Jump to the Monthly scorecard that will be updated monthly until the end of the season.
The Seattle Kraken are on a team-record 10-game streak with at least a point in the standings. They’ve gone 8-0-2 in that stretch, good for 18 out of a possible 20 points, thrusting them right back into the playoff conversation.
The wins definitely help Seattle’s playoff chances, but there’s plenty of work to do to solidify a position. The Kraken will likely remain in a fight for a wild card spot for the foreseeable future, and perhaps the rest of the season.
“Our playoff battle is still ahead, and it’s still an uphill battle,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said Saturday. “But what our players have done is stay with it through some thick and thin here, stick together, and now that’s what you have to do is… dig in in the second half [of the season].”
As of the writing of this story, Seattle is sitting at 41 points and in the last wild card spot in the Western Conference but is near the top of the league in number of games played at 39. All the teams the Kraken are in competition with for wild card spots have played fewer games, so realistically, Seattle is in a lower spot than the standings suggest.
With that in mind, we wanted to paint a more sensible picture of how the Kraken’s playoff chances actually look, now that they’ve gotten themselves back in the hunt. For Seattle’s 43 remaining games, we reviewed strength of schedule (SOS), considered how many points the Kraken need, and created a breakdown of Kraken opponents. This can hopefully serve as a blueprint for the games the Kraken need to win moving forward.
Strength of schedule
The strength of schedule looks at how tough or easy Seattle’s matchups will be, at least on paper. The Kraken are in good shape here, as they have the fourth-easiest schedule remaining in the NHL, according to tankathon.com. Interestingly, a large portion (13 of 16) of the teams with the easiest schedules are in the Western Conference.
This is notable since the Kraken play each Western Conference team either three or four times per year and Eastern Conference teams only twice. The Kraken have 26 games remaining against Western Conference opponents and 17 against the Eastern Conference. The games against the Western Conference will have increased importance because any losses against Western Conference teams would both hurt Seattle and also help another team in direct competition with the Kraken.
How many points does Seattle need?
Before the start of the season, our own John Barr wrote, “When looking over the last 11 seasons, excluding the 2019-20 season that had a unique play-in format, the average minimum point total of the bottom playoff team was 92.4 points on the season.”
The Kraken are currently sitting at 41 points, so from John’s methodology, they would need another 52 points in 43 games to be an average bottom-of-the-pack qualifier. That would put them at 93 points, which would not guarantee a playoff spot, but it would put them in real contention to be in the postseason. Out of the last four full seasons, 93 points would have gotten a team into the playoffs 50 percent of the time. 95 points improves that number to 75 percent.
The Kraken would need ~1.2 points per game or three wins every five games the rest of the way.
Schedule breakdown
We’ve broken the Kraken’s remaining opponents into three categories: Playoff Bound, Bubble, and Tankers.
Playoff Bound – Teams that should make the playoffs; those near the top of the standings
Bubble – Teams fighting to make the playoffs, most likely as wild cards
Tankers – Teams most likely to miss the playoffs; should be Seattle’s easiest opponents
Playoff-bound teams
Eastern Conference – Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs
Western Conference – Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, Vegas Golden Knights, Los Angeles Kings
There are 14 games left against teams bound for the playoffs. These will be hard-fought games, but Seattle will need to win some of these if it expects to earn a playoff spot. Unscientifically, we’re targeting a 45-percent win rate against this group. There are 28 points available, so if the Kraken can grab six wins and 12 points they will be in good shape.
The Kraken have had success against Florida, Colorado, Vancouver, Vegas, and Los Angeles this season but have also lost to teams in that group.
Bubble teams
Eastern Conference – Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings
Western Conference –Arizona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, Calgary Flames
The Kraken are smack dab in the middle of this group. Assuming the playoff-bound teams all make the postseason, only two teams from each conference in this category will qualify. To make the playoffs, the Kraken need to show they can consistently beat these teams.
Defeating the Western Conference bubble teams in regulation should always be the goal, as the club will not want to give any of these opponents standings points. There are 18 remaining games against bubble teams, and we’re setting a win target of 65 percent. This would earn the Kraken 22 points out of a possible 36.
Tanker teams
Eastern Conference –Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens
Western Conference – Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks
These are teams Seattle should beat 100 percent of the time, but this is the NHL, and every game is tough. The Kraken have 12 games remaining against “tankers” and will need to win 90 percent of them, based on our projections here. That would give Seattle 20 points out of a possible 24 against this category of teams.
Seattle can make it
The Kraken’s 10-game point streak has put them in a realistic conversation for a playoff spot. We are optimistic they can earn a playoff berth, but they have to continue their strong play. As of Jan. 5, Seattle’s point total is 41 points. Following the win percentage targets above, 12 (playoff bound) + 22 (bubble teams) + 18 (tanker teams) + 41 (Kraken current points) = 93 points.
The Kraken need to win at roughly a 65-percent rate for the rest of the season, which would be an improvement over their current win percentage of 52.6. Games against Western Conference bubble teams will be Seattle’s most important games, but the Kraken cannot take nights off against the tanker teams. And exceeding the 45-percent win-rate target against playoff-bound teams will help create a cushion.
The Kraken have 21 home games and 22 road games remaining, so it’s a pretty even split. They are about to start a six-game road trip and will end the campaign on a four-game road trip in April, so February and March will contain a whopping 15 home games.
Monthly scorecard
Moving forward, we will update the below “monthly scorecard” to keep you informed on how the Kraken are doing against the targets we’ve set here.
Update (Jan. 31) – The Kraken fell a little behind the pace accumulating 11 points out of the forecasted plan for 14 points. They are still in the hunt, but will need to make up three points during the rest of the season. February will be a make or break month as the Kraken only have games against Playoff Bound and Bubble teams. After a tough loss to the San Jose Sharks to end the month, the Kraken go on break until Feb 10.
Update (Mar. 1) – The Kraken accomplished the goal in February going 5-3-1 and achieved the forecasted 11 points. They got slow start to February, losing the first 2, but finished strong capped with a Philipp Grubauer shutout on Feb. 29 against the Penguins.
Update (Mar. 15) – We are moving to weekly updates. Latest can be found here.
Before turning their season around and rattling off a nine-game point streak (7-0-2) and five-game winning streak, the Seattle Kraken temporarily sunk far out of the playoff picture with a miserable eight-game stretch from Nov. 24 through Dec. 10. During that time, they went 0-6-2, and dressing room morale fell to a nadir we hadn’t seen since Seattle’s inaugural season.
There were nights during that stretch where the Kraken seemed to be working their tentacles off and doing what their coach wanted them to do, but it just wasn’t giving the desired results. Seattle could not find the back of the net consistently enough to win games, and mistakes and sloppy puck management in its own end would cost the team defensively.
“I think we were getting looks, and we could say we couldn’t score and goalies were hot or whatnot,” Vince Dunn said. “But we were giving a lot more chances up than we needed to do… I think we were working hard, but maybe trying to do too much and do other people’s jobs. So that can kind of make you take yourself away from the game a little bit.”
After last season, when defensive mistakes were so regularly covered up by offensive success, it was perplexing to see Seattle play so inconsistently for the first half of the season, only to flip a switch and get right back in the race starting with a 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Dec. 12.
So what happened?
After the Seattle Kraken defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1—the team’s fifth straight win—coach Dave Hakstol was asked if this season’s team has a different identity than last year’s team. His response was enlightening.
“This team is different. In order to gain some traction and push the right direction here, we’ve had to do it with a defensive mindset and a real grinding type of mindset. We haven’t been able to score our way to wins. We were able to do that at times last year. We became very confident in that type of mindset… Every year is a little bit different, the makeup of our group is a little bit different. But yeah, I would say that it’s a different mindset. We’re working towards it. We still have a lot of work left to do, but we’ve… look at it from where we were a couple weeks ago to where we are today. We’ve given ourselves a chance and an opportunity to keep climbing and keep working towards something.”
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol addresses media after the 2024 Winter Classic. (Photo/Darren Brown)
Altering the identity
This coaching staff has shown on several occasions over the past three seasons that it is capable of making in-season adjustments to better specific areas. Case in point, last season’s penalty kill dramatically improved when Seattle simplified its formation at the turn of the calendar year from 2022 to 2023.
There are other such examples, but changing the entire mindset of the team from “Outscore the opponent” to “Stay structured and patient” seems like a big ask, right?
“Honestly, not really,” Yanni Gourde said. “This team was always defense-first oriented. [We just] needed to make sure that details of the game were a little bit better, and we weren’t giving as many free chances to the other team. And I think that’s what it came down to. Everybody knows how to defend, we just made it more of an emphasis on each game.
“Every season is different. Last year, scoring goals just was a second nature. Every single night there was someone stepping up and scoring a goal, and we could outscore a team in various ways, different ways. And this year, it’s coming much harder to score goals, so you have to defend better.”
Data bears out that Seattle has been stingier since the losing streak turned into the current point streak.
Visualization by John Barr.
Post-game meeting
Based on how Gourde described it, a change like this sounds simple enough, but altering the collective mindset requires open communication from the coaches to the players and from the players to one another.
Dunn couldn’t remember which game it followed, but he did recall a “quiet” meeting, led by the coaches, after one of Seattle’s many losses in early December.
“[We were] really chatting about our team identity, not looking at video and things like that,” Dunn said. “I think since that meeting, we’ve all been a lot more accountable. And we’ve been taking every game and our jobs a lot more personally and making sure that if we work hard and work smart and care for each other out there, then things should fall into place for us.”
Gourde took a similar message out of that meeting. “I think it was mentioned holding each other a little bit more accountable, making sure that we take care of one another, and that we can make a switch as a group, as a team. We kind of started building from that point on.”
Dunn added that the shift in mindset was reinforced by the players in the room, and collectively they decided it was time to start battening down the hatches.
“When you hear from your teammates, and then you hear from your coach too, I think the balance of the two really makes guys understand and take it personally,” Dunn said.
While Dunn and Gourde saw the post-game meeting as a key moment in Seattle’s turnaround, Hakstol viewed the adjustment to a more defensive structure as more of an evolution over time.
“It’s not as easy as having one conversation,” Hakstol said. “Several weeks back, we just started talking a little bit more about just, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do more of the little things. We’ve got to tighten up. We have to find ways to— instead of looking for a way to score one more, until that starts happening, we’ve got to make sure that we’re really buckling down and doing some of the things that are necessary to get the puck back.’ And our guys have worked very hard at that.”
Outstanding goaltending doesn’t hurt
Of course, a team’s defense tends to look a lot better when its goaltender catches fire, and that is what has happened for Joey Daccord over this stretch. Daccord leads the league in save percentage (.956) and goals-against average (1.35) since this streak started with his Dec. 12 shutout of the Panthers.
“I mean, all our goalies have been playing really well,” said Will Borgen. “[Chris Driedger] when he stepped in there [for one game against Calgary], unbelievable. Joey’s obviously been a brick wall back there, you saw… two days ago. So, I mean, that gives us a lot of confidence.”
Visualization by John Barr.
Borgen also comically deflected when we asked him about the shift in mindset.
“That’s not really my realm,” Borgen said. “I always try to not let the other team score. I play defense. If our forwards score more goals, great. If they don’t, we’ll try to keep it tight.”
From the goalie out, “keep it tight” has been the name of the game for this Kraken team of late, which will go for its 10th straight game with points and its sixth straight win against the Ottawa Senators Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena.
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.
Here we go! The 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic festivities officially start Sunday, so we thought it was a good time to throw together a rundown of things you should know for this massive tentpole event being hosted on the West Coast for the first time ever.
The teams
Vegas Golden Knights
First off, the teams playing in the Winter Classic (12 p.m. PT on Jan. 1; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS) have been going in different directions recently. After a historic start to the season for the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights (22-10-5, second place in Pacific Division), they’ve struggled recently and have had goaltending woes sparked by an injury to Adin Hill.
Hill is on injured reserve, and Logan Thompson has had some rough games in his stead, giving up six goals to Carolina on Dec. 19 and five goals to Anaheim on Dec. 27. But after losing to the Ducks, he got another start the very next night at home against the Los Angeles Kings and bounced back to make 32 saves in a 3-2 Golden Knights win at home. That win snapped a four-game losing streak for Vegas, which has also lost five of its last seven (2-5-0).
Seattle Kraken
Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Kraken (14-14-9, fourth place in the Pacific Division) have turned things around dramatically since snapping a miserable eight-game winless streak that ran from Nov. 24 through Dec. 10. They’ve since ripped off points in eight straight (6-0-2) and have won four games in a row, including a dramatic 2-1 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.
The Kraken also have an injury in their goaltending department, with Philipp Grubauer having been on the shelf since Dec. 9. In Grubauer’s absence, Joey Daccord has stepped in and dazzled with a .949 save percentage in his last seven starts. Daccord is on fire, and that has allowed Seattle to win a bunch of low-scoring games of late.
T-Mobile Park
We had the incredibly good fortune of skating on the completed rink at T-Mobile Park on Saturday, and it was an unforgettable thrill. We are happy to report that although the fresh ice looks like it has cracks in it, it is in very good shape; much smoother than outdoor rinks we’ve skated on in the past, which makes sense, since the best ice makers in the world get brought in for these outdoor games. They have been helped in the build process by T-Mobile Park’s retractable roof, which has remained closed (we expect it to be open on game day).
We like the details the NHL has worked into the ice, including the rope design running up the blue lines and the compasses in the face-off dots.
Nautical theming is EVERYWHERE in T-Mobile Park, with a shipwreck in center field serving as the stage for musical acts Heart, Sir Mix-a-lot, and Nikhil Bagga. There’s also a boathouse in left field that will be the set for the TNT broadcast and docks that the players will walk down en route from the dugouts to the ice. The set pieces on the field are positioned in ways that will not restrict views for any fans in the stadium.
Practices
Both teams will practice Sunday at T-Mobile Park. The Golden Knights take the ice at 9 a.m. Pacific, and the Kraken will skate at 11 a.m.
The Golden Knights practice will be streamed on YouTube here.
One thing to know about outdoor hockey games is that sight lines tend to be quite bad. After going down to field level at T-Mobile Park, we can confidently say that if you’re sitting in the first few rows of the lower level on the first- and third-base sides or behind home plate, you will not be able to see much; just the top halves of the players floating around above the boards.
For fans seated higher up, you will be able to see the whole ice surface, but the players will be very far away. There really is no perfect seat for viewing, because there’s significant space between the playing surface and the stands. That’s just how it is.
Of course, regardless of where you’re sitting, you will be able to watch the game on the massive screen in center field, but it’s important to remember that the Winter Classic is about the ambiance and the experience of the day. It’s a real game, but we will be there to have a good time and celebrate the sport we love.
Transportation and bag policy
Here is the official verbiage we received about transportation to the game:
Free Transit GO Opportunity
Fans are encouraged to take public transportation to T-Mobile Park for the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic. Transit GO is offering free reward points to all ticketholders to the New Year’s Day outdoor game.
Fans can download the Transit GO Ticket app and use the code Classic24 to claim and redeem 800 Rewards points for mobile tickets to the LINK Light rail and other public transit methods to use on game day.
Here is what we received on the bag policy at T-Mobile Park:
Bag Policy and Medical Device Bags
Bags must be 4” x 6” x 1.5” or smaller (the size of a small purse or clutch). Clear bags, backpacks, duffel bags, tote bags, oversized purses, and other similar style bags as well as hard-sided coolers are NOT permitted in T-Mobile Park. Exceptions will only be made for diaper bags and bags containing essential medical equipment. All bags will be subject to a security screening. Please pay close attention to the prohibited items listed below.
Please note this is a change from the standard T-Mobile Park bag policy for Seattle Mariners games and other events at the ballpark.
Fan Village
The Enterprise NHL Fan Village is free and open to the public, regardless of if you have a ticket to the game. It is open both Sunday and Monday, but with varying hours. The event will be held in the lot just north of Lumen Field.
On Sunday, the fan village will start at the conclusion of the Seahawks game against the Pittsburgh Steelers (estimated 4:30 p.m.) and will run until 8 p.m.
On Monday, the fan village will be open pre-game from 9-11:30 a.m., and then again post-game from 3-7 p.m.
There will also be an all-day, open-to-the-public event at the Boxyard / Hatback Bar on Monday. This sounds like a pretty solid pre-game/post-game option, and it will also be a place to watch the game if you don’t have a ticket. This event is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Head and the Heart will perform at 10:45 a.m., and Fitz and the Tantrums will perform at 3:30 p.m. This event is also free. Learn more about the “Breakaway” event here.
LET’S DO THIS!
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.
The Seattle Kraken announced on Friday they had traded for veteran winger Tomas Tatar in a deal with the Colorado Avalanche, sending back a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
The native of Ilava, Slovakia, has played 810 career games with the Detroit Red Wings, Vegas Golden Knights, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, and Colorado Avalanche. Tatar, 33, was in the midst of a down year in Colorado, having posted just one goal and eight assists in 27 games.
But he is a capable winger who has scored 20-plus goals seven different times in his career, including last season with the Devils, when he racked up 48 points (20-28—48). Tatar’s ice time this season with the Avs had dwindled to an average of 11:16 per game, the lowest of his career other than 2010-11, when he was a rookie in Detroit and only played nine games.
Why it works on paper
This is exactly the type of low-risk trade I hoped to see when I officially hit the panic button after a painful 4-2 Kraken loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 4. The loss was—at that time—Seattle’s fifth loss in a row, a skid that would eventually balloon to eight games.
After seeing Seattle lose in such miserable, slow-starting fashion to the Habs, I was convinced something needed to change with the personnel. I wanted to see Kraken management start pulling some levers to get things moving in the right direction.
Sure enough, the Kraken have since called up defenseman Ryker Evans, who has made an immediate positive impact, and now they’ve brought in a guy from outside the organization who should (theoretically) help put the puck in the net and improve the team’s depth.
Even if coach Dave Hakstol utilizes Tatar in a top-six role, that still theoretically makes Seattle’s fourth line better, as a more-skilled player will trickle down the lineup.
A low-risk deal
Economically, it’s an easy dart to throw, too. Tatar’s cap hit is only $1.5 million, he’s on a one-year deal, and he only cost the team a fifth-round pick. So if general manager Ron Francis and his staff think there’s still a chance of getting into the playoffs this season—and Tatar can be that catalyst to help jumpstart the group—then why not pull the trigger on a deal like this?
The worst-case scenario is that Tatar doesn’t produce, even with the change of scenery, and then they don’t re-sign him this offseason. Heck, maybe he plays well for the Kraken, but they still don’t get back into playoff position. Is there a world where they trade Tatar at the deadline and even get a better return than a fifth-round pick?
Remember, last season, the Kraken had a lull around this time of year and made a waiver claim on Eeli Tolvanen (that came on Dec. 12). The day they put the Finnish gunslinger into the lineup was the first day of an eight-game winning streak and a jumping-off point for solidifying a playoff spot.
We aren’t saying Tatar will necessarily have that same impact on the Kraken (again, he hasn’t been performing very well this season offensively), but there is an opportunity for him to come in, get a good look at a top-six role to start, and get handed plenty of scoring opportunities.
Cap gymnastics
With all of Seattle’s injuries this season, the team has gotten itself close to the salary cap. To fit Tatar in, the Kraken intentionally pushed even closer to the $83.5 million limit by temporarily swapping Tye Kartye for Shane Wright on the official roster, then placed Jaden Schwartz on long-term injured reserve.
LTIR allows Seattle to go over the cap by the amount of Schwartz’s salary, minus whatever gap they had between the cap and their total cap hit. So, by getting right to the cap, then moving Schwartz to LTIR, Seattle opened an additional $5.5 million in usable cap space. $1.5 million of that space goes to Tatar, so now the team has $4 million left in its LTIR pool until Schwartz returns. Once Schwartz does return (no timetable for him at this point), the team will have to become cap compliant once again.
After the trade was announced, Marian Studenic was returned to Coachella Valley, also putting Seattle at its 23-player roster limit.
A fine trade
I like this trade. Seattle has just started to show some life after breaking its losing streak and getting two straight wins to create some good feelings. By adding to the group, the front office shows it believes the team can still make it to the postseason.
Tatar historically has been a very good player, but it seems Colorado hasn’t been the right fit for him. If he can regain even some of his offensive prowess with the Kraken, at a low cap hit and on an expiring contract, then this should prove to be a good move.
If he continues to flounder and can’t get it going for the rest of the season, then Tatar inflicts minimal-to-no damage on the team’s longer-term plans.
What do you think of this acquisition, folks?
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.
We knew 22-year-old defense prospect, Ryker Evans, was close to being ready for the NHL when we watched him in Seattle Kraken training camp before this season. In pre-season games, he consistently drove offensive opportunities and always looked so smooth on the ice. So, we weren’t surprised to see him recalled from AHL Coachella Valley last week, but the timing was interesting.
With Seattle in the midst of what would become an eight-game skid, coach Dave Hakstol decided it was time for a jolt to the blue line. In came Evans, and suddenly there was a new rotation happening between Brian Dumoulin and Justin Schultz, with the veterans taking turns being supplanted from the lineup by the rookie.
It got easier for Hakstol to decide which veteran should come out when Schultz became unavailable for a couple games after getting hit in the face with a puck in the 4-3 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. But now that Schultz is back, we are curious to see how this gets managed moving forward. After all, Evans has done nothing but impress since his arrival.
“I was pretty shocked [to get called up],” Evans said. “I mean, obviously, it’s something you dream of as a kid, and to get the opportunity is pretty cool. It’s kind of just been a whirlwind the last couple of days.”
Impressive start to Evans’ NHL career
Talking to Evans, who has the most level, calm demeanor you can imagine, you would never know he just made his NHL debut a few days ago. His play on the ice mirrors the way he carries himself off the ice, as he has yet to look frazzled in a game. In fact, on his very first NHL shift, he jumped up in the play and led an offensive rush with Tye Kartye, something you wouldn’t expect from a rookie NHLer dealing with the nerves of his debut.
The call-up seems to have come at the right time and has injected more offensive flair into Seattle’s lineup, which has struggled so mightily at that end of the ice. Evans said it was odd to parachute in when the team was in the deepest valley of its season to date.
“It’s tough, obviously, even when you’re losing,” Evans said. “I just wanted to come in and bring as much energy as I could, just bring some new life into the dressing room and kind of find a spark so that we can get back on the winning path here.”
He made some defensive mistakes in that first outing against New Jersey, but we’ve really liked the way he seems to be settling into Seattle’s end of the ice, and his offensive talents have been on full display. In his first game against the Devils, he made a move behind New Jersey’s net to hit the brakes, bump the puck behind himself, and send veteran forward Ondrej Palat flying past him.
Making a play like that in his first NHL game shows the confidence he has in his abilities to actually get players to bite on his moves without too much risk of turning the puck over.
Evans’ first impact on a scoresheet also came off an outstanding play low in the offensive zone in Tuesday’s 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers. Soon after a face-off, he saw a lane open down the half wall. Rather than dumping or rimming the puck around, he took the ice that was being given to him and skated the puck down below the goal line. He swung the puck around and centered a perfect pass for Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to score into a mostly open net and extend Seattle’s lead to 2-0.
“It was good that I was able to help a little bit,” Evans said, with his usual nonchalant tone. “It was great to get the win. We needed that one, and it’s huge for our confidence.”
His teammates are also seeing what we see, a good sign that Evans does have the ability to play consistently at the NHL level. After all, players tend to know when a guy has the “it” factor.
We first heard a player indicate they were impressed by Evans’ aptness when Joey Daccord joined the Sound Of Hockey Podcast during last season. Unprompted, Daccord gushed over how slick Evans was on the ice.
Devin Shore also had very positive commentary on the youngster after Wednesday’s optional practice.
”I’ve been playing with him in [Coachella Valley] too, and he’s been great there,” Shore said. “The name of the game right now is skating, and he obviously has that, and he plays with his head up. So if you got a guy in the back end with the skill that can skate, plays with this head up, good things are gonna happen. I’m really happy for him. He’s a great kid.”
Smooth skating is no accident
Evans was drafted as an over-ager, being passed up by all 31 other NHL teams in the draft prior to Seattle’s inaugural season. The next time around, when the Kraken selected him in the second round, No. 35 overall, we recall seeing draft pundits from far and wide criticizing the team for going “off the board” to select him. Fast forward, and the bold selection seems to be paying off.
The Calgary, Alberta, native said he wasn’t surprised he didn’t get picked in the 2020 draft, the first time he was eligible. “I don’t think I was fully at the point where I could have been drafted,” Evans said. “I just wasn’t developed enough, and I definitely didn’t have a good enough year, and I kind of knew that… Obviously, you hope you get picked. But it’s kind of earned. So I didn’t think I was I was there yet.”
One of the reasons Seattle’s scouting department liked Evans was because of his outstanding skating ability. It’s not just his speed, but his agility in being able to walk the blue line (as seen on the power play) and change directions on a dime that make his movements on the ice look effortless. This skating ability is no accident.
“My dad’s a power skating coach, so growing up, skating was always a No. 1 asset of mine,” Evans said. “Being smaller too, I had to figure out different ways to use my body and stuff like that. So, you just develop those skills growing up like that, and over time, you start to fine tune things.”
“Blade Boy”
In Daccord’s post-game media availability following the win over Florida on Tuesday, he referred to Evans as “Blade Boy” but declined to elaborate on why he calls him that.
Well, it turns out the moniker really does refer to blades, as in skate blades, because Evans is VERY particular about the steel he skates on.
He has 35 pairs of blades that he swaps out approximately every two games, and he keeps track of which pair he’s wearing at any given time. “Right now, I’m wearing set 28 out of 35,” Evans said.
He also is so specific about how he wants them sharpened, he only trusts one person in the world to sharpen his steel, his “guy” back in his hometown of Calgary. That’s not because he doesn’t like the job that gets done by any of the equipment managers on any of the teams he’s played for, he just doesn’t want to change his process.
“I send them back to Calgary to my guy,” Evans said. “It’s no shot at anyone. That’s just what I’ve always done.”
Worth noting, as Evans was telling Sound Of Hockey about the nickname, Chris Driedger walked into the dressing room and gave a big laugh, so clearly the players find Evans’ penchant for perfect steel a bit comical.
We say, if it works, keep doing it. So far for Ryker Evans, it seems to be working.
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.
The Seattle Kraken are on a five-game losing streak and sinking farther out of playoff contention with every passing defeat, but you wouldn’t have known it at Wednesday’s practice at Kraken Community Iceplex.
The team returned to home ice for the first time since a dreadful four-game road trip on which it notched just one standings point out of a possible eight and never led a game. Yet the players were hooting and hollering over good plays and goals, the coach was in a positive mood when talking to media, and there was a buzz in the air with the arrival of newly recalled top defensive prospect, Ryker Evans.
Heck, even the assessment of the recent games from some of the players was more upbeat than one might have expected.
“The last two games, I don’t feel like we got outplayed or anything,” Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “I think we created those terrible bounces. I mean, Ottawa was two kind of flukes of bounces, but there’s still two turnovers that created two goals and we lost 2-0, right?
“And then last game, we didn’t start the game like we were supposed to at all, and we fed their attack by just literally giving them the puck. So that being said, what do you do to change that game? Because besides those [mishaps], we actually played pretty decently in those games.”
So, if you were panicking about the outlook of Seattle’s season, it may bring you some solace to know that the team is far from panicked at this point. Instead, the players and coach seemed excited to get back home and go back to work Thursday against the New Jersey Devils.
Overcoming Seattle’s scoring struggles
The Kraken’s offensive struggles became magnified on the road trip when the team failed to overcome several bad bounces. That Ottawa game was the best example. Seattle had plenty of chances against Anton Forsberg but couldn’t get even one puck past him. Meanwhile, a blown tire and a miscommunication in the defensive zone was all the Senators needed to score the game’s only two goals.
“We work extremely hard to get a goal, and then we give up a goal [way] too easily,” Bellemare said. “The mistakes are way too high, and then when we play good, it’s not high enough.”
Eeli Tolvanen, whose line with Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand was easily Seattle’s best forward group during the trip, shared a similar assessment to Bellemare. “I felt like we’ve played pretty well other than the first period in Montreal,” Tolvanen said. “But yeah, they’re tough losses. You don’t want to lose too many in a row, but I feel like if you look at some of the games, we created a lot.”
Tolvanen said that if they keep playing the way they’ve been playing, the Kraken will start getting results soon.
“The Ottawa game, we had two individual [bad breaks], like Matty loses an edge, and they get a breakaway out of it. Stuff happened like that but other than that, I feel like we’ve played pretty well. If we just keep going that way, I feel like we’re going to win more than lose.”
Coach Dave Hakstol was a bit more surgical in his breakdown of what needs to change for Seattle.
“We have to identify some of the areas where we need improvement,” Hakstol said. “And defensively, we’re pretty happy with everything, [though] there are always improvement areas that we can do better in. But if you look at it offensively, there’s two or three categories that we obviously need to improve.”
When Seattle came home from its first east coast road trip of the season with a 2-1-1 record, a couple breaks in the other direction, and the Kraken could have been feeling very bad about themselves at that point. That is what happened on this trip. As Hakstol highlighted, the margins on the trip were again slim, so some more offense generation in a few areas, and the results could have been more palatable.
“When you look over the long haul, statistically, one or two more opportunities, on your out-numbered rushes, one or two more opportunities from the slot in good areas, one more rebound for us takes us from bottom of the league to top of the league,” Hakstol said. “So, those are some of the areas that we’ve identified, and we know that we need to work and improve it.”
Evans arrives
At some point, when things are going badly for a team, a personnel change is needed to get things heading back in the right direction. Evans, the smooth-skating 21-year-old defenseman, represents such a change, although it remained unclear Wednesday if he would immediately slot into the lineup against New Jersey.
The top three defense pairs remained in tact, while Evans skated with Jaycob Megna, who has been a healthy scratch for every Kraken game so far this season.
Hakstol confirmed Evans is here “for a reason,” though, meaning he should expect to play during his stint with the big club. But the coach wouldn’t tip his hand about his plans for Thursday’s game.
“He’s done a nice job, worked really hard,” Hakstol said of Evans. “With his development coming off an outstanding year last year and an excellent training camp this year a good start to his year down there. So this is a great time coming into this homestand to add him to our group.”
We were on the record predicting Evans would make the Kraken roster out of training camp, but he ended up as the final cut from the blue line and was sent to Coachella Valley. There, he has notched eight points in 18 games this season after a dazzling 44-point campaign in 2022-23.
Evans is excited for his NHL debut, whenever that may come, and hopes he can bring a spark to the floundering Kraken.
“I like to use my skating, moving the puck up and joining the rush,” Evans said. “So, just [I’ll just be] playing my game, moving my feet.”
Burakovsky “real close” to returning
Speaking of things Hakstol wouldn’t confirm or deny, Andre Burakovsky practiced in full Wednesday and skated on a line with Alex Wennberg and Jared McCann. It was the winger’s first time taking line rushes since suffering an upper-body injury in Seattle’s 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Oct. 21.
Hakstol wouldn’t say he expected Burakovsky to be available Thursday, but signs are pointing toward an imminent return to game action.
“He’s been champing at the bit now for the last couple of days, but we’re making sure we take all the right steps,” Hakstol said.
Like with Evans, the Kraken are surely hoping Burakovsky can help jumpstart the Kraken offensively.
“[Burakovsky] is one of the guys on our roster that helps generate offense, and he can generate it on his own,” Hakstol said. “So the pace that he brings, and some of his creativity offensively will be a nice addition to our lineup.”
Goalie Gear Corner
While we are on the record saying we’ve grown tired of the brown leather look for outdoor games and other throwback uniform scenarios, Philipp Grubauer’s new setup for the Winter Classic is beautiful. The deep sea and ice blue accents really make the gear pop on the ice, and it should look great with Seattle’s jerseys.
Oh, hello Philipp Grubauer’s Winter Classic setup! 👋
