“Down on the Farm” is your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week we’ll highlight Blake Fiddler’s early-season performance in the WHL before handicapping his chances at playing in the 2026 World Junior Championship. After that, we’ll have notes, video, and data from all corners of the Kraken organization, plus a preview of the schedule ahead, as always.
If you have a Kraken prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey. Let’s dive in.
Blake Fiddler continues to flash difference-making skill
Blake Fiddler offers a rare collection of tools. On defense, he flashes an active and skilled stick that can disrupt opponents at the blue line and net front. He engages any offensive player who gets close to the blue paint, often pushing them entirely clear of his goaltender. For goalies, clear eyes and clean feet can’t lose. Fiddler is a big help in this regard.
Offensively, he starts the play with pinpoint breakout passes and finds teammates moving through the neutral zone for clean entries. He also shows the ability to transport the puck with strong speed and puck-protection skill. Once he has speed moving forward, he is a freight train. Junior players are often afraid to challenge him for fear that he will physically defeat the check and have a clear line to the goal. This creates space for him to operate and find his teammates on the rush.
Once established in the offensive zone, he is not content to deaden his feet at the points. He stays in motion, looking for soft spots where he can receive a pass and set up a shot on goal. He usually makes good reads in this part of the ice, vacating the blue line only when a forward is available to cycle up and cover for him. His movement generated several good chances, including a goal and a deflected-in primary assist, in his Nov. 15 game excerpted below.
On the flip side, his skating—particularly his four-way mobility defensively—needs a good deal of work. There are more awkward moments and possession giveaways than there should be, and his processing on breakout passes and other defensive reads can be frustratingly slow at times. It may be that the looser defensive structures at the junior level hurt his ability to anticipate, or he may just need more repetitions. He has the tools to dominate defensively, but he is often a step slow (or out of place entirely) right now.
Fiddler has been a stalwart for Team USA at U18 and U20 precursor tournaments to the World Junior Championship. There is little doubt in my mind that Fiddler is on track to play an important role for Team USA at the 2027 event, when he will be 19 years old. The question is: Does he have a place on Team USA’s blue line this year at 18 years old (a.k.a. an “underager”)?
Over the summer I had Fiddler on the outside looking in. I’m slightly more optimistic about his chances now because his offensive production has ticked up in the WHL. (Fiddler had 33 points in 64 WHL games last season, a .52 point-per-game pace. He’s at 18 points through just 23 games so far this year, a .78 point-per-game pace.) Team USA projects as a sound team, but one that may struggle to score compared with recent years after an exodus of high-end skill. Fiddler’s offensive traits may be too intriguing to leave at home.
Right now, I’d project Fiddler as the No. 7 defenseman for Team USA at the 2026 WJC.
Notes on three more Kraken prospects
Loke Krantz | F | Linköping HC (SHL)
Loke Krantz, an 18-year-old, 2025 seventh-round pick, continues to earn SHL playing time. His last three games have been with Linköping HC of the top-level Swedish professional league. On Thursday, Nov. 20, he scored his first SHL goal—a beautiful sequence where he handled the puck into the slot and finished with a pinpoint wrist shot into the top corner.
Karl Annborn | D | Västerås IK (HockeyAllsvenskan)
Fellow Swede and 2025 draft pick Karl Annborn tallied his first goal in the second-tier Swedish professional league this past week as well. It came on a sequence where he carried the puck into the zone, took a wrist shot, collected his own rebound, and knocked it past the goaltender at the net front. It was an impressive offensive sequence from the 18-year-old blueliner.
Julius Miettinen | F | Everett Silvertips (WHL)
Miettinen missed the Everett Silvertips’ last three WHL games. Everett dropped two of three in that stretch. He is listed as day-to-day with an illness.
Highlights of the Week
Jake O’Brien returns with another highlight this week, setting up Marek Vanacker on a sweet centering pass around a close defensive challenge.
The good news from the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ Saturday, Nov. 15, game against the Bakersfield Condors was that Jagger Firkus had a hat trick. The bad news was that those were the Firebirds’ only goals in a 6-3 loss. Luckily, Firkus kept the scoring going the next day, adding another goal in a 5-2 win over the Abbotsford Canucks.
Jagger Firkus’s scoring binge contributed to him winning the AHL Player of the Week, announced on Monday, Nov. 17. Four goals in two games is enough to make Firkus your Sound Of Hockey Player of the Week too. That’s two in a row for Firkus. One more and we’ll call it a streak.
Despite being inactive since last Sunday, the 21-year-old Firkus remains tied for the AHL lead in total points. The only other AHL player with 18 points, Brett Seney, is 29 years old and has played three more games than Firkus.
At the other end of the spectrum, spark-plug defensive specialist Zeb Forsfjall still doesn’t have a point yet this season in 19 SHL games.
Visa Vedenpaa turned in perhaps his best Liiga start to date last week, turning away 30 of 32 shots on goal en route to a win.
We cautioned that the raw numbers for Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman may look a bit weaker this season due to the inexperience on the blue line in front of them. That has been true so far, with both taking a step back in save percentage and goals-against average. I haven’t been too concerned by their play in the games I have watched, though. The numbers should get better as the season goes along and the Firebirds’ young defenders tighten things up.
The Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is a Sunday 11:00 am PT matchup between Nathan Villeneuve’s Sudbury Wolves and Jakub Fibigr’s Brampton Steelheads. Warm up for the 2:00 pm PT Seattle Kraken game against the New York Islanders with some junior hockey.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Vladimír Dravecký
Each season I put together a preseason NHL Draft watchlist based on scoring data, and each year there are a handful of players who catapult themselves into early-round conversation by taking a large statistical leap in their draft seasons. Defenseman Vladimir Dravecky is one such example from this season. After averaging less than half a point per game in the Swedish U20 league in the 2024-25 season, Dravecky came over to the OHL and has taken over as a key defensive play-driving force for O’Brien’s Brantford Bulldogs. His 15 points in 22 games rank third among first-time eligible OHL defensemen. At this point, he figures to be a top-50 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
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.
That was a big-time win by the Seattle Kraken, clawing back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to steal a 3-2 result from the Blackhawks in the Windy City on Thursday.
Seattle didn’t have its best for two periods, but Joey Daccord was sharp and held his mates in the game long enough for them to finally find a late offensive spark.
“We didn’t have enough shot attempts in the first two periods,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our D did a way better job in the third period.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a big 3-2 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.
Takeaway #1: The Ryan Lindgren game
We always knew Ryan Lindgren would be a guy who flies mostly under the radar, quietly going about his business as a responsible, stay-at-home defenseman. On this night, Lindgren made a couple of massive plays that directly impacted the outcome of the game.
“He’s just all heart, all the time,” Lambert said. “Huge block at the end, that’s what he does for us. He defends hard, and he gives us everything he has.”
First—and this one was unfortunate to see—he made his presence known late in the first period when former Kraken Andre Burakovsky barreled over the blue line and was off balance as he fought for the puck with Jaden Schwartz and Adam Larsson. Lindgren stepped up and lowered his shoulder, and Burakovsky went face-first into Lindgren’s shoulder pad.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Burakovsky left the game after the hit and did not return. The NHL will surely take a look at this hit, because the main point of contact is Burakovsky’s head. I’m guessing Lindgren avoids any kind of discipline, though, because of the way Burakovsky was leaning forward into the hit, but we shall see.
The next memorable Lindgren play in the game ended up being a game-changer. Although he was the one who created the Chicago opportunity by flubbing a shot at the blue line and handing it to Connor Bedard for a breakaway, his recovery indirectly led to Seattle getting the win in the game.
After turning it over, Lindgren chased down the young superstar, and just as Bedard was about to pull the trigger, Lindgren hit him with a perfect love tap of a slash on the shaft of his stick.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Now, there are folks out there who thought both of the aforementioned plays should have resulted in penalties, and they may have had a case.
I recognize I may have a slight bias, but watching Lindgren’s defensive play on the Bedard breakaway in slow motion shows it should not have resulted in a penalty or penalty shot. It wasn’t an egregious chop, he got him on the shaft of the stick (not the glove), and it was just enough to disrupt the shot. That said, when a shooter is in alone like that and the stick play comes from a chasing defender, those do get called most of the time. So had it been called, I also would have understood.
Ryan Lindgren thwarts a Connor Bedard breakaway and avoids taking a penalty.
You know who did think it should have been a penalty? Connor Bedard. And he was so sure of this, he screamed at the ref until he earned himself an abuse of officials penalty that ultimately cost the Blackhawks the game (more on that in Takeaway #3).
Lindgren also helped Seattle seal the deal after it had taken a 3-2 lead by blocking a wide-open Bedard look with a minute left in the game. He did so in painful fashion, catching Bedard’s rocket one-timer in the open palm of his glove.
Bedard will be seeing Lindgren in his nightmares for a while.
Takeaway #2: Kraken woke up in the third
Give some credit to the Blackhawks for how the first two periods went; they came into the game red hot, posting a 5-0-1 record over their previous six games. Ironically, the last time they had lost in regulation was a 3-1 loss to the Kraken on Nov. 3, so that streak got bookended by Seattle wins.
All that said, the Kraken didn’t have it for the first 40 minutes of this game, especially in the second period. They stayed relatively close, but like the game Tuesday in Detroit, things went sideways in the middle frame.
Two poor plays by Jordan Eberle (a weak dump-in that led to a 3-on-1 the other way) and Jamie Oleksiak (a lackadaisical race for a loose puck in the corner) led to the goals against and meant Seattle would be chasing in the third period.
And chase they did.
“[It was] compete and shooting pucks,” Lambert said. “In the first 40 minutes, I thought that we were slow to do things. Give our players credit. They got the message and took charge and got the job done.”
The second Montour’s one-timer pinballed in off Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and then Tye Kartye, you could sense the floodgates had opened. Lo and behold, Shane Wright tipped a Ryker Evans shot just over two minutes later to tie it 2-2 and set up Jaden Schwartz’s late-game heroics.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! 🚨
Tie game, 2-2. Ryker Evans with the shot, Shane Wright with the tip. Evans currently has credit, but that's Shane's goal. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/DpuOZIKF4y
While Bedard was sitting in the penalty box for whining, Chicago’s PKers were doing their damndest to bail him out. But as the power play was ticking down, Brandon Montour saw a lane down the left half wall.
As Montour walked down the boards, Schwartz pivoted from the top of the crease and backed himself right onto the far post. Montour threaded a perfectly placed shot-pass through Wyatt Kaiser’s legs and onto the tape of Schwartz, who redirected it through Spencer Knight’s five hole.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨
With Bedard serving his unsportsmanlike penalty, Brandon Montour finds Jaden Schwartz at the net mouth.
“[Schwartz] shows [younger players] how the game is played, how the game is supposed to be played,” Lambert said. “The importance of the little details and winning battles in hard areas. Great goal by him to cap off the comeback.”
It was a heck of a play by both Montour—who earned his second assist of the night—and Schwartz, and it was an outstanding and unlikely comeback victory for the Kraken.
Bonus Takeaway: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard’s NHL debut
Huge shoutout to friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, on making his NHL debut and recording a point on Tye Kartye’s goal that got Seattle on the board at 5:09 of the third period.
“It was pretty surreal,” Mølgaard said. “It’s a childhood dream coming true, so yeah, I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life, and it’s good to get the first one out of the way.”
We are huge Mølgaard fans for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he’s just an incredibly likable young man.
His family made the trek from Denmark to see his first game in the show.
“It’s unreal. It’s a proud moment for all of us. They’ve been there my whole life, and they were just as big a part of it as I was out there. So I’m really proud to have them here, and I’m glad they came.”
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.
It has officially been one week since the Seattle Torrent took to the ice for the first time at Kraken Community Iceplex. Here’s what we’ve learned and what we’re looking forward to.
Training camp
Torrent training camp was intense. It was three days of high-energy, non-stop drills and hard conditioning. The team spent a lot of time practicing being physical in the corners and transitioning with speed. Coach Steve O’Rourke stood out with his active coaching style and constant encouragement of the players to skate harder and dig deeper.
I have to say, for top-level pro training camp, three days seems like way too short a time for a brand new team to come together. It showed a bit in missed passes and confused looks, but the team seemed to settle in as the week went on. The skaters were never lacking in effort, though. Even players who have a secure spot on the roster looked like they were fighting with all they had, despite many of them having just come off Rivalry Series games.
The players seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the grueling pace. Defender Cayla Barnes said the team was eager to finally take to the ice after what felt like a long and exciting buildup, and that despite the high level of conditioning, “everyone survived.”
Hilary Knight called the intensity level “high,” and she “really liked the way our group hustled out there.” Forward Alex Carpenter was surprised but excited by the level of play on Day 1, saying that “people were throwing bodies around and giving it their all.”
Carpenter also said that learning the new systems is always tough, but after the first practice, she could see that O’Rourke “is an intense guy, but loves to teach, and loves the game… and you can feel that vibe… and it makes you want to skate faster, want to play harder.”
Goalie Corinne Schroeder called bringing women’s hockey to Seattle “huge” and was excited to inspire “not just little girls, but little boys too… they have other role models to root for, not just NHL players.”
Pre-season scrimmages
Photo courtesy of the PWHL.
Unfortunately, the pre-season scrimmages were not available to watch, so we can only pick apart the lines and stats for clues and crumbs.
In the first scrimmage, the Torrent were shut out, but they came out the next day swinging and bested Vancouver 4-2. A couple speculative takeaways from the scrimmage stats:
The team has depth scoring, with the only goals coming from the third and fourth lines, including a goal and an assist from Seattle local Marah Wagner.
All three goaltenders got playing time and put up good numbers, with rookie Hannah Murphy’s lone goal against coming from a penalty shot.
The Torrent looks to be a physical team (and maybe a touch undisciplined in the early going), racking up eight penalties to the Goldeneyes’ two.
The PWHL also reported on the lines that were utilized by each team, and although we haven’t been able to see them skate together, let’s speculate a little, just for fun.
Although scoreless in the one scrimmage they played, a Hannah Bilka – Alex Carpenter – Hilary Knight line is absolutely bonkers. This could be the first line for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics. They aren’t starting from zero with chemistry either. Knight and Bilka played together in Boston, while Carpenter and Knight are close friends, and all three have played together for Team USA.
The Julia Gosling – Danielle Serdachny – Jessie Eldridge line is another interesting group, although they are less familiar with each other. All three players are 5-foot-9 or taller and are known for their physicality.
The defensive pair of Aneta Tejralová and Cayla Barnes is another one to keep your eye on. Those are two high-level defenders who will likely be called upon to shut down the other teams’ stars. They also only played in the first scrimmage but were not on the ice for any of the Vancouver goals.
Roster decisions
Surprising nobody, the Torrent announced Hilary Knight as the team’s first captain. The news came on Friday after the conclusion of training camp and prior to the team’s pre-season scrimmages. Knight is a proven leader, current Team USA captain, and previous Boston Fleet captain.
The Torrent have made two cuts from the training camp roster. They must cut at least three from the training camp roster before final rosters are due on Wednesday. PWHL rules allow for 23 active players on each team. The skaters below are vying for the four roster spots left.
Forwards:
Brooke Bryant – veteran player who won two Walter Cups with Minnesota
Jada Habisch – Fourth-round 2025 draft pick, UConn
Sydney Langseth – Camp invitee, undrafted from Minnesota State – Mankato
Marah Wagner – Camp invite, played last year in Sweden, born in Seattle!
Defenders:
Lyndie Lobdell – Fifth-round round 2025 draft pick, Penn State
Emily Zumwinkle – Camp invite, undrafted from Ohio State, younger sister of Grace Zumwinkle who plays for the Frost
What’s next?
The Torrent will practice Wednesday and Thursday, then head back up to Vancouver to take on the Goldeneyes for their first ever game on Friday, Nov. 21, 7pm at Pacific Coliseum.
If you aren’t catching a bus or train or carpool up to Vancouver for the first game, the PWHL just announced that all Seattle games will be broadcast over the air on Kong and FOX 13. Piper Shaw announced she will be a part of the Torrent broadcast, as will best friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Alison Lukan. That is an exciting thought for us Kraken crossover fans. All games will continue to be free in the US on YouTube, as well.
If you are catching the bus from KCI to Vancouver, come say hi!
After racking up five points in the last three games of their homestand, the Seattle Kraken brought a spirited effort to Detroit on Tuesday but ultimately came up short and started their four-game road trip on the losing side.
Jordan Eberle and Ryker Evans scored for the Kraken, but Detroit did all of its damage in an eventful second period, and it was just enough to slide past Seattle on this night.
“I don’t think we had everyone going,” coach Lane Lambert said. “And we can’t afford to have anybody not going. So, we were ok in the game, but not good enough to win the hockey game. There’s certain things and certain reasons for that, but I thought we could have been better.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Red Wings.
Takeaway #1: Joey Daccord returns, wants one back
Joey Daccord returned to action on Tuesday and stopped 23 of 26 Red Wings shots. His activation from injured reserve—after about a two-week hiatus due to a somewhat mysterious upper-body injury—came at a perfect time. One of Seattle’s goalie trio, Matt Murray, went on the shelf at the end of the first period Saturday and is now expected to miss six weeks with a lower-body injury. So, he goes on IR just as Daccord comes off.
Daccord made some great saves in this game, but he also gave up an uncharacteristic stinker at 1:19 of the second period that erased Seattle’s 1-0 lead. On an innocuous-looking 3-on-2 rush, Lucas Raymond took a pass at the blue line and cruised into the right circle. He took a simple, unscreened wrist shot that squeezed under Daccord’s right arm and trickled over the line.
You could see right away that Daccord was disappointed with himself, swatting the puck out of the net in disgust.
He gave up two more in the period (those were of the “not his fault” variety), which we’ll talk about in the next Takeaway, but he did give his teammates a chance in this game.
Still, that first one stings…
Takeaway #2: Second period was all Detroit needed
The Kraken followed up the aforementioned stinker by allowing two Red Wings players into the middle, with a double-deflection working its way around Daccord and in off rookie Nate Danielson for his first NHL goal. That second goal came 45 seconds after the first.
Soon after that, it looked like Detroit had taken a 3-1 lead again with a nifty dangle by Danielson after a loose defensive play by Adam Larsson. But Tim Ohashi struck for a brilliant offside challenge and what felt like a massive break for the Kraken.
Indeed, Seattle scored the next goal and tied the game 2-2, with a Ryker Evans shot from the point pinballing in off a Red Wings defender.
But a cheesy goalie interference call on Jani Nyman—after he was bumped into Talbot by Simon Edvinsson, then jumped by the entire Red Wings team (none of whom were penalized)—proved costly. We’ll talk more about the Lucas Raymond goal that came on the ensuing power play in Takeaway #3, but Lambert summed up the second period nicely.
“We knew going in, they had like a plus-62 shot differential in the second period before the game. And I think Joey probably wants the first one back, so that’s one. We don’t box out on the second one, which goes into our net. We get a great call from our video coach to overturn the third one and get a goal to tie the game, and then we make a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make.”
Takeaway #3: A costly PK mistake
On the play that Lambert called “a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make,” Seattle’s PK really did momentarily lose the plot.
“That’s the bottom line,” Lambert continued. “It’s a mistake you can’t make. We’re not asking anything else other than proper positioning.”
Here’s the full sequence that led to the goal.
I believe what happened is that when Emmitt Finnie rimmed the puck around to Andrew Copp, Jamie Oleksiak got a piece of the pass. I think that triggered Oleksiak and Jaden Schwartz to pressure Copp on the halfwall, thinking they had him under duress and could win the puck away with a numerical advantage. Copp maintained control, though, and successfully made a pass to Danielson, which suddenly put Seattle in chase mode.
What I’m really not sure about, though, is why Chandler Stephenson shaded so far left—beyond the left face-off dot—when Oleksiak and Schwartz were already over against the boards. By drifting that far to the left, Evans was left alone in the slot as the last defender, with Finnie now fully unmarked and in a dangerous position.
The only thing Seattle’s PKers could have done to thwart a scoring chance at that point was get a stick on Danielson’s pass through the slot, but neither Stephenson nor Oleksiak could reach it.
Instead, Danielson put it right on the money for Finnie, and Daccord was hung out to dry.
That goal made it 3-2, and then—as Lambert pointed out after the game—Seattle just didn’t get enough pucks toward Talbot in the third period to level the game.
In the end, I liked Seattle’s effort in this game, but there were some costly mistakes from up and down the lineup and a not enough of an offensive push in the third to equalize.
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 just had their best week of the season, grabbing five out of a possible six points without their starting goalie and best goal scorer in the lineup.
The imperfect game
Coming into Thursday night’s game against Winnipeg with Connor Hellebuyck in net, it felt like the Kraken needed to play a perfect game to beat the Jets. Winnipeg got on the board first with a rush chance that looked a little too easy and not characteristic of the type of play we have seen from this team this season. The Kraken answered that mistake with a nice Kaapo Kakko deflection that floated over Hellebuyck’s shoulder.
KAAPO! 🚨
Great play by Vince Dunn, who takes… er… THROWS a hit to make the play to Jaden Schwartz. Schwartz shoots for Kakko’s stick, and Kakko gets off the schneid.
Winnipeg took the lead back when Neal Pionk found Mark Scheifele behind a Kraken line change in the second period for a breakaway goal. It was another consequential mistake by the Kraken that we haven’t seen often this season. The Jets had just a one-goal lead going into the third, but it felt like a big hill to climb against a formidable opponent, especially with Hellebuyck in net.
Seattle scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the third and then added an empty-netter in the dying minutes to seal the win. It was a signature victory where they found a way to win without being perfect.
Shot attempt volume
The Kraken are 26th in the league in shot attempts per game. There’s been a lot of fan chatter about the lack of shots and attempts lately, but those numbers can be misleading. Dallas is dead last in shot attempts per game, yet the Stars have the third-best record in the league.
Because the Kraken have been playing from ahead rather than tied or trailing, they’ve naturally taken fewer attempts. They average almost six fewer shot attempts in regulation in wins than they do in regulation losses.
Penalty kill
The penalty kill remains a sore spot. San Jose’s power-play tally marked the sixth straight game in which Seattle allowed a goal while shorthanded. The unit has struggled all season, but discipline had been a saving grace, until this week.
Seattle was shorthanded 13 times over three games, their highest such stretch of the season. Early-season issues stemmed from extended defensive-zone time, whether from failed clears or uncontested entries. I chalk this up more to rough execution than systemic failure, and improvement should come as the season progresses.
Freddy Gaudreau returns to the lineup
Usually the return of a fourth-line center isn’t something that gets fans buzzing, but Freddy Gaudreau’s return should give this team a real boost. Gaudreau does a lot of little things that don’t always show up. He’s a bit of a Swiss Army knife: kills penalties, provides a right-shot center option, is very good in the shootout, and has enough sneaky skill to move up and down the lineup when needed.
On Saturday, he took 40 percent of the defensive-zone draws, was on the ice for 35 percent of the penalty-kill time, and even generated a high-quality shorthanded chance. His return should ease some of the burden the team has placed on Chandler Stephenson while Freddy was out. He’s a sneaky addition who strengthens the lineup in subtle ways that not everyone may notice.
Other musings
The 5–3 win over Winnipeg was the first time the Kraken scored five or more goals this season. They had already done it four times in the first 18 games last season.
The Kraken are now 6-1-3 at home. One regulation loss. That’s incredible.
Jaden Schwartz’s empty-netter on Saturday was Seattle’s first shorthanded goal of the season.
I know I’m not the only one disappointed with Mason Marchment’s production, but I think his last four games have been his best stretch as a Kraken. He feels due for a breakout.
We are not talking nearly enough about how much Ryker Evans adds to this lineup. I really like Josh Mahura, but Ryker’s skating and puck-moving are such luxuries on a third pair.
We got an “interruption goal” on Saturday when Eeli Tolvanen scored 38 seconds after Adam Larsson. I’m sticking with that name, since when we talked to PA announcer Chet Buchanan on the SOH Pod two years ago, he said he doesn’t mind being interrupted—as long as it’s for another Kraken goal.
The Kraken are fourth in the league in blocked shots. Another byproduct of playing with a lead.
The Pacific Division is absolute chaos right now—five points separate the first-place Kings and the seventh-place Sharks.
The Seattle Torrent split their preseason games with the Vancouver Goldeneyes over the weekend. The regular season kicks off Friday when they meet again for real. I have not seen anything official, but I assume the games will be broadcast in the US on YouTube.
Goal of the week
The interruption goal…
EELI GOALVANEN! 🚨
Another great pass off a 2-on-1 from Stephenson, and Tolvanen scores his second in as many games.
Philipp Grubauer – Two wins in two games, including a shutout in relief for two periods against San Jose. He saved 2.39 goals above expected, per evolving-hockey.com.
Grubauer under fire early in the 2nd, after being forced into action at the end of the 1st. He’s standing tall in the first couple minutes… #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/7ORRa9FssY
Jacob Melanson – The 22-year-old notched his first AHL hat trick Sunday for Coachella Valley, giving him six goals in 14 games (he had just eight all last season). Jagger Firkus – Another Firebird hat trick over the weekend, but Jagger’s came Saturday. He leads the AHL in points and has a six-game point streak.
The week ahead
If you had looked at this stretch before the season started, you probably would’ve circled it as a chance to bank some points, with four games against teams that missed the playoffs last year. However… as of Monday morning, all four of those teams are in playoff spots and look a lot tougher than previously expected.
It’s a four-game road trip starting Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. I still wake up in cold sweats thinking about that game in Detroit last year. On Thursday, the Kraken face the Chicago Blackhawks for the second time this season. Seattle won the first meeting 3–1, but they saw backup Arvid Söderblom in that one, so the boys might see Spencer Knight this time.
Then it’s another shot at fixing the back-to-back demons with the Penguins on Saturday, followed by the Islanders on Sunday to wrap things up.
Given the quality of opponents, four out of eight points would be fine, five would be good, and six would be great.
And finally
It usually takes 20 games to really assess a team, and the Kraken just crossed the 18-game mark. I’m calling it now: the Seattle Kraken are going to be in the mix for a playoff spot. Their success isn’t driven by luck or a soft schedule—in fact, it’s pretty much the opposite. Considering the injuries that have chipped away at the roster and the absolutely brutal October schedule, this start is nothing short of incredible.
I was one of the few people who expected the Kraken to be much better this season, but even I’m impressed. With Freddy Gaudreau back and Jared McCann and Joey Daccord seemingly close, this team might have another level to hit. How are we feeling out there?
You just never know what’s going to happen when you go to the rink. The Seattle Kraken won 4-1 over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, and they did so in a way that I certainly did not expect at the start of the game: by riding a dazzling Philipp Grubauer relief performance through a challenging second period and taking advantage of the few opportunities they got in the frame to ultimately cruise past a team that beat them up 10 days ago.
“Clearly, at that point, we rode off our goalie’s coattails to a certain degree, and then we were able to capitalize timely on a couple of our opportunities,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “We spent a little bit too much time in our zone, we all know that, at the start. But our goaltender played fantastic, and sometimes you need that.”
On Hockey Fights Cancer night, Jaden Schwartz—whose sister Mandi died of acute myeloid leukemia at age 23 in 2011—scored twice, Adam Larsson and Eeli Tolvanen each scored once, and Chandler Stephenson sent out a couple tasty dishes.
Here are Three Takeaways from a remarkable 4-1 Kraken win over the Sharks.
Takeaway #1: One of Grubi’s best games as a Kraken
There are nights as a goaltender when you start to sense that, for whatever reason, the puck is going to stay out of your net. You make a few big saves, the other team hits a post or flubs an open opportunity, and suddenly you get this clarity that you have better stuff in that particular game than the opposing shooters. The hockey gods are on your side, and even if you find yourself down and out, the puck will find a way to stay out of your goal.
Grubauer surely felt that on this night, although when I asked him about it after the game, he said he thinks about it a little differently. He pointed to a break early in the game, when Will Smith’s goal was waived off for a distinct kicking motion that easily could have been ruled a goal.
NO GOAL!
Grubauer robs Will Smith, but Smith's foot drags it into the net.
Refs review and determine no goal due to kicking motion.
“I personally take it situation by situation,” Grubauer said. “Obviously, sometimes you get a little bit more lucky than other nights. I mean, that breakaway where they reviewed it, right? It could have gone one way or another. If there’s a slight push from the D, it’s a different story, and they score on the breakaway.
“They had a couple situations where they sling the puck right across, it hits a guy in the shim pads, or something like that, right? So, yeah, sometimes you’ve got to get lucky, and there’s not a moment, like, ‘Oh, wow!’ and now I feel it. It’s make the save, give the puck back, next shot is coming up.”
What made Grubauer’s showing even more impressive is that it came in relief of an injured Matt Murray, who played well in the first period but exited immediately after former Kraken Alex Wennberg tied the game 1-1 on a power-play goal with 18 seconds left. Grubauer came in to close the period and was then tested early and often to start the second.
Here's the bad news: Alex Wennberg ties it on the power play for San Jose.
Here's the worse news: Matt Murray also got hurt on the play and immediately went down the tunnel. Grubauer in. #SeaKraken tied through 20 minutes. pic.twitter.com/1bmnOyCPgY
“I think going into the second period there, right away, the way the first two minutes went were not ideal from a team perspective, but it got me into the game with a lot of shots early on,” Grubauer said. “And it’s always tough, right? If you’re not starting, it’s another situation where you don’t get too many shots in warm up, so it was helpful to get into the game right away.”
It really was just the second period where Grubauer had to be stellar, but he made massive saves on plays that looked like they should absolutely be goals. He held Seattle in long enough for Larsson and Tolvanen to score 38 seconds apart at 16:05 and 16:43, respectively. From there, the Kraken—despite taking three penalties in the third period—kept things mostly locked down.
Takeaway #2: Great game for Chandler Stephenson
I know Chandler Stephenson has been polarizing among the Kraken fanbase, but I personally love what he brings. It’s interesting that in a game in which Alex Wennberg scored for the Sharks, Stephenson really stood out. I mention Wennberg because I view Stephenson as an upgraded version of what the Kraken used to get from Wennberg. He can play in all situations, he’s a great skater, and he has a pass-first approach—but he does all of it at a higher level.
In this game, Stephenson’s speed and passing created two of Seattle’s goals.
On the first, Jamie Oleksiak’s pass through the neutral zone missed the mark, but Stephenson caught up to it and made John Klingberg look foolish in creating a 2-on-1 with Schwartz. Then he threaded a pass between Macklin Celebrini’s stick and skate to Schwartz, who redirected it into a yawning cage.
THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨
Heckuva play by Chandler Stephenson to burn John Klingberg and find Schwartz crashing to the backdoor.
The second goal also came off a 2-on-1, this one with Tolvanen, who scored for the second game in a row.
“[Stephenson] is an awesome passer,” Tolvanen said. “Power play, 2-on-1’s, every time he has the puck, you have to be ready because you know it’s coming. He can make those passes that a lot of guys can’t.”
EELI GOALVANEN! 🚨
Another great pass off a 2-on-1 from Stephenson, and Tolvanen scores his second in as many games.
The Kraken don’t win this game without Grubauer, but they also probably don’t win it without Stephenson, who finished the night plus-three with three assists.
Takeaway #3: Another game, another injury
It’s strange how things have been playing out lately for the Kraken and their injury situation. Last game, Kaapo Kakko went down with a lower-body injury that Lambert said will keep him out week to week—never a great designation. But his placement on injured reserve meant Seattle could activate Freddy Gaudreau for this game without sending somebody to Coachella Valley.
Now we wait to see what happens with the Kraken goalies. Lambert said after the game that Murray was still being evaluated. Joey Daccord is on IR but appears to be getting closer to a return based on recent practices. If Murray hadn’t gotten hurt Saturday, then Daccord returning would force a roster move. But if Murray also ends up on IR, no move would be required.
The plan may have been for Daccord to return next game anyway, but if I had to guess, I would surmise he could be ready to at least back up Grubauer when Seattle visits Detroit on Tuesday.
Also worth noting: Jared McCann was a full participant at Saturday’s morning skate, so we’re wondering how close he could be to game action. If he returns in the next couple games, that would most likely mean somebody is bound for CV, and I wouldn’t be shocked if that somebody is Jani Nyman, whose time on ice was limited to just 6:34 in his first game since the last time Seattle faced the Sharks on Nov. 5.
One last note on Murray: he’s had some serious injury woes in his career and told us during our Sound Of Hockey Podcast interview at training camp that he was feeling fully recovered from the double hip surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2023-24 season. Here’s hoping that whatever he injured on Saturday is both unrelated to that previous issue and minor.
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.
