The Seattle Kraken open their second-ever training camp on Thursday, so Monday at the Kraken Community Iceplex, the day belonged to the future as the team’s first rookie camp got underway.
On the ice were most of Seattle’s prospects including Matty Beniers and Shane Wright. The one notable absence was 2021 third-round draft pick Ryan Winterton who is recovering from an injury he sustained last spring. The Kraken confirmed that Winterton would not be joining training camp this season.
Most of the rookies on the ice will be sent back to their amateur clubs for further development or to the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. The on-ice session was led by Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma to gain some familiarity with his future charges.
Ryker Evans hopeful for NHL shot
One rookie who has an outside shot of opening on the Kraken roster is defenseman Ryker Evans. Selected in the second round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Evans is coming off a superb season with the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats. In 63 games with Regina, the almost-21-year-old scored 14 goals, 47 assists and 61 points.
“Had a bigger role with the team,” Evans said of his final year in junior hockey. “It was a lot more fun. I got more reps, and it allowed me to work on my game, allowed that to develop. Going into my last year was mostly just me playing for that contract and allowing me to show my skills and all that kind of stuff. It was a big weight lifted off my shoulders last season.”
Photo courtesy Regina Pats/Keith Hershmiller Photography
At the end of last year, he was sent to Charlotte as the Checkers prepared for the Calder Cup playoffs. He did not appear in any games but got to practice and get a taste of what the pro hockey lifestyle was about.
This summer, the focus turned to preparing for a strong show at Kraken camp.
“My goal is always to come in here and prove myself as to why I belong on the team and how I can help,” Evans said. “So, now it’s just time to show it and that was my preparation throughout the summer.”
Evans says he worked on his shot – he emphasized that he always works on his shot – as well as strength and patience with the puck to allow him to create space. Among the throng of rookies Monday, he was noticeable, although the day was mostly saved for drills and no real scrimmages.
It’s the second training camp for Evans who was also at the summer’s development camp. The familiarity has been helpful.
“It’s a lot easier this year,” Evans said. “I know a lot of the staff and the people here so it’s a lot more comforting to come in here and I kind of know the routine.”
What is a first for Evans is how long the summer lasted. The WHL is already in its preseason games, and in the past he would have already begun training camp.
Evans said this summer was the first time in six years he stayed at home this late. His father runs a skills camp in Calgary which allowed him to get on the ice.
One treat this summer for Evans was being able to see the Stanley Cup. His family has long been friendly with Cale Makar’s family, and they all celebrated Makar’s day at home with the Cup he won with the Colorado Avalanche. The big question was whether Evans touched it.
“No, I can’t do that,” he said, following the tradition of not touching hockey’s biggest prize until you win it.
Whether he cracks the Seattle roster or starts in the AHL, this will be a big transitional year for Evans. No longer will he live with a billet family in junior hockey where his meals are prepared for him. This year he will be a professional hockey player on his own.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “You kind of gotta grow up pretty quick. But no, it’ll be fun. I know how to cook breakfast and like chicken and rice, but that’s about it.”
Ryker, along with his chicken and rice, will be a player to watch as the preseason progresses. He’ll get plenty of time to show his skills and prove he’s ready. Will he do it?
Matty Beniers and Shane Wright compete
Both of Seattle’s top young centers were on the ice Monday and found themselves head to head on more than a few occasions, especially during one-on-one drills. Wright showed off some defensive prowess by knocking the puck loose from Beniers on consecutive chances.
“It’s fun to have him out here,” Beniers said. “Because after practice he’s always wanting to work on stuff, and we bounce off each other with ideas and he just likes to have fun. He likes to work hard and think I’m kind of the same way, so it works.”
Beniers looked ready on Monday, skating with poise and putting his skill on display. He says that he’s added 10-12 pounds of muscle this season to better prepare him for what will be a tough first full pro season.
“I think it’ll be a lot tougher this year,” he said. “And you gotta be ready for it. Hopefully, it’s not as bad, not as tough as it sounds.”
Mystery goalie and the circus is back in town
Kraken second-round pick Jagger Firkus is back in camp after a strong showing in the summer development camp. The sparkplug is always worth keeping an eye on, and it’s expected that he will get playing time in the preseason games that are coming up.
He’s off to a good start scoring goals, having been in training camp with the WHL Moose Jaw Warriors. Firkus has already played in two preseason games with Moose Jaw, recording three goals and five points in two games.
In goal Monday was a goalie wearing No. 1 with no name plate. There is no such goalie on the roster, and there was speculation as to who he was. Even members of the Kraken communication team were not sure who the mystery goalie was. The prevailing rumor going around was that the Kraken didn’t have enough rookie goalies available for camp so they grabbed a guy who plays recreational hockey locally.
We made it through the long and dull summer in Seattle, a period otherwise known as the NHL offseason. The kick-off of rookie camp is a special time for us hockey sickos, and we are here for it. On Sunday, the Seattle Kraken announced their training camp rosters with Monday and Tuesday dedicated to the rookies on the squad and the main camp starting Thursday. We are seven days away from the first preseason game against Edmonton at Climate Pledge Arena, so we thought now would be a good time to look at some storylines to monitor for Training Camp. Here’s what to keep an eye on in week one.
Centers
With the selection of centerman Shane Wright in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the Kraken have a positional challenge to consider. Add Wright to the quiver of Matty Beniers, Alex Wennberg, Yanni Gourde, and Morgan Geekie, and now the club has five centers for only four spots. One of them will center the fourth line and another will need to move to wing. Lines can and will change a lot during the season, but it will be interesting to see who is getting the reps at center in the first few days of camp.
Who advances from rookie camp?
It is safe to say that Matty Beniers and Shane Wright are locks to move on from rookie camp to the main camp, but the bigger question is who else will stick around for a bit longer? Safe money is on Ryker Evans, the Kraken’s second-round pick from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, who had an excellent season with Regina in the WHL. After Evans, it is a bit of a toss-up. Undrafted forward Ty Kartye signed an entry-level deal with the Kraken in March and could be one of the players to move on to the big camp at the end of the week. Another candidate could be 2021 fifth-round draft pick Jacob Melanson. He tends to fly under radar but put up 35 goals in 54 games in the QMJHL last season. Advancing from rookie camp to the main training camp does not mean the player is destined for the big club any time soon, but it might signal the potential these prospects have for reaching the NHL.
Eyes on Wright
Seattle’s coveted first-round pick from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Shane Wright will undoubtedly get a lot of attention. We think he will be given every opportunity to make this team, but it is far from guaranteed. Wright will need to prove he belongs in order to stay with the team all season. The coaching staff expects all the players to buy into their two-way game, and there is no doubt that Wright plays that style. But can he play that style in the NHL at 18 years old? Interesting to note, Cole Sillinger of Columbus was the only player taken in the 2021 draft to play the full 2021-22 season in the NHL.
The Killer B’s
If you are lucky enough to attend training camp in person, you will get to see reps and reps of the same drill. This enables you to focus in on individual players and compare them to each other doing the same drill. Keying in on Beniers for individual drills will be something special to watch, as his creativity and skill should be on full display. This will also be the first time we get to see offseason acquisitions Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky up close and personal in Kraken jerseys. Bjorkstrand and Burakovsky have amazing shooting capabilities, and seeing them fire pucks in volume at practice should be a treat. A Bjorkstrand, Burakovsky, and Beniers line does sound cool, but it is premature to think it will happen or stick for the long term.
Tanev and Schwartz
Brandon Tanev and Jaden Schwartz were having productive seasons in 2021-22 before being sidelined by injuries. In Tanev’s case, he had season-ending knee surgery after a freak play against the Edmonton Oilers in mid-December. Schwartz’s diagnosis was never disclosed, but he was in and out of the lineup throughout the second half of the season. In both cases, the fanbase should be hopeful they return to pre-injury form. Both have been skating at Kraken Community Iceplex, and early reports are that they look good. Training camp should be a little more telling of where both those players stand in the recovery process.
Those are just a few of the storylines to watch throughout training camp this week. Keep any eye on SoundOfHockey.com and our twitter account all week for various reports from training camp as we ramp up to the start of the season.
Seattle Kraken Training Camp is almost here, and who better to talk to in the waning days of the offseason than Kraken assistant general manager Alex Mandrycky?!
John, Andy, and Darren interviewed Alex at Kraken Community Iceplex on the same morning the news of her promotion to AGM got announced. So, it’s a bit of a celebratory conversation, but it also has plenty of substance. From offseason moves to the future of Mandrycky’s role, it’s a conversation that you will enjoy.
Aside from the interview, there’s some Kraken news to discuss, as the guys get you ready for the new season. Plus, a WHL update and signings around the NHL.
After the Mandrycky interview, the guys shift to segments, which this week feature Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and a surprise Let’s Get Quizzical.
The Kraken have elevated Alexandra Mandrycky into an assistant general manager role with the club. The promotion comes after Mandrycky served as the team’s director of hockey strategy and research during the buildup to the 2021 Expansion Draft and Seattle’s inaugural 2021-22 season. Mandrycky joins Ricky Olczyk and Jason Botterill as a third AGM in the Kraken front office, and the trio will work together to support general manager Ron Francis.
Mandrycky built the team’s analytical infrastructure and research and development department from scratch. Last season, she hired and oversaw a team of four employees, but her role will now expand significantly.
“I’ll continue overseeing the research and development team; we have a group of four now, and we’ll be adding a few more over the course of this season,” Mandrycky said. “Last year I worked really closely with the amateur scouts on the amateur draft, and part of this new role is our director of amateur scouting, Robert Kron, will report into me. So I’ll continue working with all of [the amateur scouting department] very closely.”
What is interesting about Mandrycky taking such a large stake in the amateur side of the organization is that advanced stats are often hard to come by for evaluating players in the amateur ranks. Mandrycky credits senior quantitative analyst Namita Nandakumar for developing the metrics necessary to help Francis, Kron, and the rest of the staff get the whole picture on prospective Kraken players.
She also says the organization has done an exemplary job of balancing the information her department gives with the more traditional reports that the amateur and pro scouts provide. “I think a question that gets asked a lot is, ‘Is this [player] an analytics guy?’” Mandrycky said. “I don’t know what that means… We’re using analytics to have conversations about players, but I wouldn’t want [Francis] to go out and sign a player that analytics liked, but the scouts hated.”
Paving the way
The promotion is a notable move, as Mandrycky continues to prove herself as one of the fastest-rising executives in the evolving NHL landscape. She broke new ground in 2019 when the team, then called simply “NHL Seattle,” hired her to build its analytics program. The hiring made Mandrycky one of the highest-ranking females in the league at the time. She has since solidified herself as a central figure in Seattle’s front office.
“Alex has earned this promotion through her hard work and dedication to making the Kraken a better organization,” Francis said via press release. “Her knowledge and effort are assets that will continue to serve her well in this role.”
Mandrycky previously spent three years working for the Minnesota Wild as a hockey operations analyst. Before that, she made a name for herself in the analytics community by co-founding what was then a popular site for tracking player data, War On Ice.
Mandrycky is not the first female to hold the assistant general manager title in the NHL, but she joins a very select group of impressive women who are helping to change the sport. Angela Gorgone held the title for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim back in 1996-97, but no woman held the title between then and when former player agent Emilie Castonguay was hired into the position by the Vancouver Canucks in Jan., 2022.
After Castonguay was hired, Hayley Wickenheiser joined Toronto, Meghan Hunter went to Chicago, and Kate Madigan went to New Jersey, all with AGM titles. Vancouver also hired former pro scout Cammi Granato away from the Kraken to serve alongside Castonguay.
Still, the cultural importance of Mandrycky’s rapid advancement through the hockey world is not lost on her. “Visibility is so key,” she says. “In some ways, it’s nice to not be the first. Other people have paved the way, even though the path is short over the last year or two.”
Camp is just around the corner
The Kraken will start training camp for their second season on Thursday, Sept. 22, at Kraken Community Iceplex. Seattle’s rookies, a group Mandrycky was instrumental in assembling, take the ice a few days earlier on Monday, Sept. 19. Practices are open to the public.
As promised on the previous show, Episode 203 is a unique one, which welcomes a big-time guest in Seattle Kraken forward Yanni Gourde. With Darren on vacation this week, the interview makes up essentially the entire episode.
It’s a fantastic interview that covers everything from Yanni getting selected by the Kraken to his first impressions of Seattle to what he would have done if he didn’t make it in to the NHL.
John, Andy, and Darren had a great time talking to Yanni, and they think you’re going to like this one.
This week’s episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast is a quick one but a fun one. With minimal Kraken news to discuss, John, Andy, and Darren focus on the hockey world as a whole.
They start with a brief World Junior Championship discussion, then move to a WHL Update, which focuses on Portland’s completion of its re-brand, which many folks have argued looks quite similar to Kraken colors.
Next, they move on to segments, which this week features Bad Boys, Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
FYI, the next couple weeks will be a little different, with interviews being the focus, but there will still be content coming over that time.
