is back after just three weeks and appears no worse for wear.
Wow. Scary one there.
Eeli Tolvanen laid a huge hit on Nick Cousins, and Cousins' skate came up and clipped Jaden Schwartz in the face.
“I’m feeling better, for sure,” Schwartz said. “It was a tough couple of weeks, but then I kind of turned the corner and was able to start training a little bit, and [I’ve had] a couple games now to get the legs under me. But the head’s feeling pretty good, so still feeling more and more comfortable as we go here.”
Schwartz said he didn’t remember too much about what happened on the play and that he had to watch it the next day to see exactly what had occurred.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Schwartz said. “It was obviously unlucky, but lucky at the same time that something more serious didn’t happen.”
Bobby McMann settling in
Forward Bobby McMann has been a revelation since he was acquired in a last-second, deadline-beating trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 6. Since joining Seattle, he’s racked up eight goals and four assists in 10 games and scored again against the Mammoth to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.
It’s no secret McMann is on an expiring contract, and with the way he’s performed down the stretch, you’d have to think the Kraken will want to keep him around. So, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least find out how McMann is settling in and if he’s so far enjoying his time in the Pacific Northwest, despite all the losing the team has been doing.
“So far, it’s been great,” McMann said. “The guys have been great, the organization’s been great, management’s been helpful and making sure I get everything I need. And not that there’s anything that I’ve really asked for, but they’ve just been making sure that everything is all good with me, with the transition, which is always super helpful, just to know that you have those resources. And then guys have been super helpful trying to help me figure out where to go in the city and figure out where to go eat, stuff like that. That’s all been nice.”
McMann recognized immediately that the Seattle market is quite different from hockey-mad Toronto, where the Maple Leafs are the center of attention all day, every day. And he does seem to appreciate the opportunity to help build a hockey culture in this still relatively new market.
“I think that that’s special, and that’s fun, and that’s been really enjoyable to kind of see and feel the energy of the crowd and feel the energy of this city becoming a new hockey city. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m excited to continue to be a part of that.”
That last part, though… “Continue to be part of that,” you say?
Other odds and ends
Lambert implied some big changes could be coming to the power play in the near future. After the loss Thursday, he mentioned that they can’t keep running the same guys out there—even though they’re mostly veterans that the coaching staff trusts—if they continue to come up empty. He cited the fact that even zone entries, an area that the power play has excelled in throughout much of the season, have dried up.
“[We’ll] change personnel completely and see where that takes us.”
Speaking of changing personnel, Lambert also implied that Eeli Tolvanen, who has been playing on the fourth line most recently with Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and Jacob Melanson, could find himself on a new line Saturday when the Chicago Blackhawks visit Climate Pledge Arena. We would not be surprised to see even more of a shakeup as Seattle looks to find the offense that has been so elusive.
Shane Wright continued to skate in a red jersey Friday, so don’t expect him back in the lineup on Saturday.
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.
That feels like the end of the Seattle Kraken’s playoff hopes. Optimism around the team’s chances had certainly waned in recent weeks, as the group continued to sputter its way farther out of the picture. But entering Thursday’s game three points out of the last wild card spot with nine games left to play, it was beyond time to start make hay.
The Kraken made no such hay against the Utah Mammoth, frittering away a strong start and a 2-0 lead by allowing Utah to score six unanswered goals and roll to an easy 6-2 win.
“We certainly do find ways to, I guess, beat ourselves at times,” coach Lane Lambert said. “The special teams were poor tonight, the power play wasn’t good, the penalty kill gave up three goals for the first time in, [I don’t know] how long. [We took] two four-minute minor penalties for high sticking. You can’t come through those types of careless plays with your stick.”
While Seattle didn’t deserve to win the game, it also couldn’t catch any breaks, and Joey Daccord had another tough outing—he’s now been under a .900 save percentage in three straight starts and has dropped below that number for the season—and Lambert went out of his way to say he thought the team needed some more saves from him.
Here are Three Takeaways from a (probably season-ending) 6-2 Kraken loss to the Mammoth.
Takeaway 1: Goalie interference call shatters fragile team
One of the many things that has plagued this team since the Olympic break has been its inability to overcome bad breaks. Something goes the other team’s way, and that’s all the Kraken need to shrivel up and fade quietly into the night.
On this particular night, that thing was a negated Jacob Melanson goal in the second period, which completely turned the game on its ear.
Seattle had gotten out of the gates hot, scoring 41 seconds into the first after 1,000-game honoree Adam Larsson fired a puck at Karel Vejmelka, on which Jordan Eberle cleaned up the rebound to make it 1-0.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Moments after getting honored for 1K games, Adam Larsson gets the primary assist after a tasty dish from Jared McCann. Jordan Eberle cleans up the rebound.
Bobby McMann also scored his eighth goal in 10 games since joining the Kraken at the trade deadline to make it 2-0 at 13:45 of the first, finding a loose puck after a lane drive by Chandler Stephenson and sweeping a backhander past Vejmelka.
But after Logan Cooley cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 16:27, the next goal felt critical.
At 6:11 of the second, Melanson appeared to reestablish a two-goal lead, tipping Ryan Lindgren’s wrist shot out of the air and past Vejmelka. Melanson even had a fantastic “Melly Celly,” aggressively dusting off the ice with his right glove. But the feeling of elation quickly turned into the wind being sucked out of Climate Pledge Arena.
Utah challenged for goalie interference on Melanson, and the overhead replay showed the slightest contact between Melanson’s right skate and Vejmelka’s left pad, with the contact happening in the blue paint. That was enough to overturn the goal.
Melanson scores, but Utah successfully challenges for goalie interference.
Hoo, boy, that's a SOFT goalie interference call. 😓
“Rules are rules, but it’s a tough break, for sure,” Melanson said. “We can’t have excuses like that. It doesn’t count, we’ve got to get right back to it and get another one.”
Four minutes later, Daccord coughed up a juicy rebound to Logan Cooley, who scored his second goal of the game to tie it 2-2 at 10:05.
The Kraken completely collapsed after that—a microcosm of the post-Olympic portion of the season—and it was all Utah for the second half of the game.
Takeaway 2: Horrendous special teams
Seattle’s special teams haven’t been great in these later stages of the season. In fact, the power play has been dreadful—it hasn’t scored a goal since a 5-2 loss at Columbus on March 21—and the Mammoth picked apart the penalty kill in this one for three goals.
“32nd in the league after the break. It’s just not good enough,” Eberle said of the power play. “I mean, we’ve had chances, we can say that. But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to be a catalyst in the game and score goals so that we can have a chance to win hockey games. It’s that simple. We’re not doing that, so that’s on me and that’s on the rest of the power play.”
“Tonight was an off night [for the PK],” Lambert said. “When you’re trying and being forced to kill multiple minutes at a time, it becomes a problem. They’ve got a good power play over there, high-end skill over there, and we know this. So penalty kill has been good [lately]. The power play was really good before the break. The power play has been not good after the break, and we’ve been looking for solutions, and we have to find them. The players themselves have to be better, they have to take accountability of that situation. They are the veteran guys for the most part, we trust them, we keep putting them out, but you can only do that for so long.”
While the power play showed its ineptitude in the game, going 0-for-3, the Kraken also gave Utah six opportunities—twice off four-minute high-sticking penalties on Berkly Catton and Eberle. Cooley and Nick Schmaltz each scored on the power play to help take the game from 2-0 Seattle to 3-2 Utah. Michael Carcone added one of the uglier goals you’ll ever see with a manpower advantage in garbage time.
Takeaway 3: Nail in the coffin (probably)
With the playoff picture looking as bleak as it did entering the game, it felt like this game was going to be the last gasp for Seattle. Win and stay alive to fight another day, lose and watch the rest of the field pull away.
Indeed, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas, and Edmonton all picked up a point or more, and the hill grew to four points with four teams to leap over in eight games. It could still happen if the Kraken win—let’s say seven of their last eight—but the problems are just too plentiful for this very fragile team right now.
What a wasted opportunity this post-Olympic stretch has been.
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.
April is here and the regular season enters its final month. The Seattle Kraken have nine games remaining and sit just three points out of a playoff spot. The vibes around the team have been low since the Olympic break, thanks to Seattle going a dismal 5-10-2 in that stretch. Only the Vancouver Canucks have fared worse in the NHL, going 4-11-2. Coincidentally, two of the Kraken’s five wins came against Vancouver.
At the beginning of the season, few believed the Kraken could contend for a playoff position. Fans told me they just wanted meaningful hockey in March and April. Well, we are here, and they got their wish. The Kraken are in the hunt for a wild-card spot. Watching them lose stings, but a path to the playoffs still exists.
Six-team race
Six teams are realistically chasing the final playoff spot: Nashville, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, San Jose, St. Louis and Seattle. The good news? No team has taken charge. St. Louis and Winnipeg have surged back into the picture, but the race remains wide open.
There is still hope. The Kraken hold the tiebreakers against most teams, with only St. Louis having more regulation wins at 27. Seattle is tied for second with Nashville and Winnipeg at 25 regulation wins but owns the second tiebreaker with 31 total wins. The way games are trending, the playoff cutoff line is tracking toward 86 points.
If the cutoff line ends up at 86 points, that would tie the mark for the lowest point total for a playoff team since the wild-card format debuted in the 2013-14 season. For the seasons shortened by COVID (2019-20 and 2020-2021), the values above reflect projected points over 82 games.
Strength of schedule favors Seattle
Another positive: the Kraken’s remaining strength of schedule. I looked at each team’s points percentage since the Olympic break and averaged their remaining opponents. The Kraken have the second-easiest schedule among the six teams in the hunt.
With the Kraken sitting at 75 points, they need 11 more to reach the projected 86-point cutoff. That means five wins and an overtime loss in nine games. Going 5-3-1 would cut it close, and then they’d likely have to lean on the tiebreakers. Any point total of 86 or more would help, but let’s start with 5-3-1 as a surmountable target. Losses will happen, but for the moment, we will spot the Kraken three losses, so that not every game feels like a must-win (though a 9-0 finish would work too).
Updated tiers
With roughly two weeks left in the regular season, the tiers matter less than they did before. However, here is the April update.
Bolded teams are teams the Kraken play this month. ‘x2’ indicates the Kraken face that team twice. Up and down arrows show teams that moved between tiers.
The Kraken’s remaining nine games all come against Western Conference opponents.
Playoff-bound teams
Minnesota and Colorado, both on the road are the two games the Kraken face in this tier. Minnesota has played .500 hockey since the Olympic break at 7-7-2, making them beatable. Colorado has dominated at 12-6-1 since the break. However, the Kraken face the Avalanche in the regular-season finale. Colorado currently holds an eight-point lead in the Presidents’ Trophy race and have a game in hand. By that final game, the Avalanche may rest their starters, giving the Kraken an edge. It could also be an interesting game because if the Kraken make the playoffs, Colorado is the most likely first-round matchup. Target: two points.
Bubble teams
Seattle will play five games against Utah, Winnipeg, Los Angeles and Vegas twice. Playing Vegas twice means the Kraken could create a four-point swing. Vegas has managed only a 6-10-2 record for a .389 points percentage since the break, which led to the firing of Bruce Cassidy and the hiring of John Tortorella. The Kraken will hope Vegas continues to slide rather than getting a boost from a new-coach bump.
Los Angeles and Winnipeg carry extra weight as the only Kraken games against wild-card hopefuls. Also, Utah holds a five-point cushion but does not want to slip and open another wild-card spot for teams to fight over. Target: seven points.
Tanker teams
Two games remain in this tier: Chicago and Calgary. The Flames have been winning lately, sitting at .500 since the break (8-8-2). Oddly, the Kraken hold a .462 points percentage against tanker teams this season, their worst category. They have played better against the Playoff Bound tier (.533) and Bubble tier (.522). Target: two points, but four would be ideal.
What if the Kraken fall short?
Making the playoffs is the goal, and the Kraken have a slim but realistic path to get there. If they fall short, though, the news is not all bad. Pacific Division point totals this season trail the rest of the league. Anaheim leads the division with 87 points and sits fourth in the Western Conference, yet that total would not earn a playoff spot in the East. Columbus currently holds the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 88 points.
How does that help Seattle? The Kraken sit 26th in the league standings. If the season ended today, they would be in line for the seventh overall pick before the draft lottery. At seventh, the Kraken would have a slim chance at moving up to the first overall pick, but getting any top-10 pick would be a good consolation prize.
The final push
Nine games stand between the Kraken and the end of the regular season. The math is simple: go 5-3-1 or better and the playoffs are within reach.
Before the Olympic break, the Kraken played some of their best hockey of the season. Seattle went 11-6-2 in calendar year 2026 heading into the break, a stretch that vaulted them into the playoff conversation. Since the break, they have slipped. A 5-10-2 record tells the story of a team struggling to recapture its rhythm.
The good news is the Kraken do not need to be perfect; they need to be the team they were before the break. An 11-6-2 pace over nine games translates to roughly a 5-3-1 clip. That gets them to 86 points and in the playoff conversation and maybe their tie-breakers push them over the top.
Now the question is whether they can find that level one more time when it matters most. The path is there. Nine games to take it.
It will not be easy. The Kraken have won just five of their last 17 games, but they have the tiebreakers, the schedule, and a proven stretch of winning hockey to draw from. The opportunity is real.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
The Seattle Kraken played a decent game against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday but didn’t take advantage of their opportunities and—as we’ve seen so many times with this team in its five years of existence—made the opposing goalie, in this case Connor Ingram, look like a star.
It wasn’t so much that Ingram was standing on his head; it was just that the 27 shots Seattle took against him never looked all that dangerous. He simply had to be solid, not dazzling, to earn his second shutout of the season.
“We had some, not a lot, but we had some good enough chances to score,” coach Lane Lambert said. “It was a low-scoring game, and we did not convert on our opportunities.”
The Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings were both idle on Tuesday, so Seattle remained two points out of the last wild-card spot. But two more teams—the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets—have crowded their way into the field with two straight wins each. The Sharks are level with the Kraken at 75 points but have played one fewer game, putting them above Seattle in the standings.
Ostensibly, that looks like a *lot* of teams for the Kraken to jump to sneak into the playoffs. With just nine games left, the playoff picture will get murkier for the Kraken every time they lose from here on out.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Oilers.
Takeaway 1: Bad first period dooms Seattle
Typically, if you can hold the high-flying Edmonton Oilers to two goals on 23 shots in a game (Connor McDavid did get on the scoresheet with an empty-netter that made it 3-0 at 17:34 of the third), then you’ve given yourself a chance to win.
Seattle did just that, showing a solid defensive structure and getting another strong game from Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 21 of 23 shots.
But more than half the shots Grubauer faced came in the first period, when the Oilers tilted the ice for much of the frame. A bad break and a costly mistake ended up in Seattle’s net, and those two goals were all the Oilers would need against the Kraken’s ineffective offense.
Edmonton’s first goal came off a point “shot” by Jake Walman that looked like it was sailing well wide of the net, but it hit Max Jones in the shoulder and pinballed in to make it 1-0 at 5:28 of the first.
#SeaKraken fall behind early. Bad break. Jake Walman's shot looked like it was going wide, but it hit Max Jones up around the shoulder and pinballed in.
Then Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn were playing catch at the offensive blue line, and when Larsson tried to return it to Dunn, he clearly didn’t see that Kasperi Kapanen had crept high in the zone, anticipating the pass. Larsson got baited into it, Kapanen stole it and took off on a partial breakaway, and put a perfect shot between Grubauer’s blocker and right pad, just inside the far post. That made it 2-0 at 12:43 of the first.
Uh oh. #SeaKraken don't want to get into a track meet with the Oilers, but if they're going to be in this game, they may have to do that.
Bad D-to-D pass by Adam Larsson leads to a partial breakaway by Kasperi Kapanen.
“Clearly, it wasn’t the start we wanted in terms of, they dump the puck in, it’s going eight feet wide, and it goes in off their back. That’s kind of the way it’s going right now,” Lambert said. “It certainly wasn’t anything necessarily structural, but a fortunate break for them. And we make a mistake at the offensive blue line when we’ve got complete control of the puck, that ends up in the back of the net.”
The Kraken should have been able to overcome those two goals, but the lack of finishing ability on this roster once again reared its ugly head.
Takeaway 2: Better second and third
The Kraken looked much better in the second and third periods, to the point that one could argue they were the better team in those frames. But as mentioned earlier, Ingram simply wasn’t tested the way the Kraken needed to test him. They had solid shot volume the rest of the way—firing 13 pucks at Ingram in the second and eight in the third—but it’s hard to recall many moments where Seattle truly had the middling goalie scrambling.
“A little bit more desperation in our game [in the second period],” Matty Beniers said. “Getting more pucks to the bottom, we had success there. We didn’t do it enough in the first, and we started getting to that, started getting more shots on net, more chaos. And we had our opportunities, we just didn’t put any in.”
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz returns
It was good to see Jaden Schwartz return to the lineup after being inadvertently kicked in the face by Nick Cousins in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7. That injury led to Schwartz being labeled “out indefinitely,” a timetable that can sometimes mean months or even years.
Considering how horrific that injury could have been, Schwartz’s return after about three weeks was a big sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Shane Wright missed the game Tuesday after getting blasted with a high hit by Logan Stanley on Saturday in Buffalo. He did practice on Monday, so I’m guessing his absence will be relatively short-term.
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.
