The Seattle Kraken’s signature win on Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes marked Game 60 of the season, which means it’s time for another 10 for 10. If you’re new here, this series pulls together 10 data points from the last 10 games to help show where the Kraken are trending, what’s working, and what still needs attention as the playoff race tightens.
Let’s jump in.
Data Point 1: How they fared
The Kraken went 7-3-0 over their last 10 games, beginning on Jan. 25 against the New Jersey Devils. When you compare that stretch to the other Pacific Division contenders and the wild-card hopefuls, you can see how they’ve positioned themselves firmly in the playoff race.
Data Point 2: Change over the season in the Pacific Division
One fascinating trend this year is the shifting landscape of the Pacific Division. The top five Pacific teams from last season have all seen significant dips in points percentage, while the bottom three have taken major steps forward and are now in playoff contention. No other division has seen a swing this dramatic.
Data Point 3: Holding on to leads
This chart is a bit of an eye-sore, but I stumbled across it over the weekend and couldn’t look away. The Kraken have won 100 percent of the games in which they held a two-goal lead at any point. They’re one of just three teams with a perfect record (23-0-0) in that situation.
If you look one column to the left, their 69.0 percent win rate when holding a one-goal lead is right around league average.
Data Point 4: Goals against (minus empty-net goals)
We knew in the offseason that new head coach Lane Lambert would bring a more defensive mindset and structure to the 2025–26 Kraken. That was on full display early in the season as Seattle squeaked out low-scoring wins by minimizing goals against. Things slipped a bit in Games 21–30 and 41–50, but the last 10 games have been outstanding in terms of limiting goals allowed.
Data Point 5: Goals for (minus empty-net goals)
Goal scoring remains an area of opportunity for the Kraken. They’ve struggled for much of the season, and it’s been a recurring theme in national media skepticism about their playoff chances.
Their 2.9 goals for (minus empty-net goals) over the last 10 games is still in the bottom half of the league, but it’s encouraging to see improvement.
Data Point 6: Goals by player (excluding empty-net goals)
Digging deeper into the scoring, Shane Wright and Matty Beniers led the way over the last 10 games with four goals each, excluding empty-netters. Jordan Eberle scored five goals in that span, but two came into an empty net.
Data Point 7: Home is where the wins are
If you’ve been attending games this season, you’ve probably felt a little extra pep in your step walking out of Climate Pledge Arena.
It gets better: in calendar year 2026, the Kraken are 8-2-1 at home.
Data Point 8: Winning in the division
The Kraken are also showing up against their Pacific Division opponents, posting the best points percentage within the division.
Data Point 9: Expected to lose
It’s no secret that much of the national media is betting against the Kraken making the playoffs. With so many analysts based in the Eastern time zone, I’m guessing they’re not staying up late for Kraken games, and if they are, they might be more inclined to watch the flashier West Coast teams like the Sharks or Ducks. I’ve got no problem with that, but it does mean they lean heavily on publicly available advanced analytics.
One category they often rely on is “expected goals” models. For those unfamiliar, expected goals (xG) estimates the likelihood that a given shot becomes a goal based on factors like shot location, shot type, pre-shot movement, game state, and more. They’re useful directional indicators of how well a team played, regardless of the actual result.
In a single game, the sum of expected goals for minus expected goals against is often used to determine who “should have” won. Over the season, these accumulate into an expected goal differential.
The Kraken rank 29th in expected goal differential but 17th in actual goal differential (excluding empty-net goals). Knowing how these stats are used, it’s easier to understand the national pessimism.
Public models are great tools, I use them all the time, but they’re incomplete and can sometimes be misleading. I’m not declaring this a playoff team with certainty, but I’ve long believed the Kraken do something different that public models don’t fully capture.
Data Point 10: Signature win and shot suppression
This 10-game segment closed with a signature win in Game 60, when the Kraken beat one of the NHL’s best teams, the Carolina Hurricanes. Some fans expressed concern about the shot count, but I felt comfortable with how Seattle was playing. After the first period, I thought they had a formula to win. Sure enough, they scored twice in the second (and had a third goal negated by an offside challenge) and held on for a 2–1 victory.
The reason I believed they had a shot was the way they limited Carolina’s quality opportunities. To illustrate, look at the Hurricanes’ shot attempts over their last four games.
It’s clear Seattle did the best job of limiting high-danger attempts in front of the net. Don’t get me wrong — it wasn’t easy, and Joey Daccord still had to play a terrific game, but it was a full-team effort to suppress Carolina’s chances.
Taken together, these 10 games showed a team sharpening its defensive identity, finding just enough offense, and banking points at the right time. There’s still plenty to prove, but the Kraken continue to hang around and make things interesting.
That was a massive win for the Seattle Kraken, who knocked off the second-best (now third-best) team in the NHL thanks to a complete, full-team, 60-minute effort that featured opportunistic scoring, staunch defending, and outstanding goaltending.
The Carolina Hurricanes played exactly the game we expected from them, tilting the ice for long stretches and throwing the kitchen sink at Joey Daccord. But the Kraken’s structured defense was nearly perfect on the night, and when it wasn’t, their goaltender bailed them out almost every time.
Considering Carolina had won five straight and was 10-0-2 in its previous 12, this was something of an unexpected victory for Seattle. Not only was it a big win because of the opponent, it also vaulted the Kraken past Edmonton for third place in the Pacific Division and gave them a five-point cushion over San Jose, Nashville, and Los Angeles for the final wild-card spot.
Here are Three Takeaways from a memorable 2-1 Kraken win over the Hurricanes.
Takeaway 1: The Big Rig game
Was that the best game Jamie Oleksiak has ever played as a Kraken?
Despite his massive frame, I don’t recall him ever looking downright scary to opposing players trying to enter the Seattle zone—but he did in this one against Carolina. The Big Rig finished with 11 hits, a new career high.
“He was outstanding,” Daccord said of Oleksiak. “He’s just such a beast. He’s an absolute beast, he’s a warrior, blocking shots, I thought he had a great stick tonight. He made so many good plays tonight, and then obviously just burying guys too.”
Plus, when the Kraken were forced to kill a 6-on-4 situation over the final 1:29 of the game, he came up with a critical shot block, then won a puck battle to get it out of danger and briefly relieve pressure.
Two of his biggest hits—one on Taylor Hall with 22 seconds left in the first period and another on Seth Jarvis with 14 minutes remaining in the third—indirectly led to scoring chances going the other way.
As we were saying…
Now Oleksiak steps up and absolutely blasts Seth Jarvis, who was slow to get up and hobbled to the bench.
If Oleksiak played like that every night, he’d be one of the most feared and dominant shutdown defensemen in the sport.
“I just thought he was hard,” Lambert said. “I think there’s games where he’s equally as hard. Maybe the hits don’t show up, necessarily, on the score sheet so much. But his presence, and certainly his presence around the net in the defensive zone for us tonight was huge.”
Takeaway 2: Joey was excellent, too
It’s true Seattle’s defensive structure was mostly airtight in this game, with many of Carolina’s attempts coming from the outside. But you don’t win a game in which you’re outshot 36-15 without a special night from your goalie.
Daccord was visibly dialed in from the opening face-off. There weren’t many acrobatic saves—largely because he was square to shooters and the Kraken kept chances to the perimeter—but his play reading, puck tracking, and rebound control were excellent.
The home crowd chanted Joey’s name multiple times throughout the night—rightfully so—and he earned first-star honors.
“A big thing with playing a shot volume team [like Carolina] is just controlling your rebounds,” Daccord said. “Because they’re going to try to just get pucks in that create chaos, so if I can suck up pucks, get a lot of whistles, put pucks in the corner, that helps our D a lot in terms of just killing their motion in the offensive zone and resetting the play with a D-zone drop.”
There were brief stretches this season when it felt fair to wonder whether Daccord would rediscover the elite form that endeared him to fans last year. He appears to have found it. He’s now won six of his last seven starts, dating back to Jan. 25.
This is a very good time for Daccord to be playing his best hockey.
Takeaway 3: Critical goals at critical times
Seattle did an excellent job keeping the game low-scoring, but you still have to capitalize when opportunities arise.
The Kraken appeared to score three goals but were only credited with two after a beautiful give-and-go between Jaden Schwartz and Kaapo Kakko was overturned on an offside challenge.
That play came at 7:57 of the second period, with Seattle already holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Kakko’s icebreaker on a 2-on-1 with Berkly Catton. The overturned goal could have deflated the group—but instead, the Kraken responded with a crucial tally from their fourth line.
The sequence started with Jacob Melanson doing Jacob Melanson things in the defensive zone. After Daccord rimmed the puck around the boards, Melanson beat Sebastian Aho to it, absorbed contact against the wall, and protected the puck long enough to slide it to Adam Larsson, who quickly transitioned play up ice.
“‘Mel’ made a great play on the wall, got it to ‘Lars’ in the middle,” Meyers said. “He just moved it quick to me, I got it to Freddy, and then just drove the net. I was able to put her home after a great pass from Freddy too.”
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.
Meyers’ finish wasn’t pretty, but it counted—and it ended up being the game-winner after Nikolaj Ehlers cut the lead to 2-1 late in the second.
From there, it was defend, defend, defend until the fans counted the Kraken down to the final horn, after which Daccord was mobbed by his teammates.
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 returned to action last week, and that means Monday Musings returns as well. It was a bit of a slow start from the out of the blocks, but the boys are officially back.
A slow start and a needed bounce-back
The Kraken returned to action with two road games: one against the Dallas Stars and the other against the St. Louis Blues. I can understand the stinker of a game against the Stars where they lost 4-1, but the 5-1 loss to the Blues had me panicking a bit.
The Blues are currently 31st in the league, and the night they played the Kraken, they were without one of their best players, Robert Thomas. This is the NHL, where anyone can beat anyone, but with the standings so tight right now, you would have expected a better overall effort from a team fighting for a playoff spot.
Fortunately, they finished the week with a decisive 5-1 win against a quite frankly bad Vancouver Canucks team. The Kraken jumped out to a 2-0 lead about halfway through the first period. Other than a five-minute stretch in the second when the Canucks pulled within one, this game felt very one-sided.
The Canucks are bad, but the Kraken still really needed to take care of business there and not let this post-break skid fester.
Firing up the line blender
It has been interesting to watch the forward lines get jumbled up over the last three games as the team tries to figure out some post-Olympic break chemistry.
In the three games last week, only the Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and Jared McCann line stayed together. Meanwhile, a new combination of Shane Wright, Berkly Catton, and Kaapo Kakko looked very good against the Canucks despite not scoring. They collectively had nine shot attempts, and a few times, Wright and Catton found themselves in 2-on-1 opportunities but just couldn’t finish the play. I would really like to see that line stick together a bit longer to see if they can start generating some goals.
Power play finally breaks through
For the first time since coming back from the Olympic break, the Kraken finally broke through for a power-play goal on Saturday against the Canucks.
Up until that goal, they were 0-for-8 on the power play since the break. That isn’t great, but it seemed like they were still generating quality chances on the man advantage in those two road games. Here is a look at the power-play shots by game:
Note that blocked shots are captured at the location of the block and not the origin location of the shot. This might make the blocked shots appear closer to the net and therefore more dangerous than they initially were.
Trade deadline approaches
The NHL Trade Deadline is coming up on Friday. I provided an overview of possible trade deadline strategies and how the Kraken might fit with them earlier last week. We then posted a Kraken Roundtable that touched on some trade deadline specifics.
Nothing has materially changed since then. In short, I could see the Kraken moving a player or two from the pending free agent group of Jamie Oleksiak, Jaden Schwartz, or Eeli Tolvanen. Jordan Eberle is also on an expiring deal, but I would be surprised to see him get moved unless he has made it clear to management that he wants a realistic shot at the Stanley Cup this year.
Other musings
The Kraken scored one goal in each of their games Wednesday and Thursday. It was their first time scoring one goal or fewer in two consecutive games since Nov. 9 and 11.
Saturday night was the 22nd game the Seattle Kraken held a two-goal lead at any point. Would you believe me if I told you that they are one of three teams not to lose a game when they had a two-goal lead at any time? The other teams are Minnesota and Colorado.
In case you missed it, Darren posted the (somewhat) funny “hat trick that wasn’t” on Saturday. I wonder when the actual scoring change happened, because it wasn’t announced in the arena until Eberle scored his apparent third goal. The goal that got changed occurred five minutes earlier. There were four stoppages between the changed goal and Eberle’s faux-goal.
Jordan Eberle’s 22 goals this season is the most he’s had through 57 games since 2011-12.
I’m interested to see which AHL players might get the call-up after the trade deadline. There is no roster limit, but the team is limited to only three four call-ups after the trade deadline. There’s a decent chance we see Jagger Firkus get the opportunity, but beyond that, it might be more of a situational need.
It would not surprise me to see one or two Kraken pending free agents signed to an extension before the trade deadline on Friday.
Finally, the organization lost Tye Kartye on waivers this week. Kartye was a hard working player that made it to the NHL the hard way. I don’t think there will be a Kraken fan from Season 2 that will ever forget his debut.
The Kraken do have one of the more challenging schedules remaining among the teams fighting for a playoff position.
Players of the week
Julius Miettinen (EVT/SEA): The 2024 second-round selection of the Seattle Kraken had a monster week with seven goals and four assists over three games. Miettinen is second in the WHL in points per game.
Jordan Eberle (SEA): The Kraken captain had two goals and one assist in their game against Vancouver. He currently leads the team in goals and continues to defy his age.
Alexis Bernier (CHQ/SEA): The Kraken’s third-round selection of the 2024 draft had been injured most of the season and finally got back into a game on Jan. 23. The Chicoutimi Saguenéens defenseman has 10 points in 13 games since then, including three assists in two games over the weekend.
Goal of the week
Nothing super special about this one, but you’ve got to love seeing a 35-year-old vet beating a 22-year-old rookie down the ice to reestablish a two-goal lead.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Great speed from Eberle. He nearly loses it, but regains control and sneaks a backhander under Lankinen’s arm.
The week kicks off with a tough matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. The Canes are second in the league with a .695 points percentage and are 8-0-2 over their last 10 games. The Kraken are a surprising 2-2-0 against the Hurricanes at Climate Pledge Arena. When they played them in Raleigh back in January, the Kraken had just 12 shots in their 3-2 loss, but somehow managed to hold a 2-1 lead in the third period. I am not expecting much from this game but will still want to see a lot of “compete” from the Kraken.
The schedule gets easier on Wednesday when the Kraken host the Blues. Yes, those are the same Blues that beat the Kraken 5-1 last Wednesday. The Blues won their first road game since Dec. 20 when they beat the Wild on Sunday. Regardless, I expect the Kraken to come out pissed and hopefully demonstrate that last Wednesday’s loss was a bit of a fluke.
Finally, the Ottawa Senators come to town on Saturday. The Senators are fighting for their playoff lives, as they currently sit five points out of the last wild-card spot with two teams between them and that spot. Regardless of what happens in the Senators’ two games between now and Saturday, I expect a lot of desperation from them, which should make for an entertaining game.
These games are critical, but I am not going to be overdramatic and call them “must-win” games. Obviously, wins are important, but if they can capture three of six points, they will be fine to stay in the playoff hunt. Four would be good, and five would be fantastic.
It has been a while, how are we all feeling out there?
After looking rather poor in their first two games out of the break, the Seattle Kraken were more like themselves against a weaker opponent Saturday and rolled to a comfortable 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Jordan Eberle scored twice and even tricked the home faithful into throwing their hats on the ice—the second time that’s happened to Seattle fans this season. Chandler Stephenson had a goal and two assists, Matty Beniers stole Eberle’s second goal, and Vince Dunn scored in his 600th career game.
“I thought we were consistent, really from the drop of the puck,” coach Lane Lambert said. “In my mind, we were all business, and I say that—I don’t think we’re not all business other nights, but I think from a leadership standpoint, our leadership group, I thought we were all business this morning in morning skate, and I think it carried over. So I liked our consistency from start to finish.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken win over the Canucks.
Takeaway 1: Beniers steals a hat trick from Eberle
The game came almost a month to the day after Jared McCann appeared to score a hat trick in a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals. In that Jan. 27 game, McCann’s third goal was wiped out after a linesman spotted a high-sticking penalty by Matty Beniers prior to the score. That left a lot of fans at Climate Pledge Arena newly hatless for no reason.
Saturday featured a similar twist.
With Seattle holding a 2-1 lead late in the second period, Eberle stepped up and blocked a shot by defenseman Elias Pettersson at the point, springing himself on a breakaway. He showed good speed for a 35-year-old winger and even better hands, bobbling the puck before regaining control and chipping a backhander off Kevin Lankinen and in to make it 3-1.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Great speed from Eberle. He nearly loses it, but regains control and sneaks a backhander under Lankinen's arm.
Eberle appeared to follow that up with a power-play goal at 11:56 of the third. Taking Stephenson’s high-to-low feed near the bottom of the left circle, he drove into the crease and jammed the puck around Lankinen with Beniers crashing the far post.
Then, when Eberle scored into an empty net at 17:00 of the third to seal the 5-1 win, hats rained down on CPA ice.
BUT WAIT.
Much like the Jan. 27 game, there was a late change that erased the hat trick. This time, it was a scoring change on Eberle’s second goal—the power-play “jam job.” The official scorer ruled well after the fact that the puck hit off Beniers and went in, crediting Beniers with his 15th goal of the season and dropping Eberle back to 22 on the year.
O, CAPTAIN AGAIN! 🫡 🚨
Eberle jams it in for his second goal of the game. PPG.
“I felt bad for the fans,” Eberle said with a laugh. “I think that’s the second time that’s happened this season, too, with Jared McCann when they disallowed it and gave us a penalty. So I think we owe the fans some hats.”
Takeaway 2: Solid team effort
After lacking their pre-Olympic mojo in the first two games out of the break, the Kraken looked far more dynamic against Vancouver. Yes, part of that is because the Canucks are bad. But in the NHL, you still have to execute to win, regardless of opponent—and Seattle executed.
The defensive structure was there. The offensive opportunities were there. And Joey Daccord was sharp in net, stopping 27 of 28 shots. He also narrowly missed the elusive goalie goal, firing just wide of the empty net late.
OHHHHH! 😱
Joey "Shooters Shoot" Daccord goes for it again and JUST misses. Believe this is the closest he's ever come to the elusive goalie goal. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/25i7jUdsTc
Everyone did their part to create offensive opportunities in this one.
Seattle had more jump early and a much clearer scoring mentality throughout the game. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead but seeing it cut to 2-1 at 8:28 of the second, there was no panic. They simply kept playing, and once Eberle made it 3-1, it felt like Vancouver wasn’t getting back in.
Just a steady, professional effort from the goalie out.
Takeaway 3: Important win
Getting back into rhythm after a long break is difficult, especially for teams that don’t rely on high-end superstars to bail them out. The Kraken had built momentum before the hiatus, but they needed to rebuild it.
Against Dallas and St. Louis, they didn’t look close to playing their game. Against Vancouver, they looked much closer.
“Every game’s huge, but… you can’t let two [losses] become three,” Lambert said. “You have to stop the bad before it gets really bad, and we knew that we didn’t play as good as we can in the first two games back from the break. So we got that one, and now we’ve got to move on. We’ve got Carolina on Monday, and they’re a very, very good hockey team.”
It’s worth remembering that in the 2022-23 playoff season, Seattle came out of the break and immediately lost three straight to the Islanders, Devils, and Rangers, ultimately dropping four of five on that road trip before eventually righting the ship.
Still, with the standings as tight as they are, this version of the Kraken can’t afford many prolonged slides. Getting the two points Saturday was massive.
Still clinging to the final wild-card spot, the win gave Seattle a three-point cushion over Nashville and Los Angeles and moved them back within one point of the all-important third spot in the Pacific Division.
Believe it or not, Seattle now has a better points percentage than the third-place Edmonton Oilers.
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.
This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll have a little bit more of an NHL focus, but all of it pertains to the team’s young players and future roster. We’ll analyze the decision to waive Tye Kartye and where things stand after the New York Rangers claimed the young forward. We’ll also discuss the Kraken signings of forwards Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton. Finally, we’ll share some thoughts on the Kraken’s trade assets heading into next week’s trade deadline.
After that, we’ll have all of the usual stuff—Kraken prospect news, video, and data updates, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and a preview of the week ahead.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column or answered in our next mailbag (ahem, maybe next week? or the week after if there if we see an active deadline), drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Kraken re-sign Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton to two-year deals
Ben Meyers, 27, signs two-year, $1,000,000 average annual value (AAV) extension
On Feb. 24, the Seattle Kraken announced that the team had extended forward Ben Meyers. Before signing, Meyers was a pending unrestricted free agent this summer.
Meyers has five goals and six assists in 33 NHL games this season. He has brought skill and strong skating to a fourth-line center role, ranking near the very top of the league in average skating speed and in the 82nd percentile in maximum skating speed, according to NHL Edge. He is also third among forwards on the Kraken in shorthanded time on ice per game played.
Meyers has talked about how the Kraken were one of the teams that strongly pursued him when he was coming out of the University of Minnesota in 2022, before he signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche on April 13, 2022. (The Kraken were active in the amateur free agent market that year, signing Tye Kartye to an entry-level deal on Mar. 1, 2022. More on him in a moment.) Meyers re-signed with Colorado on a one-year, minimum deal for the 2023–24 season, before taking successive one-year, minimum deals with Seattle.
This is Meyers’s first standard contract for multiple years and above the league minimum. It puts him at the front of the group vying to provide depth contributions for the Kraken in the years ahead (i.e., somewhere between the team’s 11th and 13th forward). He’s a great player to have in that role.
Ben Meyers (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Ryan Winterton, 22, signs two-year, $1,125,000 AAV extension
Also on Feb. 24, the Kraken announced an extension for forward Ryan Winterton. Winterton was scheduled to be a restricted free agent without arbitration rights this summer, so his return on some type of deal was always highly probable. He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after the expiration of this contract.
Winterton has been a chess piece that Coach Lane Lambert has been able to move up and down the lineup without any significant drop-off in production. When he moves up in the lineup, his speed, defense, and forechecking play. When he’s on the fourth line, it hums. In 81 fourth-line minutes when Jacob Melanson, Ben Meyers, and a third winger not named Ryan Winterton have been out there, the group is minus-two and approximately even in shot quality share. Add in Winterton and the group surges: plus-one, with a 64 percent shot quality share in 51 minutes. Winterton has been a bottom-six play driver.
Flashing back to training camp, I think there were some nerves about which way it would go for Winterton. Would he get stuck in no-man’s land between a good AHL player and an NHL regular? Yet he made the team out of camp, and as we moved into the season, the Kraken repeatedly made difficult roster decisions rather than taking the easy way out and sending the (then) waivers-exempt Winterton down to the AHL. He was an NHL player in the team’s eyes. Winterton has rewarded that confidence and should be a building-block, defense-and-forechecking third- or fourth-line forward for years to come.
Tye Kartye waived by Kraken and claimed by the Rangers
The progression of Winterton and Meyers, as well as the arrival of hard-charging fourth-line winger Jacob Melanson, 22, created a squeeze for playing time at the bottom of the roster. The player who fell to the bottom of the list and often became a healthy scratch in recent months was 24-year-old winger Tye Kartye.
Kartye endeared himself to fans with a friendly personality off the ice and hard hits and timely goals on it. Unfortunately for Kartye, the on-ice production was just too inconsistent. There would be flashes, but also long dry spells. (Any player would prefer to be in the NHL. In hindsight, however, I wonder if some of Kartye’s offensive potential was sapped by earning a fourth-line role “early” and not getting another AHL season of featured-scorer reps.)
When the team activated Berkly Catton and Ben Meyers from injured reserve on Feb. 25, it needed to create a roster spot. The Kraken had three options: (1) reassign Melanson to the AHL (waivers-exempt); (2) waive one of the depth defensemen, Cale Fleury or Josh Mahura; or (3) waive Kartye.
In a choice among bad options, I understand the Kraken’s thinking in opting to waive Kartye. The Kraken believed that Melanson could provide more than Kartye in a fourth-line role this season, as evidenced by the fact that Melanson consistently played over Kartye in the last couple of months. At the same time, waiving a defenseman was likely unappealing because the team needs the depth there—particularly if Jamie Oleksiak is moved in a deal at the deadline.
That forced the team’s hand in exposing Kartye to waivers. Seattle’s loss was the New York Rangers’ gain, as the Blueshirts claimed Kartye off waivers on Friday, Feb. 27.
Tye Kartye (Photo/Brian Liesse)
While many will (rightly) focus on Melanson passing Kartye on the depth chart, the Kraken also “chose” Meyers over Kartye. Before Meyers’s extension, he would have been another candidate to go on waivers. The team (correctly, in my view) determined that Meyers (on his new deal) was more valuable than Kartye (on his deal). Hence, Meyers and Melanson stay while Kartye goes.
Kraken asset value heading into the trade deadline
Believe it or not, the trade deadline is just seven days (and three Kraken games) away. Earlier this week, John Barr gave a primer on the team’s potential approaches, and then the Sound Of Hockey team convened to give our opinions on preferred paths.
The team has the following draft assets over the next two years:
The team’s other notable trade assets under 23 years old include forwards Shane Wright, 22; Jagger Firkus, 21; Jani Nyman, 21; Julius Miettinen, 20; Berkly Catton, 20, and Jake O’Brien, 18; and defenseman Blake Fiddler, 18.
There has been a lot of speculation about Wright in recent weeks. I’ve given my view of his value on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and elsewhere. I’d be disinclined to trade Wright for Jordan Kyrou straight up. It’s close, though. I think fair-minded arguments could be made in either direction.
I have seen media speculation suggesting the fair cost for Kyrou would be Wright plus multiple other assets. I strongly disagree with that. Kyrou is a very, very good player, but packages like that should be reserved for the next echelon of player, such as Jason Robertson or Robert Thomas. If this is Wright’s market value, the team should rest easy keeping him.
To my knowledge, I don’t think anyone has actually reported that the Kraken offered Wright for Artemi Panarin. (This is likely because the Kraken never got to the point of making an offer, as Panarin indicated he wasn’t willing to sign in Seattle.) That said, if the Kraken were willing to go there, I probably would have been critical of that deal.
What should the Kraken do at the deadline? Let us know in the comments below.
Notes on four Kraken prospects
Julius Miettinen | F | Everett Silvertips (WHL)
Julius Miettinen reached 100 career assists in the WHL this week. His 1.40 points per game ranks 12th in the WHL. His +48 on-ice plus-minus is sixth in the WHL and second among forwards, one behind linemate Matias Vanhanen. He continues to show a pro-ready combination of skills. With Everett’s strength, it seems unlikely we’ll see a pro debut for Miettinen at the end of this year, but he should be a fixture in the Coachella lineup from day one next season.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Mølgaard returned from his successful stint at the Olympics to score a goal in his only AHL game this week. Taken together, that work is enough to earn Mølgaard Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week in an otherwise quiet week. (Just don’t think about the timeline too much; Mølgaard deserves recognition.)
Alexis Bernier | D | Chicoutimi Saguenéens (QMJHL)
Bernier continued his scoring ways last week, adding another goal and an assist in three games. His role is smaller on the stacked Chicoutimi Saguenéens roster. He doesn’t see the ice on the power play, and his penalty kill time is rotational rather than foundational. Even so, he is taking advantage of his opportunities. He has four goals and three assists in 11 games and has an even or better on-ice plus-minus in 10 of those 11 games. Check out his shifts from the Saguenéens’ Feb. 20, 2026, game below.
Nikke Kokko | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Goalie Nikke Kokko returned from a six-week injury to back up Victor Ostman on Friday, Nov. 20. Kokko then grabbed his first start on the second night of the back-to-back on Saturday, Nov. 21, against the Colorado Eagles. He faced 44 shots on goal and turned away 40 for a solid .909 save percentage. It wasn’t enough, though, as the Firebirds fell to the Eagles 6–3 after a couple of empty-netters. More importantly, Kokko made it through the entire game.
Kraken prospects data update
Jake O’Brien had three goals and three assists in three games this week, but the Bulldogs struggled when he was on the ice at even strength. Despite O’Brien’s individual scoring production, the team was minus-seven with O’Brien on the ice at even strength.
J.R. Avon also returned from a lengthy injury absence over the last week and tallied an assist in three games. With 10 total assists on the season, Avon has matched his previous professional career high, set in 60 games last season. He has played only 24 games this year.
Ostman had a Jekyll-and-Hyde week, posting a shutout against the Eagles on Friday, Feb. 20, only to give up six goals against the Henderson Silver Knights on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Semyon Vyazovoi had a strong seven-day stretch, winning two of three starts and posting a .917 save percentage in the process. He continues to rank among the KHL’s league leaders.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3: Jagger Firkus, Kim Saarinen
2: Jake O’Brien, Julius Miettinen, Nathan Villeneuve, Semyon Vyazovoi
1:Alexis Bernier, Barrett Hall, Ollie Josephson, Tyson Jugnauth, Nikke Kokko, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, Logan Morrison, Victor Ostman, Zaccharya Wisdom
Previewing the week ahead
This week’s Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is a Saturday morning opportunity to catch Kraken prospect Zeb Forsfjall in action in the SHL on FloHockey.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Carson Carels
Carson Carels is an athletic, skilled 6-foot-2, left-shot defenseman for the Prince George Cougars in the WHL. His 1.20 points per game are the most among first-time draft-eligible WHL defensemen. Well regarded within Canadian circles, he earned a spot on Canada’s 2026 World Juniors squad at 17 years old. Scouts credit his skating and two-way skill through the neutral zone as carrying traits.
He may not project as a true high-end player either offensively or defensively, but the all-around package should land him near the top of an NHL lineup down the road. Carels ranked No. 7 on the midseason Big Board.
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
