Ok, that’s enough winning for now, Seattle Kraken.
After cementing themselves as a non-playoff team with an epic post-Olympic collapse, the Kraken were within striking distance of a top-three spot in the NHL Draft Lottery. But then they rattled off two straight wins and climbed out of the bottom five. From a draft-positioning perspective, Seattle really needed to lose to the Calgary Flames on Saturday to give itself a shot at the top three, but alas, the team put together a decent performance against a terrible team and came away with a solid victory.
HOW DARE THEY?!
The stars had oddly aligned for a stinker of an outing, with all three of the Kraken’s regular goalies unavailable—both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord have gotten injured in the last few games, and Matt Murray is currently away for personal reasons. So in came the AHL tandem of Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman, and Kokko was tabbed to make his first start in the NHL.
“I thought we defended well,” coach Lane Lambert said. “With Nikke [coming in and making his first NHL start], I thought our guys did a really good job and made a concerted effort to give him as much help as possible. And when we needed him, he made some good saves for us.”
Hey, the Kokko angle is a fun story, and winning vibes are always nice, even if we should be rooting for losses at this point.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Flames.
Takeaway 1: Kokko plays well, goes for a goal
Kokko looked really solid in his first full NHL game; he was calm and confident throughout and really never in scramble mode. Part of that was strong defense in front of him and an inept opponent that appears to have mastered the “tank” game.
But Kokko did get tested a number of times and came up with 26 saves on the evening.
“I feel great,” Kokko said. “I was little bit nervous before game but when I… came to rink and started doing my routine and warm ups, then I enjoyed.”
Kokko has a hilariously cocky persona, and although his English is still a work in progress, his sense of humor shines through when you talk to him.
He raised eyebrows when he very clearly took a shot at the open net in the closing minutes, when Seattle led 3-1. The shot got knocked down and very nearly ended up as a goal against. When I asked if he was trying to score, he said, “Maybe,” and got a big laugh from the assembled media.
But he also told Piper Shaw in front of the whole arena that he had, in fact, tried to score and that, “I try to score before Joey [Daccord].”
Could you imagine if he had hit that in his first game?! Joey would have been devastated.
“He was awesome,” Freddy Gaudreau said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goalie that almost scored in his first game, but that would have been awesome. But he played an unbelievable game. He gave us confidence just by his energy. He was solid, he was poised, so it was awesome to see that.”
“I think I have only one good try [at a goalie goal so far this season],” Kokko said. “It was good [the Flames] don’t score that.”
Takeaway 2: Strong second period
After a really quiet first period, the Kraken scored three goals in the second, finally winning the “race to three” that Lane Lambert has talked about recently. It’s the second game in a row that they’ve scored three or more goals after failing to reach that number in the six games prior. Lo and behold, they’ve won both of these games.
“Sometimes you get a lead, you get comfortable,” Matty Beniers said. “I think it’s important to keep pushing. You can really kill teams’ momentum, you can kill their will early on in games when you get that third goal.”
The three in this one came courtesy of Gaudreau, Chandler Stephenson, and Beniers, who hit the 20-goal milestone for the third time in his career.
Beniers’ goal was a beauty, and it likely sealed the outcome of the game. With the clock ticking down in the second, he said he heard Stephenson yelling from the bench that there were five seconds left. From the right circle, he let a shot rip that snuck under the bar and gave Seattle a 3-1 lead heading to the locker room.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
Goal No. 20 on the season for Beniers, who takes a pass from Ryker Evans in the right circle and snipes it with four seconds left in the 2nd.
From there, Kokko shut down the limited pushback from Calgary, and the Kraken rolled to a victory.
Takeaway 3: Nice chemistry from Kakko, Gaudreau, and McCann
There’s been a ton of line juggling down the stretch, while Lambert has tried to find combinations that could produce some offense. In this one, he put Gaudreau between Kaapo Kakko and Jared McCann, and I thought the line looked dangerous every time it was out there. Gaudreau, in fact, ended up with two great looks on one shift in the first period.
He also connected with Kakko for his sixth goal of the season, less than a minute after the Flames had taken a 1-0 lead.
FREDDY G! 🚨
This line has shown some chemistry. Believe that's the third time Kakko has set up Gaudreau, and this time he converts.
“Sometimes, you just play with players, and it feels like you think what they’re thinking,” Gaudreau said of his linemates. “And I felt that way [tonight].”
I’d like to see them stick with that trio for a bit, even if just to find out if it can work again next season.
Ok, let’s get back to losing now.
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 update you on a collegiate prospect playing for a national championship and a European player poised to begin his North American journey by joining the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds for (at least) the next few weeks.
After that, we’ll get you up to speed on where the other Kraken prospects stand in their respective postseasons. Could the Kraken add a couple of CHL league championships and even Memorial Cup appearances to the list before all is said and done?
Oh yeah, and we’ll have our Kraken prospect notes, video, and the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, as always.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column or mailbag, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Goalie Kim Saarinen will join the Firebirds, but what about the Men’s World Championship?
According to a Finnish-language report from Finland’s MTV News, goalie prospect Kim Saarinen will depart Finland this week to join the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Palm Desert, California. Like other 19-year-olds before him, it seems the goal is “to get a feel for the Firebirds organization,” according to the Finnish news outlet.
“I’m going this week to at least get to know them and train. I don’t know if they’ll let me play,” Saarinen told MTV News.
Saarinen’s Liiga postseason came to an end last week, with HPK bowing out in the second round. But Saarinen was a pillar for the team. According to MTV News, Liiga advanced analytics had Saarinen saving 14 goals above expected in the playoffs alone (if my translation efforts are accurate). This mark is the highest in the playoffs so far, despite HPK’s elimination.
At the time, Saarinen noted that he had not heard from the Finnish Men’s National Team about the upcoming World Championship. “If I get an invitation to the national team, it’s not out of the question that I would go there,” Saarinen told MTV News.
Since then, the Finnish Men’s National Team did include Saarinen on its camp roster. Pre-tournament games don’t start for a couple of weeks yet, and the tournament itself doesn’t begin until May 9 in Sweden. We’ll have to see if Saarinen factors into that mix after spending time with the Firebirds, but we should note that the current roster does not include any NHL players who may join the team at a later time.
Hat tip to Dozer on the Sound Of Hockey Discord for bringing the original report to my attention.
Clarke Caswell scores, helping Denver advance to National Championship
On Thursday, Clarke Caswell had a beautiful tip-in goal to level the score late in the third period of the University of Denver’s Frozen Four semifinal against the University of Michigan Wolverines.
With Denver going on to win in double overtime, Caswell and the Pioneers will now head to the National Championship game on Saturday, Apr. 11, at 2:30 PM PT. The Pioneers will face off against the University of Wisconsin Badgers, who defeated the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks in the other semifinal. Ollie Josephson’s return to the North Dakota lineup wasn’t enough to buoy the Fighting Hawks, who fell 2–1.
Surely all of Kraken nation, including Sound Of Hockey‘s Wisconsin Badger alum Darren Brown, will join arms in rooting for Denver on Saturday.
**Editor’s note: How DARE you?! On, Wisconsin!
With Caswell responsible for the single most significant moment of the week for the second consecutive time, he’s your Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week. You can check out Caswell’s shifts from the team’s tournament win over Western Michigan below.
Kraken prospect postseason check-in
The majority of Seattle’s prospects who reached the postseason remain alive. Below you’ll find series results as of Friday, Apr. 10, and the upcoming schedule for those players—first organized by date and then by player. The CHL leagues are in the second round; the SHL has reached its final four, and the KHL is down to eight teams, currently in its league semifinal matchups.
Of note, Kraken prospect Jake O’Brien has two goals and three assists through Brantford’s first two games with the North Bay Battalion, both wins. Zeb Forsfjäll’s SHL team, Skellefteå AIK, is up two games to none in its series. Semyon Vyazovoi played well in the first game of his KHL team’s series, saving 24 of 25 shots, but they lost 1–0. Vyazovoi sat in Game 2, another loss.
Firebirds clinch the playoffs
As we mentioned in an update to last week’s column, Logan Morrison is now out week-to-week for the Firebirds. On the plus side of the injury news for Coachella Valley, Kaden Hammell, Ty Nelson, and Andrei Loshko have all returned to the lineup from injury absences in the last few games.
Even better, the team clinched a playoff spot last weekend. With seven wins and three losses in the team’s last 10 games, the Firebirds sit at No. 4 in the Pacific Division playoff field with five games remaining. The Firebirds have a home-and-home against the top team in the Pacific, the Ontario Reign, on Friday, Apr. 10, and Saturday, Apr. 11.
Notes on four other Kraken prospects
Julius Miettinen | F | Everett Silvertips (WHL)
There is perhaps no more polarizing prospect in the Kraken system for outside observers than Julius Miettinen.
This is curious because he’s not a player with an obvious flaw that some scouts could find disqualifying while others disagree. Miettinen is an athletic, well-rounded, strong-statured prospect who seems destined for a long pro career, likely with substantial NHL time. (If you were searching for an issue with his game, you could say his skating—both in terms of speed and dynamism—is closer to average and will need to improve if he’s going to be a long-time NHLer.)
I don’t think I’m with Button because I have some concerns about his ceiling, currently viewing him as a complementary, bottom-six piece unless there are notable skating and puck-possession improvements. But Wheeler’s low-end ranking seems farther off to me.
Miettinen had a goal and an assist in Everett’s Game 1 win over Kelowna on Friday, Apr. 10.
After coming up short in overtime of Game 7 against the Saskatoon Blades, Blake Fiddler’s Edmonton Oil Kings are the only CHL team with a Kraken prospect to be eliminated in the first round. Fiddler was injured in Game 2 and didn’t play for the remainder of the series, and who knows—that could have been the difference for Edmonton.
I speculated we might see an amateur tryout agreement for Fiddler and the Firebirds down the stretch, but that hasn’t come to pass yet. The injury could factor into the equation. If Fiddler isn’t healthy enough to play, his rehabilitation for a full offseason could take precedence.
Tyson Jugnauth | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Firebirds rookie blueliner Tyson Jugnauth had a wide-ranging conversation with Sound Of Hockey‘s John Barr and Darren Brown this week, which was included in the most recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast. Among many other things, Jugnauth touched on his areas of on-ice development, his summer workout plans, his best teammates to play with, who cooks the food among him and his Firebirds roommates, and, of course, his golf game in sunny Coachella Valley.
On the ice, Jugnauth continues to lead all AHL rookie defensemen in both total points (43) and assists (35).
Nikke Kokko | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
The Seattle Kraken recalled Nikke Kokko on an emergency basis following an injury to Philipp Grubauer against the Winnipeg Jets. Now, with Joey Daccord under injury evaluation too and Matt Murray away from the team on a personal matter, it’s possible Kokko could leap all the way from No. 4 to No. 1 on the NHL depth chart down the stretch.
Even if it’s only one game, it’s now very possible Nikke Kokko will earn a Kraken start this week. It would be the first of his NHL career, with his previous NHL appearance coming in relief in St. Louis last season. He allowed two goals on six shots in 30 minutes of ice time in that game.
**Author’s Note: Shortly after this column was originally published, on Saturday, Apr. 11, the Firebirds recalled Victor Ostman on an emergency basis. This indicates that even with Nikke Kokko previously recalled, the team does not have two other goaltenders healthy enough and available to play at the moment. This further suggests Joey Daccord will, indeed, miss time with a lower-body injury.
Jack LaFontaine (and another goalie, perhaps Kim Saarinen?) will carry the load for Coachella Valley in the short term.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3 wins: Jagger Firkus, Jake O’Brien, Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
CHL center Caleb Malhotra echoes his Brantford Bulldogs teammate Jake O’Brien. Like O’Brien, Malhotra has turned heads with big point totals. His 84 points in 67 games as a first-time draft eligible fall only slightly short of O’Brien’s 98 points in 66 games.
Malhotra backs up the scoring with a well-rounded profile that has led to his usage in all situations, including heavy minutes on both the power play and penalty kill. Malhotra is a likely lottery pick, checking in at No. 10 on the midseason Big Board and No. 10 on Scott Wheeler’s most recent draft ranking for The Athletic.
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.
There was a palpable irony to how Thursday played out at Climate Pledge Arena. In the morning, Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke sat before a full media room, located deep in the bowels of the mostly underground venue, explaining to the assembled press why the team and its original general manager and current president were parting ways after hitting rock bottom, then finding a new rock bottom, and then another after that.
During the extended and wide-ranging press conference, Leiweke reminisced about all the things the organization had accomplished under Ron Francis’ guidance, admitted that the team has failed to meet expectations, and even got emotional at times when talking about how great the Seattle fanbase is and how it deserves so much more than what this franchise has delivered so far.
While Leiweke spoke, the Vegas Golden Knights, who joined the NHL four years earlier than the Kraken and immediately set a new bar for what an expansion franchise can be—a bar so high that Seattle hasn’t even reached base camp in its climb toward it—was filing past that same media room to prepare for the night’s game against the Kraken.
Of course, Vegas has had some tumult of its own this season. But even after Seattle rallied back from two goals down in the third period to earn an unlikely and also somewhat ironic 4-3 shootout win, Vegas is within a point of the top of the Pacific Division and destined for its eighth playoff appearance in nine years of existence. The Golden Knights are still very much in “win now” mode and are constantly finding creative (albeit sometimes ruthless) ways to improve, while the Kraken remain bogged down with no obvious path to true contention.
As Leiweke said, the Kraken are far from being in the same echelon as the Vegas Golden Knights.
“We have not delivered on the promise of this team,” Leiweke said. “When we went away on the [Olympic] break, we were sitting in a playoff spot, and now we’re faced with not making the playoffs for the third year in a row, and it’s not acceptable. And we’re committed to fixing it, and we’re committed to improving every single aspect of the organization.”
Leiweke promises more transparency
One thing Leiweke made clear in the press conference is that he and the organization are acutely aware they have not met the expectations of fans or of themselves. With Ron Francis in the general manager seat for four years and one year as president of hockey ops, they put some good pieces in place but didn’t come close to accomplishing their goal of becoming a perennial playoff team.
So part of Leiweke’s pitch on Thursday was to try to instill trust in the fans by admitting that everyone involved needs to do a better job and that they aren’t going to rest on their laurels and hope things improve on their own.
“I am very, very, very confident that we’re going to get this team to a good place, but it’s going to take a plan, and we’re going to set mile markers,” Leiweke said. “Our fans are going to know where we are, and we’re going to share some of those plans in May with our fans. And we’ve talked about actually instituting an annual report to our fans, and we’re going to do that, and that first one will come in this May.”
What’s included in that plan remains to be seen, but in the Francis era, cards were held extremely close to the vest, surely adding to the frustration of the fanbase. What exactly was the plan? Drafting and developing is all well and good, but what else are you doing to make this team better? Those types of questions were never answered with real transparency, and while it is smart for front offices to be careful about what they divulge, even members of the media who are constantly around the team struggled to see the direction. So a commitment to more transparency is a big deal.
Jason Botterill remaining in his role
There was also some discussion in the presser about what happens next in the post-Francis era of Kraken hockey.
Leiweke confirmed he expects Jason Botterill to remain in his role as general manager, and although he wouldn’t confirm that Lane Lambert will remain the head coach, he also said he thinks Lambert “coached his ass off this year, and I think that we owe a lot of people better.”
“We have a hell of a lot of work to do here. We want this to be a prolific offseason. I think with change, you can do things differently that you perhaps otherwise wouldn’t have done differently. And I think there’s things that we can do differently to improve our hand here, and we’ll do it with [Botterill].”
In a way, Leiweke seemed to be implying that more change could have happened last offseason if Francis had already been out of the picture, and perhaps his presence was causing Botterill to remain cautious. But that doesn’t jive with what Sound Of Hockey has heard recently. We have come to believe that Botterill truly has been the one calling the shots for the last year, with minimal input on hockey-related decisions from Francis.
So, for the Kraken to have a “prolific” offseason, as Leiweke mentioned, Botterill will need to change his own approach. He will need to get creative, make difficult decisions quickly, and be willing to take a hard look at what is actually happening inside Seattle’s locker room and the roster that he had a hand in building.
It’s also worth noting that the team promised big offseason changes to the personnel last year after Botterill was promoted into the GM chair and Francis moved into the president of hockey ops role.
Also of note, Leiweke mentioned there will be a “full independent audit” of the hockey ops department. That does not mean KPMG or Deloitte will be dropping into Kraken Community Iceplex, but rather some sort of outside resource (or resources) with knowledge of successful NHL teams coming in to give an unbiased look at what is happening behind the scenes. The details of how that audit will play out are still being determined.
Kraken earn ironic win
After all that, there was still a game to be played Thursday between the perpetually diverging teams, the Kraken and the Golden Knights. The Kraken—who are back in a “race” for a top-three spot in the NHL Draft Lottery—came in on a six-game losing streak and had lost 10 of their previous 11. There has not been a good feeling to be found in that dressing room for some time now, and absolutely ZERO puck luck to help the guys get out of their misery.
On the other side, the Golden Knights had won four straight since yet another shocking “win at all costs” move last week in which they fired coach Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with John Tortorella.
Considering the mood around Seattle lately and how things were going, when the Kraken fell behind 3-1 in the third period, it felt like they would pack it in. Instead, they got an incredible break for once when Adam Larsson’s rim-around attempt took a weird 90-degree turn off the glass and caromed onto Berkly Catton’s stick in the slot. With Adin Hill already out of the crease to cut off Larsson’s dump-in, Catton had an open net and cut the deficit to 3-2 at 6:11 of the third.
LI'L CAT ASSISTED BY BIG CAT! 🐱 🦁 🚨
Not the prettiest goal… BUT Berkly Catton gets his first in almost a month thanks to a fortuitous bounce. #SeaKraken
“I don’t know how it ended up on my stick, really,” Catton said with a big smile on his face. “So I was kind of surprised, I guess. And then relieved a bit that it went in, too.”
Bobby McMann followed that up at 9:16 with his ninth goal in 14 games since joining the Kraken at the NHL Trade Deadline, after a great play by Jordan Eberle to win a puck battle in the corner and dig it out to McMann in the left circle.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨
Believe it or not, the #SeaKraken have scored three goals in a game!
And it's 3-3! Nice play by Eberle to win the race and get it to McMann, who snipes past a screen. pic.twitter.com/TrqFImJ7PU
But even after that surprising comeback, surely the Kraken would find a way to lose in overtime, right? No. Instead, it was Catton who played the hero with a nice move in the shootout, deking to his left and chipping it over Hill.
At this stage, the Kraken need to continue losing. They’re not making the playoffs, and a top pick can actually help the organization in the long run. Whether the organization’s latest promises get fulfilled is a question for another day, but for one night, at least, the Kraken showed some fight, got a bounce, and gave a frustrated fanbase a reason cheer.
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 first shoe has dropped for the still-spiraling Seattle Kraken, who announced on Wednesday that Ron Francis, their first general manager in franchise history and current president of hockey operations, will be stepping down at the end of the season.
Hired on July 17, 2019, two full years before the team’s expansion draft, Francis effectively built a hockey operations department and two teams—including the Coachella Valley Firebirds—from the ground up and was even involved in the designs for Kraken Community Iceplex and much more. Although he moved out of the general manager’s chair after last season, it is fair to say Francis has his fingerprints on almost every hockey-related facet of the organization.
“Ron and I agreed that this is the right moment to make a thoughtful transition for both Ron and the organization, and move in a new direction,” said Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke in a press release. “From a small office in Lower Queen Anne to the 32nd NHL franchise, Ron’s leadership and vision were instrumental in building this franchise from the ground up. Under his stewardship, we reached the playoffs in our second season, and he leaves behind a strong foundation of draft picks and promising prospects that will continue to shape the future of the team. We are grateful for his dedication and professionalism, and we wish Ron and his family the very best.”
The Kraken appear to be doing their best to make this a graceful exit for Francis, who even weighed in with a quote of his own in that same press release about his impending departure.
“It has been an honor to help launch and lead the Seattle Kraken over the past seven years,” Francis said. “I am proud of the culture we built, the people we brought together, and the milestones we achieved, including our historic first playoff run. I want to thank our entire ownership group, everyone throughout the organization, and our incredible fans for their unwavering support. This organization has a bright future, and I’m grateful to have been part of its beginning.”
It was a big undertaking
The job Francis took on back in 2019, creating an NHL team from scratch and soon being forced to navigate launching an expansion franchise in the midst of a pandemic, was a big one. And while he made plenty of shrewd moves along the way and seems to have set the organization up with a solid prospect pool and a handful of movable assets that could help the team improve, Seattle’s track record under his watch left a lot to be desired.
Indeed, the Kraken did go to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Year 2. But that’s about the extent of what the Kraken have had to boast about in a very long five years. There’s no doubt that ownership and fans would have expected more progress, and the way this season’s team has nosedived back into “hoping for losses for a better draft pick” territory signaled that at least this change was on the way.
Francis has been massively respected and looked up to throughout the Kraken organization, and I think that has had something to do with why it took so long to get to this. But it was past time for Francis and the Kraken to part ways.
Good at drafting (apparently), not so good on the pro side
I genuinely think Francis did a good job of building out the prospect pipeline for this organization. I know there are plenty who will disagree with that sentiment, but he created an environment where a significant portion of the existing roster has risen through Seattle’s system to begin playing regular NHL minutes. Meanwhile, there’s a whole host of players in Coachella Valley who have shown glimpses of one day being NHLers.
Will any of them be star players who will take this team to the promised land? It doesn’t seem like that will be the case, but at a minimum, there are effective pieces there that can eventually fill some of the void when the original veterans have filtered out of the Kraken roster.
Remember, only a small percentage of NHL prospects actually make it. The fact that Seattle has so many of its homegrown players already here and playing regular minutes does show that the team is drafting and developing in the way that Francis always claimed they would.
But my gripe with Francis’ approach comes in how he built the Kraken’s roster from the beginning and how he so rarely found ways to pry talented players away from other teams. To me, it showed a lack of creativity.
At the Expansion Draft, for example, Seattle made no trades with other teams to allow them to protect certain players by handing over additional assets. The narrative at the time was that GMs had wised up after the Vegas Expansion Draft, and nobody wanted to be made to look foolish this time. That’s true, but it could also be that Seattle’s asks were unreasonable. It could also be that the Kraken weren’t clever enough in their wheeling and dealing to talk other teams into handing over additional talented players in the way that the Golden Knights had. Francis ended up going straight by the book, selecting from what was made available by the rest of the league.
And as the years went on and the losses mounted, we saw how Francis operated. Every transaction was so calculated and careful—except for when he threw big bags of money at Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson in free agency—that it was as if moves could only be made if they were absolute no-brainers, with no special arrangements involved.
There were no cap-retention, three-team trades with 10 different draft-pick conditions. There were only “here is a draft pick or two, now send me a bottom-six forward” type trades.
Even when it seems like players aren’t moving around the league that much, there’s always a price that can get GMs thinking about pulling the trigger on trades. And we kept hearing about how—after they started stockpiling draft picks—the team wouldn’t end up using all those picks and would instead cash some of them in to acquire talent. But that almost never happened.
So where did that lack of aggressiveness and creativity leave the Kraken? With one playoff appearance in five years and no obvious path toward immediate improvement.
Now what?
It seems that Jason Botterill is now fully in charge of hockey operations, though we’ll likely get more clarity on that after Tod Leiweke addresses the media on Thursday morning. What concerns me is that Botterill has so far—in his one year in the GM’s chair—shown a similar lack of propensity for creative moves.
Botterill traded two draft picks for Mason Marchment, then got similar draft picks back when that didn’t work out. He sent a fourth-round pick to Minnesota for Freddy Gaudreau. He sent two picks to Toronto for Bobby McMann, who is on an expiring contract and who I am less convinced with every passing loss will want to re-sign in Seattle.
So what really is changing with Francis leaving? Is Botterill suddenly going to get aggressive this summer and start swinging deals that will drastically improve the culture of the locker room and the on-ice talent? Why couldn’t he do that with Francis still around, given that Botterill was already calling the shots this season?
This team has a long way to go to even be relevant, and this is a pivotal moment for the Kraken. If this change leads to bolder, more creative decisions, then that could finally move the team forward. If not, and Seattle comes back with a similar roster yet again next season, then it risks being another cosmetic change for a franchise still seeking a clear direction.
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.
That was about the best-case scenario for Kraken fans. Seattle played a pretty good game against a much better Minnesota Wild team on Tuesday, it was relatively fun to watch, and the Kraken continued to help themselves in the race for the bottom of the standings and the NHL Draft Lottery.
After the loss, the Kraken still have the fifth-worst record in the league, level in points with the New York Rangers, and have two more points than the Calgary Flames. If they continue this incredible tailspin—they’ve now lost five straight and 10 of their last 11 (1-8-2)—there is a very real possibility they’ll move into a top-three position in the Draft Lottery.
As for the game, the Kraken did look better in this one than they have in most of their previous games, but still made some bone-headed mistakes that led to too-easy goals against.
When Piper Shaw asked coach Lane Lambert what is causing the mistakes, whether it be fatigue or skill, Lambert paused briefly and then said, “I’m going to pass on that question.”
As the C+C Music Factory so eloquently sang in 1990, these are, “Things that make you go hmmmm…”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Seattle Kraken loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Takeaway 1: A legitimately strong first period
Seattle actually looked quite good in the opening frame and came out of it with a 2-1 lead.
“It’s another loss. And it’s a 5-2 loss, and another empty-net goal against, and I sit here, and I say, ‘I thought we played a pretty good hockey game,’” Lambert said. “And it’s like, ‘Really? You do?’ It’s another loss, but I do actually think we played pretty good tonight. We out-chanced them, and we just can’t get out of our own way.”
It’s well known that the power play has been abysmal lately, and although it still didn’t get credit for Brandon Montour’s goal that made it 1-0 at 10:23 of the first, the PP units looked downright competent. The ice-breaking tally came just one second after Vladimir Tarasenko’s penalty expired.
The play started with Joey Daccord, who recognized that after the Wild had cleared it down the ice and initiated a change, a quick-up pass could put them right back on their heels. Indeed, he found Kaapo Kakko at the far blue line, who ran a little give-and-go play with Jaden Schwartz, then found Montour at the point. Montour ripped it through Jesper Wallstedt’s wickets.
BRANDON BOMBTOUR! 💣🚨
One second after a downright competent-looking power play from the #SeaKraken, Montour rips home a one-timer.
Joey Daccord won't get a point, but smart play by him to get it back up ice quickly with the Wild changing.
Seattle did make a mistake (we’ll talk more about that in Takeaway 2) to create Matt Boldy’s response goal that tied it 1-1 just 1:34 later, but then the Kraken struck again with another brief flash of creativity. Adam Larsson pinched and got a piece of a clearing attempt to keep the play alive, then he and Chandler Stephenson crossed one another, and Larsson headed for the slot. Stephenson found Larsson for a one-timer, also through Wallstedt’s five-hole.
That goal gave Seattle a 2-1 lead at 13:10, which is where things remained after 20 minutes. But, as always seems to be the case with this team these days, it was pretty much all downhill from there.
Takeaway 2: More mistakes
On all the Wild goals, there’s a very obvious mistake made by the Kraken that leads to each one.
Goal 1: Jaden Schwartz tries to make a blind pass across the offensive blue line to Freddy Gaudreau and misses him by two feet, and Ryker Evans overcommits to the rush, creating a 2-on-1 that Matt Boldy scores on.
Goal 2: Berkly Catton tries to make a similar play at the offensive blue line, but hands it over to Marcus Foligno, who eventually walks right to the net and scores off a 3-on-2.
Goal 3: Vladimir Tarasenko is left completely alone at the side of the net.
Goal 4: Former Seattle Kraken Marcus Johansson is left completely alone at the side of the net.
Heck, even Goal 5, the empty-netter: Vince Dunn makes a terrible pass to Berkly Catton on a controlled breakout, and then Catton gets picked off at the red line by Joel Eriksson Ek when he lunges and tries to poke it past him.
Tie game. Berkly Catton hands it over just inside the offensive blue line, and Marcus Foligno scores at the other end.
“Same stuff,” Montour said. “Turnover at the blue line, odd-man rush, goal. A guy backdoor by himself, goal. Spin around in the slot to a guy backdoor by himself, goal. Empty net. I guess you could say another easy one for the opposing team. Mental mistakes that obviously have been hurting us for the last little bit.”
Oh, and another successful goalie interference challenge in the second period swung the game from 3-2 Kraken to 3-2 Wild in relatively quick succession, just like in the Utah game last week. Seattle now leads the league in goals overturned by goalie interference challenges.
The Kraken may never score three goals in a game again…
Takeaway 3: Losing now is good for business but bad for the soul
At this stage in another lost season, dropping games will do more good for the organization in the long run than wins will. But there are some players who care in that dressing room (no, I don’t think they all care at this point), and I have to wonder about the psyche of these players.
Take the younger guys, for example. You know they’re giving it their all, but mistakes keep happening that lead directly to goals, and the veterans aren’t exactly scoring the lights out to pick these guys up and cover up for those mishaps. What’s the long-term damage of that?
So, it’s good to keep losing and marching toward a potential top-three pick. And I especially liked this brand of loss, in which I was genuinely entertained for most of the evening and thought the guys put forth a solid effort, mistakes and continued lack of scoring be damned.
But it might also be nice to mix in one or two more wins this season, just to give the players who care a reason to smile.
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.
Last Monday, the Kraken’s playoff hopes were wobbling but still technically alive — thin ice, sure, but not fully cracked. I said three points would be acceptable, fewer than two would be devastating, and… well, here we are. Devastated.
I didn’t expect much out of the midweek games against Edmonton and Utah. Aside from a brief 2–0 lead against the Mammoth, there wasn’t a lot to cheer for in either game. The malaise carried into the weekend, when the Kraken lost 4–2 to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks.
It’s an oversimplification, but the team just isn’t competing right now. One thing I valued about this group up until the Olympic break was that they competed in just about every game. Even during their losing slide from late November through mid-December, where they went 1-8-1, six of those losses were one-goal games (excluding empty-netters). This team was competitive up until the break which adds to the frustration of being a fan right now.
Best of both worlds?
At the beginning of the season, a realistic hope was simply to play meaningful games in March. They did that, and as painful as the last month has been, there was a legitimate path to the playoffs throughout March, which gave us a reason to tune in. Plenty of people have pointed out how weak the teams competing for the last Western Conference wild card spot are this season, but once you get in, all records reset.
The disparity between the two conferences has created a strange scenario: two weeks ago, the Kraken were within striking distance of a playoff spot; now they find themselves fifth from the bottom of the league. That also means, as of now, they have the fifth-best odds of winning the NHL Draft Lottery. The ultimate spin on the season would be to say that, based on expectations, 2025–26 went well: compete for a playoff spot into late March to keep our interest, and still end up with a top-seven draft pick.
Not-so-special teams
The special teams have been brutal lately. Over the three games last week, the penalty kill allowed four goals on 10 shorthanded situations, while the power play went 0 for 8. The Kraken haven’t scored a power-play goal in seven games. At one point, they had a top-10 power play in the league, but it has cratered since the Olympic break. Injuries played a role for a bit, but everyone has been back for the last three games.
If you zoom out to the post-break stretch, the penalty kill has actually improved, but the power play has been the worst in the league since teams returned to play.
I wouldn’t pin the entire skid on the power play, but it has absolutely been a contributing factor.
Other musings
Philipp Grubauer deserved better Saturday night against Chicago. He made several big saves on defensive lapses in front of him, and it was a miracle it was still a one-goal game when he left the ice for the extra attacker late in the third.
By combined save percentage, the Kraken have the fifth-best goaltending in the league and the best in the Pacific. Pretty sure no one saw that coming this season.
In the Utah game, the Kraken had two goalie interference calls go against them. The first was when Jacob Melanson appeared to bump the goalie before tipping it in. The second was a Utah goal that was initially waved off before being successfully challenged. By the letter of the law, I think both calls were correct, but I don’t love how the rule is written. Both calls felt ticky tacky when you consider the impact they had on the outcome of the game.
Those two successful challenges were the first time in the NHL this season that a team had two successful goalie interference challenges in the same game.
The Kraken are now exactly on pace with where they were at this point in 2023–24 and seven points ahead of where they were last season.
Regardless of what’s best for the franchise, I will always root for the Kraken to win. But I also keep an eye on the teams around them in the standings, who could bolster Seattle’s draft position.
I’m still not an expert on the X’s and O’s at the NHL level, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want all five of your players within 10 feet of the boards.
Seattle is one of four teams without a hat trick this season (though fans did get tricked into throwing their hats on the ice for non-hat tricks two separate times). They had two last year.
Eeli Tolvanen has been cold as of late. The pending free agent hasn’t scored in 13 games… Maybe he’ll give us that elusive hat trick in one of the final three home games?
For the fourth time in their four-year franchise history, the Coachella Valley Firebirds have clinched a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs. You can catch their games on FloHockey.
Speaking of FloHockey, I’ve watched a lot of Brantford Bulldogs games this season, and draft-eligible Caleb Malhotra has looked outstanding. I haven’t watched a ton of prospects this year, but Malhotra is expected to go around fifth overall. I’d love to see the Kraken draft him if he’s available… but again, I haven’t watched a lot of prospects.
Goal of the week
You’ve probably heard coaches talking about getting to the front of the net a lot over the years. This is how you do it.
THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨 🕺
A simple drive to the crease gets the #SeaKraken on the board. Schwartz's first since returning from injury.
This is a very Jaden Schwartz goal if I’ve ever seen one.
Player performances
Tyson Jugnauth (CV/SEA) – Jugnauth is putting together an impressive rookie season in the AHL. On Saturday, he factored into all three Firebirds goals, including the overtime winner in their 3–2 victory. There will be plenty of time to debate the 2026–27 Kraken roster this offseason, but I’m starting to wonder if Jugnauth’s development might put him in position to make the jump next year.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Kakko had only a goal and an assist over the last three games, but I’ve really liked his play since being paired with Bobby McMann and Chandler Stephenson. He has seven goals in 18 games since the break, compared to six in 40 before it. Not all of those were with McMann and Stephenson, but he looks the best he has since the Kraken traded for him last season.
Jake O’Brien (BRF/SEA) – The 19-year-old Kraken prospect had six points in Brantford’s four-game sweep of Sudbury in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. Brantford is expected to make a deep run, so we could be watching him for a while this spring.
The week ahead
With a reasonable shot at the playoffs now out of reach, I just want to see this team compete through the end of the season. They start the week with a tough back-to-back: Winnipeg on Monday and Minnesota on Tuesday. My expectations have been significantly lowered, but I’d still like to see them get back to the level we saw in January.
After the back-to-back, they return to Seattle for the final homestand of the season. They face the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Believe it or not, the Kraken are 2-0-0 against Vegas this season, but the Golden Knights recently hired John Tortorella and have since rattled off three straight wins. Then the Kraken welcome the Calgary Flames on Saturday, another bottom-of-the-league team, and we all saw how the Chicago game went.
The playoff chase is gone, but the season isn’t. Give me effort, give me one more home win, give me something that reminds us of January before we all turn our attention to lottery odds and prospect clips. And if a Firebird or two wants to show up and make things interesting, I won’t complain.
