After another home-ice embarrassment, strong messages are being sent to the Kraken

by Darren Brown | Mar 25, 2024 | Kraken

The Kraken did more of the same on Sunday and dropped their eighth straight game, this one a 5-1 embarrassment on home ice against a Montreal Canadiens club that is last in the Atlantic Division and carries an even worse record than Seattle. 

This was the second home game of the season that I personally have not attended and couldn’t watch live. My plan was to get home late, watch the replay of the game, and write Three Takeaways off of that. But when I saw the score and the reactions of our great followers on social media, it occurred to me that I really didn’t need to watch this game. I’ve seen it before. I saw it against Washington, Nashville, and Buffalo last week, and I also saw it in Arizona on Friday. (To be fair, the Kraken played a little better in that game before blowing another late lead. And I did watch the “highlights” from Sunday’s game, because I’m a sicko like that.) 

So why waste my time? Similarly, why should fans waste their time and money to attend these games, when the home team isn’t even going to put forth an honest effort? 

Well, I apparently wasn’t alone in these sentiments, because even head coach Dave Hakstol had seen enough and didn’t pull punches in his post-game presser. 

In three years covering this team, I’ve seen Hakstol keep a level head in every media scrum he’s done. Other than Sunday night, if you didn’t watch the game and just listened to his media availability on any given night, you usually wouldn’t know from Hakstol’s demeanor whether the Kraken had just won 5-0 or lost by 10. That’s how steady he is when he talks to us. 

“Every time you put this jersey on, it means a lot, and right now, we are not portraying that out on the ice.” Those are strong words from any coach, let alone Hakstol who has always (and I mean always) found a way to put a positive spin on every game, no matter how big of a steaming pile of hockey it was. 

The truth is that since the Kraken blew a two-goal lead and lost in overtime to Vegas on March 12, they have been a broken group that has looked ready to hit the golf course. They have not been trying, and it was oddly refreshing to hear Hakstol call it as such on Sunday. For a group that “has a lot of pride,” as we’ve heard constantly, they have not shown it and should be ashamed of the shows they’ve been putting on for the fans that have shelled out thousands of dollars to watch them mail it in at Climate Pledge Arena. 

Changes made

While we’ve watched these players glide through this losing streak, which now matches the length of the eight-game skid in November and December that helped put them in this position in the first place, we’ve been especially irked by the lack of accountability. They have seemed to have no regard for their jobs, because for most of the veterans, their positions have been etched in stone since Day 1. 

With the exception of Kailer Yamamoto or Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, nobody was getting healthy scratched because there wasn’t anybody else to insert into the lineup. So, players were allowed to give half efforts and go through the motions to make it look like they (sort of) care, even though a trained eye like that of Hakstol or general manager Ron Francis can plainly see that the “pride” has disappeared. 

Hakstol put his foot down publicly after the game Sunday (perhaps five games too late), and Francis followed suit, immediately calling up Ryan Winterton and Logan Morrison from AHL Coachella Valley. 

We’ve said it before, but at this point in the season, we’re fine with losing. The more Seattle loses, the higher it rises in the draft lottery, so in the long run, it may be a good thing to drop some additional games down the stretch. 

Besides, the Kraken are who they are, and this roster was never talented enough to make a real run at the postseason if it didn’t stay almost totally healthy, which it did not. Add to that a soft sell at the trade deadline, and any optimism we maintained at that time was misguided, but we never thought we’d see these players quit playing, and that’s a tough pill to swallow. 

If you’re going to lose because you aren’t good enough, we’re fine with that. But if you’re going to lose because you aren’t trying, then changes need to be made, and Francis sent his first real message to the club with these call-ups. 

If Winterton and/or Morrison draw in on Tuesday against Anaheim, who they replace in the lineup will speak volumes.

What next? 

Now that Hakstol has pulled the lever of the public shaming of his team, and Francis has yanked the “call up some kids” ripcord, we’re curious to see what other mechanisms get deployed in these last few weeks of the season. 

Seattle’s front office plays things close to the vest, so we can’t tell you what Francis and his staff are thinking. But it’s been clear for a while that any messages being sent to the players have not been received. So is Hakstol coaching for his job right now, or does Francis view the team’s many shortcomings as player personnel issues that can be addressed in the summer?

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.

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The Seattle Kraken season is (all but) over; where it went wrong

by Darren Brown | Mar 17, 2024 | Kraken

If you follow along closely with the written content we create here at Sound Of Hockey, you know that I typically write a “Three Takeaways” after every game. If you also listen to the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, you know that—despite the devastating 5-4 Seattle Kraken overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday—I remained in a chipper mood on this past week’s episode. 

But after the past two games, I’ve found it hard to pull out compelling “Takeaways,” and my hockey-related mood can no longer be categorized as “chipper.” 

Part of the positivity on the last podcast episode was simply endorphins from lots of exercise the day we recorded, blended with a string of sunny weather in Seattle. But part of it was that I still genuinely believed this team could lump together a bunch of wins down the stretch against bad teams and backdoor its way into the playoffs. Heck, I even wrote a Notebook article on Thursday afternoon about how several players on the team thought they could still do the thing, and how I believed what they were telling me. 

But after a 2-1 Kraken loss to the Capitals on Thursday night, and Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Predators, it has become painfully obvious that this team is done. They are not yet mathematically eliminated, but they are eliminated from contention in every other way, and the tone within the dressing room has shifted. 

“You have to hit it head on,” coach Dave Hakstol said Sunday. “We have to understand the reality of our situation, and then our goal and our opportunity is to change that picture. We can’t look too far down the road, so we have to have a great mindset, and we’ll have a mindset of that going into [Monday’s game against Buffalo] to work to change that picture.”

With the team sitting nine points behind Vegas for the last wild card spot with 16 games left, and MoneyPuck now giving Seattle just a two-percent chance to reach the playoffs, the players seem to know their season is dead in the water, even if they won’t overtly admit it. 

“It’s obviously very frustrating,” Jared McCann said. “We haven’t been able to score many goals, so it’s been kind of a grind lately. I don’t feel like we’re out of this at all. We’re just going to keep pushing, and you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve got to stay positive.

“It’s easy to be negative, and it’s easy to spread negativity, too, but we’re lucky to be in the National Hockey League. We have some of the best jobs in the world, and you’ve got to come in every single day and just look at the positives. I know, obviously, things aren’t going well for us right now, but just look at the positives and keep moving forward.” 

Sure, injuries have been a factor, but… 

When general manager Ron Francis traded second-line center Alex Wennberg to the New York Rangers in advance of the March 8 trade deadline, he made Seattle’s odds of reaching the playoffs even longer than they already were. We still maintain that this was the right thing to do, given where the team sat in the standings at the time, and with the writing very much on the wall that the Swedish center would not return to Seattle beyond this season. 

But remember, with Wennberg held out of the lineup for two games to avoid a pre-trade injury, the Kraken ripped off two (at the time) huge back-to-back road victories in Calgary and Winnipeg. They showed they could be competitive without Wennberg, so even after the trade, we still held onto hope that the “resilient group” could battle its way through the rest of the season. 

We’ve since learned, however, that with Wennberg jettisoned, Seattle could no longer survive with any injuries to key players. Vince Dunn has been out since that Calgary game, when Martin Pospisil hit him with a cheap shot from behind that earned the Flames forward a three-game suspension. Jaden Schwartz has been out since the first game of this (so far) winless homestand, a 3-0 loss to the Jets. 

“Obviously, teams deal with different things and adversity throughout the season,” said defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who has been filling in on the top pair with Dunn sidelined. “We’re no different here, but I mean, I know we’ve got enough in this room to compete and win hockey games, and we’ve got to get back to that.”

Without Dunn, Schwartz, and Wennberg, Seattle’s lineup looks thin. Hakstol shook things up Saturday, moving McCann back to the top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle, and bumping Tomas Tatar down to the fourth line (which we don’t think is a good fit for the veteran winger). Halfway through the game Saturday against Nashville, the new forward lines had generated just eight shots on Juuse Saros, and they were shut out on the night at 5-on-5.

Unsurprisingly, the lines went right back in the blender at practice on Sunday.

No matter what Hakstol has tried the last couple games, Seattle is simply not generating. The absence of Wennberg, Schwartz, and Dunn is partially to blame, but so too an apparent recognition that their season is over. 

The group has only had a handful of games with its full lineup healthy this season, yet the fact of the matter is that every team in the league deals with injuries. This is why you need depth, and after the whole (very productive) fourth line walked last summer, everything needed to go exactly right on that front for the Kraken to have another successful campaign.

They can only blame themselves

Injuries are not enough to let this team off the hook for the many stretches of poor play that have led to its demise. There’s no excuse for dropping eight consecutive games in the heart of your season. There’s no excuse for losing the last game before the All-Star break, 2-0, to the lowly San Jose Sharks. And there’s certainly no excuse for blowing two-goal leads at home and losing in overtime in critical games against St. Louis on Jan. 26 and Vegas this past week. 

In an 82-game season, you can get away with having dips in performance, but when the valleys are more abundant than the peaks, you will fall from contention in March. 

That overtime loss to the Golden Knights was the nail in the coffin. Had Seattle held onto its two-goal lead and won in regulation, then ridden that momentum into the game against Washington and won, the team would have come into the game against Nashville just four points out of the playoffs. Instead, in the blink of an eye, Seattle experienced a three-point swing in the standings and allowed the negativity from that damning loss to sap their effort in the next two games. 

Now, it’s (all but) over. We know it, the Kraken know it, and at this point, I’m not even sure if there are exciting storylines to look forward to for the next month of Kraken hockey.

I think I need to go get some more exercise.

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.

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Updating the Kraken playoff chances for the first half of March

by Blaiz Grubic | Mar 15, 2024 | Kraken

When we first published our original article on the playoff chances of the Seattle Kraken back in January, we planned to provide updates monthly. But as the playoff picture is becoming clearer, we will update weekly going forward. We will review how the team did the previous week and look ahead to what they need to do in the upcoming week.

Unfortunately for Kraken fans, Seattle had a miserable week and lost in painful 5-4 overtime fashion to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, then 2-1 in regulation to the Washington Capitals in an uninspiring performance on Thursday.

Can the Kraken still make the playoffs?

Believe it or not, there is still reason for optimism that the Seattle Kraken can sneak into the playoffs.

1. According to tankathon.com, the Seattle Kraken have the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the NHL.
2. The Kraken have generally performed well against playoff-bound teams.
3. There are still three playoff spots within striking distance, both wild card spots and the third spot in the Pacific Division.
4. The Kraken have one or two games in hand on the teams ahead of them.

The Seattle Kraken do have a nearly impossible uphill climb to make the playoffs at this point. They are nine points behind both Vegas and Los Angeles and will need one of Vegas, Nashville, or Los Angeles to start losing. Vegas is 3-6-1 in their last 10 and is the most likely candidate. I am also not sold that Nashville is as good as its current win streak implies.

With the Golden Knights losing to Calgary on Thursday, it’s easy to imagine how different Seattle’s situation would be if the team could have figured out ways to win both Tuesday and Thursday in regulation. Blowing a two-goal lead and giving Vegas two points, then coming up empty against Washington was a five-point swing in the wrong direction for the Kraken, who would be just four measly points from a wild card spot on Friday if they had gotten those victories.

Review of team categorization and win percentage targets

As you might remember from the original article, we’ve broken the NHL teams down into three categories: Playoff Bound, Bubble, and Tankers.

• Playoff Bound – Teams that should make the playoffs, those near the top of the standings. The Kraken’s target was 45 percent of points against these teams.
• Bubble – Teams fighting to make the playoffs, most likely as wild cards. The Kraken’s target was to get 65 percent of these points.
• Tankers – Teams most likely to miss the playoffs, should be Seattle’s easiest opponents. The Kraken needed 90 percent of these points.

The team categorizations have had some changes since January. The only change this week is Vegas has moved down to a Bubble team. The teams that are bolded are teams against which the Kraken have a remaining game.

Point percentages

We set point percentage targets for each team categorization back in January. Here is how the Seattle Kraken have been doing against each group, since Jan. 1.

• Playoff – 5-3-1 – .611 point percentage
• Bubble – 4-6-3 – .423 point percentage
• Tankers – 5-1-0 – .833 point percentage
• Overall – 14-10-3 – .574 point percentage

The Kraken are doing really well against Playoff and Tanker teams, but struggling against the Bubble teams. This has to end now if they want to have any hope to even apply pressure to the teams in wild card spots. Even though the Kraken have struggled against the Bubble teams, they have almost followed the pace of 93 points, and using the target percentages, the Kraken are currently on pace for 92 points.

93 points

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.”

Using this average, 93 points has been what Sound Of Hockey established as the target. Will 93 points be enough to get into the playoffs this year? It is starting to look like the 2023-24 season will require more than the average. Let’s look at where Vegas, Nashville, and Los Angeles are trending for their final season point total:

• Vegas Golden Knights – 88-97 points (16 games remaining)
• Nashville Predators – 96-98 points (15 games remaining)
• Los Angeles Kings – 96-97 points (17 games remaining)

The season point total projection ranges are calculated taking the point percentage for the season and for the last 10 games to give a range. For the Nashville Predators, who are on an 11-game unbeaten streak, the point percentage before the streak started was used for the low total.

If these teams continue on their season points percentage pathways, the line would become 97 points to grab a wild card spot. With tie-breakers, 98 points would pretty much guarantee the Kraken a spot, but that is definitely a tall order. The Kraken would need to get 30 out of 36 remaining possible points, and that is unlikely.

Despite their comeback win over Seattle on Tuesday, the Golden Knights have been slumping as of late, going 3-6-1 in their last 10 games for a .350 point percentage. Vegas needs to turn its play around quickly, as the low end of its point projection (88 points) is within striking distance for multiple teams, including the Kraken.

For this week, we will leave the target at 93 points, but based on how Vegas does over the next week, we might increase the target.

What has happened this month

Overall, the Kraken have done ok, going 2-3-1 against some stiff competition. The losses did sting with a shutout loss to the Jets, a heart-breaking overtime loss to the Golden Knights, and one-goal losses to the Capitals and Oilers.

• Mar. 2 – Loss 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers
• Mar. 4 – Win 4-2 against the Calgary Flames
• Mar. 5 – Win 4-3 against the Winnipeg Jets
• Mar. 8 – Loss 3-0 against the Winnipeg Jets
• Mar. 12 – Overtime Loss 5-4 against the Vegas Golden Knights
• Mar. 14 – Loss 2-1 against the Washington Capitals

The Kraken also lost two players to injury this month. Vince Dunn is out with an upper-body injury, though he could return soon, and Jaden Schwartz has an undisclosed injury and has not been seen skating.

The Kraken also traded center Alex Wennberg to the New York Rangers on March 6. Jared McCann has stepped into the second-line center role and has exceeded expectations, but still, losing Wennberg did make the team significantly thinner. Playing in five games as a pivot, McCann has six points, including two short-handed goals.

Upcoming week (March 15-21)

The good news is the Kraken have the easiest schedule in the league, meaning we should hopefully start seeing some wins pile up. Here is a look at the games coming up this week:

• March 16 – Nashville Predators (Bubble… but on a tear)
• March 18 – Buffalo Sabres (Tanker)
• March 21 – Vegas Golden Knights (Bubble)

The Kraken pretty much have to go 3-0-0 this week, but the target win percentages are based on the rest of the season, so there can be some losses before the end of the campaign. The games against Nashville and Vegas are especially important, though, as not only are the two points crucial for the Kraken, but not giving either of those teams points is equally important. If the Kraken are able to run the table this week, they would be back on pace for 94 points. Then next week (Mar. 22-28), the Kraken play four tanker teams, which could still (even after all the misery this past week) set them up for a last-gasp playoff push.

Overall

With the Kraken having a much easier schedule these next couple weeks, I definitely have some optimism (maybe too much) on what they can accomplish. But the players have to want it, and they have to come out every night treating every game as a playoff game. They said the right things earlier this week, but their effort on Thursday against Washington did not scream desperation.

With 17 games remaining and nine of them against Tanker teams, the Kraken have an opportunity for some wins. They have been getting solid goaltending out of both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord since the new year.

If the Kraken can piece together some offense and string a few victories, they can put pressure on those wild card teams ahead of them.

Kraken Notebook – The players still believe, Burakovsky has started scoring

by Darren Brown | Mar 14, 2024 | Kraken

If you were feeling down after that soul-crushing 5-4 Kraken overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, we’re here to tell you that you’re not alone. Seattle’s players were also devastated after the defeat, which ended miserably with the Golden Knights rallying back from two down—including scoring the tying goal with 16 seconds left—and winning it on a Jack Eichel breakaway in overtime. 

With the context of where Seattle sits in the standings after the loss, nine points behind Vegas for the last wild card spot, it definitely felt like a season-killing loss. 

“It’s been tough sledding,” goalie Joey Daccord said. “I think this whole year, I feel like we’ve been taking two steps forward, one step back, you know? We kind of had a good run there, won a couple games in a row, won two huge games on the back-to-back [against Calgary and Winnipeg], and it’s like everything’s going the right way. And then we lose a couple in a row, and it feels like the end of the world.”

What the Kraken and their fans are experiencing now is the consequence of inconsistent play earlier in the season. By allowing losing streaks to pile up all the way into the beginning of February, and by failing to close out a slew of in-the-bag games during the course of the campaign, now every missed opportunity for a regulation win could be the last straw. The Vegas loss on Tuesday was another one of those missed chances. 

“When you’re leading 4-2 with… I don’t know, what was it, five minutes to go? And you end up getting only a point?” Tatar said. “This is disappointing.” 

**Author’s note: The response goal from William Karlsson to make it 4-3 came with 7:37 remaining, but still, it was a two-goal lead in the third period that should have stood up.

The team knows it was a bad hit to the postseason chances, which have now dwindled all the way down to 10.1 percent, according to MoneyPuck. Even so, after chatting with several Kraken players on Wednesday, we do genuinely believe they are far from giving up on this season. 

“This is all up and down,” Tatar said. “Like, we won those two games in a row, and then things all of a sudden look very reachable. Now we lose, it kind of slips away. I mean, at the end of the day, we know how many points will get you in, and we’re still in that race. There are two big games [ahead against Washington and Nashville], you just have to do the job.”

“The next one”

From speaking with Daccord, Tatar, and Andre Burakovsky, we got a consistent message that the group still believes it can make the playoffs, even though it would take a minor miracle for that to happen. (Some back-of-the-envelope math tells us the Kraken would need to win about 14 of their last 18 games and get some help from at least one of the teams they’re chasing.) They also all indicated that the focus for the team needs to be on what is happening right here and now. 

“We focus on the next one,” Burakovsky said. “We can’t look ahead at where we’re playing in a week or whatever. We need to focus on the next one, win that one, and move on to the next one. Take the good parts from the next game, and move that into the next one.

“There’s a lot of games to play, we’ve got 18 left or something [like that]. We just need to win. I think overall, [Tuesday] was a good game, and we should have had that one, for sure. Unfortunately, we only got one point, but there’s a lot of points to work for, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Daccord added that getting too caught up in the standings and scoreboard watching can get in the players’ heads, especially when they see those teams they’re chasing continuing to find success. 

“The next game, the next period, the next shift, whatever it may be, you’ve just got to stay focused and stay present with the task at hand,” Daccord said. 

Not throwing in the towel

Of course, a professional hockey player would have to say all these things, because that’s what they’re expected to do in these scenarios. They can’t answer a question about how they feel about a team’s playoff chances with something like, “Oh, we have no shot,” or “There’s no way we’re getting out of this hole.” 

With that in mind, it’s easy to question how wholeheartedly the players believe their own words when they talk about their drive to stay in the race. Even so, there was a certain sincerity in the sentiments of the players, especially from Daccord, who always makes you want to run through a wall. 

“We’ve been through a lot of adversity this year, and it hasn’t gone our way as much as we would have liked, but I think we’re never going to give up, no matter what,” Daccord said. “And we’re just going to keep fighting as hard as we can, and at the end of the day, when all the chips are down, we’ll see where we end up… We’re a very competitive group, and we’re going to work our tails off to the very end.”

Burakovsky producing 

Last week, our own Blaiz Grubic wrote an article on Burakovsky’s struggles this season. In it, he indicated that the winger’s play had improved in the last 10 games or so, and that his goal last Tuesday in Winnipeg that got him off the schneid could open the floodgates. 

It’s hard to say if the floodgates are officially “open” at this point, but Burakovsky did score his second goal in three games Tuesday and said he could sense that he had been playing better hockey well before finally breaking his 18-game goalless streak.

“I have been making plays for a while and skating good and just being a little bit [unlucky with a lof of] posts and out for me,” Burakovsky said. “I want to help the team win games, and like I said, I’ve been feeling great for a while. And I mean, I don’t think because I’m scoring in the last three, it doesn’t reflect that I’m playing better. I’ve been feeling confident and playing good hockey for quite some time now. The goals have started going in for me now, and that’s basically the only difference.”

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.

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Jordan Eberle set to play in his 1000th game

by Blaiz Grubic | Mar 12, 2024 | Kraken

Jordan Eberle is set to play his 1000th NHL game on Tuesday when the Seattle Kraken face the Vegas Golden Knights. He will be the second player to hit this milestone while playing with the Kraken, but the first to do it in front of a home crowd. Mark Giordano accomplished this career achievement during the team’s inaugural season, just before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

1000 games milestone

According to NHL.com, 8512 players and goaltenders, have played at least one regular-season game since 1963. Eberle will become only 393rd player to achieve 1000 regular-season games played, meaning less than five percent of NHL players are able to make this claim. The Canadian-born right winger currently sits at 695 points for his career.

It should be noted that the 1000 games-played milestone is measured in regular-season games only. Eberle has played in 76 post-season contests, which are not included in this total. The mile marker will come in Eberle’s 14th NHL season and third with the Kraken.

Time to celebrate

When a player hits 1,000, both NHL clubs and teammates typically join in the celebration. Teammates traditionally get a gift for the player, and for Giordano, Kraken players gifted a Rolex watch. Sometimes, there are also shenanigans afoot. The Pittsburgh Penguins, for example, mimicked the warm-up routines for both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in advance of those two players reaching 1,000 games played.

NHL clubs traditionally gift the player a commemorative silver stick and sometimes silver mini-sticks for the player’s children. The Kraken honored Giordano and family with silver sticks, as well as a special jersey with No. 1000, and a ceremony with a tribute video. We don’t expect this ceremony to happen Tuesday.

Eberle’s path to 1000

Edmonton Oilers – 507 games

While playing for his hometown Regina Pats of the WHL, Eberle was drafted No. 22 overall in 2008 by the Edmonton Oilers. He continued to develop his game at the junior level before making the jump to the NHL in the 2010-11 season.

It did not take long for the rookie to make an impact, scoring his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on Oct. 7, 2010. It was a short-handed, highlight reel goal.

His first goal was so good, TSN made a spoof about:

Eberle played 507 games, served as an alternate captain for five years, and scored 382 points (165-217–382) for the Oilers. Edmonton only made the playoffs once during his seven years and decided a change was needed. Eberle was traded to the New York Islanders for Ryan Strome on June 22, 2017.

After he left Edmonton, the Oilers created the following tribute video for him:

It was learned during his first playoff appearance with the Islanders that Eberle’s playoff beard is on point.

New York Islanders – 272 games

Eberle’s role in New York had similarities to his time with the Kraken. The right wing was linemates with a new kid in town, Mathew Barzal, from the Seattle Thunderbirds. The rookie center won the Calder Trophy with Eberle on his wing, similar to what happened with Matty Beniers in his first NHL season with the Kraken.

Eberle scored 169 points (76-93–169) during his four years with New York, which also made the Stanley Cup Playoffs three of the four years he was on the team. Twice they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning both seasons. In the 2019-20 season, the Isles lost to the Lightning in six games, and in 2020-21, they lost in seven games.

Eberle’s biggest goal for the Islanders came with no fans in attendance due to the pandemic and the playoffs being held in bubble cities. In Game 5 of the 2019-20 Eastern Conference Finals, with elimination on the line, Eberle one-timed a pass off a rush from Islanders captain Anders Lee in double overtime to force Game 6.

Eberle left New York via the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. The Islanders were coming off two straight Conference Finals appearances, which meant they had a solid team and had to expose some good players. It was originally thought that Eberle was going to be protected by the Islanders, but when the lists were released, Eberle was available. The Seattle Kraken smartly selected the right winger as their pick from New York.

Seattle Kraken – 220 games and counting

Eberle has 144 points (55-89–144) with the Seattle Kraken, tied for second in franchise history. He has been an alternate captain for the club since the inaugural season in 2021-22 and is a calming presence in the locker room.

Coming to Seattle

Eberle was one of the six players that scrambled to make it to Seattle for the Expansion Draft, after finding out he had been selected. Here is Eberle’s first interview with Everett Fitzhugh after being drafted by the Seattle Kraken:

Eberle has been a key player for the Kraken in his three seasons here and has had some memorable moments in Deep Sea Blue. He agreed to a two-year, $9.5 million extension just hours before the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday.

Kraken highlights

Eberle scored the game-winner in Game 4 against Colorado, giving the Kraken their first playoff win at Climate Pledge Arena.

Eberle has been known throughout his career for his backhand shot, and these just might be two of his is best:

What it means

Playing in 1000 games in the NHL is an amazing achievement from a lifetime of dedication to the sport of Hockey. From the Sound Of Hockey team, congratulations Jordan Eberle on your 1000th game!

Details on when a ceremony will be held for Eberle have not been announced by the Seattle Kraken yet, but expect something in the next few home games.