The Seattle Kraken took the ice together Monday for the first time since Jan. 28, and it was a sight for sore eyes in several ways. Not only was it the team’s first action since breaking for bye week and the NHL All-Star festivities, but there were several indicators that the previously banged-up group could be made whole again very soon.
We were pleasantly surprised to see every Kraken player (except Joonas Donskoi) present and accounted for at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow, N.Y. That included the likes of previously injured players Matty Beniers, Justin Schultz, Jaden Schwartz, and even Chris Driedger, who took live reps from his teammates for what we believe was the first time since tearing his ACL in the offseason.
Good morning from Long Island, where the #SeaKraken are on the ice.
EVERYONE is here and accounted for, including Justin Schultz, Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, Jaycob Megna, and Chris Driedger. pic.twitter.com/MwsPsTGjS2
Coach Dave Hakstol was unwilling to say who would be officially available for Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, but he did reveal to Sound Of Hockey that at least *some* of the injured players are on track to play.
“We’re gonna wait until tomorrow to get closer to making some decisions,” Hakstol said. “I think a couple of guys should be ready to go by the looks of it, but we wanted to get through today’s practice, and then as we get to tomorrow morning, we should be able to make some final decisions. And there might even be a game-day decision in there.”
So, take that as you will, but all three of Beniers, Schultz, and Schwartz were full participants.
Here is how line rushes shook out for the Kraken at Monday’s practice:
Those who have paid close attention to the team’s lineup this season would recall that before Schultz went down, the defense pairings were practically set in stone, with Jamie Oleksiak playing alongside Schultz on the second pairing.
But, Will Borgen was still paired with Oleksiak Monday, indicating Hakstol and his staff really liked what they saw from that duo in Schultz’s absence.
“We left [Borgen] together today with [Oleksiak],” said Hakstol. “Those two played really well over the last few games with Schultzy out of the lineup. So there’s a potential of leaving that group of four together, and then depending upon Schultzy’s availability coming off the injury, there’s likely some different options in that third pair.”
The “group of four” that Hakstol was referring to was Vince Dunn with Adam Larsson on the top pair and Oleksiak with Borgen on the second pair.
Jaycob Megna’s first Kraken practice
The makeup of Seattle’s third pairing will be interesting to monitor moving forward, especially if Schultz truly is ready for a return. Lest you forget, the team acquired Jaycob Megna Sunday for a conditional fourth-round draft pick, adding another depth left-shot blueliner to the mix.
First look at big Jaycob Megna in #SeaKraken gear, acquired from the Sharks yesterday.
Based on what we saw Monday, we would guess Hakstol is leaning toward keeping Carson Soucy in the lineup for Tuesday, but it’s only a matter of time before Megna, the 6-foot-6 former Shark who played big minutes next to Erik Karlsson, makes his debut.
After seeing Megna practice for the first time, Hakstol said he likes what the 30-year-old brings to the table. “He’s had a pretty fast-moving last 12 hours, but it was good to get him in for practice,” Hakstol said. “He’s done a real nice job this year in a two-way role. He’s been really solid in playing some important minutes, so he’s a guy that we feel really adds to our group on the back end. He’s reliable, he’s a big, heavy body, he can move the puck.”
If everybody is healthy, Seattle looks poised to go back to carrying two extra defensemen and one extra forward, as it did most of last season. We suspect that means Cale Fleury will return to being a healthy scratch (rather unfairly, considering how well he has performed), while one of Megna or Soucy will get the nod each night on the left side of the third pair.
It was a needed break for a banged-up team
The long layoff came at an ideal time for this group, which had recently gone from having all its regulars in the lineup every night to us wondering, Who is actually available to play tonight?
Injuries aside, even the healthy players were showing signs of fatigue after battling through an arduous January schedule.
“The break was good; I mean, we needed a break,” Hakstol said. “Obviously health-wise, we needed a break, mentally, I believe it’s a good time for the break. The guys are— you know, you can see the energy coming back, and you could feel that last night and today. Now we have to dial that into a game level.”
The Kraken coach said he believes the team is ready to get back to work and knows the task at hand on what could be a tough road trip through the New York metro area, then Philadelphia and Winnipeg. He did mention he thinks the “crispness and sharpness” could take a dip in the early going against the Isles, but he expects his club to have good energy.
“It starts tomorrow,” Hakstol added. “Grinding starts tomorrow, and that opportunity starts again.”
Did the team grow closer during the break?
If you follow any Kraken players on Instagram, you know several of them jetted off to tropical locales during the hiatus, with several players heading to Los Cabos and several more checking in from Hawaii.
For the closeness of the team, it was encouraging to see many of the players together, soaking up rays, going on deep-sea fishing excursions, and celebrating a successful first half of the season.
“That’s a characteristic of this group,” Hakstol said. “They like spending time together, and that’s why they spend a ton of time together away from the rink. That’s been part of what’s translated on the ice for us into being a pretty tight, hard-working team.”
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The Kraken get back to game action Tuesday against Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Long Island. Our “Twitter intern” plans to be at morning skate, so drop us a follow @sound_hockey for lineup updates.
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.
There has not been a single Seattle Kraken game since last week’s Monday Musings, but that has not stopped me from obsessing about this team. I have been digging into game logs, goalie data, shooting percentages, and more. Like all good data analysis, not all explorations bear fruit, but I did find some interesting observations in my data journeys this last week.
Shooting percentage
The early season narrative by some in the national media was that the Kraken were on a shooting percentage bender during the month of November, and ultimately their shooting percentage would slide back to Earth and the team would assume their expected place near the bottom of the Pacific Division. Obviously, that has not happened. The Kraken still maintain the highest shooting percentage in the league at 12.0 percent.
I am sure there are still some doubters, but eventually people might need to be open to the idea that this team could be one of the better shooting teams in the league. Some team needs to lead the league in shooting percentage, and it might as well be the Kraken.
Strength of schedule remaining
Another piece of data I looked into was the strength of schedule of the remaining games for Seattle. A concern I wondered about is if the first-place record in the first half was based on the fact the Kraken have generally played weaker teams in the league. Conversely, what does the rest of the season look like from a strength-of-schedule standpoint?
To my surprise, the Kraken have one of the weakest schedules remaining, which should give the team an easier road to the postseason compared with some of its challengers.
This bodes well for the boys of the Puget Sound, but it is worth pointing out the Kings and Flames also have a relatively weak schedule remaining this season.
Trade deadline
We have been getting a ton of questions about what the Kraken should do at the NHL trade deadline. Darren Brown and I were asked about it on KJR last week.
In my humble opinion, I wonder about adding some toughness for the playoffs. No, I am not talking about adding a goon or a fighter, those days are done. I would like to see the team add a bit of a bully that won’t let the Kraken get pushed around in the playoffs. Anybody that has watched the Stanley Cup Playoffs before knows that there is a scrum after every whistle and the checking seems heavier and more frequent. I just wonder what Seattle Kraken player will get opposing teams to think twice before running Matty Beniers. I think of players like Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow for Tampa in their two Stanley Cup wins. Both can score, and they brought a bit of a snarl to the Lightning.
I am not questioning the Kraken’s toughness. There have been several games where it would appear the opposition is trying to bully the team around only to see the Kraken respond in kind. Ryan Donato and Will Borgen have both impressed me with the ability to step up the physicality when needed, and we all know Yanni Gourde does not back down from anyone. So, it is entirely possible that this “skill set” is not needed, but it is something I would like to see.
Other Kraken musings:
The Kraken penalty kill has been on fire lately, having not allowed a power-play goal in seven games. That is 17 power plays killed in a row.
Oliver Bjorkstrand looks like his normal self these days. After posting a 4.0 shooting percentage in his first 30 games with the Kraken, he is shooting 11.8 percent in his 19 games since Dec. 18. He has not finished an NHL season with a shooting percentage under 10 percent since 2017-18, his first full NHL season. He is sitting at 7.1 total for the year right now.
The Kraken announced trading a fourth-round draft pick to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Jaycob Megna. This was a depth add for an area that was becoming increasingly worrisome. Cale Fleury has stepped in nicely since Justin Schultz went out with an injury, but even with Schultz nearing a return, the blue line was still thin. Gustav Olofsson has been out injured in Coachella Valley, which left just three other defensemen under NHL contracts. Two of those defensemen are Ryker Evans and Peetro Seppala. Evans is having a great season, but he might not be ready for NHL action. Darren had a good write up about the trade and what Megna might bring to the table.
Chris Driedger has been back on the ice for a while now, but Monday marked another milestone by getting onto the ice and taking live reps from his teammates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time he has been taking in a regular practice with the rest of the team.
Chris Driedger in net taking actual reps with his teammates.
It is not Kraken specific news, but it was announced last week that Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights had back surgery and would be out indefinitely. Even in limited time, Stone was second in goal scoring for the Golden Knights this season. Vegas could be in real trouble here with a 2-6-2 record over its last 10 games. It is conceivable that the Golden Knights miss the playoffs for the second year in a row.
By now we have all gotten over that the Kraken were not represented at the NHL All-Star Game, but you still have an opportunity to check out some Kraken prospects representing the Coachella Valley Firebirds at the AHL All-Star Game. Ryker Evans and Max McCormick will play in the game on Monday, airing at 4 P.M. Pacific on the NHL Network.
Shane Wright returned to the lineup for the Windsor Spitfires Thursday and posted a one-goal and two-assist night in the Spitfires 7-4 victory against the Soo Greyhounds. The return was short lived. He was back out of the lineup for the Spitfires two games this weekend due to a lower-body injury.
Kraken prospect and third-round selection from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Ty Nelson, posted his first career hat trick in the OHL on Sunday. The defenseman has been lighting it up this season with 60 points over 49 games.
The Arizona Coyotes announced that 2021 first-round selection, Dylan Guenther would be assigned to an already stacked Seattle Thunderbirds roster. I thought the 2016-17 Thunderbirds were a lot of fun to watch, but this is going to be insane. There are still plenty of home games before the playoffs start in late March.
The Thunderbirds welcome the Red Deer Rebels to town on Friday. This game should be a good showcase on how the Thunderbirds matchup against one of the top teams from the Eastern Conference.
A bit off the radar, but the University of Washington ACHA club hockey team finished its regular season with a record of 22-2-0. It has been an incredible season for the Huskies as they head to Cheney, Wash., for the Pac-8 Tournament. Good luck to the boys.
Kraken themes for the week ahead
This feels like another tough road test for the Kraken with four games over six days, including a run through the New York City metro area. Game action kicks off Tuesday against the revamped New York Islanders, which now feature Bo Horvat. After the boys go through the New York teams, they play the Flyers in Philadelphia, a team they have never beaten, and then finish the five-game swing in Winnipeg next Tuesday. Hitting the road right after the bye week/All-Star break can be a bit of a challenge, so capturing five out of the possible 10 points would be a success.
Outside of the team success, I think it will be interesting to keep on eye on Bjorkstrand to see if he maintains the same level of play we saw heading into the break. We also will be looking for the returns to the lineup for Beniers, Schwartz, and/or Schultz. Based on early reports out of New York this morning, things are looking good for at least a couple of the injured players to return.
Here are the lines for the #SeaKraken at this morning's practice.
Jacob Melanson (PDS/SEA) – Melanson continues his torrid pace since being traded to the Sherbrooke Phoenix of the QMJHL. He has six points in his last four games. Ty Nelson (NBB/SEA) – As mentioned above, Nelson had his first career OHL hat-trick on Sunday. Tye Kartye (CVF) – Kartye was an undrafted free-agent signing over the summer and is quietly having a good season in his first year as a professional. Kartye has four goals and three assists over his last six games.
Goal of the week
Add David Goyette to the list of Kraken prospects having excellent seasons for their respective teams. The late second-round draft pick has 30 goals and 31 assists over his 42 games with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL.
Going into the season, one of the big question marks around the Seattle Kraken was goaltending. The tandem of Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones has been decent for the season as a whole, but since Dec. 15, they have been performing above the league median.
If you have any questions or comments on the Monday Musings, please leave them below, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime, enjoy the week. The Kraken are back!
After a Kraken-player-less NHL All-Star weekend and what has felt like a never-ending hiatus from game action, Seattle finally goes back to work this week with a five-game road trip through the New York Metropolitan area, Philadelphia, and—oddly—Winnipeg. The Kraken acquired Jaycob Megna from the Sharks Sunday, so we wanted to touch on that, but we also thought it was a good time to take stock in what the organization has, consider how it got to its current spot in the standings, and think ahead to what else it might want to add at the NHL Trade Deadline.
Before we get to the Megna deal, we wanted to mention that last season, we wrote a similar State-of-the-Franchise-type article when the Kraken returned from a COVID-induced extension of the Christmas break that resulted in an 11-day layoff. Writing that article was a reckoning for us here at Sound Of Hockey. We are perpetual optimists, but even we had a hard time putting a positive spin on the situation and had begun to realize that the inaugural season had gone sideways with no hope of salvaging it.
The tone of this “State of the Franchise” article will be markedly more positive than that one, as the Kraken exit the All-Star break in first place in the Pacific Division with reason to believe that the team can have sustained success well beyond this season.
Kraken acquire Jaycob Megna from San Jose
Kraken general manager Ron Francis made his first deal in the lead-up to the NHL Trade Deadline Sunday, acquiring 6-foot-6, 220-pound defenseman Jaycob Megna from the Sharks for a conditional fourth-round pick. Megna, 30, is a left shot and has spent most of the season as Erik Karlsson’s defense partner in San Jose, regularly logging north of 20 minutes of ice time in games.
A stay-at-home defenseman that can help on the penalty kill, Megna has four goals and 21 assists in 135 career NHL games over five seasons between Anaheim and San Jose. The 48 games he has played this season are the most he has played in a single campaign in his career, explaining the relatively low cap hit.
Megna figures to be a depth addition to the blue line in Seattle, but interestingly, he is not just a traditional rental; he has a year left on his contract after this season at a team-friendly $762,500. That seems to imply that even if fellow left-shot defenseman Carson Soucy stays with the team past the deadline, Megna would replace Soucy for next season, as Soucy is on an expiring deal.
Jaycob Megna, traded to SEA, is a solid defensive defenceman who has been Erik Karlsson's primary partner on the Sharks' blueline this season. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/iECtXJ8oQ1
This is exactly the type of trade we would have expected from Francis and company, and it seems to be a good deal for the Kraken in terms of value. Megna brings size, depth, good analytics, PK improvement, a low cap hit, and another year of term, and he cost Seattle next to nothing.
It will be interesting to see where he slots in.
Are the Kraken nasty wasty?
There’s a running not-so-inside joke between Sound Of Hockey and Kraken radio voice Everett Fitzhugh that dates back to the pre-season. Seattle got off to a great start in its September and October tune-up games. Even as the lineup got shuffled to give bubble players opportunities and to manage workloads, the team was finding different ways to win, regardless of who was playing each night. Fitzhugh said he would look around the arena during games and wonder to himself, Are the Kraken… good?
Sound Of Hockey shared the cautiously optimistic sentiment with Fitzhugh and escalated the question to, Are the Kraken… nasty? And then, Are they… nasty wasty?
Fast forward four months, and the Kraken have proven that they are, in fact, nasty. But are they nasty wasty? We say the jury is still out on wastiness, but the first unofficial half of the season laid a solid foundation for Seattle to hit nasty wasty status.
Coming in, we knew the team had improved over last season, but in the early stages, we had a hard time believing it would be competitive all season long.
We started to trust our eyes in early November. Backstopped by Joey Daccord, Seattle came back from two goals down in the third period to beat Calgary on the road, then followed that up with impressive wins in Minnesota and Pittsburgh to sweep the three-game trip.
From there, the club steamrolled its way through November with an outrageous 10-1-1 record before predictably faltering in December. As it always goes after long win streaks in the NHL, bad habits crept in while the team was cruising through victories in the month prior.
But, to the credit of the players and the coaching staff, they all seemed to get pissed off after getting smoked on home ice by Edmonton to close out the 2022 calendar year, and they responded by righting the ship and putting together an exceptional month of January. The team set an NHL record with a perfect two-week, seven-game road trip to earn 14 standings points and closed out the month with an 11-3-1 record.
If Seattle has a similarly successful month of February, it will officially be time to call the Kraken nasty wasty.
How we got here
Before the season, Francis, coach Dave Hakstol, and several Kraken players indicated the team’s goal was to make the playoffs. We are certain none of them expected to be in first place in the Pacific Division at the All-Star break with 63 points, having already surpassed their 2021-22 total for the entire season.
So how did this turnaround happen?
First, Francis and his front office made a series of shrewd moves in the offseason that changed the makeup of the roster. By signing Andre Burakovsky to a five-year, $27.5 million contract, trading for Oliver Bjorkstrand, and getting Matty Beniers back for his first full NHL season, the Kraken effectively added a full top-six forward line.
Though streaky in his productivity, Burakovsky quietly leads the team in scoring with 39 points. Bjorkstrand hasn’t scored in the way we would have expected, but even when he isn’t scoring, he finds ways to make himself impactful. He has also now settled onto a line with Yanni Gourde and Eeli Tolvanen (more on him in a moment) that looks like the real deal. Beniers, who leads all NHL rookies in goals (17) and points (36), was selected for the All-Star Game but couldn’t attend due to injury.
Andre Burakovsky leads the Kraken in scoring with 39 points on the season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
That’s an impactful trio of Killer B’s.
And let’s not forget the offseason additions of defenseman Justin Schultz, who has quarterbacked the power play and brought balance to Seattle’s blue line, and goaltender Martin Jones, who has had a renaissance year en route to a 23-7-3 record.
Via waivers, the Kraken also layered in an in-season steal of the 23-year-old Tolvanen, who has burst onto the scene with eight goals in 13 games. His wicked shot and hard work away from the puck have earned him the trust of the coaching staff, and as he continues to impress on that line with Gourde and Bjorkstrand, he’s looking more and more like one of the best waiver wire pickups of all time.
Improvement from within
The turnaround hasn’t just been about personnel changes, though. Seattle has gotten contributions from the entire roster, from Cale Fleury, who has recently filled in seamlessly for an injured Schultz, to Jared McCann, who could pot 40 goals this season.
And one of the great constants of the group has been its non-traditional fourth line, which wreaks offensive havoc on its opponents night in and night out. The key players on that line, Daniel Sprong, Ryan Donato, Morgan Geekie, and sometimes Brandon Tanev, have brought a consistent effort that creates chances without giving up much defensively.
Sprong and Donato are both having career years, and both are remarkable stories. Neither player was qualified by the team after last season, and after testing the market, the duo ultimately landed back with the Kraken on one-year deals. Heck, Sprong didn’t even have a contract when he got to training camp on a professional try-out, but he has earned everything he’s gotten this season, including his career-best 15 goals.
Speaking of career years, Vince Dunn has blossomed on Seattle’s top defense pairing, meshing with stay-at-home veteran Adam Larsson and contributing at both ends of the ice. Dunn has erupted for 36 points on the year and set a franchise record by recording a point in eight straight games in January.
Vince Dunn has been a leader on Seattle’s blue line. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
In the goal crease, Philipp Grubauer has effectively lost his starter role to Jones, but he too has improved after a disastrous first season in deep sea blue. Grubauer hasn’t gotten the same goal-scoring support from his team as Jones, which has led to an uninspiring 5-8-2 record. But, according to MoneyPuck, his expected goals saved has improved from -33.7 last season to +2.9 this season, while his save percentage has risen marginally from .889 to .897.
We expect Hakstol to continue giving Jones the lion’s share of starts—sticking with one primary goalie has been Hakstol’s modus operandi over the last two seasons—but Grubauer will undoubtedly play a key role down the stretch.
Mix all those impressive individual performances with a group that appears to have fully bought into Hakstol’s systems and philosophies, and you get a massive improvement from one season to the next.
Health concerns
Helping Seattle’s cause in its first half was a remarkably healthy squad… until recently.
The injury bug started biting when Jaden Schwartz disappeared from the lineup on Jan. 12. Schwartz, who is a key cog in Seattle’s top six, missed 45 games in 2021-22 with an issue that we believe he is still managing. It has become commonplace for Schwartz to either miss morning skates or to skate on his own in a tracksuit, only to be in the lineup that same night. It remains unclear if Schwartz’s recent absence is related to the same issue from last season or if it is something new.
Schultz left the game in Edmonton on Jan. 17 and hasn’t been seen on the ice since. The puck-moving defenseman took an innocuous-looking hit into the end boards and skated off looking fine. But he exited early and is on injured reserve, deemed “week-to-week” before the break by Hakstol.
Meanwhile, the Beniers injury was downright disappointing. After getting tossed by a completely unnecessary hit by Vancouver’s Tyler Myers, Beniers twisted awkwardly and then hit his head on the ice. With the timing of the All-Star break, the budding star has only missed two games but had to sit out from what should have been an unforgettable experience in South Florida.
The good news on this front is that Hakstol shared after the Columbus game on Jan. 28 that he doesn’t think any of the injuries are “too long term.” That’s about as specific as we’ve ever heard Hakstol get with timelines, so we’re hopeful the injured players will be able to return soon after the break. If that ends up being the case, the hiatus came at exactly the right time, giving Seattle time to lick its wounds after a brutal January schedule.
What else to add at the Trade Deadline?
The front office and the coaching staff have pressed all the right buttons this season. After selling off anything of value at last season’s NHL Trade Deadline and collecting up a treasure trove of draft picks, the Kraken are poised to be buyers before March 3. Francis has already showed with the Megna trade that he is willing to continue pressing buttons.
Francis is notorious for playing his moves close to the vest—the trades for Megna and Bjorkstrand are great recent examples—so throwing out any other specific trade targets would be complete speculation. That said, the team has a plan for long-term success, and we do not believe it will make moves that blow holes in that plan, i.e., trading away top prospects or first-round draft picks for rental players. Megna fits this profile.
In addition to this defensive depth, we think a forward that can provide grit and an occasional offensive punch could also help, and players like that can be added without altering the chemistry dramatically or breaking the bank.
The Kraken will return to the ice for practice Monday on Long Island before taking on the Islanders Tuesday at UBS 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.
This season hasn’t played out the way Kraken forward John Hayden envisioned. He signed a one-year, two-way deal with Seattle in July and entered the team’s training camp on a mission to make the opening-night roster.
After three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and one each with New Jersey, Arizona, and Buffalo, Hayden saw an opportunity with Seattle.
“In talking to my family, my agent, it just was the right fit,” Hayden said of his decision to sign with the Kraken. “We just thought that top to bottom, this staff and this organization— I mean, there were a lot of good options, but this just felt right.”
He had a solid camp and made his physical—and offensive—presence known in Seattle’s penultimate preseason game in Vancouver. That night, Seattle came back from a two-goal deficit and won 4-3 in overtime. Hayden was a central figure in the comeback, with two separate fights against Kyle Burroughs and Dakota Joshua, and he scored the tying goal in the third period.
It was a nice exclamation point on the preseason for Hayden, who left Seattle’s coaching staff with a difficult decision on whether to keep him with the NHL team or send him to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.
The decision didn’t go Hayden’s way. Daniel Sprong and Cale Fleury ended up as the last bubble players to make the roster, while Hayden was placed on waivers with the intention of assigning him to Coachella Valley. Despite his 241 games of NHL experience, Hayden was one of Seattle’s two final cuts along with Michal Kempny.
Clearing waivers the following day meant Hayden would see his first action in the AHL since the 2017-18 season, the only other time he’s ever played in the minors.
Still, Hayden wasn’t shocked to be sent down. “I knew it was a possibility,” he said. “I mean last year, I was on a two-way deal in Buffalo, but I spent the whole year in the NHL. [It was the] same thing, on a two-way this year, but I thought I had a real good chance of making the team. And that was my full intention and goal during training camp.”
A hectic start for Coachella Valley built strong bonds
Of course, being sent to Coachella Valley didn’t really mean Hayden would physically be moving to the desert right away. The Firebirds’ home venue, Acrisure Arena, was not yet finished, so Hayden and his new teammates spent two months in hotels and AirBNB’s around Seattle with Kraken Community Iceplex as their temporary home base.
For Hayden personally, being on the road was nothing new. As a kid, he moved around a lot; from Chicago to Denver and Denver to Connecticut with his family, then Connecticut to Ann Arbor to join the National Team Development Program, and Ann Arbor back to Connecticut to play at Yale. “I’m used to living out of suitcases and hotels,” Hayden said. “It’s just part of the job.”
John Hayden skates for the Coachella Valley Firebirds against the Abbotsford Canucks. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
As for the Firebirds, Hayden thinks the extended time on the road helped bring them together as a team.
“I thought it was actually pretty good for us to be able to have two months on the road together out of hotels and bonding,” he said. “The team ended up winning most games during that stretch, so now we’re in a pretty good position.”
The successful start to the year has only led to more winning for the Firebirds, who are in first place in the Pacific Division with a stunning 28-6-4 record. Hayden credits the success to how close the players are to one another and the amount of fun they have off the ice. He thinks may not be doing as well if it weren’t for their long road trip to start the season.
At 27 years old, Hayden is a seasoned veteran by AHL standards. He has put up good numbers down there, with 13 goals and 12 assists in 34 games, along with 49 penalty minutes, a sign of a player who is willing to get involved in physical play.
Hayden hasn’t been the only veteran helping to lead the team, though.
“I think a lot of guys down there are in the same boat, where they’re middle-aged or veteran guys,” Hayden said. “Our rookies are great, but it’s a lot of guys who’ve been in pro hockey for a few years.”
No regrets in signing with the Kraken
It’s easy to wonder if maybe Hayden wishes he had signed elsewhere in the offseason, being that he has spent most of the season in the minors. But he has found good value in his time playing under Dan Bylsma in the AHL and has nothing but good things to say about the organization as a whole.
Now that he’s back up with the Kraken, Hayden is excited to be on an NHL roster again, but he isn’t losing sight of the positive experiences he’s been having in Coachella Valley.
“It feels great [to be back],” Hayden said. “It doesn’t really change my mentality, whether I’m here or in Coachella. I’m really just trying to put myself in the best spot from a development standpoint and helping the team win.”
Meanwhile, Hayden is getting positive reviews from Kraken coach Dave Hakstol for the way he has worked since returning to Seattle and how he performed against Colorado on Saturday in his first appearance with the team.
“It’s not an easy role,” Hakstol said. “For [Hayden] to come up here and just jump in and play his eight-to-10 minutes when he got one seven-second shift in the first period of that hockey game, but to do his job for the second and third, that just shows you he knows who he is. He knows what he has to do to help us.”
Hayden hopes that the work he’s putting in this season will help make him an NHL regular again one day soon.
“Of course I would like to be in the NHL full time,” he said. “But the experience I’ve had so far from a development standpoint with Coachella, all the staff down there, it’s been great. So, just really a first-class organization.”
Kraken forward Ryan Donato has had a good week. Playing on an elevated line, the 26-year-old forward has taken advantage, scoring three goals with an assist in Seattle’s last two games, but he isn’t getting a big head about it.
“It’s definitely increased [confidence],” Donato said after Tuesday’s practice. “But you always feel like you’re always right there. I mean, you’re getting chances sometimes they don’t go in and then you still have confidence and sometimes you’re not getting chances. And they don’t go in when you get one chance every couple of games.
“So you just try and stay as even keel as possible. I’ve learned that when you’re in the same position and you’re feeling low on yourself. You can’t get too low and then use the scoring… and get too high.”
For the second straight season, Donato has shown that he is a versatile player for Seattle. During summer’s training camp, coach Dave Hakstol mentioned that Donato was a player he could count on no matter what line or role he was asked to play.
It’s been more of the same this season. They need him to fill in at center on the fourth line? Done. There’s a need on Yanni Gourde’s wing for a few games? No problem.
“I think it’s difficult, but I mean, you prepare the same way you would with any game, right?” Donato said. “I mean, if you ask guys here, they think I’m superstitious, but I think it’s more of a routine, and I try and keep the routine the same. So no matter what the situation is, who I’m playing with, where I’m at, where I’m at in the lineup, what position, I always feel the same.”
His pregame routine is somewhat simple, it does not include any chants or strange foods at all but still prepares him to play many different roles on the ice.
“The pregame routine warm up, stretch,” he said. “All what I do on the ice, like it doesn’t change. I try and stay consistent. So if I know if I play bad, it’s not on anything I did during the day. It’s more something I wasn’t doing during the game.”
Donato is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet in hockey. He’s laid back and easy going yet at several times this year and last, he’s raised the ire of opponents. He doesn’t play dirty but has been involved in a few post-whistle scrums.
“I tend to stir the pot a little bit,” he said with a smile. “I don’t really go out of my way to do it. But I think there’s a lot of guys on our team that don’t shy away from it either. And, you know, kind of sometimes if you get into those moments it maybe even gets you into the game mentally and physically a little bit and sometimes if you’re not into it, that’s a way to get back into for sure.”
Kraken get a practice in before playing Vancouver
With a packed January schedule, the Kraken have had almost no practice time. They have three home games this week before getting time off for the NHL All-Star break.
Will it be beneficial?
“Well, we’ll find out tomorrow,” Hakstol said after practice. “I mean we were tired. We look like a tired hockey team a couple days ago against Colorado. The effort was really good, but you can see some of the fatigue in our game. So we gotta recharge the batteries here and make sure we’re ready for a push here for the next four days.”
The first test will be Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks who were awash with turmoil this week as they officially fired coach Bruce Boudreau and hired Rick Tocchet who will be coaching his first road game with Vancouver on Wednesday.
Hakstol, as he often repeats, said that the Kraken were worried about their game and that while Vancouver might ‘tweak’ some things, it won’t matter as long as Seattle is on point.
There were some notable absences Tuesday for a practice that Hakstol described as one focused on ‘pace and execution.’
Jaden Schwartz again missed practice, and Hakstol said he does not expect him to play Wednesday. Defenseman Justin Schultz, who has missed the last two games for the Kraken, is now considered out week-to-week meaning that Cale Fleury should get an opportunity for more playing time.
Forwards Yanni Gourde and Andre Burakovsky both were kept out of practice, and Hakstol said they would be game-time decisions. With the injuries, forward John Hayden was recalled from Coachella Valley after being sent down on Saturday.
Road versus home games
Seattle has been one of the best road teams in the NHL this season, with a 16-5-2 record. In what can only be described as a head scratcher, they’ve only been lukewarm at Climate Pledge Arena with an 11-9-3 record.
With a loud and loyal crowd and last change greeting them at home each night, it would make more sense if the records were flipped.
“I think we obviously should be better at home right?” Donato said. “Like the way we prepare, you have more advantage of being at your home rink, fans and all that stuff. I can’t say we can put a pin on what would be the reasoning that would be like that, but yeah, so not too sure.”
The Kraken have three chances this week to improve at home. After the Vancouver game on Wednesday, they will host Calgary on Friday and the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday. Climate Pledge should be packed and there should be no excuses.
Wishes come true
There was a special guest at practice Tuesday. For the first time, the Kraken hosted the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Alaska & Washington and created a special moment for young Jackson Boboth, who had his dream of skating with the Kraken granted.
Boboth, a goalie, was on hand at Kraken Community Iceplex for practice and worked with both Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones on the ice.
His family joined him for a fun morning. Afterward, Grubauer helped Jackson take his goalie gear off. Boboth had his own personal stall in the dressing room with a nameplate and addressed the media once out of his gear.
“I think he’s next man up,” Hakstol said. “He looked pretty good out there today. I wouldn’t be shooting at his glove, I can tell you that. He’s just rock solid in there.”
It was the first time that Make-A-Wish has worked with the Kraken and hopefully not the last.
I’ve been thinking about two questions making the rounds this week; will the Kraken fill the open spot on the active roster? And will the Kraken add a piece at the deadline? These are multi-faceted questions, but they relate in part to the specialty of this Kraken Contracts series: the collective bargaining agreement and, specifically, the calculation of a team’s cap space.
Before getting back to these two top-line questions later in the post, though, we have to start at the beginning. How much salary cap space does the team have, and how is it calculated? Let’s start there.
Remember, if you have any questions you would like to see addressed in future posts, feel free to reach out on twitter (@deepseahockey or @sound_hockey) or in the comments below.
How much salary cap space does Seattle have? (And why will the answer be different tomorrow?)
For the 2022-23 season, the salary cap (or “team payroll range upper limit” as it’s called in the CBA) is $82,500,000.
A team’s contracts count against the salary cap based on the average annual value (“AAV”) of the contract.
Example. Presume a player signs a two-year standard player contract with Seattle that actually pays him a total salary of $2 million in year one and $3 million in year two. The contract would nonetheless carry a cap hit of $2.5 million each season because the contract has a $2.5 million AAV.
From here it should be straight forward to calculate a team’s available cap space (or “payroll room” in the CBA), right? Unfortunately, no. There are a few steps involved.
The first inflection point is what day is it on the calendar? The rules for calculating cap space are different at various times. Today, I will focus on how cap space is determined during the regular season.
During the season, there are two key considerations: First, which obligations count toward the salary cap? And, second, how do we account for a player whose contract counts towards a team’s salary cap for less than the entire season? I will address each.
All player contracts count against the cap if the player is on the active roster or on injured reserve. (As we discussed last time, a long-term injury may allow a team to exceed the salary cap, but the injured player’s contract AAV still counts.) Other sums like retained salary, buy outs, or earned bonuses (as we also discussed last time) will count against the cap too.
Additionally, a portion of the contracts for players who have been loaned to another professional league (almost always the AHL) also counts against the cap. What portion? The amount by which the player’s AAV exceeds $375,000 plus the NHL minimum salary, which is $750,000 for the 2022-23 season.
Example No. 1. Assume Seattle waives Cale Fleury and his $750,000 AAV contract, Fleury clears waivers, and is assigned to the AHL. In that circumstance Fleury’s contract would no longer count against the cap because it is below the $1,125,000 threshold and can be fully “buried” in the AHL.
Example No. 2. Now presume Seattle waives Morgan Geekie and his $1,400,000 AAV cap hit, Geekie clears waivers, and goes to Coachella Valley. Geekie’s contract would continue to count $275,000 toward to the cap, which is the excess above $1,125,000.
Example No. 3. Finally, assume Seattle waives Geekie to try to get him to the AHL, but another NHL team claims him. In that scenario, Geekie’s AAV would come off Seattle’s books and go onto the books of the claiming team.
On the first day of the regular season, when counting each contract and other obligations required to be counted against the salary cap as described above, the team must be compliant with the salary cap.
Moving forward from there, how is a team’s available cap space calculated? And how do we account for the fact that a player may only play a partial season with a team, spend some time in the AHL at a reduced cap hit, or variety of other circumstances?
Assume there is a team that plays the first two months of the season with a 22-man active roster totaling $80,000,000 AAV in contracts. And then on Dec. 15, the team signs a free agent to a one-year, $2,500,000 AAV contract. The team had unused cap space for a couple months, but, as of Dec. 15, it now has $82,500,000 AAV in contracts on the books. Does the unused cap space from the first two months just disappear? The answer is no.
The NHL accounts for this inevitable roster shuffling by tabulating a team’s available cap space daily during the season. Huh? Let me explain how this works.
A regular season is 186 days long. The 2022-23 season spans Oct. 11, 2022, to April 14, 2023. Each day, at 5:00 pm ET, 1/186th of each team contract (or other obligation) that counts against the cap is totaled. On day one of the season, this total must be equal or less than 1/186th of the $82,500,000 salary cap (except for LTIR scenarios). To the extent the team is under the cap on day one, the difference accumulates as available “cap space.” That total is then available to be used on day two, along with another 1/186th of the salary cap. If not all used that day, it continues to accumulate. The team remains cap compliant if it does not exceed its available cap space on any given day.
This is all a bit confusing, so let’s take a look at how this works with a few examples.
Example No. 1. Presume on day one of the 2022-23 season, a team has a 22-man active roster with $80,000,000 AAV in cap obligations. The team is cap compliant because the 2022-23 salary cap is $82,500,000. 1/186th of the team’s $80,000,000 aggregate AAV—$430,107.53—is totaled at the end of the day. The difference between that amount and 1/186th of the full salary cap—$443,548.39—accumulates as of the end of the day. The team has accumulated $13,440.86 in excess cap space. On day two the team will be cap compliant if their salary obligations total less than $456,989.25. That is the sum of another 1/186th of the full salary cap—$443,548.39—plus the accumulated carryover cap space from the previous day—$13,440.86. That cap space will continue to accrue day-over-day until it is used later in the season, if at all. What would that look like?
Example No. 2. Same setup as Example No.1. On day two of the regular season the team adds a 23rd player to the roster with a $3,000,000 AAV. The team’s cap commitments for day two now equal 1/186th of $83,000,000. This is $446,236.60. Subtract from the team’s total day two cap space—$456,989.25—the team’s cap charge for day two and the team comes out of day two with $10,752.65 in excess cap space. The team has less accrued unused cap space left over than day one, but that makes sense because the team is now carrying players on its active roster worth $83,000,000 AAV. This is over the full season salary cap of $82,500,000. The team won’t be able to keep the new player on the roster for long, or it will need to make another move. How does this look at the trade deadline?
Example No. 3. Same setup as Example No. 1, except the team maintains the same 22-man roster every single day until the March 3, 2023, trade deadline—a total of 143 days. The team accrues $13,440.86 in excess cap space daily for a total of $1,922,042.56 in accrued cap space. At the trade deadline, just 43 days remain in the season. At that point, the team could, in theory, acquire a 23rd player with more than a $10,500,000 AAV contract. How so?
The team has accumulated cap space so far because it is in aggregate AAV $2,500,000 under the cap. If the team added a $2,500,000 million AAV contract at the deadline, it would stop accumulating additional cap space every day moving forward, but it would still have the extra $1,922,042.56 in cap space sitting there, unused. Divide that unused cap space by the number of regular season days remaining after the trade deadline (43) and you get $44,698.66. This is the amount the team could eat into that accrued, unused cap space every day and still be cap complaint on day 186. $44,698.66 per day equates to a contract with a full season AAV of $8,313,951. Add to that $2,500,000, and you get $10,813,951. This number is the AAV of the contract(s) this hypothetical team could add at the trade deadline.
Applying this (admittedly unintuitive) accounting method, the Kraken have an aggregate AAV of $81,064,166 currently. This is below the $82,500,000 cap, so the team is accumulating excess unused cap space each day.
But the team’s aggregate AAV has not been static throughout the season. The team has made myriad roster moves, each impacting the daily salary cap calculations and how much excess cap has accumulated on this day or that day. My best estimate is, as of Jan. 12, 2023, before the 5:00 pm ET deadline, the Kraken have approximately $467,838 in accrued, unused cap space.
Matty Beniers skating to retreive the puck. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
What does this mean for the roster? And what does it mean for what the team can do at the trade deadline? Let’s get into that now.
Why haven’t the Kraken added a 23rd player to the active roster?
NHL teams are allowed to have 23 players on the active roster at any given time. Before the World Junior Championship, the Kraken loaned Shane Wright to the Canadian U20 Team. This moved Wright off the team’s active roster and created an opening. Ever since, the team has maintained just 22 players on the active roster. For a time, one might have assumed the team was just holding Wright’s spot for him, but with Seattle returning Wright to the OHL after the WJC, that spot has remained conspicuously vacant. Why?
The short answer is that circumstances have not forced Seattle to add any players. The Kraken are not dealing with any short-term injuries at the moment, nor are there any players that need to be benched for performance reasons. As it stands, the Kraken still have an extra forward and an extra defenseman, and they haven’t needed any additional flexibility.
The longer answer gets us back into daily salary cap accrual, and the contracts of Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen. As we discussed last week, the team likely wants to keep $925,000 in cap space open at the end of the season in order to pay Matty Beniers’s contract bonuses without carrying the overage as a deduction from next year’s cap.
If the Kraken made no moves at all and maintained the current 22-man active roster from now through the end of the season, Seattle would end with a season-end cap charge of approximately $81,347,544. Applying Beniers’s (likely) earned bonuses, the Kraken would be at $82,272,544. This leaves the Kraken just $227,456 below the cap. In other words, the Kraken project to have $227,456 that they could allocate to the daily salary cap charges of a 23rd player.
The NHL minimum salary for the 2022-23 season is $750,000 AAV. For example, John Hayden is signed to a contract worth $750,000 AAV at the NHL level. Since he has been loaned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds all season, his contract has not counted against Seattle’s salary cap at all. But it would begin to count if Hayden were recalled. (John Hayden is actually on a so-called “two-way” contract that pays him less at the AHL level. We can get into the details on two-way contracts another time, but for today’s purpose suffice it to say Hayden has not counted against Seattle’s cap.)
For each day a contract worth $750,000 AAV is on the NHL roster it would count $4,031.26 against the salary cap—i.e. 1/186th of $750,000. Without going above $227,456, the Kraken could have a minimum-salary player in the 23rd spot on the roster for up to 56 days. Yet, as of Jan. 12, 2023, 93 days remain in the regular season.
This starts to shed light on why the Kraken have not filled the 23rd roster spot right now. They might “need” a 23rd player later if injuries arise. Once fewer than 56 days remain in the season (after Feb. 17, 2023), the team will be less hesitant to fill the final roster spot. But, over the next 37 days, the Kraken are likely to play “wait-and-see” and hope to avoid filling it unless necessary.
You might protest, as the Kraken had a full 23-man roster until recently; what changed? First, as the season has unfolded, it has become increasingly clear the hypothetical possibility of Beniers receiving $925,000 in bonuses will be a reality. And, second, the team jumped at the opportunity to add Eeli Tolvanen off waivers. That was a good move on the ice. But the unexpected upgrade pushed the Kraken ever closer to the salary cap. Replacing Karson Kuhlman’s contract ($825,000 AAV) with Eeli Tolvanen’s contract ($1,450,000 AAV) put an additional $625,000 AAV on the cap. With the minimum salary being $750,000, this delta essentially eliminated the opening for an extra minimum-salary 23rd player for a while.
Eeli Tolvanen waits for a face-off. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
What can the Kraken add at the trade deadline?
How much contract money the Kraken can add at the trade deadline (March 3, 2023) will depend on a number of variables, including whether the Kraken fill the 23rd roster spot in the interim.
Assuming that the Kraken make no roster moves of any cap consequence between now and the trade deadline, the Kraken could acquire a contract with a $1,140,000 AAV while protecting the necessary cap space for Beniers’s bonuses.
That is… not a lot.
However, the Kraken can create additional space in a variety ways. For example, presume Joonas Donskoi is healthy enough to return from injured reserve by the time of the trade deadline, and the Kraken waive him that day for the purpose of assigning him to the AHL. If he clears waivers, $1,125,000 AAV of his contract would come off the books, as explained above. Totaled with the team’s other cap space, Seattle could then add a player with a $2,265,000 AAV contract.
Another way to create space could be to trade a roster player. When a player is traded (or claimed off waivers), the player’s contract comes off Seattle’s books moving forward. For example, if the team traded a player at the deadline with a $2,000,000 AAV, it could acquire back a player with a $3,140,000 AAV when adding in the team’s accrued cap space.
Also, it should be noted that a trading team can “retain” up to 50 percent of a player’s salary (and cap hit) in a trade transaction. This expands the scope of potential trade targets available to Seattle. For example, without making any other moves, Seattle could acquire a $2,000,000 AAV player at the deadline if the trading team agreed to retain 50 percent of the player’s salary. That said, these types of trades are typically more costly from an assets perspective.
Finally, I should mention that the type of contract Seattle could acquire changes drastically if the team decided not to protect cap space for Beniers’s bonuses. In that case, without any roster moves in the interim, Seattle could acquire a $5,141,000 AAV contract at the deadline. I doubt that Seattle would go this way, but this approach would open a wider range of upgrades for the team.
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Have contract or rules-related questions? Reach out on twitter (@deepseahockey or @sound_hockey) or in the comments below. I’d like to do a mailbag-style post soon. Thanks for reading.
