From the hottest of scoops to the coldest of beers, Sound Of Hockey has all the latest news from the Seattle Kraken and beyond in this edition of Weekly One-Timers.
It’s been another week of somewhat significant stories around the hockey world, so sit back, relax, crack open a cold one if you can (it is Friday after all), and let’s get you caught up on what’s happening on and off the ice.
Seattle Kraken final NHL payment update
Sound Of Hockey has confirmed via email from a team representative that the Seattle Kraken have not yet made their final payment to the NHL.
In 2017, the Vegas Golden Knights signed their first free agent, Reid Duke, on March 6. This means that they would have submitted their final payment on or before that date. Astute readers would notice that we are now past that date, so the Kraken are behind the Vegas timeline.
Seattle can make no such signings until that final payment is made. This is notable because college and some European league seasons are ending. When the NCAA season concludes, there is always a clamoring by NHL teams to sign the best players that slipped through undrafted, so unless the Kraken complete that last transaction soon, there is a chance they could miss out on some of those prospects.
The team also cannot vote on issues brought to the league’s Board of Governors, such as whether or not to move the NHL Entry Draft, which has been discussed at length recently.
The payment will of course get made in due time, and it really is nothing to worry about for Kraken fans. As the team confirmed this is on schedule, though exactly where final payment falls on that schedule was not disclosed.
That last payment is the final milestone for the team to hit before real hockey transactions can begin.
Silver Bullets in Seattle
In my college days, I drank a lot of light beers. Miller Light, Bud Light, Busch Light, Michelob Golden Light, Milwaukee’s Best Light, Natural Light, something called Beer 30 Light… You know, good stuff!
For whatever reason, though, I was just never a huge fan of Coors Light.
My beer palate has become quite refined as I’ve aged, but my general dissatisfaction after a Coors Light—regardless of the blueness of the can’s mountains—remains in tact. So, you can imagine my dismay when the Seattle Kraken announced that they had come to an agreement with Molson Coors to make Coors Light the official domestic beer partner for both the team and Climate Pledge Arena.
Thankfully for hopheads like myself, there will be other options available at Kraken games, as Hop Valley Brewing—also a Molson Coors entity—will provide craftier options. Phew!
Read all about the deal and what it means for the gameday experience here.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I shall take a break to enjoy a refreshing and completely flavorless Natural Light, or as I like to call it, a naughty water.
Mainstream Kraken
Ok, now that I’ve been refreshed with an ice-cold naughty water, I’m ready to watch Steven A. Smith talk about the Kraken.
Aaawwwwwww Sugar Crackers! Your Boy’s about to get into Hockey. Yes! HOCKEY!!! Check me out! pic.twitter.com/8Sr4ERzTjS
In a peculiar way, this man shouting at us is why the NHL going back to ESPN is so important for the league. ESPN still has the ears and eyes of the sports fan, and the network has been doing its damnedest to make hockey disappear from the sports lexicon since the league took its talents to something called the Outdoor Life Network in 2005.
But ESPN, ABC, and the NHL announced a new seven-year deal this week. The agreement will bring 25 regular-season games back to those networks starting just in time for the Kraken’s inaugural puck drop, plus playoff games and NHL All-Star Games. Additionally, the out-of-market content we now stream from NHL.tv will be moved to ESPN+.
In all, the deal is reportedly worth $2.8 billion.
It still is not all that easy to find anything about the NHL on ESPN.com, though, so here’s hoping that changes as the self-proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports” re-embraces the game we love so dearly.
Now, give me Gary Thorne calling hockey, or give me death.
NWHL to award Isobel Cup after all
The NWHL’s Lake Placid bubble burst at the beginning of February, abruptly curbing the momentum that was building for the league. When that happened, most in the hockey world assumed that was the last we would see of the league and its players this season.
It was a good try, and the tournament gave the NWHL a nice moment in the sun, but the pandemic had won. It was time to head home and just wait it out until this COVID thing subsides, and then we can start fresh next season.
Wrong!
The league announced this week that it will still award the Isobel Cup to a champion, after four qualifying teams—the Toronto Six, Boston Pride, Minnesota Whitecaps, and Connecticut Whale—battle it out March 26 and 27 at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, Mass.
One of the most disappointing aspects of the bubble (or “Whubble” as it became more commonly called) bursting was that the NWHL was on the verge of having games nationally televised for the first time ever when it was forced to shut down.
These newly announced games will be carried on NBC Sports, though, giving the league and women’s hockey another opportunity to shine on a national stage. It’s fantastic news all around.
You Don’t See That Every Day
Former Tri-City Americans defenseman, Dylan Coghlan, entered Wednesday night’s game for the Golden Knights with zero career NHL goals. He left with three.
Artemi Panarin returned to the New York Rangers after a leave of absence that began on Feb. 22. The superstar forward stepped away from the team after he was accused of assaulting a young woman in 2011 during his time playing in the KHL. The unsubstantiated allegations came on the heels of Panarin expressing support for Alexei Navalny, the leader of the opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Justin Bieber wrote a “love letter” to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Please don’t tell any of my colleagues here at Sound Of Hockey, but I kind of love it.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
It’s a super fun episode this week, as the Sound Of Hockey Podcast welcomes Seattle Thunderbirds general manager Bil La Forge.
With Bil, the guys discuss his journey to become a WHL GM. They also talk about what he looks for when scouting players, being that he has to focus on kids that are so early in their development, and what we should expect from the T-Birds in this shortened season. It’s a fun interview that is well worth a listen.
Also in this episode, the guys talk women’s hockey – specifically the return of the NWHL and the PWHPA’s Dream Gap games – and the hiring of Darryl Sutter (again) in Calgary. And of course, oodles of general NHL talk, which you will surely enjoy.
Segments include Get Off My Lawn, Bad Boys, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
There are plenty of good laughs to be had in this one.
The NHL’s condensed schedule will prove challenging for teams down the stretch, especially those impacted by COVID and play stoppages. For this week’s Data Dump Saturday, I look at just how the condensed schedule is impacting outcomes around the NHL.
Average rest days
To evaluate how the condensed schedules impact team performance, we will look at rest days between games. Rest days will be defined as the number of days a team does not play. For example, if a team plays on Thursday, then Saturday, then that team plays Saturday’s game with one rest day. Back-to-back games means zero rest days.
Here is a look at the average rest days between games by team (as of Friday’s games).
Teams hit by COVID outbreaks that resulted in play stoppages are the teams with the highest average rest days between games.
Of course, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Here is how the remainder of the season looks as teams that were sidelined earlier in the campaign will make up those games in the second half.
Back-to-backs in the condensed NHL schedule
Obviously one way to condense a season is to play more back-to-back games. The original schedule had several back-to-backs littered through every team’s schedule with the goal of fitting 56 games for all teams without moving the end date of the regular season. Once the season began, however, the teams that were shut down temporarily due to COVID outbreaks subsequently required even more back-to-back games. Buffalo, Dallas, and Philadelphia are a couple of the teams with extended shutdowns.
Here is a look at how many back-to-back games have been played this season so far and how many remain on the second half of the schedule.
Conventional wisdom would have one believe that teams playing back-to-back games would be at a disadvantage when playing a team with at least one rest day due to energy levels of players. I looked at the data through Friday’s games to confirm this.
Conventional wisdom is correct. Teams on a back-to-back playing a team with at least one rest day since their last game have a slightly lower point percentage at .531. There are only 16 games where this scenario played out, so the sample size is a bit small to make any hard conclusions.
To wrap up, here is a bit of a heat map of the rest days by team by week. Blue indicates more rest days while red indicates fewer rest days.
It will be interesting to see if teams with fewer rest days will prove to underperform against teams with more rest days in the second half of the season. The other thing to keep an eye on is the impact of rest days heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and into the opening rounds.
Things get off the rails pretty quickly on this one, as the guys discuss Jordan Binnington’s bizarre display this past week against the San Jose Sharks. They then move on to Kraken news, specifically the announcement that the team is pitching in to save the University of Alaska Anchorage hockey program.
Full sequence here. Binnington went after 3 guys. Received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pic.twitter.com/18a20idIcS
You’ll also get a pretty robust WHL Update from WHL correspondent Andy Eide and a recap of the PWHPA Dream Gap game. That recap leads to a rare Get Off My Lawn segment led by John.
The guys also discuss John’s Mock Expansion Draft, Claude Julien’s firing by the Canadiens, and much more.
Bits this week include Three Stars. Segments include Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
It didn’t take Dylan Guenther long to make up for lost time. In fact, it took less than two minutes. At the 1:47 mark of the Edmonton Oil Kings’ season opener Friday, the 2021 NHL Draft prospect banged home a power-play goal.
He was just getting started.
With the Western Hockey League back on the ice after nearly a year-long hiatus, Guenther’s hot start is solidifying him as one of the top prospects for July’s draft. He may be a player the Seattle Kraken have circled to be their first pick ever.
Guenther followed the early marker with an assist 45 seconds later and would finish the game with a pair of scores and two assists. The next night he matched those totals to earn the season’s first WHL Player of the Week award with eight points in two games.
If you talked to him 24 hours before the season opener you wouldn’t be surprised.
“Everyone is super excited to play and we have a lot of adrenaline,” he said the night before. “The guys will be buzzing on the first couple of shifts.”
The WHL is playing a shortened 24-game season focused on player development. Winning games is still important – and the Oil Kings started 2-0 – but so is being seen by NHL scouts for a guy like Guenther.
Waiting around to play has been stressful for everyone involved. It’s Guenther’s draft year, he needed to be seen by scouts, needed them to see the step he has taken after an impressive rookie campaign where he scored 26 goals.
“The whole uncertainty of the year was leaning on my shoulders a bit,” Guenther, 17, admitted. “I felt that, but I think I took that time to better myself and better my game and I’m excited about that.”
Dylan Guenther by the numbers
Playing in the WHL at 16-years-old is tough.
The jump from minor hockey to playing with NHL prospects can be a monumental one, but it’s one that Guenther made with ease last year. It helped that the 6-foot-1 winger had a brief call-up at the end of the previous season. He not only got his feet wet but produced by scoring three goals – including a game-winner – in eight games.
Last year he exploded. Along with the 26 goals he piled up 33 assists for 59 points in 58 games on the way to winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award. He chipped in on the power play as well, scoring eight times with nine assists.
Being considered for the top of a draft is not a new experience for the Edmonton native. The Oil Kings selected him with the first overall pick in the WHL’s Bantam Draft in 2018.
“Going into the Western League draft I just tried to play my game to the best of my ability,” Guenther said. “Just blocking out the outside attention is important. This is obviously a much bigger scale, but I think if I play my game and play the right way everything will fall into place at the end.”
What kind of player is he?
Speed, skill, with a scoring touch are attributes that describe Guenther’s game. He sees the ice well and can distribute the puck.
He has played on the wing with the Oil Kings but says that he can, and is comfortable, playing as a center.
“I’m a guy who plays with speed and I see the ice well,” Guenther said about his game. “I think my hockey IQ is the strongest part of my game, whether its finding open ice to jump into or creating space myself to score goals. I’m an offensive player. I have to work on my strength, with that will be my play along the boards.
“Skating is something I’m always looking to get better at. The game is always getting faster so that’s something I’m always looking to improve on.”
He’s the kind of player that puts pressure on the defense and attracts defenders to him.
That was on display Friday night with the play below. His teammate, St. Louis Blues prospect Jake Neighbours, takes a hit to get the puck to Guenther along the boards. Three defenders skate towards Guenther which leaves a teammate wide open in the slot.
Guenther easily flips the puck across ice, past the defenders for his mate to score an easy goal. Pick your poison with this guy.
The old adage "take a hit to make a play" has never rung more true for Jake Neighbours. But it pays off for the @EdmOilKings. pic.twitter.com/OII8UtmXhd
“I really like Dylan,” one NHL scout says. “He plays with really good speed and loves to attack the net off the rush. Along with that he plays a responsible three-zone game.”
The Kraken are promised a pick in the top six of the upcoming NHL Draft, depending on how the lottery balls bounce.
A lot of scrutiny and pressure comes with being a top prospect and he heard from 15 to 20 teams over the offseason. He’s playing with a couple of players, such as Neighbours who was selected by the Blues in the first round of last year’s draft, which will make it easier.
“It helps having a couple guys go through it before you,” Guenther said. “Just the way they handle themselves both on and off the ice. They conduct themselves like pros and that’s something I like to do and something I learned off them.”
These 24-games will be big for Guenther’s future.
He’ll finally be seen by scouts after waiting a year. He probably won’t continue at a four-point-per-game pace, but his skill will be on display and Edmonton is poised to win a lot of games.
How high he goes remains to be determined and he has no preference as to which team selects him. That team could be Seattle, which would make Guenther a part of Kraken history as the first-ever pick by the league’s newest franchise.
“The thought of that is crazy,” Guenther said. “An expansion team, I remember when they got announced. It’s super exciting. I remember their whole process. They have a logo and I really like the logo. It’s cool. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I’ve heard it’s a nice city. That would be pretty cool.”
It has been another relatively quiet week on the Seattle Kraken front, and around the Seattle sports scene in general there has been practically no news or semblance of significant controversy [slams door just in time to fend off barrage of rotten vegetables, daggers, and pitchforks].
There have been some major bombshells heard from around the rest of the hockey world, though, so those will be the focus of this edition of Weekly One-Timers. For the Kraken-minded reader, here are a couple items to at least whet your appetite because again, we know there hasn’t been much to talk about for Seattle sports fans.
What an odd ride the last six months have been for Claude Julien. In August, he was hospitalized with chest pains which led to him missing the entire NHL playoff bubble. In October, general manager Marc Bergevin made several huge splashes to improve the Canadiens. With newly acquired Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, and Jake Allen under his watch, Julien returned to training camp in January with elevated expectations. Fast forward a month and change, and Julien is out the door, despite the Habs getting off to a hot start and despite them still sitting in a playoff spot.
What happened?
Well, in 2019-2020, the Habs nosedived into a few pits from which they never could fully emerge, highlighted by two separate eight-game losing streaks. In 2021, after they came out looking like world-beaters in the early going, Bergevin saw the Canadiens heading into another one of those holes. After the team lost six of eight including its last three in a row under Julien, Bergevin decided to take a proactive approach to stopping the bleeding. Assistant coach Kirk Muller was also issued a pink slip.
Julien is replaced in an interim basis by Dominique Ducharme, 47, who has been at Julien’s side since 2018. He is viewed as a progressive coach that will bring a new philosophy to Montreal’s bench.
Julien to the Seattle Kraken?
So will Julien be the first head coach in Seattle Kraken history? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s the extent of our conjecturing at this point.
But seriously, he will likely at least get considered for the job. Julien has 18 years of NHL head coaching experience that consists of two stints with the Canadiens, a brief stop in New Jersey, and 10 years behind Boston’s bench. His Bruins also hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2010-2011, and he boasts a career record of 667-445-152.
We at SOH do believe Seattle will select somebody with NHL head coaching experience as its first benchboss, and the team has made no bones about being patient until the right candidate becomes available. Is Julien that guy?
Artemi Panarin allegations are questionable
The other whopper of a story this week was New York Rangers superstar Artemi Panarin taking a leave of absence after being accused of assaulting a young woman in Riga, Latvia, in 2011. The claim comes from Panarin’s former KHL coach, Andrei Nazarov.
While most reports of this manner result in society quickly piling on athletes and celebrities and finding them guilty in the court of public perception, the opposite has happened here. Instead, countless journalists and former teammates and even the Rangers themselves have rushed to support Panarin, calling the accusations fabricated.
Well, Panarin has spoken out against Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past. On Jan. 21, Panarin posted on his Instagram in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who survived an attempted poisoning while traveling abroad. Navalny eventually returned to Russia and was promptly jailed by Putin’s regime upon arrival. His arrest led to mass protests throughout Russia.
This is pretty significant: New York Rangers superstar forward Artemi Panarin showing support for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny ahead of planned Saturday protests all over Russia. Hashtags this Instagram post “Freedom for Navalny” https://t.co/9rwcP87oKKpic.twitter.com/8zZyjEjOeO
And wouldn’t you know? Coach Nazarov happens to be a staunch Putin supporter. VICE News had a fantastic write-up on the fascinating and generally bizarre story.
NHL Outdoors was a disaster… But then it wasn’t!
The ice melted. Hand up, I’ll admit it. I did not see that coming.
Through the first period of the Avalanche versus Golden Knights on Saturday, ruts in the ice were horrible, guys were falling all over the place, and play was generally slow and choppy.
So, the league made the very tough call to postpone until 9PM Pacific that night, and also to push back the start of Sunday’s game between Boston and Philadelphia until the evening.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the remainder of today's #NHLOutdoors game at Lake Tahoe will resume tonight at 9pm PTpic.twitter.com/cOGVvVzyFz
In the end, it still was a great event, even with what some would perceive as an embarrassing eight-hour delay in the middle of the first game. The visuals were still stunning, the off-ice coverage was fun to consume, and the Flyers-Bruins game was the most-watched regular-season game ever to air on NBCSN.
Stealing the show was undoubtedly Gritty, who took in the sights of Lake Tahoe, shredded some gnar, and even crashed a wedding.
We can’t help feeling bad for Blades the Bruin, who played second fiddle to his Philadelphian counterpart all weekend, earning just a small fraction of Gritty’s recognition. Blades did have the last laugh when the Bruins beat the Flyers 7-3 on Sunday, though.
WHL schedule released
The WHL announced the full schedule for its US Division’s abbreviated season. The Seattle Thunderbirds will open on March 19 at home against the Spokane Chiefs. The Everett Silvertips will open the following night also at home and also against Spokane. The season will last until early May, and there will not be any playoffs.
Fans will not be allowed to attend games in person, but the WHL did announce a new streaming service through CHL TV that will allow viewing access to all scheduled WHL games. WHL Live, as it’s called, is $59.99 for the full season or $6.99 for a 24-hour pass. If you are a WHL fiend, remember, the Central Division starts play on Friday, so you’ll immediately have something to watch.
Seth Jarvis is good at hockey, Dustin Wolf bounces back
Typically, 19-year-old CHL players are ineligible to play in the AHL until their CHL season ends. But with the ongoing pandemic leaving major junior hockey in limbo for so long, the leagues made an unprecedented agreement to allow those that had signed entry-level pro contracts to temporarily level up until their respective CHL teams return.
Portland’s Seth Jarvis was selected in the first round of this year’s NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes. While he waits for his Winterhawks to return to play, he has been allowed to compete for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he has been very impressive. Despite playing his first professional hockey, Jarvis already has six goals and three assists in just seven games.
Everett’s Dustin Wolf—selected in 2019 by the Calgary Flames—has been suiting up for the Stockton Heat. Wolf made his debut on Sunday and got shellacked by the Toronto Marlies, allowing five goals on just 11 shots. We’re happy to share that the friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast recovered beautifully in his next appearance, stopping 36 of 38 shots to earn his first professional win and first-star honors.
Wolf and Jarvis will return to the WHL when their teams start back up in March.
The King is back
Oh, you thought you had seen the last of Henrik Lundqvist’s dashing good looks after he said he wouldn’t play this season because of a heart condition? Well, look who’s back on the ice after open-heart surgery!
Could you imagine looking this good while running? I certainly can’t.
Today is a good day. The checkup with the doctor this morning reaffirmed what I’ve been feeling last few weeks, everything looking great. It energized me so much I had to go out for a run (FYI, I’m not a runner) Today is a good day! 😃👍🏻#Stepbysteppic.twitter.com/AXrZzMDbts
The Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL will officially change its name (temporarily) to the Sioux Falls Fighting Wiener Dogs on Saturday. It’s the second time the team has performed this stunt, which comes in conjunction with the Sioux Nation Pet Clinic Wiener Dog Races. Get your Wiener Dog gear here!
Bruce Boudreau bought his second USPHL team over the summer, this one in Hershey, PA, his full-time home. The team has cleverly named itself the Hershey Cubs, and the logo is a thing of beauty.
The Cubs logo takes after the old Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA, for whom Boudreau played in the 1975-1976 season.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
