The first day of NHL free agency was quite busy across the league, but in Seattle, things remained relatively quiet. In fact, the Kraken saw more players leave their organization than they brought in, as all four of the team’s free agents found new homes Saturday.
Daniel Sprong signed with Detroit for one year at $2 million, Morgan Geekie signed with Boston for two years at $2 million average annual value, Ryan Donato signed with Chicago for two years at $2 million AAV, and Carson Soucy signed with Vancouver for three years at $3.25 million AAV.
The only addition Seattle made was a replacement for Soucy at left defense, signing 31-year-old Brian Dumoulin for two years at $3.15 million AAV.
With that movement, plenty of questions remain around how the rest of the Kraken lineup will round out for the 2023-24 season. With Saturday winding down, we heard from Kraken general manager Ron Francis. He touched on a variety of topics, including the team’s strategy for building out the rest of the roster and what it’s getting in Dumoulin.
What the Kraken get in Brian Dumoulin
Let’s start with the Dumoulin signing. After seeing Soucy get a $9.75 million contract with the Canucks, we understood the decision to let him walk. At face value, bringing in Dumoulin for similar dollars was perplexing, because if the team wanted a big-bodied, stay-at-home defenseman, why not just bring back the known quantity in Soucy?
Well, it sounds like the third year that Soucy desired on his contract may have been a factor.
“Where [Soucy] was at and where we thought he was going to go, it probably wasn’t the right fit for us moving forward,” said Francis. “We’ve got a pretty talented young player in Ryker Evans we think pushing, so it’s important when we build this thing that we’re not blocking Ryker moving forward too.”
That’s still confusing, because if Evans really is knocking on the door in training camp, he is now effectively blocked from making the team for at least this year and next year, assuming a long-term Vince Dunn extension gets done. Still, a two-year deal is more manageable than a three-year deal.
As for what Dumoulin brings to the table, he’s a 6-foot-4, 207-pound left-shot defenseman who has played all 10 of his NHL seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had one goal and 24 assists this season and played all 82 games. He also has familiarity with Francis from the early days of his career.
“I’m excited to get [Dumoulin],” said Francis. “It’s a small world; I started in player development once I retired in Carolina, and he was one of my projects back then.”
Dumoulin was drafted by the Hurricanes in the second round in 2009 but then got traded to Pittsburgh in 2012, where he won two Stanley Cups.
“He went on to have a great career in Pittsburgh, a two-time Stanley Cup champ, so we add that to our locker room,” Francis added. “[He’s a] terrific person and a real good player, so we think he helps us. Overall his game’s real solid.”
For Sprong, as we surmised, it was all about the case he could potentially bring if negotiations ended up in arbitration.
“Looking at the potential arb cases, we weren’t overly comfortable with that,” Francis said. “In Daniel’s case we thought it was good for him to go and test the market.”
As for Geekie, the situation was slightly different. Francis confirmed the team tried to re-sign him to an extension before the deadline for submitting qualifying offers, but Geekie turned it down. Once that happened, they chose not to qualify him, again so they wouldn’t end up paying more than they were comfortable with in arbitration.
“With Morgan, we did make what I felt was a pretty fair offer,” said Francis. “It didn’t work out, and he has the right once we don’t qualify him to go elsewhere.”
Francis also heaped praise on Ryan Donato, who left as an unrestricted free agent, saying Donato called Saturday to thank the organization for the opportunity to play in Seattle. “Just a class kid and a true professional,” said Francis.
Contract negotiations ongoing
As for the players Seattle did qualify Friday, all four of Vince Dunn, Will Borgen, Cale Fleury, and Kole Lind also have arbitration rights. We don’t think the team is terribly concerned about the cases of Fleury and Lind, but Dunn and Borgen could be tricky.
Francis and Dunn have previously indicated interest in getting a long-term deal done, but so far things remain in process. Dunn is in line to become the highest-paid player on the Kraken. As for Borgen, he emerged as a key piece on Seattle’s blue line this season and played all 82 games. He will surely command a significant raise over his previous $900K salary.
“We’ve had conversations with both camps,” said Francis. “We’ll continue to do that. We’ll find out if they choose arbitration and what those dates are, and we’ll continue to negotiate. If we get something done before then, great. If not, then we’ll go to arbitration and make adjustments after we find out what the rulings are.”
As with Dunn, we suspect the Kraken would want Borgen back beyond next season, so getting a multi-year deal done to avoid arbitration would be beneficial.
Meanwhile, Francis also implied the team would like to extend the contract of Matty Beniers this offseason and said he had already chatted briefly about it with Beniers’s agent, Pat Brisson. He expects real negotiations will begin later in the summer.
The Kraken aren’t done
Even though Saturday ended up quiet in Seattle, we do not believe the Kraken will sit on their hands (or tentacles?) for the rest of the offseason.
“I still think there may be things that come down the line, but I think a lot of things happened quick today,” said Francis. “We’ll sit sort of tight here and see what happens and what may open up over the next few days.”
Remember, the trade for Oliver Bjorkstrand came 10 days after free agency opened last offseason, once Columbus put itself over the salary cap by signing Johnny Gaudreau. With a full forward line worth or roster spots now open and plenty of cap space, Francis likes how the team is set up in case an opportunity presents itself.
“We got pretty fortunate last year with Oliver Bjorkstrand,” said Francis. “I’m not saying that’s going to happen again, but we are in a position where we can take advantage of something if it shakes loose.”
And if something like that doesn’t come to fruition? The Kraken still have young players fighting for roster spots in Tye Kartye, Shane Wright, and Lind and a prospect pipeline that got a big boost at this week’s draft.
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.
It has been a while since we have done a round of Musings, but with a crazy week ahead across the league, I thought it was time I dusted off the template and shared some thoughts before we head into the NHL Entry Draft and then free agency.
Managing expectations of NHL Entry Draft prospects
The first round of the NHL Entry Draft kicks off Wednesday as 32 of the best draft-eligible hockey players in the world will hear their names called in Nashville. Rounds 2-7 will be Thursday starting at 8 a.m. Pacific. For the players that get selected, it is a remarkable accomplishment, even if a lot of them might not ever suit up for an NHL team. For those players that do eventually make it, there is still a long road ahead. To help manage everyone’s expectations, here is a quick refresher on the outlook of an NHL prospect.
First round of the NHL Entry Draft
The first round of the NHL Entry Draft is as close to a sure thing as it comes. 98 percent of NHL skaters drafted in the first round between 2010 and 2018 have played at least one NHL game and 81 percent of the first rounders played at least 100 games in the NHL.
Note that this visual excludes goalies drafted. Goalies are unique in terms of development time, and games played can be misleading since goalies can be in the NHL but not get credit for an official game played if they are serving as the backup.
Timing of first-round draft picks
When players make it to the NHL is another core component of setting expectations. Where a skater is drafted in the first round will correlate with the expected games played by season, but on the aggregate, the peak number of games played by a first-round draft pick will be around his sixth season after being drafted.
Assuming no trades that impact the Kraken’s first pick of the NHL Entry Draft, they will select 20th overall Wednesday. That means we should not expect Seattle’s first-round pick to play more than 25 games in the NHL until the 2025-26 season.
Other themes of the NHL entry draft
One of the biggest stories of the draft will be who drafts the Russian phenom, Matvei Michkov. There was a time when I remember people debating who would go No. 1, Michkov or Connor Bedard, but the world has changed since then. Michkov faced adversity and is proving to be enigmatic. Teams will need to evaluate the risk they are willing to take on by drafting Michkov, as there do seem to be a lot of questions about when he might make it to North America. Most prognosticators seem to think he doesn’t slip past eighth overall.
On that note, here is a look at the number of Russians drafted by team and round over the last three NHL Entry Drafts.
They released the Kraken… schedule
In case you missed it, the Kraken released their 2023-24 schedule. They will open in Vegas on Oct. 10, which will be the night the Golden Knights raise their Stanley Cup Championship banner. The home opener will be Oct. 17 against the Colorado Avalanche. The Kraken have the fewest back-to-back games in the league next season, which should be an advantage. During the 2022-23 season, the Kraken were 8-5-3 in the second game of a back-to-back scenario, though, so maybe this is a bad thing.
The Kraken will travel 49,572 miles this coming season which is 5,000 more miles than last season. 49,572 is fourth most behind Edmonton (53,902), Winnipeg (53,008), and Calgary (50,013).
Other Kraken Musings
The Kraken prospect pool is rather shallow at defense. We all like Ty Nelson (2022 third round) but of the drafted players, Ryker Evans (2021 second round) appears to be the only lock to eventually make the NHL.
On that note, if either of the Swedish defensemen of Tom Willander or Axel Sandin-Pellikka slip to the Kraken at No. 20, either of them will be hard to pass up.
The Kraken have never drafted a Swedish hockey play in the NHL Entry Draft.
It was fun to start entering Kraken game dates in my calendar this week. I have also started to circle a few away games on the schedule.
I wonder how many fans will be booing Cale Makar on opening night?
The Kraken have just three regular-season home games in October and a whopping 10 home games in March.
One of the rumored players on the trade block is Samuel Girard from the Colorado Avalanche. I would love to see Ron Francis pull another Oliver Bjorkstrand-like trade for Girard.
The Kraken re-signed defenseman Gustav Olofsson this week to a two-year, two-way deal for a league minimum of $775k AAV. Olofsson was steady for the few games when he got called up this season, but what I remember about him is his interaction with the fans when they were playing one of their AHL games at the Kraken Community Iceplex. He made a point to wave to kids on the glass and give fist bumps. Things you just love to see.
NHL clubs have until Friday to submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents. We have mentioned it multiple times, but we do not anticipate Daniel Sprong receiving a qualifying offer. Essentially, he played too well and priced himself out of re-signing with Kraken.
Morgan Geekie is the interesting pending RFA. We saw how shrewd Ron Francis can be when he did not qualify Ryan Donato and Sprong last season, only to re-sign them in free agency later in the summer. Could he do something similar with Geekie? If Geekie is not qualified, I do not see him coming back to Seattle.
There are seven days where the Kraken, Silvertips, and Thunderbirds are all playing home games.
The busy week ahead
It is going to be a busy week, so to help you (and myself) keep it all straight, here is the rundown.
6/28 – First Round of the NHL Entry Draft (ESPN)
6/29 – Rounds two through seven of the NHL Entry Draft (NHL Network)
6/30 – Qualifying offers due for all pending restricted free agents, buyout period ends
7/1 – NHL free agency period opens
7/1 – Seattle Kraken development camp starts
7/2 – Seattle Kraken development camp open to the public
7/5 – Seattle Kraken development camp 3-on-3 scrimmage open to the public
There is a lot going on right now, and we surely missed a few topics, but if there are any questions, thoughts, or areas you would like me to explore, leave a note in the comments section. Thank you for reading. Enjoy the draft, free agency, and development camp.
When the Coachella Valley Firebirds lost to the Hershey Bears in Game 7 of the AHL Calder Cup Finals last week, it also marked the end of Shane Wright’s long, winding season.
Wright’s first season with the Kraken organization started off rocky. He made the NHL roster out of training camp but then played just 13 total hockey games over a 70-day stretch. Eight of those were in the NHL, where he averaged just 8:29 of ice time. Many armchair experts were calling for his return to his junior team, and after being loaned to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship, Wright would eventually be sent back to the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL on Jan. 6. From the outside, it was looking in the early stages like the Kraken had botched Wright’s development out of the gate.
As 2022-23 went on, though, Wright ended up playing a lot more hockey across various levels, making up for the early season lapses. How did his season stack up against other players in his position over the past decade? We dug into the numbers to find out.
Looking at the breadth of the season
The season might have started off slowly for Wright, but he finished with 70 total games across the NHL, AHL, OHL, and World Juniors, thanks in large part to 23 AHL playoff games with the Firebirds. Is 70 games a lot for a player of Wright’s caliber and age? How does that compare to another player’s first season after being drafted?
Since 2013, 51 players have been drafted in the top 10 out of the CHL. When we isolate those 51 players, we can look at the number of games played across all leagues for those players.
Wright ended up just five games off the median number of games played (75) for this cohort, which is fine, especially considering how this season started for him.
Points per game
Games played is one thing, but how did Wright play in those games? Unfortunately, the data across non-NHL leagues is fairly limiting with just high-level stats for individual player performances, so the best we can do across all leagues is points per game. Wright scored .91 points per game.
Again, how does that stack up across his peer group? To compare Wright to his contemporaries on a points-per-game rate, we will need to filter the original 51 players to just forwards. That gives us 38 players to look at for a comparison.
On the surface, Wright’s output looks below average, ranking 23rd out of the 38 forwards in his peer group, but we should dig deeper on that. Remember that over half of Wright’s games played were in either the AHL (31 games) or NHL (8 games). Being that the NHL and AHL have stiffer competition compared with World Juniors and the OHL, Wright’s production was unsurprisingly lower when playing at pro levels. If we exclude the AHL and NHL games from the data, we get a bit of a different picture.
Wright ranks 13th out of the 32 remaining players when excluding AHL and NHL games. This still doesn’t give us the whole picture, though, because players skewed in different directions depending on their development paths. Connor McDavid, for example, didn’t play any games in the CHL in his first season after being drafted, yet he shows up with 0.9 points per game in games played outside the NHL and AHL. McDavid’s only non-NHL games after being selected No. 1 overall in 2015 came from the IIHF World Championship, where he was competing with NHL players.
Players in the AHL under 19 years old
It is very rare for a prospect under 19 years old to spend any significant time in the AHL. This is partly due to the NHL-CHL development agreement and partly because it’s rare that these players are physically ready for the AHL. The pandemic-impacted season of 2020-21 gave us an unusual influx of under-19-year-old players in the AHL. If we isolate these players that were under 19 to start the season, we get a small sample to help evaluate Shane’s performance.
On a points-per-game basis, Wright landed right in the middle at .469 during the 2022-23 season, which includes the playoffs. Of course, even this has some nuance. 75 percent of his games came in the playoffs where scoring is more difficult. Shane Wright averaged .750 points per game during the regular season but only .375 during the playoffs.
Next year will be huge
Simply evaluating games played and points per game is far from a complete analysis of Wright’s body of work this season, but despite how the season started, there are some encouraging signs. The No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft was still able to play close to the average number of games this season with 32 of those coming in the AHL. This should be considered a bonus to his development year, being that he technically wasn’t even eligible to play at that level. It is still unclear if the AHL is an option for Wright next season, but he has proven that he can compete at that level, which might be the best place for him if he is allowed to go there in 2023-24.
There has been a lot of reflection on the Seattle Kraken’s great season, with plenty of praise and accolades for the massive improvement between the first and second years of the franchise. The team deserves credit for the 40-point improvement, but with Seattle’s playoff push in the rearview mirror, we are at the point where it’s time to look toward next season. With that in mind, we call out four opportunities for the Kraken to improve before next season.
Improve the power play
Overall, the Kraken power play was fine during the regular season. They were ranked 21st across the league but 14th out the 16 teams that made the playoffs. The Kraken power play was challenged when Andre Burakovsky went down with injury on Feb. 7. At the time of his injury, Burakovsky was leading the Kraken in power-play points and was third in power-play ice time.
The need to improve the power play next season might be exasperated by the potential departure of Daniel Sprong. Sprong was second on the Kraken in goals scored with the manpower advantage. Sprong is a restricted free agent (RFA) with arbitration rights, which might mean he has priced himself out of playing with Seattle next season, as early projections have him finding close to $3 million in annual salary, should he hit the free-agent market.
The Kraken might not need a personnel change to see an improvement on the power play, though. It was only 36 days, but when Eeli Tolvanen and Burakovsky were in the lineup together and getting time on the power play, the Kraken were ranked 13th in the league over that stretch. In addition to a healthy Burakovsky, Matty Beniers should see an improvement in his power-play contributions as he continues to evolve his game in the NHL.
Face-off possession
It was no secret that the Kraken struggled in the face-off dot this season. They were ranked 31st out of 32 teams in face-off win percentage over the 2022-23 regular season. We do acknowledge that winning face-offs is not strongly correlated to winning hockey games, so we would like to expand this improvement area to include play around face-offs. It is not so much about winning the face-off itself but obtaining possession immediately after the face-off. To understand the difference, here is an example where the Kraken officially won the face-off and one where they lost the face-off.
Measuring possession after face-offs is challenging using publicly tracked and shared data, but one thing that was particularly noticeable was the goals against that came immediately after face-offs in the playoffs.
Better and more consistent goaltending
One bright spot for the Kraken this season was that goaltending improved year over year. Early on, they got good goaltending from Martin Jones, and Philipp Grubauer hit his stride toward the second half of the season, and that carried into the playoffs. Jones will most likely be hitting the free agency market this summer, and the Kraken will welcome back Chris Driedger who suffered a torn ACL last year. Driedger did not play in the NHL this season, but he did play a bit in the AHL as part of his rehabilitation.
As good as Grubauer was in the second half of the season and in the playoffs, we still think there is room for improvement for him to be more consistent throughout the year.
Be better at home
This one seemed to puzzle us all season. The Kraken were particularly worse at home compared to on the road over the 2022-23 season.
We are at a loss for what they can do here, but Climate Pledge Arena—with its raucous atmosphere—should provide a true home-ice advantage.
We understand that some of these areas to improve are stating the obvious and might take more than a season or two to turn around.
Are there areas you think we missed? If so, leave them in the comments section.
The boys from the Seattle Kraken have been giving fans the full gamut of Stanley Cup Playoff experiences. After Dallas handed the Kraken two consecutive losses in Games 4 and 5 of the second-round matchup, the Kraken bounced back with a roller coaster of a win in Game 6.
Among us fans, there was some genuine concern going into Saturday’s Game 6 that the Kraken magic had finally run out. Instead, Seattle came out flying and overcame every bump in the road, earning a 6-3 win. It was a night that no fan in the building will forget.
Of course, that only set the stage for the game Monday; another Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In my mind, there is nothing greater in all of sports. The anxiety and suspense during Game 7 is like nothing else I feel in sports. It can be exhilarating and miserable at the exact same time. I could tell you to just enjoy it, but that is a fool’s errand, so I am going to tell you to just experience it however you see fit.
The full Stanley Cup Playoff experience
Making the playoffs is one thing, but the Kraken are giving new hockey fans the full spectrum of what the Stanley Cup Playoffs are all about. From Jordan Eberle’s overtime winner in Game 4 against the Avalanche to forcing a Game 7 against Dallas, these playoffs could not have been scripted any better for Seattle. It is heartwarming to see all the people talking about the Kraken right now, and this was part of my dream when I started the NHLtoSeattle grassroots campaign over 12 years ago. I am a product of playoff hockey, and I am sure the Kraken are minting new hockey fans with every passing game.
The legend of Tye Kartye continues to grow
Darren and I have talked about the legend of Tye Kartye several times on our YouTube “show,” Kraken Takeaways, but it is worth mentioning again; Tye Kartye is having a phenomenal debut for the Kraken, netting three goals over his nine playoff games so far.
He also had a huge hit on Ryan Suter in Game 6 that seemed to fire up the fans in the building. Clearly, coach Dave Hakstol is trusting this undrafted 22-year-old rookie by giving him more and more minutes. His 15+ minutes of ice time in Game 6 was the most he has played in a game this postseason. He was on the ice just under nine minutes in his debut in Game 5 of Round 1 and has seen his ice time increase steadily since then.
One of the lowlights of the 6-3 victory was the three response goals that Seattle allowed. There is no clear definition of a “response goal,” but for our purposes, we are going to define a response goal as a goal by an opposing team within two minutes of a goal being scored.
The Kraken allowed three response goals against them on Saturday. It is a problem that I have no clue how to solve and something we saw during the regular season as well.
Other Kraken Musings:
The Kraken’s defensive corps is a collective 12-1 in Game 7’s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs over their careers.
A year ago to the day, the Dallas Stars lost Game 7 to the Calgary Flames.
When Vegas made the Stanley Cup Final in 2018, the following year USA Hockey saw a 60 percent increase in memberships in Nevada. We should expect a large increase in local participation next season, as these playoffs will inspire thousands of people, young and old, to pick up the sport.
One thing that should not be overlooked is the Stanley Cup Playoff experience on this Kraken roster. Beyond just the cliche “Stanley Cup rings in the room,” plenty of guys have other playoff experience. Outside of the six guys with Stanley Cup rings, Jordan Eberle, Adam Larsson, Alex Wennberg, and Jamie Oleksiak all have significant playoff experience to draw from as they continue on this journey.
The Kraken power play looked much improved in Game 6 and scored one goal. The Kraken managed nine total shots on net during the power play, which is the most power play shots they’ve had in one game during these playoffs.
I am not ready to start thinking about next season, but Tye Kartye could fill in nicely to replace the probable departure of Daniel Sprong next season.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds got a split in the first two games of the third round of the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs against the Calgary Wranglers. They are playing a five-game series in which they played Games 1 and 2 in Calgary and will play Games 3, 4, and 5 at home. Game 3 is tonight and is at the same time the Kraken play their Game 7.
Kraken themes for the week ahead
Win and move on.
The players have earned this opportunity to be just one win away from the Western Conference Finals. It is a do or die moment for this group, and now is their opportunity to take it.
Player Performance / Stick Taps
Jordan Eberle (SEA) – Eberle has eight points in the six games this series with five goals. Kole Lind (CVF/SEA) – Lind has 15 points over 10 games in the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs, including three goals in his last two games. Brad Lambert (SEA-WHL) – Lambert has 23 points over 18 games in the WHL Playoffs and had two goals in Game 2 of the WHL Championship Series for the Seattle Thunderbirds. The T-Birds are currently tied 1-1 with the Winnipeg Ice in that series after losing Game 1 and winning Game 2. They will play the next three at home, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Chart of the Week
It has been the theme all season; the Kraken’s strength is their depth. Eighteen different players have scored in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most by any postseason team. Of regulars in the lineup, only Ryan Donato has not scored a goal for the Kraken.
If you have any questions, comments, or observations, don’t hesitate to leave something in the comments, and I will do my best to get back to you. See you on the other side of Game 7!
About halfway through the Kraken-Ducks game on Thursday night, I leaned over to the guy next to me and said, “The Kraken could score ten tonight.” It was not that the Kraken looked that good, but more the Ducks looked that bad. I know there were a few players out, but the Ducks looked brutal in the first period. Needless to say, I was a little nervous while the Kraken hung onto a one-goal lead deep into the period. I let out a huge sigh of relief when Daniel Sprong potted his 20th of the season to give the Kraken a two-goal lead with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
The Kings game on Saturday night was a completely different story. This was one of those tough-sledding games where neither team wanted to give up an inch. It was probably the soundest defensive game I have seen the Kraken play in a while, which is crazy to think about compared to the last time these two teams played, when there was a collective 17 goals scored in the wildest game of the year. According to Natural Stat Trick, there were only 10 ‘high-danger’ chances in Saturday’s game, a season low for a Kraken game.
The first goal didn’t come until halfway through the second period when Jared McCann blocked a shot that deflected right to Sean Durzi on the side of the net, who had a wide open tap-in goal. The Kraken looked determined to tie it up in the third when they logged six out of the first seven scoring chances.
Carl Grundstrom would eventually steal the puck from an unsuspecting Brandon Tanev in the Kraken zone and immediately bury it for the Kings second goal. At the time, it felt like that would be all the Kings would need, but to the Kraken’s credit, they battled back to get it within one on an Oliver Bjorkstrand power-play goal. In the end, the Kraken could not find the equalizer and the Kings would go on to add an empty netter.
Other Kraken musings:
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken had 68.3 percent of the scoring chances against the Ducks on Thursday night. That was the fourth-highest percentage for the Kraken this season.
Although he was not significantly tested in either game, Martin Jones has looked much better in his two starts this week compared to his prior string of starts.
I know I have called this stat out before but, Oliver Bjorkstrand has a shooting percentage of 14 percent since Jan. 1. He was 5.4 percent prior to the turn of the calendar year.
Morgan Geekie has been getting more ice time and generating more shots since moving to second-line wing. He is due for a two-plus goal night.
Chris Driedger posted his first shutout for Coachella Valley on Friday since being assigned there by the Kraken to continue his rehabilitation. If the Kraken can lock up their playoff spot over the weekend, I would not be surprised to see Driedger get a call-up to get in an NHL game before the end of the season.
The Kraken have now improved their points in the standings by 30 points compared to last season. Only 20 teams have done that since the NHL expanded to an 82-game schedule in the 1995-96 season.
With five games remaining, the max number of points the Flames can get is 97. Nashville has seven games remaining and could get a max of 98 points. Getting six out of eight possible points would be huge for the Kraken this week, as that would give them 96 points with three games remaining.
The top-seeded Windsor Spitfires find themselves down two games to zero in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. If the Spitfires get bounced early from the playoffs, we should expect Shane Wright to join the Kraken as a black ace.
Kraken themes for the week ahead
Statistically, this is the easiest stretch of games the Kraken have faced all season. They have two games against the Coyotes, one road game against the Canucks, and a Saturday-night game at CPA against the Blackhawks. The minimum they need this week is four points, but the expected points should probably be six. Arizona’s points percentage on the road is just .295, and they have just seven wins out of 39 road games this season.
The Coyotes will also be coming into Seattle with seven losses in a row. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks have currently lost eight games in a row. Although out of the playoffs, the Canucks have been playing better over the last few weeks and could be a tough team to play as the Kraken will be on the second night of a back-to-back on Tuesday. If they manage to get all eight points available this week, the Kraken would clinch a playoff spot without worrying what other teams do in their games.
Player Performance / Stick Taps
Dylan Guenther (ARI/Seattle Thunderbirds) – The Arizona Coyotes prospect had three goals in the Seattle Thunderbirds’ two playoff games over the weekend including two in the thrilling come-from-behind victory at accesso ShoWare Center on Friday.
Jagger Firkus (SEA/Moose Jaw) – The Kraken’s second-round selection from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft had five points in his two WHL playoff games over the weekend.
Daniel Sprong (SEA) – Four goals over his last six games including a nice goal against the Ducks to give the Kraken some breathing room late in the third period. Sprong’s 20 goals ranks third on the Kraken despite averaging 11 minutes a game and playing only 59 of the team’s 75 games.
Goal of the week
Double-overtime winner for Seattle Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus in Moose Jaw’s Game 1 victory over Lethbridge in the opening round of the WHL playoffs.
— x – Moose Jaw Warriors (@MJWARRIORS) April 1, 2023
Chart of the week
Luckily it was not a theme this week, but there has been chatter about the Kraken allowing a lot of response goals this season. The one goal that stands out as the prime example is the Wyatt Johnson goal scored just 14 seconds after the Kraken pulled within one in the March 13 game against the Stars.
Allowing a response goal is not as common as we might have thought this season. If you want to learn a bit more about response goals, check out this piece from Alison Lukan last season when response goals were a bigger issue.
Buckle up for a critical week
As easy as the schedule appears, this will be the most important week of hockey in Kraken franchise history. The boys are in a good position to punch their ticket to the playoffs, but it will be critical that they take care of the teams they need to take care of this week to stay in that position.
