by Josh Horton | Dec 14, 2022 | Kraken Prospects
When Kole Lind scores goals, they tend to come in bunches — at least that’s been the case this season.
The Kraken forward prospect notched a hat trick, his second of the season, during Coachella Valley’s 8-3 victory over the San Jose Barracuda on Dec. 10.
Lind’s goal-scoring outbrust came in the Firebirds’ fifth consecutive win, which was eventually snapped the next night in a 5-4 overtime loss to Bakersfield.
Lind, 24, leads Coachella Valley with 10 goals on the season and is third on the team in points with 20. He also leads the team in penalty minutes with 35.
The Shaunavon, Saskatchewan native, who starred for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL during his junior career, figures to be one of the next forwards up in case Seattle needs to call up a forward. The second-round pick played in 23 games for the Kraken last year, scoring two goals and tallying eight assists.
With how the Kraken’s lineup looks currently, and with Eeli Tolvanen recently claimed off waivers from Nashville, it will likely take an injury for Lind to break the Kraken lineup. However, it’s certainly encouraging to see Lind producing at the AHL level in the meantime.
New arena opening in Coachella Valley
Speaking of Lind and the Firebirds, Coachella Valley will play its first game in its new home rink, Acrisure Arena, on Sunday, Dec. 18, against the Tucson Roadrunners. The Firebirds, who recently concluded a 16-game road trip, practiced on the new arena’s ice for the first time on Monday. The Desert Sun has the full story.
World Junior Championship update
Team Canada released its final roster for the 2023 World Junior Championship, and it came with little surprise. Shane Wright, who was loaned to Canada for the tournament, which begins on Dec. 26 in Moncton, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia, unsurprisingly made the team and is expected to star for Canada.
Additionally, all of the local connections that started camp with the team made the final roster. Seattle Thunderbirds forward Reid Schaefer was particularly excited.
Finland is another team to watch for Seattle fans. Forward Jani Nyman and goaltender Niklas Kokko, both second-round picks last year, will play for the Finns.
Nyman, who has seven goals and 10 points for Ilves in Liiga — Finland’s top league — this season, is expected to play a big role for a strong froward group. It will be ineresting to see if Kokko will earn the starting job for Finland between the pipes.
Kyle Jackson piling up points
Kyle Jackson, the Kraken’s seventh-round draft pick in 2022, is on a nice little stretch for the Ontario Hockey League’s North Bay Battalion. The 20-year-old forward is riding a nine-game point streak and has notched at least two points in seven of those contests.
Jackson boasts 37 points with 17 goals in 29 games this season.
North Bay is a team to monitor for Kraken fans, as defense prospect Ty Nelson also plays for North Bay. The third-round pick’s 35 points rank third amongst OHL defensemen and amongst his North Bay teammates.
by Josh Horton | Dec 8, 2022 | Kraken Prospects
Joey Daccord made history for Seattle’s American Hockey League affiliate by recording the first shutout for Coachella Valley on Dec. 2. It took just 16 games for this bit of history to be made for the Firebirds, which debuted this season as Seattle’s top farm team.
Daccord, 26, turned away 26 shots in the effort.
The North Andover, Mass., native is the next man up on the Kraken’s goaltender depth chart and has played well as of late. After a slow start to the year, Daccord boasts a .925 save percentage in his last seven games played — his season percentage sits at .915.
Daccord was third in the AHL last year with a .925 save percentage for Charlotte, which Seattle shared with Florida as its top affiliate in 2021-22.
One of the looming questions surrounding Daccord is whether or not he’ll bloom into an NHL goalie or remain a more than capable AHL starter. Although Daccord is 26 and hasn’t broken into the NHL full-time, the door isn’t shut for him.
There are several examples of goaltenders, more recently with players like St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington and Seattle’s Chris Driedger, that needed several years of seasoning in the minors before getting a real shot.
However, currently blocked by Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer, Daccord needs either an injury or a change of heart on the Kraken’s goaltending tandem to receive his chance — at least this year.
For now, we’ll track Daccord’s progress in the AHL and see if he puts any pressure on the Kraken front office.
Shane Wright scores in first game back, World Juniors next
Wright, fresh off a conditioning stint with Coachella Valley, scored in his first game back with the Seattle Kraken, a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday. Scoring a goal against the Canadiens, who famously snubbed Wright by not taking him No. 1 overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, had to have felt great.
Up next for Wright: The World Junior Championship. Many people expected that step in Wright’s development plan, and the Kraken officially announced Thursday that he’s set to report to Moncton.
We’ll see what lies ahead once Wright returns from international duty, but this is a great call by Seattle. It gives Wright another opportunity to shine on a big stage, and it allows the Kraken to delay their decision on whether to burn the first year of his entry-level contract this season. Remember, they can still theoretically return him to the OHL without using that first contract year, up until he has played nine NHL games. Wright has played eight so far, so the decision will have to come soon after he gets back from the WJC.
Team Canada camp starts now, and the tournament runs Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.
Jagger Firkus, Ty Nelson left off Canada’s WJC roster, but plenty of other local flavor
Unfortunately, Wright will be the only Kraken prospect at the World Juniors for Team Canada.
Kraken prospects Jagger Firkus and Ty Nelson won’t play for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, which starts Dec. 26 and will be played in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick. Both skated with Team Canada’s junior team this summer but weren’t ultimately picked for its selection camp.
The roster does feature five players and one coach with ties to the Puget Sound area’s two WHL teams: Seattle’s Kevin Korchinski (defenseman, Blackhawks prospect), Nolan Allan (defenseman, Blackhawks), Reid Schaefer (forward, Oilers), and Thomas Milic (goalie); and Everett’s Olen Zellweger (defenseman, Ducks) and Dennis Williams (head coach).
Team Finland will also be a team to keep an eye on. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic projects Kraken forward prospect Jani Nyman and goalie Niklas Kokko.
We won’t quote what Wheeler said about Kokko because it’s behind a paywall, but if you’re a subscriber we recommend taking a peak.
Spotlight: David Goyette
David Goyette, the last of the Kraken’s four second-round picks in the 2022 NHL Draft, is fresh off his best statistical game of the season, notching a five-point night that included a pair of goals for the Sudbury Wolves on Sunday.
The 18-year-old center boasts 34 points (17 goals) in 24 games in the Ontario Hockey League this season.
by Josh Horton | Nov 30, 2022 | Kraken Prospects
The Seattle Kraken’s treatment of Shane Wright, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and one of the franchise’s prized prospects, has been equally intriguing, confusing, or, depending on how you feel about the situation, frustrating.
But this past weekend was an encouraging one for Wright, who potted four goals in the first three games of a conditioning stint with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Seattle’s AHL affiliate.
Curiously enough, Wright didn’t tally a single assist in those three games, as one of his best skills is creating opportunities for teammates — he demonstrated that by tallying 63 assists in 62 games for the Kingston Frontenacs in the Ontario Hockey League last season. However, Wright playing meaningful minutes, and scoring, is a positive development for the rookie forward, who struggled to crack the lineup after breaking camp with the Kraken.
“We just felt it was right to give him the opportunity to get some games,” Seattle general manager Francis told the Got Yer’ Back podcast, hosted by Pierre Lebrun and Ryan Rishaug. “He’s done that, played three games, he’s had four goals, he’s displayed an elite release on his shot. I think overall his game is getting better.”
Due to the CHL-NHL agreement, Wright can’t play the entire season for the Firebirds, and this 14-day conditioning stint will conclude after Coachella Valley’s pair of contests against the Henderson Silver Knights on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3.
What happens after that? Wright will return to the Kraken and could be loaned to Canada’s World Junior Championship team, as first reported by Darren Dreger of TSN. Canada’s selection camp begins on Dec. 9, and the tournament concludes on Jan. 1.
Kraken general manager Ron Francis mentioned on the Got Yer’ Back Podcast that the World Juniors are a possibility.
“He’ll play two more this weekend in Henderson Friday and Saturday before getting recalled, and then our plan is to get him in the lineup [for Seattle], and then we’ll make a decision on the World Juniors at that point,” Francis said. “That is an opportunity that is on the table for him to go there and play for Canada, and if we do that, that pushes the decision [of what to do with Wright for the rest of the season] down the road until January.”
If Wright goes to the World Juniors, the Kraken will have a big decision on their hands once the tournament is over. Based on the aforementioned CHL-NHL agreement, Wright can play in nine NHL games before he’s either sent back to the OHL or a year on his entry-level contract is burned. The Burlington, Ontario, Canada native has played seven games for the Kraken so far.
It’s been a turbulent rookie season for Wright, whose prospect pedigree, and the hype that comes along with that, has put a lot of attention on the 18-year-old forward and how Seattle has handled him. Wright was frequently a healthy scratch for the Kraken before joining Coachella Valley.
“I know from the outside, people have a lot of opinions and speculation,” Francis said, “But internally we’ve had those discussions, and everybody understands what we’re trying to do and everyone understands we have Shane’s best interests at heart here, and obviously the more we help him, the more it helps everybody.”
Francis has found loopholes to punt this decision as far down the road as possible before having to decide on Wright’s fate this season. As for burning the first year of his entry-level contract, Francis told Got Yer’ Back he’s not too concerned with that, referring back to how Seattle was willing to do that with Matty Beniers at the end of the 2021-22 season.
“It’s there on the horizon, but it’s not the deciding factor on whether keep him or send him back at some point,” Francis said.
Jacob Melanson on torrid pace
Jacob Melanson, Seattle’s fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, has been one of the Kraken’s hottest prospects as of late. The Acadie-Bathurst forward has 10 points in his last five games and 19 points in his last 10 games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Melanson has scored nearly a goal per game, with 17 in 18 contests this year.
Jagger Firkus continues long point streak
With a goal on Tuesday night, Kraken forward prospect Jagger Firkus extended his point streak to 18 games. Firkus, a second-round pick in 2022, has 13 goals and 14 assists during that stretch.
The release on that shot, my goodness.
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