SEATTLE – Hockey fans in the Puget Sound area can begin to program their car radios as the Seattle Kraken have found a radio home. The Kraken announced Wednesday afternoon that the team has partnered with 950 KJR AM as its live radio broadcast partner.
KJR is part of the iHeart Radio network which is one of the largest broadcasters in the nation with over 850 radio stations and 250,000 podcasts.
“I couldn’t be prouder to join forces with Seattle Kraken,” said Mark Glynn, Market President for iHeartMedia Seattle via a press release. “This alliance not only encompasses Sports Radio 950 KJR as the flagship radio station but also strategically aligns our brands with Climate Pledge Arena in a groundbreaking agreement. Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke and Kraken COO Victor de Bonis and their team have been incredible to work with in creating this partnership.”
With the iHeart Radio app and affiliate networks, the Kraken will be able to reach a wide regional audience for their broadcasts. The team also indicated that select games would be available on KJAQ-JACK-FM (96.5). Along with the Kraken, KJR carries University of Washington Huskies sports and previously was the radio flagship station of the Seattle Supersonics. The Seattle Thunderbirds games are carried on KJR’s sister station at 1090 AM.
“Since our ticket drive in 2018, iHeartMedia Seattle and KJR have been with us every step of the way,” Tod Leiweke, CEO of Seattle Kraken said in the release. “With hosts that are entertaining and informative, we have found the perfect home for our fans to listen to Kraken games, wherever they are.”
Everett Fitzhugh will handle the radio play-by-play for the Kraken. He was hired by Seattle in August after calling games in the ECHL. With the announcement, the Kraken now have their radio and television broadcast partners set. At the end of January, they announced that ROOT Sports would carry the television broadcast with veteran announcer John Forslund leading the call.
The Kraken inaugural season is scheduled to begin in October of 2021 with an NHL Expansion Draft, where the team will select its initial roster, on the books for July 21st.
“We are extremely excited to bring Seattle’s newest professional franchise to the airwaves,” Rich Moore, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Seattle added via release. “It will be beyond fun helping build up this great fan base from the start, offering additional content and unique access on multiple platforms. Sports Radio 950 KJR and its entire team are proud to be the home of the Kraken!”
The NHL has turned the corner on the quarter pole and now our eyes are focusing on the blurry division races as the trade deadline looms. Trades this year could – and most likely will – have an impact on the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft projections as well.
Key players being targeted may find themselves moved and that will change their protection status. Whether teams buy or sell will be determined over this next stretch of the season. Will contenders add? Will hot starts fade and those teams decide to sell?
While we watch that pan out, here are games to catch this week:
Boston Bruins versus Washington Capitals
When: Wednesday, 4 PM on NBCSN and Friday, 4 PM on NHL Network
Washington and Boston continue to plow along and play good hockey. It’s surprising that these games are going to be indoors since NBC seems to plug one or both of these teams into its stadium games on the regular – Wednesday’s game will be on NBCSN albeit inside. The national programming is not without merit.
Coming into this week, the two clubs are separated by two points at the top of the MassMutual East Division with the Capitals on top, but with the Bruins holding a pair of games in hand. Boston has a chance this week to take over the lead and take a big step in the race. The games should be good as it features two veteran-laden teams who have raised the Cup and know how to win. These teams aren’t young, but they are good. Look for terms like ‘crafty’ and ‘wily’ to be uttered a lot by the television crews.
Players to watch
Zdeno Chara will be playing against his former club in his former home arena – the one he is most remembered for – which adds a fun element. The Bruins will throw out Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, and Patrice Bergeron a ton in these games. Making up one of the best lines in the NHL, the trio are also the top three Boston scorers this season. Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo played his Junior hockey for the Tri-City Americans if you’re looking for a local angle. Jake DeBrusk was almost traded to the Seattle Thunderbirds once but that’s a story for another day.
For the Capitals, pay attention to their power play. Alex Ovechkin will probably find himself in the left faceoff circle looking for a one-timer. The Bruins know that but he’ll still get a couple of good looks from there. Nicklas Backstrom is looking true to form and leading the Capitals in scoring and if you like puck-moving, scoring defensemen then John Carlson is your guy. He’s been doing it a long time and is off to another strong start.
The Seattle Kraken watchlist
Boston has come interesting players to keep an eye on. Up front, Nick Ritchie is close to equaling his season totals from last season. On the back end, scout up on Jeremy Lauzon.
The Capitals feature Seattle Kraken message board favorite T.J. Oshie as well as former Thunderbird Brenden Dillon. Both are likely to be exposed and would obviously be interesting Kraken picks. But the Capitals have other players who could end up in Seattle, including goalie Vitek Vanecek, who has been a pleasant surprise in Washington.
Carolina Hurricanes versus Florida Panthers
When: Sunday, 2 P.M. NHLTV
The Discover Central continues to entertain. This is a division that is the definition of topsy-turvy. Seemingly every day brings a new top team and entering this week it’s the Florida Panthers who continue to surprise. Carolina is not far behind, just one point out heading into the week, tied for second with a little outfit known as the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But this isn’t about the defending champs, its about the Hurricanes and Panthers who will serve up a fun Sunday afternoon matinee. While this is a big game, it feels like this race is going to come down to the wire in the spring.
Players to watch
Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, and Carter Verhaeghe aren’t household names outside of hockey fans – because the Panthers don’t get the national airtime other teams do – but are having impact seasons. They’ve been good for a while but now are on a team that is winning and leading a division. Goalie Chris Driedger, who played 22 games for the Tri-City Americans once, continues to outplay the expensive Sergei Bobrovsky and is a big reason for the Panthers’ success this season.
Carolina is fun. The Hurricanes have depth and youth which is a great combination. Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, and Martin Necas are all high-end entertaining players that will stand out to you. It’s not just youth for the Hurricanes, however. Their young roster is littered with veterans like Vincent Trochek, Jordan Staal, and defenseman Dougie Hamilton who are all producing. This is a team that is almost always must-watch.
Vegas Golden Knights versus San Jose Sharks: Friday, 7:30 P.M. NHLTV. This was an intense rivalry just a season ago. It hasn’t had the same juice this season but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a spark. Fans of the Seattle Thunderbirds may enjoy it as former players Shea Theodore, Keegan Kolesar, Patrick Marleau, and Alexander True are all in the mix.
As the Seattle Kraken hockey operations team looks toward the Expansion Draft, the age of each NHL player will factor into their selections. On Saturday, we posted a broad look at the average player ages of NHL teams, but that just scratches the surface of understanding how teams are constructed. Today, we take a deeper dive into the ages of players and wrap it up with how this could factor into the Kraken’s selection process for the Expansion Draft.
Average age by position and line
Let us start by looking at the median ages of NHL players by position and how they stack up on depth charts.
A couple interesting points to call out here. First, the youngest line in hockey tends to be the first forward line with a median age of 25.8 years old. Conversely, the oldest line is the fourth forward line. Last, the median age of goalies is older than any of the forward or defense lines. This makes sense, since goalies typically take so much longer to develop than skaters.
Average ages by team and line
Here are a couple fun call-outs when looking at this data:
The Vancouver Canucks have the youngest forward line in the NHL (21.8), which is their first line: Elias Pettersson (21.9) Nils Hoglander (19.8), and Brock Boeser (23.6).
The Jets have the oldest forward line in hockey (34.2), their fourth line: Nate Thompson (36.0), Mathieu Perreault (32.7), and Trevor Lewis (33.7)
The Ottawa Senators have the youngest team across all positions with an average age of 25.5 years old.
Washington has the oldest team in the NHL at 31.0 years old. Thank Zdeno Chara (43.5), Craig Anderson (39.4), and Alex Ovechkin (35.0) for driving the age up for the Caps.
The Avalanche have the youngest defensemen in the league, averaging just under 23.9 years old.
Here is a data visualization you can use to dig into the detail of age distributions by team.
Seattle thoughts
Player age alone will not be a deciding factor in the Kraken’s selections in the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft this summer, but it will be a component in some of the decisions to be made. An important piece in incorporating a player’s age in the decision-making process is how many years are left on a player’s contract. How might the players contributions decline over the remainder of the deal?
Example:
Dustin Brown has 11 goals and six assists in his 20 games in the NHL this year and will turn 37 in November. Brown has only one year remaining on his contract with a salary cap hit of $5.9 million per year.
TJ Oshie has five goals and nine assists in his 20 games in the NHL this year and will turn 35 in December. Oshie has four years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.7 million per year.
Both players are expected to be exposed in the Expansion Draft. Even though Brown is two years older, he probably carries the least amount of risk between the two because he only has one year remaining on his contract. In the salary-cap-strapped era the NHL is going through, Brown would probably be more tradeable at the trade deadline next season since teams only need to fit his salary in for the remainder of the year.
The Kraken will also need to evaluate players that are just entering the NHL to forecast what their upside might be. In San Jose, both Dylan Gambrell and Alexander True should be exposed in the Expansion Draft. Both play center. Gambrell is one year older than True and has been a regular in the Sharks lineup this year. True has played this season in the AHL and has five points in six games. They seem to have very similar capabilities, but does the one-year age difference change any of the NHL projections for either player?
All the games in the NHL this week will be indoors so we shouldn’t have any sun and melting ice issues. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t intriguing matchups featuring top teams with future Seattle Kraken on display.
Our two headline games feature key clashes in the Discover Central Division. That division is turning out to be very competitive, at least at the top. Heading into this week it’s the Florida Panthers who are leading but only by one point over the Carolina Hurricanes. The defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning? They’re right there as well, in third place, just three points out of first.
Waiting in the wings are the Dallas Stars, who have four games in hand on the top teams and will still be heard from. This week’s games will play with the standings.
Carolina Hurricanes versus Tampa Bay Lightning
When: Thursday, 4 P.M., ESPN+, NHLTV
These two have already split a pair of games over the weekend and Monday night. They will meet again Thursday and are both playing good hockey. Two evenly matched clubs usually spell good hockey and that’s what we should see here. Both teams are deep and both can score goals while playing entertaining hockey.
Tampa will not want to take too many penalties as the Hurricanes power play is cooking along at 29.1 percent. Putting them up a man is like cooking with gas, we think. We’re not big cookers. The Lightning aren’t slouches on the power play either, clocking in at 25.5 percent. Discipline will be key and this game could come down to a special teams battle.
Players to watch
The Lightning are deep and are led in scoring by the pair of Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point. There is no surprise there, nor is it surprising that defenseman Victor Hedman has matched the two forwards in scoring. He’s not their marquee name but winger Ondrej Palat is off to a strong start and giving Tampa Bay a great deal of secondary scoring.
Carolina has depth to match up with any team in the league. The Hurricanes’ top line is headlined by Sebastian Aho and the young dynamo – yes, he’s officially been labeled as a ‘dynamo’ – Andrei Svechnikov. That pair are two of the league’s up-and-coming stars and their play this year is as expected. But Carolina is getting a great contribution from former Florida Panther Vincent Trocheck. After some big years early in his career – which includes a pair of 20-goal seasons and one where he potted 31 – Trocheck’s production has fallen into the 10-goal level. His shooting percentage early on is 18 percent which is higher than his career average but closer to those big scoring years. The Hurricanes are banking on him keeping it up that high. If he does, he’ll be an x-factor in Carolina down the stretch.
Both of these teams have depth which will be good for Ron Francis and the Seattle Kraken. Tampa Bay has some cap issues and plenty of talent, which means Seattle will be able to pick a good player at the Expansion Draft. Their forward group is where the bulk of the Expansion meat lives. Watch players like Palat, Alex Killorn, Yanni Gourde, and former Spokane Chief Tyler Johnson.
There is meat and fruit, and whatever analogy you prefer with the Hurricanes as well. They are going to lose a good player thanks to their depth. Seattle may be able to snare some youth from Carolina starting with young defenseman Jake Bean – a former Tri-City American. Bean is finally getting NHL playing time and is producing. A fellow Tri-City alum, Morgan Geekie, was recently recalled to Carolina and is another young gun to watch, if in the lineup. If those two aren’t your fancy, keep an eye on defenseman Haydn Fleury as a potential Kraken.
Dallas Stars versus Florida Panthers
When: Thursday, 4 P.M. NHLTV
Everybody had the Florida Panthers leading the Central at this stage of the season. Right? Probably not, but there they are. They recently took two of three from the Lightning which was followed up with a win over Carolina. They appear to be real, as long as they aren’t playing the Detroit Red Wings who somehow have managed to beat Florida a couple of times already.
Dallas has had to deal with Covid and an all-time winter storm this season. Those issues caused a number of postponements which have led to games in hand within the division. That hasn’t stopped them from playing some good hockey, however, and they are very much in the Central Division hunt.
Players to watch
Florida is playing great defense and getting goaltending while allowing 2.82 goals per game. That must mean that goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is living up to the Brinks Truck load of a contract the Panthers delivered to him, right? Nope. It’s not Bobrovsky but rather 26-year-old Chris Driedger. The former Calgary Hitmen goalie is sporting a .929 save percentage – Bobrovsky is at .889 – and has put the Panthers on his back. He came into the season with just 15 games under his belt. Is he a flash in the pan or have the Panthers stumbled upon a star goalie?
The Stars for the most part are the same club that went to the Stanley Cup Final last fall. Leading the way is 36-year-old center Joe Pavelski who seems to have found the fountain of youth in Texas BBQ. Widely written off as past his best by date, Pavelski leads the Stars in scoring and has, in fact, not slowed down. He’s only five goals away from matching last year’s total and is shooting an impressive 26.5 percent. That’s miles above his career average, but its not too far off the 20 percent he shot in 2018-2019 with San Jose. He notched 38 goals that year and while he may regress some this season, do not rule out another big campaign from Pavelski.
The Seattle Kraken watchlist
There is more than one way Florida handles their Expansion Draft list but there is the potential for some interesting options. Driedger may be playing himself into consideration for the Kraken but also keep an eye on scoring forward Patric Hornqvist and defenseman Anton Stralman.
Dallas is in pretty good shape Expansion-wise. There is a possibility that Pavelski would be exposed, and he is playing well enough for consideration. Same with goalie Anton Khudobin, who most likely will be exposed.
Other notable NHL games on the radar
Toronto Maple Leafs versus Edmonton Oilers: Saturday, 4 PM, NHL Network. The Maple Leafs have emerged as one of the top teams in the league while the Oilers have found their sea legs. Plus, an Auston Matthews-Conner McDavid matchup is too juicy to pass up.
In his 369th career NHL game, Connor McDavid registered his 500th point to tie Sidney Crosby as the eighth-fastest player to reach that milestone. This week on Data Dump Saturday I plan to visualize McDavid’s scoring pace.
I grabbed the game logs from a sample of former and current NHL players to showcase how they stack up. The list of players is relatively arbitrary so if you have complaints about who is included or not included, please file them with Sound Of Hockey’s complaint department.
Average NHL points per game
This next chart is a little noisy but I wanted to look at a points-per-game average over time to see pace and any drop-off. It’s hard to pick the perfect number for the moving average, but I settled on 50 games. That felt like the right number to showcase how these players were performing at various stages in their careers.
A couple interesting points that might be worth exploring:
Draisaitl (bottom orange line) started relatively slow. His spike is probably related to playing with Connor McDavid.
Ovechkin has been surprisingly consistent over his last ~800 games, hovering around the one-point-per-game mark.
Gretzky’s decline was slow and consistent, but he still ended his career at an impressive one-point-per-game pace.
By contrast to Gretzky, Crosby’s point production has declined significantly in the last ~300 games.
Milestone pace
I also took a quick look at how quickly these players hit each 100-point milestone leading up to 500. Numbers in the chart below represent how many games it took to hit the next notable plateau.
By now it seems pretty clear that comparing any of the current players to Lemieux or Gretzky is futile, but one thing that pops is that McDavid is increasing his pace of scoring. Ovechkin also had a relatively short time between 400 and 500 points with just 59 games.
That is another edition of Data Dump Saturday. If you liked this one, you might like my post on scoring across the league. Feel free to send me any suggestions or questions to John@NHLtoSeattle.com.
We had previously projected Collin Delia as the protected netminder in the Windy City, but Kevin Lankinen has taken control of the crease there. He is 6-2-0 in 11 games with great stats, while Delia has been abysmal in his few opportunities. Malcolm Subban has also had some playing time, but Lankinen is clearly the guy. Connor Murphy is playing a slightly larger role on the blueline than Nikita Zadorov, though both are in the lineup every night (Murphy just got injured but would otherwise be playing). Our latest bet is on Murphy being the one protected in Chicago. Getting Brent Seabrook to waive his no-movement clause would allow general manager Stan Bowman to protect both. – Darren (original post here)
Columbus
Blue Jackets Protected List
Watchlist
Trading for two forwards (Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic) in the deal that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to Winnipeg means speedy forward Eric Robinson drops from Columbus’ expected protected list — although it’s really unclear if he’s more interesting than defensemen Gabriel Carlsson or Dean Kukan. Cliff Pu and Kole Sherwood are removed because it’s hard to see the Blue Jackets selecting either over Robinson or Kevin Stenlund, who are both seeing regular NHL time for Columbus. – Josh (original post here)
The Predators have been a major disappointment this year with no end in sight. I expect them to be major sellers at the trade deadline to start the rebuild process.
If the roster stays relatively consistent, though, I project Nashville to go with the four forwards, four defensemen, one goalie strategy. The biggest reason behind this change from before is the need for the Predators to clear cap space by daring Seattle to select Matt Duchene or former Portland Winterhawk Ryan Johansen. Both of them carry a $8-million cap hits per season.
On the defense side, going with the 4-4-1 format allows the Predators to protect Mattias Ekholm. With that said, I do anticipate Ekholm or Ryan Ellis to be traded by the time the Expansion Draft comes around. – John (original post here)
Tampa Bay
Lightning Protected List
Watchlist
There have been no changes to the Tampa projections, but if Mathieu Joseph continues to play well, the Lightning might go with a 7-3-1 protection list that will force them to expose defenseman Cal Foote. -John (original post here)
