The Kraken won’t make any excuses for losing on back-to-back nights—Monday in Philadelphia and Tuesday in Washington, D.C.—but if there were ever a time to make them, this might be it. Just when it seemed like the injury situation couldn’t get any worse, a team already missing Kaapo Kakko, Ryker Evans, Freddy Gaudreau, Brandon Montour (personal), and Jared McCann also announced that Mason Marchment would be out day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
“We’re definitely being tested,” Jordan Eberle said. “We have some adversity, some big guys out, but ultimately, you’re going to go through a season, and every team there’s injuries that happen, guys need to step up, play more minutes. Right now, that’s the case for us… Adversity happens, and that’s right now.”
Marchment’s sudden absence makes it six regulars out of the lineup at once.
Meanwhile, because Seattle continues to carry three goalies on its roster, there are no extra skaters available. The team has maxed out its roster while resisting placing McCann and Marchment on injured reserve, moves that would require either player to miss at least seven days. (The fact Seattle hasn’t done so suggests the organization doesn’t expect either player to be out for long.)
Still, we were hoping for a little more from the Kraken on Tuesday against the Capitals, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead and fended off a late push.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken loss to the Capitals.
Takeaway #1: Slow start dooms undermanned Kraken
When you consider the depleted roster and the tired legs from playing the night before, it’s easy to imagine a team looking sluggish and ineffective—and then packing it in once it falls behind. The Kraken did fall behind, but to their credit, they put together a strong third period and even started to generate a bit of belief that maybe… just maybe… they could come back.
That didn’t happen, but it was still an impressive final frame in which they turned the momentum and controlled large portions of play.
Matt Murray made his official Kraken debut, and although it would have been nice to get a save on the third goal—a power-play tally by Jacob Chychrun from the top of the right circle—he played a relatively solid game, stopping 30 shots in all.
Seattle, however, looked understandably flat for most of the first two periods. Before Murray could truly settle in, Nic Dowd scored an easy tap-in off a sharp passing play, Ryan Leonard beat Murray after an Adam Larsson turnover, and Chychrun added the power-play goal.
“I felt a little bit off, and really, if I make a save there early in the second period, maybe there’s a different flow to the game,” Murray said. “But I love the way that our guys battled out there. We defended hard, and for a team going through a lot of adversity right now, I loved our compete level. So, there’s some positives to build on.”
Seattle battled hard in the third, but it was too little, too late.
“I thought we made more plays in the third period,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “We inflicted pain on ourselves by turning pucks over, not making plays quick enough, certainly early on in the game. And you can’t do that. We have to be better than that… You can’t put yourself in a position where you’re down 3-0 in this league.”
Takeaway #2: Berkly Catton is an NHLer
Although Berkly Catton had an assist and a few good looks in the Philadelphia game, he looked tentative—similar to what we’ve seen from other young Kraken players in their debuts. He’d get the puck and quickly dish it off even when he had time, a sign of a 19-year-old trying to avoid mistakes.
On Tuesday, he looked like a different player… an NHL player, in fact. He held onto pucks, distributed confidently, and showed real creativity and poise.
Catton could have had several points, both goals and assists, but a few big saves by Logan Thompson and some near misses kept him off the scoresheet. Case in point: This perfect pass by Catton to Eberle that should have gotten Seattle within one goal.
While the Kraken came out losers again, it was an impressive showing for Catton. He made the most of his opportunity, earning 18:13 of ice time—including power-play minutes and a late shift during the 6-on-5 push when Lambert was trying to spark a comeback. He finished with three shots on goal and a plus-one rating.
When you think back to how Shane Wright looked in his first few NHL games—when he frankly seemed in over his head—as a 19-year-old, it’s encouraging and exciting to see Catton driving play and earning the coaching staff’s trust in just his second game.
Of course, it’s only two games, but I’m now feeling more sold than I did a week ago that Catton can stick with this team and be an impactful player.
Takeaway #3: Injuries killing the vibes
Seattle started the day Tuesday by sending defenseman Ville Ottavainen back to Coachella Valley of the AHL and recalling forward Ben Meyers. Then, just before puck drop, it became clear Meyers would be playing. For a moment, that raised the question of whether Catton might be coming back out of the lineup.
Not so. Instead, the team announced minutes before the game that Meyers had actually been summoned to replace Marchment, who had joined the ever-growing injured list.
This rash of injuries is both shocking and, somehow, predictable. When Seattle saw players dropping during training camp, it felt concerning—not because of the immediate absences, but because when injuries pile up early, they often have a way of snowballing once the season starts.
Sure enough, three weeks into the season, Seattle is desperate for healthy bodies.
And while the roster has taken a massive hit, the vibes on this six-game road trip have also tanked. For a while, it looked like Seattle might cruise through this stretch and bring home eight or more points out of 12. Now, after two regulation losses, the Kraken need a win against a good Winnipeg Jets team on Thursday just to salvage six of 12.
“We have an opportunity here,” Lambert said. “We can lament in the last couple games, but we have an opportunity in Winnipeg to go .500 on this road trip. That’s our focus.”
The vibes have gone from immaculate to pretty stinky in just two days. Let’s see if the Kraken can turn it back around and come home from this long road trip feeling good about themselves, despite this massive adversity.
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 nothing else going on in the Seattle sports world on Monday, the Kraken had the full attention of the local sports fandom (right?). Sadly for those fans, the guys on the ice didn’t have their best against the Flyers and fell 5-2 in Philadelphia.
“Not sharp. We were not sharp,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “It wasn’t our best effort, that’s for sure. We have to be better.”
It was a night of firsts: Berkly Catton’s first NHL game and point, the first time the Kraken trailed by more than a goal this season, and their first regulation loss of the year.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken defeat to the Flyers.
Takeaway #1: Berkly Catton immediately gets on the scoresheet
The Kraken were already injury-riddled before they announced Monday morning that their best goal scorer, Jared McCann, was out day to day with a lower-body injury. McCann joined an ever-growing injury ward that already housed Kaapo Kakko, Ryker Evans, and Freddy Gaudreau, while Seattle also continues to miss Brandon Montour, who is away from the team on a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons.
McCann being out meant five regular players were unavailable for this game.
In stepped 19-year-old top prospect Berkly Catton, who had been waiting in the wings as a healthy scratch since breaking training camp with the team. With his parents in the building after flying from Saskatoon to Calgary to Atlanta to Philadelphia, Catton got on the scoresheet just seven minutes into his first NHL game.
Matty Beniers hustled to the corner to pick off a bad Vladar clearing attempt, then rimmed it around to Catton at the right hash marks. Catton simply pulled it off the wall and tapped it to Cale Fleury at the point, who ripped a shot toward goal. Eberle got a piece of it, and just like that, Catton became the fourth Kraken player to record a point in his regular-season debut.
“I think my first touch of the game was an assist, so that was pretty cool,” Catton said.
I do believe the Kraken were trying to keep him as a healthy scratch long enough to make him eligible for a rehab stint in the AHL. But with McCann out, that forced the Kraken’s hand and pushed Catton into the lineup.
All in all, it was a solid first outing for the youngster, who nearly scored in the second period and didn’t have any glaring turnovers or costly mistakes, finishing plus-one in 13:49 of ice time.
Takeaway #2: Tough night for Joey
On a night when the Kraken were facing Dan Vladar—a backup goalie who has oddly had Seattle’s number since their inception—their own netminder, Joey Daccord, had an uncharacteristically rough night.
Daccord allowed five goals on 21 shots through two periods before being lifted and replaced by Philipp Grubauer.
Two of the goals against, both scored by the red-hot, red-headed Owen Tippett, were of the “wanted that one back” variety. The first of those came just two minutes after Eberle had given the Kraken an early 1-0 lead.
As a dumped-in puck rattled around behind the Seattle net, Daccord corralled it and had options, with Jamie Oleksiak and Ryan Lindgren both available in the corners. He waited far too long to make a decision, though, and by the time he went to move it, Sean Couturier snuck up behind him and stripped him of the puck. It eventually got to Tippett, who chipped it into an open net.
1st period is in the books. 2-1 Flyers. #SeaKraken jumped out to a 1-0 lead, scored by Jordan Eberle and created by Berkly Catton's first career point.
But then Philly took advantage of a Joey Daccord Adventure™️ (video of that here) and added a PPG. pic.twitter.com/L9HsWVU5Ch
The other stinker was the one that effectively sealed the game for the Flyers. Seattle had gotten back within two goals after falling behind 4-1. If the Kraken had scored again before the second intermission, they might have entered miracle comeback territory. Instead, off a 3-on-3 rush with four minutes left in the frame, Tippett threw it at Daccord from a sharp angle. Reading pass, Daccord got too deep in his net and left the short side open. The puck squeezed through.
5-2 Flyers. Joey gets too deep in his net, and it leaks through.
Grubauer came in for the third period and looked solid. It will be interesting to see what the Kraken do in goal Tuesday for their first back-to-back of the season. Does Grubi go right back in after stopping six of six shots Monday? Or does Matt Murray get his first look of the season?
Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, Vladar improved to 7-1-1 all time against the Kraken.
Takeaway #3: Jani Nyman is a weapon on the power play
…but we already knew that.
Jani Nyman’s utilization in a fourth-line role with no power-play time to start the season wasn’t particularly bothersome to me—except that it didn’t give him many chances to showcase his best asset: his howitzer of a shot.
With injuries piling up and Nyman’s steady play earning him more trust, he’s quietly worked his way up the lineup at 5-on-5 and, with McCann out, finally got a look on the power play Monday.
After scoring at even strength on Saturday in Toronto, Nyman cashed in again against Philly, this time on the power play after Beniers pulled a loose puck out of a bevy of humanity and snapped it over to an open Nyman, who sent it home for his third goal of the season.
LI'L JANI! 🚨
Beniers pulls a loose puck out of the pile, and Jani Nyman scores for the second game in a row. PPG.
It was a smart play by Beniers to recognize that with the puck in the slot, all four Flyers penalty killers had collapsed to try to gain control. Once it squirted out to Matty, he didn’t force it back into the pile. Instead, he pulled it out and passed it to Nyman, who had the much better angle.
Back to Nyman… It was especially fun to see him rip two one-timers in a row in the third period, one that rang hard off the glass and another that rang even harder off the post.
One would have to think that Nyman—and his wicked shot—will get more opportunities with the man advantage moving forward.
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 took the ice in Toronto under the bright lights of Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. And, following their fourth-straight overtime contest, the team took home a rare win over the Maple Leafs, 4-3.
There were a number of storylines going into this one. Seattle’s hockey team was squaring off against Toronto’s squad the night before the cities’ baseball teams are set to face one another in Game 6 of the ALCS. Meanwhile, the Kraken personnel situation was strained, with mounting injuries (Freddy Gaudreau will miss four-to-six weeks) and other absences (Brandon Montour is away from the team right now for a personal reason). And Lane Lambert was returning to take on the team he coached last season.
In the end, though, the Kraken made their way through all of those distractions and delivered a sound, detailed effort against a high-powered Toronto team. There were isolated breakdowns in Seattle’s game (unnecessary penalties, failed or indecisive challenges at the blue line), but there was more good than bad overall on this night.
“[The Kraken] outworked us in front of the net. They blocked shots. They beat us up and down the ice,” Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz said postgame. “The score was indicative of that. They just outworked us, plain and simple.”
We’ll highlight a couple of the hardworking “plays before the play” that made a big difference in the outcome tonight.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken win over the Maple Leafs.
There were aspects of Jani Nyman’s game Saturday that were not perfect (he struggled with breakouts and transition skating a bit), but still, Nyman delivered one of his better performances in the National Hockey League on the strength of his work low in the offensive zone. In the first period, he dominated possession below the goal line to the extent that Toronto’s Nicolas Roy eventually got his stick in a bad position and tripped Nyman.
This sent the Kraken to the power play where Seattle grabbed an early lead on Shane Wright’s rebound goal.
Shane Wright buries a powerplay rebound from Marchment to open the scoring! A fitting way to celebrate his 100th NHL game. #SeaKraken up 1-0. Kraken have held #LeafsForever to zero shots so far. pic.twitter.com/OgBxClK7F3
Nyman’s work was a big part of that score. And the coaching staff recognized that, elevating Nyman into a middle-six role alongside Wright and Mason Marchment for the remainder of the game.
Nyman continued to deliver in the second period. After a brief push by the Maple Leafs, Nyman helped flip the momentum midway through the frame by contributing to another dominating possession shift in the offensive zone. That work cemented Nyman’s elevation and kept him on Wright’s line and in position to receive a feed from Marchment that Nyman would bury for Seattle’s second goal.
LI'L JANI! 🚨
GREAT play by Shane Wright and Mason Marchment, and Jani Nyman blasts it home!
In the end, Nyman posted a season-high 13:23 TOI. When Nyman, Marchment, and Wright were on the ice together 5-on-5, the Kraken had 63.57 percent of total shot quality, according to Natural Stat Trick. Nyman was a big part of Seattle’s success in this game.
Ryan Winterton was the player that moved down due to Nyman’s elevation. To Winterton’s credit, he continued to play his forechecking and backchecking game there, looking comfortable alongside his former Coachella Valley teammates Tye Kartye and John Hayden.
Takeaway #2: Seattle’s net-front work creates offense
As Stolarz said, the Kraken outworked the Maple Leafs at the front of the net all night. While Seattle forced the large majority of the Maple Leafs’ shots on Joey Daccord’s net to the outside, they were equally effective getting in close to Stolarz and making his life uncomfortable.
Seattle’s third goal may read like a simple, low-danger point shot from Vince Dunn in the box score, but the goal doesn’t happen without Jaden Schwartz’s hard-nosed play at the net front. If Schwartz is not working to that difficult area, the Toronto defender Brandon Carlo is not forced to make a split-second decision on checking through Schwartz’s body to prevent a potential rebound chance. Unfortunately for Carlo, Schwartz’s effective net-front screen turned into some legal “goaltender interference” as Carlo propelled Schwartz into Stolarz, allowing Dunn’s shot to pass uncontested.
“Ugly” goals like this come from the hard work. And, so far this season, the Kraken are putting in that work.
HE DUNN DID IT! 🚨
Jaden Schwartz gets shoved into Stolarz by Brandon Carlo, and Vince Dunn gets a good bounce. #SeaKraken regain a 3-2 lead. pic.twitter.com/a7IKQ2UZTM
Takeaway #3: Work without the puck delivers the game-winner in overtime
Overtime hockey is all about puck possession. With Toronto gaining control first, Seattle needed to stay patient and prepare for any opportunity to seize the puck back. Schwartz did just that early in the overtime, when he stripped a puck clean in a confined area behind the net. This takeaway set Seattle up with a number of chances to win the game, which Stolarz rebuffed (at least temporarily).
Later in the five-minute frame, Chandler Stephenson redeemed an earlier sloppy possession play with a hard-skating backcheck to disrupt a transition chance from William Nylander. The Kraken gained possession thereafter, transitioned back to offense, sprung Josh Mahura on a breakaway, and the blueliner buried the game-winning shot—much to Stolarz’s chagrin.
The goal was Mahura’s first as a Kraken. Coincidentally, Mahura’s last goal, which came in 2023 as a member of the Florida Panthers, was also scored in Toronto. The goaltender Mahura scored on? Current teammate Matt Murray.
Bonus: You don’t see that everyday
At 19:05 in the second period, Marchment lost his edge attempting a transition chance, plowed into Stolarz, and came to a stop in the Leafs’ net. Stolarz—likely still hot from giving up a goal with Schwartz in his lap just over a minute earlier—had seen enough. He got to his feet, threw the goal off its pegs and dove on Marchment in attack mode. For a moment it seemed like we were watching pro wrestling. “I [was] not happy,” Stolarz said of the collision. “If guys are going to run me, I’m going to stand up for myself.” You don’t see that move everyday.
Mason Marchment slams into Anthony Stolarz, and an incensed Stolarz gets up and takes it out on the goal, for some reason. All heck breaks loose. #SeaKraken take a 3-2 lead to the 3rd. Goals by Nyman, Tavares, and Dunn in 2nd.
The Kraken have taken four of a possible six points in the first three games of this difficult road trip. Overall, the team still has not lost in regulation this season. Seattle’s next game will come in Philadelphia on Monday. Puck drop is at 4:00 pm PDT.
Curtis Isacke
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.
“Down on the Farm” is your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week we’ll focus on new Firebirds defender Tyson Jugnuath, catching you up on his recent development steps and his early play in Coachella Valley. After that, we’ll pass along thoughts on Berkly Catton’s status, check back in on the Firebirds, and get you updated on an eventful week elsewhere in the Kraken system. 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. Let’s dive in.
Jugnauth’s hard work pays off with a top-four role in Coachella Valley, but development hurdles remain
Tyson Jugnauth is a unique player in the Kraken organization. “You don’t teach a lot of the things he has,” Firebirds vice president of hockey and business operations Troy Bodie told Judd Spicer in an interview on the Fire & Ice Podcast. “He moves the puck very well. Reads and scans the power play well. Moves the puck quick[ly]. Very smart defender as well.”
“We’re excited to see him on the backend, what he can do for our power play, and hopefully put some points up right away,” Brodie said.
Yet, Jugnauth’s progress to this point was not pre-ordained. For years, a professional future of any kind was not guaranteed for the 2022 fourth-round pick. Hard work, a unique bet on himself, and a prolific-scoring age 20 season with the Portland Winterhawks last year earned him an entry-level contract with the Kraken.
It’s clear Jugnauth wants more, though. As a slight-framed, 5-foot-11 defenseman, he knew there were steps he needed to take to succeed as a professional. So, he rented an apartment in the Seattle area on his own dime this past summer and worked out at the Kraken Community Iceplex with Seattle’s strength and conditioning staff to add muscle.
“It’s always been a weak spot for me; I’ve never been the strongest or biggest guy,” Jugnauth told reporters at Kraken rookie camp. “I knew I needed to get my body in a place where I could absorb the [professional] game. Once I signed my entry-level contract, it was like ‘I’ve got three months to do this.'”
“The best way for me to do that was to stay in Seattle. Nate [Brookerson] and Jake [Jensen] are great at what they do. I think now I’m ready. I feel good on the ice. I think it will be a big step for me.”
“Tyson has committed himself to improving his fitness and his strength,” Brodie explained. “For a young player to come to us and tell us he’s going to forego his summer with his friends and family because he’s committed to playing better hockey and developing properly is a huge step in the right direction.”
“It is something that he will benefit from greatly. We’re very impressed with his maturity,” Brodie said. “It’s not something that is taken lightly.” Indeed, it’s clear the Kraken want Jugnauth’s commitment to serve as an example for the team’s other prospects. “Hopefully it’s something that other players understand he’s going to get rewarded for this year.”
The “reward” Jugnauth earned was evident on Firebirds Opening Night as a 21-year-old rookie stood near the blue line at puck drop. Jugnauth played heavy minutes in the early going alongside Ty Nelson at even strength and quarterbacked the first-unit power play. He was clearly ahead of fellow rookies Lukas Dragicevic and Caden Price (who formed the Firebirds’ third pair) and Kaden Hammell (who was scratched).
That said, the AHL has a way of humbling young players, and there were rough spots for Jugnauth in this one, particularly in front of his own net. On the first goal against, Jugnauth lost track of the puck and stopped skating instead of engaging a forward during a scramble at the net front.
On the second goal against, Jugnauth didn’t help pick up a net front player, instead holding the back post on a play in the opposite corner. This may have been his textbook proper positioning, but a lack of awareness of the positioning of his opponents (and teammates) left the net front player to make a play while Jugnauth was guarding air.
On the fourth goal against, Jugnauth was caught in between in defensive transition. He didn’t move to take away the cross-seam pass (perhaps thinking Goyette had the pass covered, which he did not), and the young blueliner did not step up to block or take away the shooter.
These goals were not entirely on Jugnauth, of course. One can point to other errors and breakdowns as well. And, even when Jugnauth was off the ice, the Gulls still tilted the ice toward the Firebirds net. But, it is clear there were a number of lessons for the AHL rookie in this one.
If history is any indication, Jugnauth will take the challenge seriously and come back better for it.
Coachella check-in
Revisiting my projection from before the opener, I had every sit-start decision and player position correct except for one: Ian McKinnon started the opener over the newly-acquired J.R. Avon. And I hedged when it came to McKinnon, noting that I expected him to be in the lineup more than half the time for the Firebirds.
On the other hand, my pregame line projections were not close at all. To begin the night, the Firebirds staff distributed their forward veterans throughout the lineup rather than consolidating them on one line. Those plans shifted after the team lost one of it’s key players just over 20 minutes into the game (more on that in a moment). Across the second and third periods, we often saw two of the veteran leaders together.
The opener was a tough 5-0 loss. There were a few good things from the Firebirds young players, but there is no sugar coating the outcome. As I implied last week, I do think that this season will be an enormous challenge, particularly early, due to the youth on the roster. The team needs to find new point producers up front and develop sound defensive play from a very young blue line. This will take time.
The challenge will be even tougher in the short term with the Kraken recalling John Hayden to the NHL club on Friday, Oct. 17, following Freddy Gaudreau’s placement on injured reserve. Only two AHL “veterans” remain on the team: Mitchell Stephens and Gustav Olofsson.
The Firebirds should receive solid play in net from Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the raw goaltending stats take a step back in the early going as the Firebirds struggle to suppress shot quality.
If, by the end of the year, the arrow is pointing up and the Firebirds make the playoffs at all, I’ll count that as a successful season. I’m not ruling out more. The AHL team in Palm Desert, California, has exceeded my expectations every season so far. But development is the priority in the early going.
The Catton conundrum
I have made no secret that I am high on Berkly Catton’s potential to help the Seattle Kraken this season. After the first two Kraken home games, though, I was on board with the vision of utilizing Ryan Winterton’s defensive talents as the team looked to establish a sound defensive structure and details in their breakouts and transition game. As we discussed on the last Sound Of Hockey Podcast, I think this was the right call.
I suspect we’ll see movement on the Catton situation shortly though. Freddy Gaudreau’s placement on injured reserve suggests he’ll miss at least a week. Plus, Winterton has taken minor penalties in each of the last two games and Jani Nyman’s usage continues to be minimal. (After trending up for a while, Nyman was back down to 6:19 TOI on Thursday, Oct. 16, in Ottawa.)
Catton could enter the NHL lineup on Saturday in Toronto in place of Gaudreau, Winterton, or Nyman. If not that, the team has back-to-back games in lower-exposure spots Monday and Tuesday of next week. That may be a natural chance to rest a veteran and get Catton into the lineup over John Hayden, for example.
There is also the possibility of a conditioning loan to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The team’s injury situation and decision to carry three goalies in the early going may make that difficult at the moment though. (A player loaned to the AHL for a conditioning stint still counts against the NHL roster limit.)
Regardless, if you are in Berkly Catton withdrawal like I am, here are his shifts from Seattle’s September 29, 2025, preseason game against the Calgary Flames—i.e., the game during which Catton scored his first (preseason) NHL goal. Do I have more of these videos? Yes. Will I keeping posting them until Catton makes his way into the NHL lineup? As a bit of harmless fun, sure. Why not?
Notes on five more Kraken prospects
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Speaking of the young Firebirds, Mølgaard left the ice for Coachella Valley in the first minute of the second period and did not return. Mølgaard did not take any contact on the shift but skated straight for the bench and down the tunnel at his first opportunity. Mølgaard had a slightly awkward fall on his last shift in the first period, but it was not obvious that he suffered an injury as a result. I did not notice any other potentially injurious contact on any of his other shifts. (You can watch his time on ice here.) This is one to monitor, as Brodie called Mølgaard “a big part of our team” before the game.
Nathan Villeneuve | F | Sudbury Wolves (OHL)
Now recovered from an injury sustained during Kraken training camp, Villeneuve took the ice last Friday for Sudbury as the team’s captain. Who did he square up against for the opening face-off? None other than fellow Kraken prospect Jake O’Brien. The two went head to head frequently that night, with O’Brien’s Brantford Bulldogs holding the advantage. O’Brien had a goal, two assists, and was plus-three in a 6-0 Bulldogs win. Though Villeneuve was held scoreless that night (with a minus-two on-ice plus-minus), he rebounded with three assists in two additional games last weekend.
Jake O’Brien | F | Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
O’Brien and the Brantford Bulldogs didn’t slow down after their win over Sudbury. O’Brien had a hat trick and two assists on Sunday, Oct. 12, to lead the Bulldogs to an 8-5 win over the Ottawa 67’s. O’Brien’s eight points in two contests earned him the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week. As of Thursday afternoon, O’Brien is tied for first in the OHL in points per game (2.17) and tied for fifth in points overall (13).
Clarke Caswell | F | Univ. of Denver (NCAA)
Following a productive junior career, Clarke Caswell made his college debut playing for David Carle and the University of Denver last weekend. The 2024 fifth-round pick scored a goal last Friday in his first game versus Air Force off a hard-working net front battle. Overall he compiled a team-high seven shots on goal in 19:47 time on ice—which was one second short of the most on the team among Denver forwards. The next night Caswell once again assumed a top-six forward role and recorded two assists in Denver’s game versus Bentley. He’ll look to keep the production going this weekend with two games at Lindenwood University. Both contests will be available to stream on FloHockey.
On Saturday, Oct. 11, Loke Krantz made his debut in the SHL, Sweden’s top level pro league, for Linköping HC. He played just over eight minutes and wasted no time getting on the scoresheet either, recording an assist. The under-the-radar 2025 seventh-round pick has stuck with the SHL club since then, getting into his second pro game on Thursday, Oct. 16. Krantz is the seventh-youngest player in the SHL to record a point this season.
Kraken prospects data update
Karl Annborn has had an eventful few months since departing Kraken development camp in July. He played three games for Sweden’s U20 team and 14 club games for three different teams in three different Swedish leagues. Most recently he has played three games for Västerås IK of HockeyAllsvenkan. Despite all of that activity and change, his last game, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, brought another first: His first point of the season (an assist).
There were a number of league debuts this week, including Jugnauth and Price in the AHL, Annborn in Allsvenskan, Krantz in the SHL, and Caswell and Ollie Josephson in the NCAA.
Jakub Fibigr is third in the OHL in points per game (1.4) among defensemen. The baseline for offensive success has been there for Fibigr, even if the raw point totals haven’t yet followed. Over the summer we predicted this might be the year his production ticks up. So far, so good for Fibigr.
For his part, Julius Miettinen is tied for second in the WHL in points per game (2.0) among all players.
Semyon Vyazovoi posted his first quality game of the season last week, stopping 26 of 27 shots in a 40-minute relief appearance. Hopefully, this is the springboard Vyazovoi needed.
Nikke Kokko was in net for the Firebirds in what was a tough team effort. As mentioned above, he could play better this year and his stats could take a minor step back. I wouldn’t worry too much about that in the abstract.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
2: Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
1: Jake O’Brien
There were a number of strong candidates this week, but O’Brien’s eight points in two games could not be denied.
Previewing the week ahead
The Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is a Friday, Oct. 17, 4:00 pm PDT OHL tilt between Jake O’Brien’s Brantford Bulldogs and Jakub Fibigr’s Brampton Steelheads. Will our OHL Correspondent John Barr be in attendance? (If you miss this one, the two teams have a rematch set for Saturday at 1:00 pm PDT.)
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Ivar Stenberg
Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg tops most international player lists for the 2026 NHL Draft. After logging 25 games in the SHL in his draft-minus-one season, he has moved into a prominent scoring role for Frolunda this year, scoring two goals and adding seven assists in 11 games. He will likely hear his name called in top-10, if not top-five, come draft day.
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.
When we think of elite players in the NHL, we tend to think of individuals who are especially good at obvious things; the types of things that get highlighted in an NHL Skills Competition, like fastest skater, hardest shot, and most accurate shooter. And when you ask what makes a skilled player elite, these are often the first attributes that come to mind.
This makes sense intuitively because the NHL’s elite players usually fall into one or multiple of these categories. McDavid is fast, Ovechkin shoots the puck hard, and Crosby is pinpoint accurate.
This line of thinking makes a player like Matthew Tkachuk a uniquely interesting case study. Tkachuk is one of the preeminent wingers in the NHL. His combination of physicality, verbal sparring, and high-end scoring skill is a rare combination. His NHL Edge stats, hilariously, paint a confounding picture.
These NHL Edge stats suggest that Tkachuk is slow, doesn’t cover much ice, and has below-average velocity on his shot. And yet, he’s elite at driving offensive zone time (92nd percentile) and goal scoring (81st percentile).
Tkachuk is known for his physicality, goal-scoring, and antagonism, but in my opinion, the skillset that works as his proverbial glue is his elite wall play. His smarts and top-notch ability to get the puck off the wall, combined with his other traits, make him a maddeningly effective player, which can extend possession sequences and create scoring chances like few can.
What does any of this have to do with the Seattle Kraken? The last article I wrote for Sound Of Hockey highlighted how simple habits with the mid-lane drive can produce high-quality scoring chances. This article has a similar theme – how the subtle skillset of strong wall play is the foundation of driving play effectively.
Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle – a case study in fundamentals
Jordan Eberle playing in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
The first time I watched either Jordan Eberle or Jaden Schwartz play was the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2009. For many players, the World Juniors are their first foray into the bright lights of national recognition.
Eberle seemed to rise to the occasion for big moments. He scored the game-tying goal and a critical shootout goal for Canada in a semifinal against Russia (more on that later). The next year, he scored twice in the final three minutes of the gold medal game to send Canada to overtime against USA (a game where the Americans eventually prevailed).
Schwartz played for Canada in 2011 and 2012. Those Canadian teams were less successful, and I’ll confess that as a younger hockey fan, I felt a little underwhelmed. I think I expected Schwartz to be a flashy winger, but that type of performance didn’t materialize. Looking back, I think one of the reasons why I felt underwhelmed was that I personally didn’t understand what really good hockey fundamentals looked like.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see how both Schwartz and Eberle have evolved from junior hockey stars to highly successful NHLers. In a lot of ways, Schwartz and Eberle share a lot of similarities. They’re both on the slightly smaller side, and they are skilled offensive wingers but high-end speed isn’t their calling card. Their games have also aged gracefully, and I believe one of the reasons why is that they’re both masters of wall play. Show me a player skilled on the wall, and I’ll show you a key play driver on your team.
An underappreciated skill
First, let’s set the stage for what makes wall play so challenging and important. Former NHL coach and player Dallas Eakins once observed that within NHL games, the puck is within three feet of the boards about 80 percent of the game. The boards serve as a natural outlet for many plays when direct tape-to-tape passes are not an option.
Handling pucks off the wall is difficult because rimmed pucks are often moving fast, and the boards can cause the puck to bounce unpredictably. You often need to be able to pull the puck off the wall with the toe of your stick, which is less than ideal for puck control. When you add the element of pressure and the fact that lingering too long on the wall with the puck leads to repeated hits, you can see why wall play is challenging.
At the same time, successful wall play leads to defensive-zone exits and transition play. Successful wall play keeps pucks in the offensive zone, allowing your team to wear down the opposition with extended offensive-zone sequences. Players that can consistently make plays off the wall help tilt the possession battle. You simply cannot be an effective play driver in the NHL without mastering the fundamentals of wall play.
In the offensive zone
Let’s look at some key moments from last season where skill on the wall led to a positive outcome for the Kraken.
Excellent wall play can force unexpected turnovers on the forecheck, leading to prime scoring chances. In this sequence, Schwartz is the first forward (or F1) on the forecheck. After the Kraken dump it in, Montreal defender Arber Xhekaj is first to the puck. Schwartz correctly reads that Xhekaj does not have an option to move it up the strongside boards and moves to cut off the rimmed puck behind the net.
In almost one smooth motion, Schwartz is able to pick up the rimmed puck and move it out front to a wide-open Oliver Bjorkstrand. It’s a great shot by Bjorkstrand, but that play is only there because Schwartz is able to pick up the rimmed puck and move it quickly.
The ability to pick the puck off the wall quickly also allows you to move the puck faster, opening up passing lanes. This next clip illustrates how Eberle is able to retrieve the puck off the wall and find a streaking Jani Nyman before the defense can react.
Eberle enters the zone on the power play and is forced down the wall to the corner before sending it back up high to the blue line. Montour is a right-handed shot, so moving the puck from east to west is risky. He opts to rim the puck back low to Eberle. Eberle is able catch the rim and immediately move it to a wide-open Nyman for his first career NHL goal. It looks like a routine play, but it’s not. If Eberle needs to take an extra second to pick up that puck, that passing lane gets shut down either by the defender Matheson (No. 8) or a well-timed poke check from the Montreal goaltender.
More recently, Eberle displayed his mastery by one-touching a back-hander between his own legs to Matty Beniers, who finished off a beautiful power-play goal against Vegas last week.
The Kraken had a lot of trouble transitioning the puck last year, likely contributing to their less-than-stellar results for offensive- and defensive-zone time. Making successful plays on the wall is a key ingredient to moving the puck out of your zone in an organized fashion. The following two plays show how making a wall play in transition leads to offensive-zone possession and a goal.
Eberle finds himself with the puck in tight against the wall attempting to break it out. His options are somewhat limited. He doesn’t have much speed, and he’s about to take a hit from a back checker. The lateral pass to teammate Chandler Stephenson is unavailable due to a well-positioned stick from Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher (No. 11). However, he remains poised and is able to make a skilled play and find Vince Dunn sprinting up the middle, which opens up more breakout options.
The Kraken ultimately dump the puck in, and the Montreal goaltender, unable to handle the rimmed puck,allows it to go to the other side where Eberle is ready to make a play. He one-touches the rimmed puck to Eeli Tolvanen, who makes no mistake scoring. That last play wasn’t a fortuitous deflection. That was the subtle art of wall play.
This next example features neither Eberle nor Schwartz but is simply too good not to share. Kaapo Kakko takes a breakout pass along the wall. Although he has to receive this pass with his back turned to the middle of the ice, limiting his vision, he pre-scans prior to getting the puck, knowing that Beniers is skating up the middle. He makes a skilled play, simultaneously protecting the puck and finding a clever outlet to Beniers.
Because Kakko is able to move the puck to an already-moving Beniers, the Kraken are able to get the zone entry and create an initial scoring chance. That chance doesn’t go in, but the Oilers fail to recover the puck, and Kakko is able to make yet another skilled wall play, catching a rimmed pass on his backhand and walking out in front of the net to set up Beniers for a backdoor tap-in goal.
Defending
Being great at wall play doesn’t just mean you’re on the ice for key offensive situations; it also means that coaches will put you out when your team is defending a lead. When the trailing team is pressing, making plays off the wall is crucial to clearing pucks and relieving pressure. If you can’t make those plays, the puck can end up in the back of your net very quickly.
In the above, a good play on the wall prevents a clean zone exit, and the Oilers are forced to rim the puck back behind their own net. Jake Walman has the next chance to pull the puck off the wall and clear it, but under pressure, he ends up putting it right on the stick of Schwartz, who scores his second goal of the evening.
In this next clip, the Oilers go from having clear possession to pulling the puck out of the back of their net within a matter of seconds. The culprit? A botched clearing attempt.
Oilers defender Ty Emberson has difficulty handling the puck behind his net and, under pressure, rims it hard to his partner Troy Stecher, who is positioned near the hash marks. Stecher is unable to handle the hard rim, leading to a turnover at the blue line. Ryker Evans sends it the other way, and Andre Burakovsky finishes the scoring chance from the top of the crease.
Strong wall play is critical in the NHL
Let’s revisit Eberle’s famous goal against Russia in the 2009 WJC semifinal. Russia defends pretty well here, keeping the puck on the wall and staying in shooting lanes. The entire sequence prior to the goal is a slog along the wall.
Ultimately, the Canadians win enough small wall battles to find a fortuitous opening, and that makes all the difference in the game that sent them to the final.
In hockey, all these little moments add up to one bigger one. This is winning hockey – the ability to win the hard pucks along the wall in critical moments.
Wall play is a subtle and underappreciated skill. It’s not really sexy, and it’s equal parts hard work and talent. It’s also hard to highlight on TV because the typical broadcast angle doesn’t give a full view of the nearside boards. But players who master it have staying power in the NHL.
The next time you go to a Kraken game or even an open practice, I would encourage you to keep an eye out for players working on their wall skills. They might partner off and work on it individually or you might see it baked into a puck retrieval drill. For some of you, it may be a whole other dimension to the skill game waiting to be discovered.
My first impression of PWHL Seattle’s general manager Meghan Turner was that she’s a whip smart, confident leader who prioritizes culture and fit in the way she’s building Seattle’s first-ever professional women’s hockey team. Tessa Bonhomme called Turner “a brilliant hockey mind who’s gonna be a problem.”
I am still relatively new to hockey myself, but the job of general manager seemed pretty straightforward: build a successful organization by winning trophies and making money. Turner’s duty as an expansion team general manager, though, is to build that team and culture from nothing.
Turner used an analogy to explain the intricacy of her job to me, which is not as cut and dried as I had assumed. “I’m a big puzzle nerd, and so that’s how I view it. How do I, as a GM, find the right pieces that complement each other to work in concert together?” As a fellow puzzle nerd, her explanation helped me make sense of what she has been up to for the past few months, and the task ahead as we inch our way toward PWHL Seattle’s inaugural season, which officially starts Nov. 21.
A winding road back to hockey
Turner’s route to PWHL general manager was circuitous, but it helps give perspective to how she views the ‘puzzle’ before her. She jokingly gives both blame and credit to Boston Fleet general manager Danielle Marmer for where she’s ended up. Marmer and Turner grew up playing against each other, since Turner is from New Hampshire, and Marmer was in Vermont. The pair then played together for four years at Quinnipiac University, where Turner graduated with a BS and an MBA.
After graduation, Turner got a consulting job at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston. On top of working 55 hours per week at PwC, she played professional hockey, first in the CWHL and later the PWHPA. She told the Boston Globe that she’d often leave her house at 7 a.m., work all day, head to practice, get back home at 10 and work some more. Eventually it came time for Turner to hang up the skates.
“I pretty much decided that I was gonna move forward in my consulting career, and that’s what the next 30 years of my life would be,” Turner said. She was happy and loved her job and coworkers, and she had signed up for service in the Army National Guard. When the PWHL was announced, Turner was excited but didn’t expect to be involved. During our conversation she laughed at her past naivete. “You make a decision, and life just throws a total curve ball at you.”
This particular curve ball was thrown by her old friend Marmer, who had also moved to Boston to work in player development and scouting for the Bruins. The week before Turner was set to ship off to basic training, Marmer, who had been offered a job as PWHL Boston’s inaugural GM, asked Turner to come with her. Though Turner described her decision as “a leap,” she felt supported in her transition. From her family, from Marmer, and from her colleagues at PwC who pushed her out the door, telling her, “You’ve got to do this. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Does she regret her decision to return to hockey? “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said.
OTTAWA, CANADA – JUNE 25: Turner and PWHL Seattle head coach Steve O’Rourke at the 2025 PWHL Draft (Photo/Arianne Bergeron, courtesy of PWHL Seattle)
Turner worked two years for the Boston Fleet as assistant general manager. When expansion was announced, league executives asked the current GMs, including Marmer, if there was anyone they would recommend to lead the two new teams. Marmer told the Boston Globe that in her mind, Turner was not only the obvious choice, but the only choice. “They were like ‘Great, glad you said that, because we were going to talk to her anyway.’ ”
Building the puzzle
Now that we have the context, we can get back into how Turner has approached building the puzzle that is PWHL Seattle. She starts, as many of us do, by looking at the picture on the box. For her, this means deciding on an image of how a successful PWHL team looks. Unlike the inaugural six PWHL general managers, who built their teams with no real knowledge of what the league would become, Turner has the benefit of looking back at the past two years of the league.
With hindsight, she sees that picture clearly. Turner was not shy to admit that it looks a lot like back-to-back league champions, the Minnesota Frost. “There’s a lot to pull from in terms of what they’ve done in [both] seasons. They weren’t the clear front-runner, but they got hot at the right times, and they pushed through playoffs. They had speed, and they had endurance and stamina, and some of the things that they do more tactically on the ice to spread teams out and make it difficult for teams to play against them.”
The picture of a successful team is a championship-winning team, yes, but Turner knows that isn’t the whole story. “Beyond that, for me, it’s making sure that we are building a good culture.” For Turner, it’s not just the results that make a successful team, but it’s also how they get there. “I want to win in a way where I feel good about us winning and feel like we are jelling as a group. That means a lot to me, too, just to make sure that the culture is good, and players want to come to Seattle and they want to stay in Seattle.”
From our discussion, the image that the finished puzzle will show became clear: Turner is planning on building a winning team with a great culture.
So how does she go about figuring out which pieces will fit? “Hockey’s a unique sport,” Turner said. “You really need your full roster to play their parts. You can’t just rely on a few good players, you need everyone to step up and fill in the capacity that they’re put in to fill.”
Drafting and signing to create a team from scratch
Turner had three main opportunities to find the right pieces for her puzzle: the initial/exclusive signing window, the expansion draft, and the entry draft.
“The initial signing window was interesting,” Turner said. “I was confident going into it, and I knew the players… But it was a really fast pace, and I knew it was going to be, but I maybe underestimated just how competitive it was.”
After a “crazy” Day 1, Turner felt more confident moving forward with the rest of the process and felt she knew what to expect. And why wouldn’t she be confident? The first player she signed to PWHL Seattle was Hilary Knight, one of the greatest hockey players ever. She then rounded out the window by signing the maximum five players and was praised for her work during the window.
For Turner, the initial signing period was about getting her core pieces together, and then she went about building around them, making sure the additional pieces were a good fit with the foundation she had started. She went into draft day with multiple different strategies, prepared to “play off of what Cara [Gardner Morey] is doing in Vancouver, in literally five minutes or so in the moment.” She was happy with the plan they ended up using, and with the outcome, telling me that her team crafted the roster in the way that she had hoped.
Then, in the entry draft, unlike the NHL conventional wisdom of drafting the best prospect available, Turner said she and her staff “drafted with specific needs in mind,” and felt good about where they ended up. They pulled some surprising moves, like drafting a goalie in the second round, but the plan was the same. They selected “who we thought was the best available and also fit what we needed.”
When asked if there was a consistent thread that tied all her selections together, Turner said: “The first one that pops into my head is just competitiveness, and then maturity.” They looked for athletes who are willing to learn and grow and fill different roles. Turner thinks that she has that with her current roster. “A lot of the personalities from my perspective are just gritty and competitive. They want to win every single day, and they’re going to push each other.”
Some hiccups still expected
Turner knows the road to success will not be smooth 100 percent of the time.
“It’s difficult when you put a player that’s been on the top line their whole life and try to retrofit them into maybe a third- or fourth-line role and vice versa, so sometimes you have to ask players to kind of reinvent themselves and then help them with that process. So to me, It’s a big puzzle, and all the pieces fit together. And in many different ways, just finding the right way that fits and understanding that there’s no one way that that’s going to work.”
It seems, then, that hockey is a bit different from a puzzle in some key ways. For one, you can change the pieces slightly to fit what you need. You can also find a different solution and end up with a different picture than what you thought you were building. This type of flexibility is crucial for a team that has never played together.
Throughout our interview, Turner showed that she has the keen eye and instincts of a great leader, but at the end, her answers showed a bit of her heart. With her experience in two other failed leagues, I had to ask her what made the PWHL different. “Oh gosh,” she told me, smiling, “It’s everything about it, I guess.” She described the PWHL as “leveled up.” Players, investors, leadership, the people behind the scenes who don’t get the credit they deserve, are all 100 percent in… They didn’t dip their toes in. It was, ‘We’re doing this, and we’re going to make it good.'”
Turner is no stranger to Seattle. She told Daily Faceoff, “My wife lived out there for a year after college, and then her twin sister joined her after college. Her sister ended up staying there for about nine years. So, we would go out there a lot to visit. So, it’s still kind of a secondary home base for my sister-in-law, who I’m really close to. It’s cool to kind of go back in a different capacity.”
“I really want to make this great for Seattle. I say it all the time… how excited [the fans] are, and I am genuinely so excited to bring the women’s side of the sport to Seattle. And I am really excited to meet people and meet fans and be out in the community. So I’m just excited to see everyone, I’m excited to meet everyone, Excited to be at [Climate Pledge Arena], see the fans and everything, so I’m just very excited. And it comes from a genuine desire to make Seattle the best market for our league and obviously hoist a championship trophy at the end of the year.”
Her excitement was infectious and made us Sound Of Hockey feel ready to run through a wall. It’s clear that Turner is ready to lead Seattle into a bright future.
When asked about Turner moving on, her friend and former boss Danielle Marmer told the Boston Globe “she’s going to have something really special in Seattle.” And I agree.
