When the Stanley Cup Playoffs got underway this past weekend, the Seattle Kraken could only watch from afar (if they were watching at all… Matty Beniers said on Friday that he doesn’t like to watch because it’s salt in the wound). That’s because the Kraken came up short of the postseason for the fourth time in their five-year franchise history and were left to once again reflect on what went wrong.
Seattle had its locker clean out day on Friday, where an assortment of players and head coach Lane Lambert addressed the media and gave their thoughts on a myriad of subjects. They consistently expressed disappointment with how things ended up, especially considering the Kraken were in the thick of the playoff hunt heading into the Olympic break before stumbling to an atrocious 7-17-2 record down the stretch and nosediving out of contention.
“I mean, we failed. That’s just the reality of it,” Adam Larsson said. “We missed the playoffs for the third year in a row. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing that went wrong. We were going through spurts in the season where some things would go wrong, and the next day it could be fixed. But overall, I know we took some strides, but we ultimately missed the goal here.”
Lambert—who looked visibly frustrated at different points in games for several weeks down the stretch—did remind us that there were positives to take away from this season.
“It’s fresh, and obviously disappointment would be a word that I would use,” Lambert said. “But then I would also have to look at the season as a whole and go back to what we talked about right at the very beginning, about being in the mix and playing meaningful games, which we were and we did. I think that’s going to be extremely important for helping the growth and development of our younger guys, and getting that experience and being able to do that was very important for us.”
Lambert is right. We were all hoping for meaningful games down the stretch, and Seattle did provide that. Still, it was infuriating to watch the team crumble in the last two months.
What fueled the collapse?
There was a lot of theorizing about what actually led to Seattle falling apart, and although nobody was able to specifically diagnose what happened, captain Jordan Eberle had some interesting commentary.
“For me, it’s trusting,” Eberle said. “It’s trusting that your game, in tight situations, whether you’re playing aggressively and having support, and trusting that you’re a five-man unit playing together that’s going to get the job done. I mean, I think later on, especially the last 10 games, we were dinged up pretty good with goals and odd-man rushes and breakaways, and that trust factor blew up. And our gaps got worse, and we gave teams time and space, and they took advantage… When your team’s playing as a five-man unit, you trust that the next guy is doing his job in front of you.”
It was a sound theory, but it also ties in with the mental flimsiness of the team, which in turn ties in with the culture of the locker room—all factors that I believe led to the losing.
Lambert agreed to some degree with Eberle’s interpretation of the poor late-season results, but added, “I thought our team was a little fragile at times. We run on confidence, as do most teams. But this team here really runs high on confidence, and when we lack it, struggles happen.”
And boy, did those struggles ever happen. Remember, it wasn’t just the late-season meltdown that hurt this team. The Kraken also had to overcome a stretch during the holiday season in which they lost 10 of 11 games before remarkably rebounding and ripping off points in 10 straight.
That’s nothing new for this team, though, which has found itself in long losing streaks in all of the years that it has missed the playoffs.
“I can’t speak of the past before I got here, but I think one of the, really, I guess, most proud moments I have of the season and with our guys is us digging ourselves out of that hole, so to speak, in December, and getting ourselves right back in the mix,” Lambert said. “There is such a fine line between winning and losing, and if you don’t find that line, and the little, simplest of mistakes happen, they can continue to manifest or multiply.”
Will Bobby McMann return?
While trade deadline acquisition Bobby McMann—who racked up an impressive 10 goals in just 18 games for the Kraken and 29 total goals on the season—had great things to say about his time in Seattle and left the door open to conversations and a potential return for next season and beyond, I remain unconvinced he’ll come back.
“I think the biggest thing is winning,” McMann said. “I want to be in a spot that there’s a chance to win, or at least have a competitive approach to every season to be a team that can can be in the mix and in the conversation of being in the playoff picture.”
That feels like a big strike against Seattle; McMann, who will be one of the top free agents available in a very thin class, didn’t exactly get to see the best of what the Kraken can do on the ice, instead experiencing a fall into complete disarray after his arrival.
McMann continued. “But then it’s also [about having] a chance to go for it all. And then on top of that, I want opportunity, and I think most players do. You want to be a contributing factor, and I think for me, the best feeling, and what I love most about the game is when you win and you help contribute. And I think that there’s maybe a chance for opportunity here that I could see, and I was lucky enough to get that coming in here.”
So, you’re telling me there’s a chance…
The Kraken do have that working for them. They showed McMann he would be put in a position to succeed personally in Seattle, and he did just that while playing top-line minutes under a familiar coach in Lane Lambert.
Is that opportunity enough to sway McMann into returning to the Pacific Northwest? Probably not, but perhaps a big bag of money can also help the cause. Remember, McMann has only recently cemented himself as a full-time NHLer and is coming off a two-year contract that paid him $1.35 million AAV. At 29 years old, this is likely his only chance to properly cash in.
“Looking back five, 10, 15 years ago, and thinking about telling myself at that time that this is where I’d be at, I don’t know if I really would have expected it,” McMann said about his journey to his first true unrestricted free agency opportunity. “I think I always kind of had the dream of it happening, but you never really know, especially when you’re so far away and a few leagues removed, or you’re not even playing pro yet.
“And you’re putting in hours and hours of work, not really sure if it’s going to pay dividends, or if you’re really going to get there, and if it will all be for nothing. But being at this point now and being able to enjoy that success, it’s a special feeling, and it’s very rewarding to feel like the work that I put in over basically my whole life to get to this point has been— It’s been a fun journey. I also enjoy it, and I think that’s part of the reason that it’s gotten to this point.”
Eye brow raisers
There were a couple of moments on Friday that raised eyebrows in the room. One was when Jared McCann came limping up to the podium and announced that he had undergone a procedure in Utah the day prior. He said that the injuries he was dealing with all season were related to the procedure he had following last season, but he expects to make a full recovery and be fully ready to go for training camp. He was never fully right this season, so here’s hoping this truly clears things up for him as he heads into the final year of his contract.
But McCann really got people to exchange glances when he seemed to imply that a big reason for Seattle’s late-season downfall was because of the young players in the room.
“When you lose year after year, things change, right?” McCann said. “For me, [former general manager and president of hockey ops Ron Francis] has been here since the beginning, he’s the guy who signed me to my first extension, and I think the younger guys can take it more seriously when it comes to— things change if you don’t win.”
An appropriate follow-up question to this would have been, “Uh… what?” But I unfortunately missed that opportunity.
He also had a line about how when things weren’t going well. “Maybe we need to start screaming at guys. And I know that’s not always the answer, especially with the younger generation coming in now. But yeah, maybe it’s something to learn from.”
I’m not certain McCann meant to explicitly blame the young players on the roster for the team’s failures, especially considering that the struggles should absolutely fall squarely on the shoulders of the veteran leaders. But still, two negative-sounding mentions of the youth were perplexing.
Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer once again took a couple of pot shots at… [checks notes]… 2024-25 head coach Dan Bylsma, reminding us again that he felt his terrible season last year was mostly related to the lack of structure from the team and consistent playing time for him.
When I asked Grubauer if he made any technical changes, which may have led to his remarkable turnaround this season, he said, “I think [I was] maybe not as aggressive anymore because last year, I don’t know what system we played, if there even was a system, right? So this year, with Lane coming in, and our identity is playing defensive, and defense wins you games, too. So we were eliminating a lot of plays. Maybe we didn’t do it as much the last part of the season, but when you look up until the break, there aren’t many crazy chances. And honestly, I think last year there was a breakaway like each period, right?”
It’s fair to say Grubauer did not enjoy his time playing for Bylsma last season.
Palate cleansers
Remember how Nikke Kokko took a shot at the empty net in his first NHL start, in which the Kraken defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1? Well, after that game, he told Piper Shaw in an interview in front of all of Climate Pledge Arena that he wanted to score “before Joey [Daccord]” gets one.
I asked Joey on Friday what he thought about that.
“Yeah, that was crazy,” Daccord said, getting a big laugh from the room. “That was nuts. I told him, I was like, ‘Dude, if you would have scored, I would have been so rattled.’ But I was pumped for him. I was pumped to see him get his first start and win.”
On a separate note, it was an honor to present Brandon Montour with the second annual Andy Eide Memorial Stick Taps Award, selected by the local media as the player who was best to work with throughout the season.
Brandon Montour is the 2025-26 recipient of the Andy Eide Memorial Stick Taps Award, presented by the local #SeaKraken media to the player we deemed was best to work with this season. pic.twitter.com/ogR71YynrN
Montour truly has been great to work with over the past two seasons. He’s the only guy that consistently goes out of his way to greet media members, and his willingness to talk about anything and everything—including the unthinkable tragedy he endured this year with the passing of his brother Cameron after a battle with ALS and the joy of his third child being born (‘Baby Cam,’ as they’re calling him for now)—is so admirable.
Congrats to Brandon, and stick taps to Andy.
Kraken general manager Jason Botterill will give his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, alongside CEO Tod Leiweke, so we will likely have additional commentary to share after that. Plus, stay tuned to soundofhockey.com this week, as we continue to dissect this roller coaster of a season.
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.
With a whimper, the Seattle Kraken season mercifully came to an end Thursday after they lost both games of a back-to-back, 4-1 at Vegas on Wednesday and 2-0 at Colorado on Thursday. Following the Olympic break, the Kraken posted an embarrassing 7-17-2 record in 26 games and took themselves from third place in the Pacific Division all the way down to the sixth-best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery.
Normally, we would use this space to provide you with Three Takeaways from the game(s). But considering there’s not much to really even write about from these two contests—save for some solid performances by the Kraken’s AHL goalie duo of Nikke Kokko and Victor Östman, who made his first NHL start and stopped 33 shots in Denver—we’re taking this in a different direction.
Last week, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke promised a “prolific” offseason, which implies that big changes will be coming to the roster. Of course, such an implication would mean that the team will add talent, but to do that, spots also have to be cleared.
If things really are going to dramatically change, then multiple Kraken stalwarts will likely have to depart. Here are the players that may have played their last games in Kraken uniforms.
Unrestricted free agents
The Kraken UFA’s are pretty obvious candidates to be on their way out. Although the Kraken don’t have a deep prospect pool of defensemen, I’d be surprised if Jamie Oleksiak returns next season. I’d be even more surprised if Jaden Schwartz returns.
Both players have been around since Day 1 and have contributed in big ways, with Schwartz registering 79 goals and 89 assists in 301 games across five seasons and Oleksiak racking up 21 goals and 68 assists in 389 games while playing in a defense-first role. Both players are 33 years old, and the fact that Seattle re-upped Jordan Eberle before the trade deadline but did not do so with either of these players tells me they’re likely on their way to the market.
For the other two UFA’s—Eeli Tolvanen and Bobby McMann—I’m not sure what the future holds.
Tolvanen is in his prime at 26 years old and has received high praise at times this season from coach Lane Lambert for his versatility. He was one of the highly regarded moves Ron Francis made as general manager, claiming him off waivers from the Nashville Predators and watching him flourish into a key contributor. But he also saw his role diminish late in the season and even got healthy scratched. With that in mind, is there still mutual interest between the two parties?
Meanwhile, McMann is the most interesting question of the four. He personally had an outstanding showing as a member of the Kraken, with 10 goals in 18 games after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the NHL Trade Deadline. He also only said great things about the organization, but has he really been happy here? The team has been in turmoil since he arrived, imploding around him every step of the way and tailspinning out of the playoffs. McMann definitely saw the worst version of what this team can be, and he will be one of the more coveted free-agent options on the market this summer.
If he’s even interested in returning, we would expect the Kraken to have to pay out the nose to keep him.
Trade candidates
We at Sound Of Hockey also think the Kraken should be willing to listen on every player on the roster. If there’s a deal to be done that’s going to bring back some semblance of star power, GM Jason Botterill needs to at least consider it, even if moving a player out feels painful.
Here are a few players that—although it wouldn’t be fun to see any of them go—could be traded this summer.
On my recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast interview with Kraken broadcaster John Forslund (viewable below), he independently brought up Jared McCann as a player that could go.
McCann, who has registered 20 or more goals in all five of his seasons in Seattle and topped out at 40 in 2022-23, has one year left on his deal. His latest season was disrupted by injuries, leaving him to play just 52 games—the fewest he’s had by a long shot since joining Seattle.
Losing McCann would sting. But he’s one of those guys on the roster who could fetch real value, and if Botterill doesn’t see the 29-year-old as part of the long-term plan, then this is the summer to move him.
Likewise for Vince Dunn. Since the Kraken acquired Brandon Montour in free agency on July 1, 2024, I’ve always wondered if there was a world where Dunn could become expendable, given that the players have similar profiles, and the team is clearly committed to Montour, who still has four years left. With Dunn’s $7.35 million AAV contract also set to expire after next season, now is the time to move him if the front office is looking to maximize value.
And then, of course, there’s Shane Wright, whose name percolated in trade rumors for a good chunk of this season. By all accounts, Wright had a disappointing season. Everyone in Seattle expected him to take another big step and become one of the Kraken’s core players in 2025-26. That didn’t happen, plain and simple.
After scoring 19 goals and 25 assists under Dan Bylsma in 2024-25, Wright looked lost at times this season, while Lambert tried him in a wide variety of roles, including moving him to the wing to try to simplify things for him. In the end, he produced just 12 goals and 15 assists.
Surely the hope was that he’d emerge as the team’s No. 2 center this season, pushing Chandler Stephenson down the depth chart. Instead, you could tell Lambert was having a hard time trusting Wright and even worked around him for much of the campaign by having him take almost exclusively offensive-zone starts.
I don’t think Wright belongs on the wing, but I’m also suddenly having a hard time understanding where he fits in general when considering the longer term. Here’s why. Let’s say, for the sake of a thought experiment, that the Kraken acquire a true No. 1 center this offseason. That would move Matty Beniers into a No. 2 center role and Chandler Stephenson into a No. 3 center role—positions in which I believe both players would excel.
Being that Wright has not yet overtaken Stephenson, where does that leave him? On the wing? On the fourth line? I don’t want him in either of those spots, so packaging him as part of the deal to land said magical No. 1 center could be the way to go.
The thing that stinks is that Wright does appear to be a young player who would benefit from a change of scenery. Giving up on him right now could mean trading him for less than he’s worth—and what’s worse, you can just imagine him getting that change of scenery, getting to a new team, and blossoming into an outstanding player.
Still, it is feeling likely that he could be dealt this summer.
What say you, Kraken fans? Which other players could be on the move?
P.S. We’ll have lots more content in the coming days, but since the season has finally come to a close, I thought it was a good time to say thanks for following along all season. I appreciate you. Keep it friendly in the comments.
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.
In their final home game of the year, the Seattle Kraken actually found a fairly ideal outcome. In classic 2025-26 Kraken fashion, they fell behind by three goals and then tried fruitlessly to stage an epic comeback in the third period. It ended up being too little, too late, but it made for a reasonably exciting game and gave home fans something to cheer about, while also keeping themselves alive in a race for a top-five draft pick.
“A couple of bounces over our stick, and [Quinton] Byfield made us pay,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Certainly our game management at times in the second period wasn’t great… But I thought we generated some chances, some opportunities, and I wasn’t unhappy with the way we were playing, I just didn’t like the scoreboard.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-3 Kraken loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
Takeaway 1: Oh, that’s how you make the playoffs?
One thing Los Angeles coach DJ Smith alluded to after the game is that his players have largely rallied around legendary two-way center Anze Kopitar, who is set to retire after the season, closing out an outstanding 20-year NHL career. Kopitar impacted this game with an assist on Adrian Kempe’s goal that ended up being the game-winner at 12:29 of the third period.
Whether Kopitar is the reason the team has earned a postseason berth is open for debate, but what Los Angeles has done down the stretch is exactly what I kept expecting the Kraken to do after the Olympics, but they just never did it. They never got on even a small hot streak, which could have solidified a playoff position, instead winning no more than two consecutive games from Feb. 25 onward.
The Kings, on the other hand, got hot at exactly the right time. As the Great Pacific Pillow Fight raged on deep into the season, Anton Forsberg rose to the occasion and backstopped Los Angeles to wins in five straight starts, and the Kings as a whole won six of their last seven. That was all they needed.
That kind of run is not crazy. If Seattle had just done that at any point since the break—they had plenty of opportunities with strings of beatable opponents—they may have been the ones celebrating after this game instead of the Kings.
Takeaway 2: More chemistry from Kakko and Gaudreau
The Kraken may have missed an opportunity earlier this season to get Kaapo Kakko and Freddy Gaudreau together. They’ve played a total of 59 minutes together, most of which came on the wings of Chandler Stephenson in the last month or so. But the last couple of games, Gaudreau has been the center with Kakko on the wing. The other wing against Calgary on Tuesday was Jared McCann, but he was shut down for the last three games, so Berkly Catton slid into that spot for this one.
The constant in those last couple has been Kakko finding Gaudreau to create Grade-A looks, and Gaudreau converted for the second game in a row Monday after previously not scoring since March 19.
In this one, Ryan Winterton had a shift playing with that duo, and he made an outstanding play to win a puck battle against three LA defenders. The puck popped out to Kakko at the right side of the crease, and he found Gaudreau at the left side for a wide-open net.
FREDDY G! 🚨
For the second game in a row, Kaapo Kakko sets up Gaudreau, this time after a great forecheck by Ryan Winterton. #SeaKraken back within 3-2. pic.twitter.com/5xWvim4lzt
“I like to play with him,” Kakko said of Gaudreau. “I mean, I feel like we kind of think the same on the ice. I already know where he is, and he knows where I am.”
Kakko, by the way, has arguably been Seattle’s most consistent player in the later stages of the season. He said the Olympics helped his confidence.
Meanwhile, there’s no question this has been a frustrating year for Gaudreau, who was traded to Seattle from Minnesota, a team that has emerged as a true Stanley Cup contender this year. After scoring 18 goals there, he’s managed just seven this season, with two of those coming in the last two games.
Perhaps Kakko and Gaudreau finding each other is better late than never, and they can be reunited and find that chemistry again next season.
Takeaway 3: Tough night for Ryan Lindgren
By the 13:19 mark of the first period, Quinton Byfield had scored two goals—one off a 2-on-1 and one off a breakaway—with both coming thanks to Ryan Lindgren-related mishaps at the offensive blue line.
On the first goal, Matty Beniers cleanly won an offensive-zone face-off back toward the side boards. It didn’t come off the wall as hot as Lindgren expected, causing him to hesitate in stepping up for the puck. That little hesitation was enough time for Byfield to jump off his hashmark and poke it around Lindgren, creating the 2-on-1 and giving Los Angeles a 1-0 lead 2:43 into the game.
The second one was just a bad break. Jordan Eberle’s pass intended for Lindgren at the point hopped over his stick, and Byfield was off to the races.
“You know what? [Lindgren] gives it everything he’s got,” Lambert said. “I think that over the last little while he’s definitely had some, I guess you could call it, bad puck luck, with a couple of those power-play goals a couple games ago that go off his stick. But he’ll continue to battle, he’ll continue to grind. That’s just the way he is, but… I thought there was some frustration on his part.”
Bonus Takeaway: Jacob Melanson is a psycho
How about Jacob Melanson, getting challenged to a fight by Samuel Helenius, having it broken up by the refs, then stepping out of the penalty box and immediately dropping the gloves in earnest?
Helenius is WAYYYYYY bigger than Melanson and has fed him his lunch previously in the AHL.
“I just wanted to fire up the crowd there and wanted to get the guys going,” a stitched-up Melanson said after the game. “We had a fight a couple years ago, but I wanted some redemption.
“I don’t think I can say what I said in the box. I talked to him before the game, just seeing what he was up to, and he kind of jumped me at the start. I wanted a fair square off, and he gave it to me, so I appreciate that from him.”
On Melanson fighting to try to spark the team, Lambert said, “Loved it. We need more of 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.
The Seattle Kraken were in Toronto for an October matchup with the Maple Leafs, coincidentally right in the backyard of young Kraken forward Ryan Winterton’s childhood home. As he rode the team bus, he received a call that no 22-year-old should have to field. The cancer his older brother Jacob had been fighting was deemed terminal. He had six months to live.
“I remember getting the call. I was on the bus, and… it wasn’t embarrassing, but I just couldn’t keep it together,” Ryan said. “And just hearing that news about your best friend being terminally ill, it doesn’t matter who it is, it’s never easy to cope with, let alone your brother.”
A former junior player for the Flint Firebirds and Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League, Jacob’s ordeal began during his fourth season playing U Sports hockey for the University of Guelph Gryphons. As that last season wore on, he had battled through pain in his shoulder but assumed it was something a surgery could fix when he was done playing, perhaps something like a torn labrum.
And with the Canadian healthcare system working differently than that of the United States, it took many months between when Jacob first started feeling pain and when he could get an MRI to determine what the issue was.
“You have to wait a while to get in,” Ryan explained. “It’s not like the States where if you just need [a surgery or a scan], you can get in and pay for it. You have to wait, and [in his case], I want to say it was like six months or nine months. So it wasn’t like he could just go in and see what was wrong with his arm… It was really bothering him.”
When Jacob finally got the MRI sometime in April 2025, he was told he needed to go to the hospital right away. There, he received his diagnosis: osteosarcoma.
At the time, Ryan was in Coachella Valley, where the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds were preparing for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Learning that Jacob had bone cancer was devastating, but optimism remained that he could be cured and continue on with his life.
It wasn’t until another month later that the Winterton family learned the gravity of the situation. The delayed diagnosis had been long enough for the cancer to metastasize from Jacob’s shoulder into his lungs.
The Kraken organization quietly steps in
As Jacob’s prognosis deteriorated, Ryan received immense support from his teammates, and the Kraken organization quietly stepped in and did everything in its power to try to help save Jacob.
“They sponsored him to come here to get treatment, because nothing in Ontario was really working,” Ryan said. “There’s not as good of cancer research there as there is here, especially in Seattle. So he tried to do a clinical trial, and obviously, that was kind of the last hope.”
Jacob spent about 40 days in Seattle, using that clinical trial as a last-ditch attempt to find something that worked against his illness.
“[The treatment] didn’t work, but at the end of the day, it was still [owner Samantha Holloway], [CEO Tod Leiweke], and members of the ownership group coming together and sponsoring him to come out here and live and just try and give him last hope, you know?”
The Kraken’s support came without fanfare. It wasn’t something the team publicized, but when Sound Of Hockey asked, the team confirmed that Holloway and members of the ownership group sponsored Jake’s clinical trial and supported the family in Seattle.
“The Wintertons are an incredible family, and Garth, Lesley, Ryan, Jake, and Julia hold a special place in our hearts,” Holloway said. “Jake was a remarkable young man who showed so much courage, and we’re lucky we got the chance to know him. It meant a lot to be able to support Jake, Ryan and their family, and we’ll continue to be there for them.”
The feeling is mutual between the Wintertons and the Kraken.
“The organization and everyone involved will forever go down in my family’s hearts, and I consider this home now,” Ryan said. “So I think we owe a lot of thanks to people. Obviously, it’s not the way we wanted it to go, but at the end of the day, we still are very thankful for what everyone’s done. I know Jake was very, very happy about what was going on and the care he was given.”
“The toughest couple weeks of my life”
As the Kraken were preparing for a then-crucial game at the Nashville Predators on March 19, Ryan received more bad news. Jacob’s cancer had spread again into his esophagus, and doctors were now giving him just two weeks to live.
“[Jake] didn’t want to be in a hospital anymore,” Ryan said. “He wanted to get home and see his friends, and that’s when I was… We were in Nashville, and then I got the call, and I was going to play that game. And then I woke up from my [pre-game] nap, and I just didn’t feel… it didn’t feel right to go out there, and potentially [get injured and] jeopardize not seeing my brother again. It was just something I couldn’t live with, and I’m very thankful I didn’t play that game.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the Winterton family and Jacob’s girlfriend had embarked on a 37-hour road trip from Seattle back to Ontario so that Jacob could spend his last days at home and be near his friends. Ryan said his dad, Garth, drove straight through without staying overnight anywhere along the journey.
Ryan made it home a couple of days later. He recalled arriving around 10 p.m., and Jacob had been waiting up for him.
“My parents had told me how tough the mornings were for him, like he couldn’t catch his breath. We kind of had a feeling at that point that that was it. So I saw him at 10 o’clock that night, and then in the morning, the same thing, he wasn’t doing good. He actually took out his oxygen tube when he was sleeping, by accident, and was really struggling that morning.”
The family called 911 and got Jacob to the hospital.
“He was ready,” Ryan said. “He didn’t want to do another morning where he thought he was going to suffocate on his own air. It’s tough to talk about, but he was ready, and he didn’t want any more suffering.
“It was the toughest couple weeks of my life, and I’m sure it will be until I die.”
Jacob Winterton passed away on March 25. He was 25 years old.
Remembering Jake
Ryan loved his brother and admired him throughout his entire life.
“He meant the world to me. Growing up, he was two years older than me, and just growing up through hockey, through whatever it was, you just always look up to your older brother. And I was talking to the host of the funeral, and I was saying my brother had so many friends around his age, obviously two years older [than me], and he would always have parties and have friends over at our house. And the one thing about him is that he was never embarrassed of me and would always bring me around.
“Like, those guys that he was best friends with are my best friends now, because he let me be around them all the time, whereas if I was the older brother and my younger brother was trying to party or hang out with me, I would tell him to beat it. But it was just kind of his demeanor that he really was passionate about me and everything he did. And he was my best friend, obviously.”
Ryan remembered that as Jacob was fighting for his life, he showed incredible strength and that he was the one constantly trying to keep the family’s spirits up, not the other way around.
“We should have been lifting him up and telling him what he wanted to hear. But instead, the entire time, he was just the best through it all, and just making sure that we were okay.”
Tragedies and times of crisis often have a way of bringing people closer together. For the Wintertons, Jacob’s initial diagnosis meant that he and his girlfriend would move to the Winterton family home, where they stayed for a year, with the exception of his treatment in Seattle. Ryan really appreciated that he got to spend most of the summer with his brother in Ontario before leaving for training camp.
“I know my parents are grateful that they got to spend the whole year with him and his girlfriend, and it just brings everyone closer. And I think the most important thing for that is just to stay close now. Because, I mean, that was his wish, was to just stay very close. And it’s easy to do that when that’s your brother’s only wish.”
While these were unfathomably hard times for the Wintertons, Ryan finds solace in knowing that his brother is resting now.
“In a sense, it’s a relief that he’s not suffering anymore,” Ryan said. “I would say the last little… about two months was really hard for him and for my family, just watching what he had to go through. So now that he’s at peace, it’s obviously terrible that we don’t get to talk to him anymore, but there’s a sense of relief where we know he’s in peace, and he’s not struggling anymore.”
Support from inside the Kraken dressing room
Every now and then, hockey fans get a brief glimpse into the humanity of the players. One such glimpse came Thursday night after the Seattle Kraken defeated the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-3 in a shootout.
Winterton was outstanding in his second game since rejoining the team, making a crucial backtrack play in the third period that broke up a 2-on-1 rush and leading coach Lane Lambert to say: “What I think of Ryan Winterton is he just keeps getting better and better. He’s all around the puck, he probably had five chances to score tonight.”
The Kraken have a tradition of passing off a player-of-the-game Sonny Hayes racing helmet from the movie F1 after wins. On this night, it so happened that Brandon Montour had the helmet in his possession from the last time Seattle had won. He gave it to Winterton.
“There’s more to this game than just us in this group,” Montour was heard announcing to the dressing room in a video released on Kraken social media channels. “I’ve been dealing with it all year. Wintsy’s been dealing with it as well. Here you go, bud.”
The connection between Montour and Winterton runs deeper than just that ceremonial helmet pass and hug. Montour also lost his older brother, Cameron, after a long fight with ALS back in October, coincidentally around the time when Ryan was learning about the severity of Jacob’s prognosis.
An extremely emotional Brandon Montour discusses losing his older brother Cameron this past week after a long fight with ALS. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/Gau614Xm96
Yet while Montour, 32, has been dealing with that grief throughout the season, he has also quietly been lending support and consolation to his much younger teammate.
“I spoke to [Ryan] throughout the year, and as the time was coming, he was asking questions on how to handle it,” Montour said. “It’s a tough conversation just because there’s no way to handle it. It’s just a tough situation that you have to kind of just have with you and carry with you and deal with. I thought hockey helped me.”
When Jacob moved to Seattle to pursue the treatment that the Kraken were sponsoring, Ryan said that Montour insisted on getting the family’s temporary address in the city so that he could send them food and make sure they were as comfortable as possible.
“He obviously doesn’t have to do that, and he just wants to because he’s that good of a guy,” Winterton said. “Monty is just one of the best guys I’ve met. Especially being [10 years older than me], he’s just been always the guy that would come up to me and make me feel comfortable. When I was a call-up, he’d make me feel comfortable, he just has that thing about him that makes you want to come close to him and his family.”
Ryan also corroborated that he and Montour had kept in touch while Jacob appeared to be nearing his final days. Montour’s treatment toward Ryan has earned him admiration with Lesley and Garth Winterton.
“My dad met [Montour] once, my mom maybe met him once, and just the fact that he’s taken me under his wing and tried to take care of my family when they were here with getting them food. It just, I honestly can’t really say enough good things about Monty, and I’m just grateful that he’s such a good guy and was there for me through it all.”
Montour said he also sees a lasting connection forming between the two in the wake of their coinciding family tragedies.
“He sticks to more of the younger crew, but he knows I’m there for him, and it’s bigger than hockey,” Montour said. “Everything’s bigger than hockey when it comes to family and how close him and his brother were. I know how he’s feeling, and it takes time, but I’m glad that he’s, obviously, battled back and been able to play the last couple games.
“Anything I can do to lend a hand or help him in any way, and this goes beyond this year. Even if one year, we end up on different teams or whatever, we’re close and I’ll always stay connected to help him out.”
Carrying on Jacob’s legacy
Like Montour said about hockey helping him cope with the loss of his own brother, Winterton also called it “refreshing” to be back with his Kraken teammates and to have hockey to help get his mind off everything he’s gone through over the past year.
“It obviously still hurts and stuff like that. But the guys have been awesome, coaching staff, organization, just everyone has been so good about this whole situation, and for that, I’m grateful.”
As Ryan now moves forward in his hockey career and begins to close out this exceedingly difficult chapter in his life, he knows that when he steps on the ice, he’s not doing it alone.
“Now, it’s just living in his memory and knowing he’s watching us and just doing everything I can to make him proud. I know he was proud when he went, and [now I’m] continuing to live on his legacy.”
Header photo courtesy of Ryan Winterton.
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.
