If you put this 5-1 Seattle Kraken loss to the Colorado Avalanche in a vacuum, it’s fine. The Avs are the best team in the NHL, and a loss against them is completely understandable. But in the context of it being the Kraken’s fourth straight loss, following defeats in three far more winnable games against the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators, and Nashville Predators, at a time when the players should be desperately fighting for their playoff lives, this one feels like the bottom has fallen out on this organization.
With the loss, Seattle dropped out of a playoff position, falling a point behind the San Jose Sharks for the last wild card spot. The Kraken are now level in points with the Los Angeles Kings and the Predators in some kind of sad pillow fight between a bunch of teams that are refusing to win enough games to take control.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken loss to the Avalanche.
Takeaway 1: Terrible first period and “too much respect”
If Rodney Dangerfield were a hockey team, he would *not* be the Colorado Avalanche. Because it would be so weird for Rodney Dangerfield to say, “They’re giving me too much respect, I tell ya!”
Jokes aside, Lambert was furious with his hockey team after the game, indicating that the poor opening period was related to how good Seattle’s players expected Colorado’s players to perform.
“We’re probably showing them too much respect,” Lambert said. “I don’t necessarily know that it was a thing where, ‘Oh, gee, we’re not completely ready to go.’ We’re showing them too much respect. But they start rolling around in our zone, we have a system and a structure, and we just completely throw it down the drain. And they’re just making plays. It’s ridiculous.”
It really was a painful period to watch. Aside from Ryan Winterton missing the net on a rebound chance that should have been a goal, Seattle didn’t generate much of anything offensively, while Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas ran amok in the Kraken zone. Twice they connected on passes through the seam, and both times it resulted in goals—one for each player.
MacKinnon ended the night with four points (one goal, three assists), and Necas had a goal and an assist.
“It just seemed like every time [MacKinnon] got the puck, he knew where it was going, and he knew where the open man was, and a lot of times that was Marty with speed,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They had good chemistry tonight.”
1-0 Avs.
Martin Necas after a nifty pass by MacKinnon, and the home crowd goes wild… Oh wait, those are Avalanche fans. pic.twitter.com/fdtBy831b3
Seattle woke up and pushed in the second period, but after Ryker Evans scored a pretty shorthanded goal to get the Kraken within 3-1 at 13:36, you just knew the next goal would be Colorado’s. Indeed, Nazem Kadri scored his first goal since returning to the Avalanche following his trade from the Flames at 17:11, and from then on there was just no chance of the Kraken getting back in the game.
Takeaway 2: Another interesting goalie decision
I was surprised that Lambert turned back to Joey Daccord last game after he gave up seven goals against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, and I was even more surprised he tagged him again for this game instead of giving it to Philipp Grubauer to face his former team.
But Lambert also had a shorter hook in this one, smartly switching the netminders at the first intermission after Daccord had allowed three goals on 15 shots in that godforsaken first period.
“Let’s be clear, Joey played well last game,” Lambert said. “This was not any reflection on Joey tonight. Our team needed a wake-up call, so we put Grubi in, and we put him in in a tough spot—we were shorthanded when Grubi came in—and I thought he did a good job. We did a poor job tonight to clear the front of the net, they went to the net harder than we did, and things have to change if we’re planning on making the playoffs.”
The goalie choice probably didn’t matter in this game because the Kraken were dominated in the opening frame and hung Daccord out to dry. It’s still interesting that Lambert used Daccord in three straight games, though.
Takeaway 3: What is going on with Bobby McMann’s visa?
It is insane that Bobby McMann still has not made his debut for the Kraken. Six days have passed since his acquisition from Toronto in a deal made just under the wire of the NHL Trade Deadline last Friday.
Would McMann’s inclusion have meant a win against the Avalanche? Probably not. But he is a player who brings speed, energy, and (perhaps) a little jolt of positivity, and we saw what happened when Jacob Melanson first got inserted into the lineup earlier this season. So who knows what will happen when McMann finally plays?
Here’s what Lane Lambert said about the visa situation at morning skate on Thursday, when the team was still holding out some hope that it would go through in time for the game:
“As of right now, he’s not [cleared]. So it’s extremely disappointing right now, the uncertainty. We traded for him for a reason, to help our hockey club, and having him not be available to help our hockey team hurts our hockey team.”
Now, here are some excuses you may hear from the organization:
The deal was done on Friday, which meant the process couldn’t really begin until Monday due to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices being closed on the weekend.
McMann hasn’t played for a U.S.-based NHL team before (and apparently his time with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder doesn’t seem to be helping him through this process).
The U.S. government doesn’t tend to work quickly.
While I’d love to blame the government, I’m having a hard time doing that in this case. Logan Stanley, who was seemingly in the same situation as McMann—a Canadian citizen who had never played for a U.S.-based team—has now played two games for the Buffalo Sabres since getting acquired from the Winnipeg Jets last Thursday. He first entered the Buffalo lineup on Tuesday, on the third full business day after the trade (Friday, Monday, Tuesday).
Even if you give the Kraken the benefit of the doubt and don’t count Friday—since the trade happened at 3 PM Eastern that day—we’re still four full business days removed from the McMann deal (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).
I asked Lambert after the Avalanche game (and after McMann was out of the lineup for the third time since being acquired) if he had any insight into what the actual holdup is.
“I do not,” Lambert said. “Good question, but I don’t.”
Regardless of whether the issue is government bureaucracy, organizational mismanagement, or a combination of the two, this situation is getting downright embarrassing for the Kraken.
And what happens if McMann isn’t cleared on Friday? In that case, are we to assume he’s ineligible for either of the two games this weekend against the Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers because the USCIS offices are—again—closed on the weekend?
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.
New Seattle Kraken forward Bobby McMann is still playing the waiting game for his work visa to come through after he was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade that was completed mere minutes before the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday. Whether he plays Thursday against the Avalanche depends on if his paperwork comes through in time, which—as of morning skate—it still had not.
Regardless of whether he makes his Kraken debut at home against Colorado on Thursday or on the road in Vancouver on Saturday, his arrival in the lineup is coming. So the time is nigh to get to know the 6-foot-2, 217-pound “well-rounded” Alberta native a bit more before you see him don a Seattle sweater for the first time.
Get to know the guy that fellow former Maple Leaf Matt Murray called, “A great, great guy… As a player, he’s like a power forward with a lot of skill, as well. He’s fast, big, strong, great shot, really good shooter. He can do a lot for the team offensively. He’ll be really good for us.”
A long, winding road to the NHL
McMann has an interesting backstory. Although he’s 29 years old, he only became a true full-time NHLer last season after playing 56 games with the Maple Leafs in 2023-24 and six games that year with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. But in his limited NHL time, he has been productive, scoring 15 goals in those 56 games two seasons ago and 20 goals in 74 games last season. This year, he already has 19 in 60 games.
So what took so long for him to get here? For one, he wasn’t drafted. He maintains that the NHL was always his dream, but he had to take the long road—three years in the Tier II Alberta Junior Hockey League, followed by four full seasons at Colgate University. Even after graduating, he didn’t immediately land an NHL deal, instead signing with the Marlies on an AHL contract and spending parts of the next two seasons in the ECHL.
“I definitely took a longer route to get here, even three years of juniors, four years of college, East Coast League, American League,” McMann recalled. “Each one of those steps, sometimes they’re a hard pill to swallow, getting sent down to the East Coast, or even that second year, not making the Marlies there in the American League and going to [the Newfoundland Growlers].”
Yet he persevered and says every step of the long journey was worthwhile.
“Those are hard things to do, but I think they’re so good at building character and building a resilience in yourself and understanding, ‘Ok, where am I at? Where’s my head at? How do I get through this? How do I control what I can control?’”
While McMann went through times where he had to look inward about his situation and his future, he says he never wavered in his belief that he would eventually make the NHL.
“Some of those moves, without them, without those hard times, I wouldn’t have stuck in the NHL as fast as I did. I think those were massive for me, learning about myself and trying to figure out, ‘How can I stick around here, and how can I do what I just did in a previous level after making that jump?’”
A well-rounded player
Many times, when a player takes the college hockey route to the NHL, they play a season or two in the NCAA and then leave early to turn pro. For a player like McMann, who went undrafted, it’s more common to stay all four years and then see what opportunities arise afterward.
In choosing Colgate University, McMann kept hockey as his primary focus but also challenged himself academically, majoring in economics with a minor in theater.
“I was always… Hockey was the dream,” McMann said. “I like rounding out all aspects of my life, and I wanted to do well in school, and that was a school that I knew was challenging. I knew it would take a lot to manage my time and manage the academics as well as the athletics, but hockey was always the main focus, and that’s what I was trying to do.”
Comically, his Wikipedia page mentions these academic interests, so he has already been asked about his theater background several times since arriving in Seattle.
“I didn’t know that [my Wikipedia page] said that,” McMann said with a laugh. “I didn’t even realize— I used to look up Wikipedia pages all the time. I didn’t know that I had one. I think it’s fine… As long as it’s accurate, that’s cool.”
For what it’s worth, McMann says he hasn’t been able to see that many shows, but Jersey Boys is his favorite that he’s attended, and he loved a recent stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that he saw in Toronto.
As for the economics major, he said it was the closest thing to a business program that Colgate offered, and he enjoys understanding the “why and how” behind things.
Outside of hockey and theater, McMann also enjoys golf (he says he hits his driver “long but not straight” and could use some work with his irons but putts well), coffee, and reading.
McMann practiced Wednesday rotating in and out of the fourth line, but Lane Lambert said that was simply to prepare in case his visa does not come through in time for the game. Whenever it does come through, expect him to slot higher in the lineup, most likely on the second line.
Jaden Schwartz on the road to recovery
At practice Wednesday, Lambert also provided an update on injured forward Jaden Schwartz, who is out indefinitely after being accidentally kicked in the face by Nick Cousins during Seattle’s 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
“He’s on the road to recovery. Obviously, it’s going to take some time but he will [recover], and thank goodness for that,” Lambert said. “I was probably from me to you [reporter] away when it happened, or a little farther, I guess. But the impact of it, the noise of it, the fact that the skate hit him flat, as opposed to potentially the other way was… we’re all real thankful for that.”
So it appears Schwartz avoided a true worst-case scenario, but don’t expect him back in the lineup anytime soon.
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.
That was a killer loss. The Kraken came out hot in the first period and appeared ready to roll to victory over the Nashville Predators. But things fell apart in the second, and a 2-0 lead quickly evaporated and turned into a 3-2 deficit.
While Seattle peppered Juuse Saros with 45 shots in the game, they couldn’t find the equalizer after falling behind and took another damaging ‘L’ as they continue to cling to the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference by the thinnest of margins.
“I thought we came out well, and then… our team hasn’t been in this position [fighting for a playoff spot] for a couple of calendar years,” coach Lane Lambert said. “And we’re showing it a little bit right now. We have to sustain for 60 minutes.”
Here are Three Takeaways after a crushing 4-2 Kraken loss to the Predators.
Takeaway 1: Second period collapse
The Kraken were riding high entering the second period after Kaapo Kakko had scored off a Shane Wright “pass off the pads” play to make it 1-0 at 2:14 and Matty Beniers had sniped from the right circle at 9:46 to make it 2-0.
It started with a long shift by Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson. Larsson looked like he was about to change, hustling to try to dump the puck into Nashville’s zone and coming to a stop right in front of the Kraken bench. But the puck was out of his reach, so he couldn’t get it deep, and Nashville began transitioning the other way.
Instead of signaling to the next man up to jump on, Larsson noticed Tyson Jost had gotten behind him, so he stayed out and sprinted back to the defensive zone. In doing so, he drifted into a bit of no-man’s land. Meanwhile, Fedor Svechkov faked Vince Dunn out and cut to the middle, finding Jost with plenty of time and space to pick a spot under the bar.
“Yeah. I mean, they came at us in the second,” Larsson said. “We got stuck out there a couple times.”
Moments later, after a Wright goal had been negated because Ryker Evans was tripped and slid into Juuse Saros before the puck arrived, Matthew Wood sliced through the fourth line and set up former Seattle Thunderbird Reid Schaefer for an easy tap-in to tie the game 2-2 at 10:19.
The backbreaker came four minutes later when 21-year-old defenseman Ryan Ufko turned into Cale Makar, walking Ryan Winterton and Ben Meyers before deking back to his right and tucking the puck behind Joey Daccord for one of the prettiest first career goals you’ll ever see.
Connor McDavid? No. Nathan MacKinnon? No. Cale Makar? No.
That was it. Three defensive lapses in a 10-minute stretch, and the Kraken gave away what should have been two standings points.
“I thought we started to lose battles in the second period, and we spent time in our zone,” Lambert said. “Of course, we had a couple of breakdowns, and they ended up scoring. So right now, it just seems like, in a sense—and it’s our responsibility—but in a sense, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
Takeaway 2: Turning back to Daccord
It was slightly surprising to see Lambert turn right back to Daccord after he gave up seven goals against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. I didn’t mind it. It felt like a vote of confidence from the coaching staff that Daccord could bounce back quickly.
Daccord played fine against Nashville and got hung out to dry by his team during the second period, though he was ultimately outdueled by Juuse Saros, who finished with a whopping 43 saves against a Kraken team that suddenly decided to become a high-shot-volume club.
“I thought Joey was pretty good tonight,” Lambert said. “I felt that he made a number of good saves [against Ottawa], even though he did give up seven goals. It probably could have been 10 or 11, the way we were playing, so we looked at that aspect of it, and that’s the way we went.”
Takeaway 3: Matty Beniers steps up
Aside from Beniers’ beautiful goal in the first period, he also did something nobody in the building expected early in the third.
After Justin Barron laid a bad hit on Jared McCann, Beniers was the closest player to Barron and went right after him. After the two pushed and shoved for a moment, Beniers’ gloves were off and his fists were flying wildly in what turned out to be the first fight of his career.
“Canner got hit bad, and we’ve been talking about standing up for teammates, and so I tried to,” Beniers said. “No fights yet [in my hockey career]. That was the first one.”
After seeing that, I’m not convinced Beniers will turn into an enforcer anytime soon, but the willingness to do that showed real leadership from the young assistant captain and should have sparked his team.
Said Larsson: “It’s unbelievable to see. He’s such a big part of this team, and that’s huge.”
And Lambert: “We’re trying to create a culture where guys care about each other, and there’s no question that Matty did that. I’m satisfied whenever somebody does that for a teammate.”
While Beniers sat in the penalty box, several teammates skated over to congratulate him before the door closed. You could tell it meant something to the Kraken, even if it wasn’t enough to push them over the hump in the end.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Kraken were back on the ice Monday for what Lane Lambert called a “spirited, demanding practice.” During a battle drill in one of the end zones, Lambert blew his whistle and yelled a number of things, with one sentence making its way out of the rink and into the ears of onlooking reporters, clear as day.
“F***ing play hard!” he yelled, before blowing his whistle again and restarting the drill.
At the end of the on-ice session, Lambert pulled the whole team into the circle for a quieter conversation.
Seattle is now 2-4-0 since the restart from the Olympic break and is just barely holding the final playoff spot, with the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings both just one point behind.
“We’ve got to look ourselves in mirror,” defenseman Brandon Montour said. “Lane did a good job this morning, kind of just [making us realize] where we’re at as a group and where we should be and what we should be expecting out of each other. Obviously, he’s not happy with how things have been going lately, the energy level, the excitement level, the awareness of just kind of the position we’re in and how much it means and how every game is going to be tough.”
Those were similar sentiments to what Montour shared with the media on Saturday after the Ottawa beatdown, when he referred to the team’s fourth line as its “best line”—both a huge compliment to that trio but also a bit of a shot at the top three lines.
“Last game, obviously, it was a team that is in a similar position with us, fighting to get into the playoffs,” Montour said. “And they wanted it more, and that can’t be the case from here on out.”
“If you’re not excited to be in the games and every game, challenging yourself with teams that are pushing the same way you guys are, with 20 games left this close to the playoffs, then you’ve got another issue. And I think we’ve just got to get back to enjoying and having fun and be excited about the competitive teams that we’re playing and just thrive in those. Cherish that and challenge each other so that we can win those games.”
Lambert’s message has been received by the players. How will they respond Tuesday in a crucial game against the Nashville Predators?
Bobby McMann arrives but is unlikely to play Tuesday
29-year-old forward Bobby McMann, the Kraken’s lone acquisition ahead of Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline, skated with the team for the first time Monday. The Wainwright, Alberta, native looked big and fast, as advertised, but did not take regular line rushes. That indicated he will not play Tuesday while he continues to wait for his P-1A visa to process.
He did mix in a couple of times on the line with Eeli Tolvanen, Chandler Stephenson, and Freddy Gaudreau, with Tolvanen and Gaudreau each skipping a turn or two.
Asked by our buddy Everett Fitzhugh where Lambert sees McMann fitting into the lineup, Lambert said he views McMann as a top-six player for the Kraken, but isn’t sure yet how he will ultimately deploy him. I would guess the plan is for him to replace Gaudreau and skate alongside Stephenson and Tolvanen, but we’ll see how things shape up once McMann is eligible to play.
McMann does sound excited to be in Seattle and had plenty of good things to say about what he’s heard regarding the city, the organization, and the fanbase.
“[Getting traded] was pretty hectic, definitely a long flight,” McMann said. “I just tried to pack all my necessities, get it all in my bags. My girlfriend was a big help with that. And then [I was] just on the plane, got here Saturday night, and then had yesterday to explore, check out the facility here. Great facility, super spacious, all brand-new stuff. It’s pretty sweet to see it, and I’m excited.”
After playing his entire career in the Toronto organization, this represents a massive change for McMann. Still, he wasn’t blindsided by the move, especially after being held out of the Maple Leafs’ lineup for a couple of games for trade-related roster management reasons. The writing was very much on the wall that something was coming.
“It’s not easy, especially with Toronto, I’ve been there my whole career,” McMann said. “And then it was hard coming out of the lineup because I kind of knew something was going to happen, and I was going to switch spots. So then I was just playing the waiting game. It was about 48 hours where I was just kind of waiting, checking my phone every three minutes to see who was calling, if there was any news, and it was down to the last… maybe an extra five minutes on the clock after three o’clock when I got the call, so [the trade] must have went through right at the deadline there.”
McMann to eventually slot in for injured Schwartz
McMann’s arrival has created a big question mark about where he will eventually slot into the Kraken lineup. Remember, general manager Jason Botterill did not offload any players at the deadline, opting instead to add McMann to an already crowded roster in exchange for draft picks.
But a spot has opened up with the unfortunate news that Jaden Schwartz—who suffered a scary injury Saturday when Nick Cousins’ skate made contact with his face—will be out indefinitely. In that sense, McMann’s arrival helps solve that absence once his visa is processed.
But assuming everyone else stays healthy, another player will still have to come out of the lineup to accommodate McMann.
Here’s how the Kraken forwards took line rushes Monday.
Jared McCann / Matty Beniers / Jordan Eberle Eeli Tolvanen / Chandler Stephenson / Freddy Gaudreau* Kaapo Kakko / Shane Wright / Berkly Catton Ryan Winterton / Ben Meyers / Jacob Melanson *Bobby McMann rotated in for Gaudreau and then Tolvanen
Lambert didn’t provide much of an update on Schwartz beyond reaffirming his “indefinite” status. It was a startling and scary incident, so beyond everything else, we just wish Schwartz a speedy recovery.
Team illness seems to be clearing up
Nobody has used it as an excuse, but there was a bug that swept through the locker room and took Gaudreau and Lindgren out of the lineup Saturday. Both were back on the ice Monday, and Lambert spoke about the illness in the past tense, implying the issue may now be behind the team.
“The illness wasn’t great for us,” Lambert said. “I thought the energy was pretty good today… I thought some of the details that weren’t there Saturday night needed addressing. I thought the guys did a good job of addressing it.”
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.
What started as an excellent week with a 2–1 signature win over the Carolina Hurricanes ended with an absolute thud in a humiliating 7–4 loss to the Ottawa Senators in front of a packed house on Saturday night. Sandwiched between those two games was another disappointing regulation loss to the St. Louis Blues.
The Kraken began the week in the second wild‑card spot and, somehow, finished it in the same place despite collecting just two of six possible points. On the surface, it’s nice that the brutal week didn’t kill them in the standings, but it was still a squandered chance to create a little breathing room over the Sharks, Kings, and Predators.
Here’s how the Pacific fared this week:
I might have been able to stomach the St. Louis game, since the Blues suddenly look like world‑beaters with four straight wins over the Wild, Kraken, Sharks, and Ducks, but the Kraken looked completely uninspired against Ottawa. Every team has the occasional stinker, and maybe there really was something to the illness going around the room that day, but this one felt especially flat.
Quick thoughts on the Trade Deadline and Bobby McMann
For those who missed it, the NHL Trade Deadline came and went on Friday, and the Kraken added speedy depth winger Bobby McMann, who can finish and bring some flat-out speed. The cost, a second‑ and fourth‑round pick, was reasonable for a player who’s only signed through the end of the season. It’s not exactly what I expected, but it’s pretty darn close. They’re on the bubble with a legitimate shot at the playoffs, so a sell‑off didn’t make sense, and neither did pushing all the chips in for something splashy.
McMann also gives them one more winger to consider re‑signing before free agency. As of now, the Kraken have three forwards on expiring contracts, and they likely need to extend at least one of them before July 1, or they’ll be staring at some significant holes next season.
Where McMann fits in the lineup
Darren already gave his two cents on where McMann might slot in. He started the year on Toronto’s fourth line but worked his way up to playing alongside Auston Matthews. He can fit anywhere. With Lane Lambert’s familiarity with him from Toronto, he probably already has a strong sense of how he wants to use him, but deciding who comes out will be difficult.
Depending on Jaden Schwartz’s status, two of the following four players will need to sit when McMann enters the lineup: Ben Meyers, Ryan Winterton, Jacob Melanson, and Berkly Catton.
Meyers kills penalties, drives play, and has been excellent since returning from injury. Before Saturday, I would have said Melanson was the odd man out, but he was one of the few Kraken players who actually showed up and even scored the opening goal. It’s hard to pull him now.
That leaves Catton and Winterton.
If Schwartz can’t go Tuesday (and/or Thursday), I think you have to keep the Meyers–Winterton–Melanson fourth line intact and scratch Catton. It sucks to say it, but he’s not helping this team win right now. He missed at least two assignments that directly led to goals on Saturday night, and he continues to make careless passes that hurt the team. I love his offensive flashes, but defensively he’s been a liability.
Other musings
Of all the players moved at the deadline, I’m not sure there was a single one that made me wish the Kraken had jumped in. The only player I was genuinely intrigued by was Robert Thomas, and he didn’t end up getting moved.
The Kraken scored first in all three games this week. Normally that’s a good omen since they’ve earned a .703 points percentage when scoring first this season, but they managed just two of six points (.333) this week.
It would be nice if the Kraken could mix in an overtime game or two. They haven’t played one since Jan. 14. Meanwhile, the Kings, Ducks, and Sharks have each played at least four overtime games in that span.
The Kraken are 17‑10‑3 since trading Mason Marchment on Dec. 19, the best record in the Pacific Division over that span.
I was surprised to hear some fans were disappointed in the deadline, expecting either a bigger splash or a significant sell‑off. As I said last week, this team is in a playoff spot but not a Cup contender, so a measured move made sense.
The Kraken are tracking at the exact same pace as the 2023–24 team. Fortunately for them, the Western Conference is significantly weaker this season.
For the heck of it, I refreshed an old visual comparing Kraken draft‑pick performance to the rest of the league. It’s far too early to make any sweeping declarations, but the Kraken are punching well above the league average so far.
Season‑ticket holders received renewal notices last week, and most ticket prices are going down next season.
Goal of the week
Sometimes you really need a greasy one and situationally, that can be pretty.
B-B-B-BEN MMMMEYERS! 🚨
It starts with a physical, hard-nosed play in the defensive zone by Melanson. Gaudreau feeds Meyers, who sticks with it and gets a good bounce.
Congrats to Ben Meyers for signing a two-year extension last week. He has been a pleasant surprise contributor to the lineup this season.
Player performances
Ollie Josephson (ND/SEA) – The 19‑year‑old center, drafted by the Kraken in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft, had one goal and four assists in North Dakota’s two games over the weekend. He now has 20 points in his first NCAA season. Logan Morrison (CV/SEA) – “LoMo” posted two goals and two assists in Coachella Valley’s two‑game series in Calgary. He leads the Firebirds in points and is on pace for 34 goals this season — not bad for an undrafted player. Kim Saarinen (HPK/SEA) – A third‑round pick by the Kraken in 2024, the Finnish goaltender stopped 57 of 62 shots in back‑to‑back wins for HPK in the Finnish Liiga.
The week ahead
Every week from here on out is critical, and this one is no exception. Tuesday brings a big game against Nashville, who is still in the hunt but starting to fade. On Thursday, the league‑leading Colorado Avalanche come to town. As of Monday morning, they’ve won five straight and are 8‑2‑0 in their last 10.
Saturday looks significantly easier with a trip to Vancouver to face the Canucks, but do we really expect any game to be easy down the stretch? I sure don’t.
The standings remain tight, and eventually the Kraken need a week where they take more than 50 percent of the available points. This is a good week to do it. They can survive with less, but four of six points, including a regulation win on Tuesday could all but eliminate Nashville. That would go a long way.
