As Seattle Kraken fandom awaits white smoke rising from the Kraken Community Iceplex signaling the appointment of a new head coach, the front office has been hard at work developing an offseason plan for player acquisition as well. General manager Jason Botterill told Kraken season ticket holders last Thursday that the team had recently completed its pro personnel meetings. The team has its list of free agent and trade targets in hand.
With that work done, the Kraken have been implementing their plans. Botterill indicated that the team has already contacted restricted free agents Kaapo Kakko, Ryker Evans, and Tye Kartye expressing interest in new deals for those players. More concretely, the team re-signed unrestricted free agent forward John Hayden to a two-year, league-minimum deal on Wednesday.
Now, a significant offseason landmark is right around the corner. With the NHL Draft shifting to a “remote” format this year, the 2025 NHL Draft Scouting Combine, which begins on Sunday, June 1, will be the only offseason event that will bring most of the league’s top decision makers together. Many around the league expect that teams will use the combine to discuss potential trades and seek team “permission” to contact pending free agents.
So, the “real” work of offseason is just days away. With that in mind, there is no better time to examine what lies ahead in this critical period. In this part one, we’ll get into where Seattle stands and where its offseason priorities should be. In part two, we’ll return with a look at the options on the market that are both realistically available and intriguing fits to fill Seattle’s needs. We’ll conclude with a “mock offseason” to show one scenario of how these pieces could fit together. Let’s dive in.
Kraken offseason roster status
Assuming, for the moment, that all of Seattle’s young players on entry-level deals—aside from Shane Wright—will be in the AHL or another non-NHL level, the Kraken enter the offseason with $21 million of space under the projected $95.5 million salary cap for 2025-26. They have nine forwards, four defensemen, and two goalies under contract. With an assist from CapWages, here is what Seattle’s salary cap sheet looks like right now.
Forwards Kaapo Kakko, Tye Kartye, and Ben Meyers are restricted free agents, with Kakko and Meyers both being one year away from unrestricted free agency and possessing arbitration rights. On defense, Ryker Evans and Cale Fleury are restricted free agents, with Fleury being one year from unrestricted status and having arbitration rights.
There was some uncertainty publicly about whether Meyers and Fleury would be Group-Six Unrestricted Free Agents given their NHL service time. I can report that is not the case. Each remains a restricted free agent, in Fleury’s case owing to service time rules from the COVID-affected seasons.
Forward Michael Eyssimont is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, as is defenseman Josh Mahura. Several depth pieces are pending unrestricted free agents too, including goalie Ales Stezka and defenseman Gustav Olofsson.
It is also important to remember the pieces the team already subtracted before the trade deadline, when the team shipped out defenseman Will Borgen, and forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, and Brandon Tanev. Each of those players are NHL-level contributors, with the subtraction of Bjorkstrand in particular being significant for the offense.
Overall this season, Seattle posted middle-of-the-pack overall offensive production (16th of 32 NHL teams in total goals scored) and shooting percentage (14th highest) and did well staying out of the penalty box (fifth-fewest penalty minutes) and avoiding goals against on the power play (second fewest), but struggled in almost every other metric conceivable. Leveraging standard and advanced data from Evolving Hockey, here is where Seattle stacked up in various metrics:
The trade losses are somewhat mitigated going into the offseason by the acquisition of Kakko, but I think it’s fair to say that absent dramatic leaps from Seattle’s young players, the team is in a relatively weaker position now, both offensively and defensively, than it was when Seattle’s lineup was fully healthy early last season.
Looking back, it is easy to recall the preseason narratives. The Kraken would continue to be staunch defensively, buoyed by the addition of Brandon Montour, and would get back to their identity of a relentless, depth-based attack, with few “fourth lines” capable of matching Gourde, Tanev, and Kartye. As we all know, it didn’t work out that way. For example, that intimidating “fourth line” combined for just 47 points all season with Seattle.
So, the Kraken need to add pieces just to get back to this past year’s baseline—a standard that was, itself, disappointing to all involved. Additions on top of that will be necessary to push this team toward contention. No wonder, then, that the team has vowed to be “aggressive” in making roster changes for the second consecutive offseason.
Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Kraken offseason priorities
If we were penciling out a Kraken depth chart today, it might look something like the following. (As a disclaimer, these aren’t projected lines, and I wouldn’t put much stock in the actual order. The goal is just to display the team’s depth.)
Extrapolating from this depth chart, in the context of existing roster performance laid out above, I’ve identified the following seven personnel-related offseason priorities. (For the moment I’ll set aside the two most pressing agenda items, neither of which are personnel-related: Finding a head coach and fixing the defensive approach.)
Priority No. 1: Make a splash move
Under then-general manager Ron Francis, Seattle built a solid base of talent, organizational depth, and upcoming draft capital. Now comes Botterill and the 2025 offseason, and the goals are different. “It’s my job to go out there, whether it’s free agency or making trades, to drop in elite talent,” Botterill said.
This is the top priority. Whatever the position, whatever the means, Seattle’s focus should be on adding a “game-plan player,” a player the opposition needs to account for in their pre-scout; a player that can drag the team back into the game with a single skilled play, even on a night when everything else is going wrong. (No, unfortunately, it is not going to be Daniel Sprong.)
With a solid prospect pool and 10 picks in the first two rounds of the next three drafts, Botterill and the Kraken have the assets to make it happen. That is not the challenge. “You never know what trade is going to come, but we’re going to at least be in the discussion with those [extra first-round picks] moving forward,” Botterill explained.
The challenge is in finding a player that matches the Kraken’s short- and medium-term need. The Kraken are not one player away from a Stanley Cup, and they aren’t one year away from the Stanley Cup either. They need a player who can contribute to a playoff push now and potentially be part of a winning core years down the road. Hypothetically, this could mean targeting a true star player in his late prime years, since even the post-prime years are likely to be useful. More realistically, it means targeting players earlier in their prime window. Botterill told the season ticker holders last week, “We want to continue to add younger players to [the roster] mix in and around Matty [Beniers]’s age.” So, they’re looking for players in the 22-year-old range.
Those assets are rare and difficult to acquire. It is the challenge before them, and it might require an “overpay” to achieve.
Priority No. 2: Retain your restricted free agents
The 2025 offseason depth chart above pencils out as a playable lineup only if the team’s restricted free agents are retained. And I believe there is a solid argument to retain each of them at their market prices. Using Evolving Hockey‘s contract model, here is what it could cost to retain Kakko, Evans, Kartye, Meyers, and Fleury:
There’s a good argument the team should put pen to paper on each of these contracts now if it can. Kakko is 24 years old and only one year from unrestricted free agency. I suspect Kakko’s camp would prefer a shorter deal (getting him to unrestricted free agency sooner) or a much longer one (providing more security), so three years would be something of a compromise. Five years may be the ideal term for Seattle. If the contract were to span five seasons, Evolving Hockey projects a $5,598,000 cap hit. Failing that, the three-year term would be a reasonable outcome, locking in peak years without back-end risk.
Evans may still be an ascending player, but he didn’t show enough in our opinion to commit on a long-term deal at this juncture. A shorter bridge deal that leaves him short of unrestricted free agency at contract’s end—like Evolving Hockey‘s predicted two-year deal would—seems ideal to me. In reality, I suspect it may take $3 million-plus to sign Evans, though.
Each of the other deals are solid for the depth they would provide and could be fully (or almost fully) buried in the AHL if the player is out of the NHL mix. The Kartye contract prediction may be a bit more player-friendly, but the compromise could be a two-year deal in the $1 million average annual value range where the first year has a two-way contract split and the second year is a one-way amount.
Priority No. 3: Find a backup goalie
Seattle’s goalie depth chart looks locked in, but Philipp Grubauer’s struggles may dictate a change. Grubauer’s poor play since signing with Seattle is well chronicled, but it bears emphasis in retrospect. His .890 save percentage over the last four years ranks second-worst of the 53 goalies with at least 100 starts in that span. His -43.13 goals saved above expected and -0.30 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes are both the worst in the league among those 53 goaltenders in the last four years. His tenure with Seattle likely reached a breaking point last season when he was waived and sent to Coachella Valley for a few weeks.
A buyout of the last two years of Grubauer’s contract would save the team $3,916,667 against the cap in 2025-26. That said, the move would be less about saving money—since a quality backup would use much of that space—and more about turning the page in the pursuit of a steady backup for starter Joey Daccord. The intent would be to obtain a player who could provide closer to league average production in the short term while Nikke Kokko and Seattle’s other goaltending prospects continue to develop at other levels.
The window for a buyout opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Finals end, but no earlier than June 15, and it closes on June 30 at 5 p.m. ET. So, we will have an answer whether Seattle will be in the goalie market before free agency begins.
Philipp Grubauer (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Priority No. 4: Acquire a top-nine winger
Looking at the team’s depth chart, there is both the need and the room to add another scoring winger or two. Both Andre Burakovsky and Eeli Tolvanen sit in top-nine roles on the current depth chart. Neither are guaranteed to stay there.
Burakovsky has struggled to provide any offensive or defensive value since an injury derailed him midway through the 2022-23 season. He’s a second buyout candidate if cap space becomes necessary for a splash addition. A buyout would create $3,541,667 in cap space for the 2025-26 season.
For his part, Tolvanen could be a piece the team uses in a trade to acquire a frontline player. His production (23 goals last season), contract ($3.475 million cap hit for one season), and age (26) are likely attractive to other clubs. Even if he stays, his skillset (shooting, hitting, and defense) works up and down the lineup. He’d create competitive, upward pressure on those higher in the lineup and valuable injury insurance if he started the season in a “fourth line” role.
Recently, Botterill spoke about the need to add more physicality at the net front: “[B]ringing in players with a little bit more size like a Kakko or a Jani Nyman, I think will certainly help out. [There just needs to be an] emphasis of getting to the net, being stronger in front of the net there from that standpoint.” Ideally, one of the team’s top additions fits that mold. A top-nine winger signing may be the most realistic way to add that presence.
Priority No. 5: Acquire a third-pair defenseman
The Kraken could retain restricted free agent defenseman Fleury, and I believe the organization remains high on Ville Ottavainen, but neither player (nor Ty Nelson) should be penciled into an NHL lineup without veteran competition. Ideally, the Kraken add a player with NHL experience at a low cost who could be serviceable as a No. 6 defenseman alongside Evans if Fleury or Ottavainen can’t seize the role. Pending unrestricted free agent Mahura fits the mold.
Josh Mahura (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Priority No. 6: Sign a fourth-line center
Similarly, the Kraken could retain restricted free agent center Meyers, and the team has already re-signed Hayden. Those players, along with Mitchell Stephens, provide solid depth down the middle. Similar to the depth defenseman need discussed above, a free agent veteran who could win face-offs and play on the penalty kill would improve the mix and ideally win the job.
Priority No.7: Sign a fourth-line winger
The Kraken want to leave open the possibility that a prospect like Jani Nyman (or Berkly Catton, or Ryan Winterton, or Jacob Melanson) seizes a role in the fall. If a prospect forces his way into the lineup, the depth chart could get crowded, but Seattle still may be a forechecking depth winger short. Pending unrestricted free agent Eyssimont is an example of a player who would fit the need.
Bonus: Continue to be opportunistic
Finally, and this likely goes without saying, the Kraken are not talented enough to look past an opportunity for value even if it doesn’t fit the framework above. For example, suppose a finesse winger like Bjorkstrand is available on the cheap or another team wants to overpay to acquire Tolvanen. The Kraken should be in those conversations too.
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What do you think are the team’s offseason areas of need and priorities? Let us know on X @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on BlueSky @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com.
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.
While watching the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and trying to figure out what went wrong for the Seattle Kraken, I noticed something curious. Alternate captain Adam Larsson led the team in plus/minus this past season with a plus-22 rating. That’s not shocking—he’s a mainstay on the top defensive pairing.
What did raise an eyebrow, though, was that his long-time partner, Vince Dunn, finished at minus-3. That’s a 25-point swing between players who spent most of their minutes on the ice together. Adding to the mystery, Brandon Montour—a player many viewed as one of the Kraken’s top contributors—finished dead last on the team at minus-22.
Let’s take a look at how plus/minus is calculated and dig into why the gap between Larsson and Dunn exists.
What is plus/minus?
The plus/minus stat is simple on the surface. A player gets a plus-one when their team scores at even strength or shorthanded while they’re on the ice. They get a minus-one when the opposing team scores under the same conditions.
But not all game situations are equal. Here’s how plus/minus is applied across different scenarios:
Even strength: Includes 5-on-5, 4-on-4, and 3-on-3 play. Players receive a plus for scoring goals and a minus when scored against.
Power play: Players do not earn a plus for scoring on the power play but will receive a minus if the opposing team scores shorthanded.
Penalty kill: Players do not get a minus when scored on while killing a penalty. However, they do get a plus if their team scores shorthanded.
Empty net: Surprisingly, empty-net situations count toward plus/minus as long as both teams are at equal strength in terms of total players (goalies and skaters), and no one is serving a penalty. A player earns a plus for scoring and a minus for allowing a goal, even if a goal is scored into an empty net.
Although plus/minus adjusts for manpower on the ice, it does not account for game context—such as whether a team is trailing and has pulled its goalie.
Larsson vs Dunn: How did the gap grow?
Larsson was one of four Kraken players to appear in all 82 games, joining Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, and Jamie Oleksiak. Dunn missed 20 games due to injury, so we focused this analysis on the 62 games both Larsson and Dunn played.
According to MoneyPuck, Larsson and Dunn spent 928 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together—by far the most-used defensive pairing for the Kraken this season. In comparison, Montour and Oleksiak were paired for 809 minutes over 73 games.
So how did Larsson and Dunn end up with a 25-point difference in plus/minus?
Breaking it down: four key categories
We reviewed shift charts and sorted plus/minus differences into four categories:
Goalie pulled
Special teams
Line changes
Overtime and other
Goalie pulled
The end-of-game, goalie-pulled situation was the biggest factor in creating the disparity between the defensemen. In the below table, “score with extra man” means the team with six skaters on the ice scored.
Larsson, a defense-first player, is trusted to hold leads late in games. He was on the ice for seven Kraken empty-net goals for (plus-7) and only once was scored on in this scenario (Jan. 20 vs. Buffalo), finishing plus-6.
Dunn, a more offensive-minded blueliner, was deployed when the Kraken needed to tie a game. He was on the ice for 13 empty-net goals against (minus-13) but helped the Kraken score three extra-attacker goals—all in a six-day stretch against Vancouver. His net rating in this category was minus-10.
Montour’s minus-22 season was also heavily influenced by pulled-goalie scenarios. He was on the ice for 16 empty-net goals against, including 12 in which he was on the ice at the same time as Dunn. He was involved in three goals for: two extra-attacker goals and one empty-netter, finishing minus-13.
Special teams aftermath
Only shorthanded goals affect plus/minus during power plays or penalty kills. However, we also looked at goals scored immediately after special teams ended, when defensive pairings are often mixed.
Larsson, who plays on the penalty kill, was on the ice for two shorthanded goals for and was also on the ice for seven goals during post-special teams situations—three goals for and four against—resulting in a minus-1. When combined, these situations netted him a plus-1 overall in the special teams category.
Dunn, on the power-play unit, finished minus-5 in this category. He was on for two shorthanded goals against and several goals against during line reconfigurations. This category does not reflect Dunn’s offensive contributions on special teams. He is second all-time in Kraken power-play points with 54—only behind McCann’s 72.
Line changes
In this scenario, goals were scored while Larsson or Dunn were in the process of getting off or on the ice, but the team had not completed a full change. This often occurs due to icing calls—when players are not allowed to change—or when they get stuck in their zone on a long shift.
Larsson was plus-2 in these moments (five goals for, three against while Dunn was off). Dunn was even (five goals for, five against while Larsson was off). This category had a minor impact in terms of net plus/minus, but it still involved 18 total goals scored—far from an insignificant number of events.
Overtime and other
There are limited opportunities to impact plus/minus in overtime, as the Kraken only played 10 overtime games this season, totaling just 36 minutes of OT ice time in games where Larsson and Dunn both played.
Dunn was even, with one goal for and one against—both in overtime. Larsson, who typically does not play much in overtime, was even in OT this season. His lone plus in this category came from a 4-on-4 situation earlier in the year, which is included in the ‘other’ category.
Putting it all together
The chart above shows the 25-point difference in plus/minus. If you strip out empty-net scenarios—which are highly role-dependent—Larsson would finish the season at plus-15, Dunn at plus-10. That paints a more balanced picture of each player’s 5-on-5 performance.
Removing empty-net goals from Montour’s plus/minus improves his rating to minus-7. While still in the negative, that number may reflect the performance of his defensive partners more than his own play. He spent most of the season paired with Oleksiak (minus-2) and Ryker Evans (minus-12), both of whom experienced their own struggles in the defensive zone.
Wrapping up
Plus/minus is not a perfect stat, and this analysis reinforces that. Understanding plus/minus requires context—game situations, deployment, and defensive pairings all play a role. Without that, the stat can give a misleading impression.
Dunn and Larsson—and the Kraken defense as a whole—had an up-and-down season marked by inconsistency. While their performance left room for improvement, there were still strengths to build on. Expect the team’s next head coach to place a strong emphasis on improving the defensive side of the puck.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
When the Seattle Kraken selected WHL phenom Berkly Catton at No. 8 overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, his junior city of Spokane, Wash., erupted with excitement. Fans of their neighbors to the west, the Everett Silvertips, awoke the next morning to learn that their dependable centerman, Julius Miettinen, had also joined the Kraken organization.
As the 2025 NHL Draft approaches—set for June 27–28 in Los Angeles—another Pacific Northwest junior fanbase may get to see one of its local stars stay close to home. Prospects from the Everett Silvertips, Tri-City Americans, and Seattle Thunderbirds project to be selected within the first two rounds.
After some bad luck in the NHL Draft Lottery, the Kraken hold the eighth overall pick once again, but unlike last year—when they chose based on best available talent—organizational need could drive their decision more this time around. And that need appears to be on defense.
To date, all of Seattle’s first-round picks have been forwards. With a clear need on defense, that could finally change. Still, there are enticing offensive talents in the region, any of whom could bolster the Kraken’s long-term attack.
Intriguingly, two of the top defensive prospects expected to be available at No. 8 are junior players who play in the region already. Seattle has heavily favored CHL players in recent drafts, selecting 11 from the OHL and 10 from the WHL. In 2024 alone, they picked four WHL players, including two from the U.S. Division: Catton and Miettinen.
Team scouts were a consistent presence at Silvertips games—especially late in the season while Miettinen was injured—highlighting their close regional monitoring. Selecting regionally is a trend the Kraken have embraced before. So, will they do it again?
Here are some local players that could fit into the team’s long-term plans.
Defense – Jackson Smith – Tri-City Americans
A left-handed offensive threat, Jackson Smith (’07) could be a possible successor to Vince Dunn one day, depending on his development.
At 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, he has the size and skill to be a dynamic two-way defender. That could bode well for Seattle, which needs to bolster the blue-line depth in its prospect pipeline.
With much of the organization’s current D-corps pushing or already past 30 years old, it will soon become time to shift focus to a younger group. Smith’s solid two-way play could make him a well-rounded presence capable of stepping in as the next wave arrives.
Smith finished the season with 11 goals and 43 assists in Tri-City, ranking fourth in team scoring. Sound Of Hockey’s Mid-Season Big Board had Smith ranked eighth—right where the Kraken are set to select.
Left wing – Carter Bear – Everett Silvertips
It’s a shame we didn’t get to see a full draft year from Carter Bear (‘06), because he was electric in the games he did play. He suffered a lacerated Achilles tendon in March, which sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Bear is a shifty, puck-hounding forward from Winnipeg, MB. His high compete level is what stands out. If he fully commits to the wing, he could be an excellent forechecker alongside the likes of Catton or Shane Wright, helping to set up scoring chances for years to come.
“I think I’ve improved a lot this season,” Bear told Sound Of Hockey after a game in January. “I’ve always been a hard worker on the forecheck and backcheck.”
Despite his shortened season, he continued to climb draft boards. He began the season rated a ‘B’ prospect by NHL Central Scouting, which later was upgraded to an ‘A’.
He’s also a player who knows where to be to contribute offensively. Bear had 82 points in 56 games, leading the Silvertips in scoring during the regular season and was named team MVP, despite the protracted season.
So, Bear could be a real option if the Kraken choose to go the forward route again. Even with the injury, he is still considered a prized top-20 talent, though selecting him at No. 8 could be seen as a reach. There’s growing curiosity about whether his recovery will allow him to participate in the World Junior Summer Showcase in July.
Just two months after partially cutting his Achilles tendon, Carter Bear is not only back on the ice, he's progressing so quickly that it appears likely he'll be ready for the World Junior Summer Showcase in July.
Bear will be sitting very high on our final board at EP.
Seattle Thunderbirds defenseman Radim Mrtka (‘07) is a smooth-skating, big-bodied blueliner from Czechia. He’s also a consensus top-20 prospect in this year’s draft.
Standing 6-foot-6, Mrtka brings shades of John Klingberg, using his reach to compensate for the typical mobility issues that come with his height. Still, he’s agile for his size and skilled with the puck.
He posted 35 points in 43 games for a surging T-Birds team this season and could become a long-term presence on any NHL team’s blue line. He also feels like a natural successor one day to Jamie Oleksiak.
Mrtka ranked 15th on SOH’s Midseason Big Board.
Center – Braeden Cootes – Seattle Thunderbirds
While it’s unlikely the Kraken will select Cootes (‘07) at eighth overall, he remains a fascinating prospect who could still be available at No. 38 when Seattle makes its second-round pick.
The most noticeable part of Cootes’ game is his work ethic. He’s a classic ‘first guy into the zone’ forward who excels at applying pressure and creating chaos in the offensive end.
He also plays smart for his tenacity—just 18 penalty minutes in 60 games this season—and is known for some clutch moments in Seattle.
Cootes led the T-Birds with 26 goals and 37 assists, earning team MVP honors, and also served as their captain—the youngest captain in the entire WHL.
SOH’s midseason board ranked him at 24th, and he just had an outstanding U18 World Championship for Team Canada. So a lot of chips would have to fall the right way for the Kraken to end up selecting him.
So will they do it again?
Given their WHL-heavy draft history and the wealth of local talent in this year’s class, Seattle taking another local product is certainly in play. Whether it’s Jackson Smith or Radim Mrtka shoring up the blue line, or Carter Bear adding bite up front, Seattle has strong regional options that align with both need and philosophy.
With four U.S. Division prospects projected in the top 25, the Kraken could once again turn to familiar territory to shape their future—and fans across the Pacific Northwest will be watching closely.
Header by Brian Liesse, courtesy of the Seattle Thunderbirds
With the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the rearview mirror, it’s time for one of my favorite annual traditions: digging into how playoff rosters are constructed and examining the characteristics of the players and teams that are playing for the Stanley Cup.
Player acquisition type
There are several ways to acquire players en route to building a playoff team: drafting and developing, trades, free agency, and even the waiver wire. Let’s take a look at how the 16 teams that made the playoffs this season assembled their rosters.
While the saying goes “build through the draft,” not all playoff teams follow that mantra equally. For example, Colorado, Minnesota, and Vegas relied heavily on trades, while Los Angeles boasts a roster that’s nearly 52 percent homegrown. One of the more interesting items that pops out to me is that the last two Stanley Cup champions, Vegas and Florida, have the lowest percentage of players that they drafted.
It’s also interesting to break down who is scoring goals by acquisition type.
When you take a simplistic approach and look at the average goals scored per game by acquisition type, you can see that players acquired via the draft still produce at a high rate compared to any other acquisition method. In the above chart, the exception is expansion, which is made up of just one player still on the Vegas Golden Knights, William Karlsson. He has three goals in his 10 playoff games so far (0.3 goals per game), which skews expansion into the method of acquisition scoring at the highest rate.
Draft rounds
Draft round distribution offers another lens into how playoff talent is sourced. Unsurprisingly, first-rounders make up a significant chunk of rosters, but value can also be found later.
It’s fascinating to see that 26 percent of Florida’s roster is made up of undrafted players, while only 25 percent of Tampa Bay’s roster consists of first-round draft picks.
Roster age breakdown
Youth and experience both have value in the playoffs. Here’s a look at the average age of each team:
I was surprised to see that the Washington Capitals are the youngest team remaining, while the Edmonton Oilers are the most seasoned. It’s also very interesting to see that the four youngest teams in the Eastern Conference were eliminated in the first round.
Height and weight of playoff rosters
The size of a player isn’t always an important factor in today’s NHL, but it’s still fun to examine the physical profile of each team’s playoff roster. Over the years, we’ve seen this fluctuate across the league, depending on which type of roster has won most recently (i.e., a team built on speed and skill versus a team built on size and physicality).
It’s hard to draw meaningful insights from simply looking at the average height and weight of playoff teams, but it is intriguing that the three tallest teams—Dallas, Vegas, and Washington—are still alive in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the three lightest teams—Colorado, Minnesota, and Montreal—have been eliminated.
The below visual is challenging to read, but it gives you some insight on the distribution of height and weight of the playoff rosters:
Nationalities of players
Another interesting angle to consider is where players were born. Here’s a look at the international makeup of each team’s playoff roster:
As usual, Canadian players have the highest percentage, but there’s plenty of international flavor. Colorado and Toronto have the most American-born players with 39 and 38 percent respectively. Minnesota had the highest percent of Swedish players with 23. Edmonton has the fewest number of American players with two: Trent Frederic and Ty Emberson. Edmonton is also “Canada’s team” with 67 percent of its roster being Canadian.
Cap hit snapshot
Finally, let’s talk some salary cap. The salary cap goes away in the playoffs, but if it were a thing, here’s a look at each team’s playoff roster salary cap, based on average annual values (AAV) of players who have made it into games.
This wraps up our 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs roster breakdown. If there’s another angle or stat you’d like me to dig into, feel free to drop a note in the comments or shoot me a message.
With leagues around the world winding down their seasons, and the 2025 NHL Draft just a month and a half out, we are entering draft rankings season. As is typical, NHL Central Scouting was the first major public service to finalize its 2025 NHL Draft ranking. We’ll be watching closely as the reputable lists continue to roll in because we publish a consensus ranking called the “Big Board.” The Big Board usually drops a week or two before the draft.
In the mean time, with all regular-season data in the books, we have our final “data-only” draft prospect watchlist for you. This year we did a preseason watchlist and a midseason version too, if you want to see what things looked like earlier in the process.
The Data Score watchlist
We organize our watchlist by “Data Score,” a rough metric we came up with here at Sound Of Hockey. Data Score begins with the bedrock of an NHL equivalency (“NHLe”). NHLe is a method to compare the scoring proficiency of players in the various professional and junior leagues across the globe. I used Thibaud Chatel’s model, which is the most up-to-date public research in the area. Check out Chatel’s Substack for an in-depth discussion of NHLe. For this project, I used Chatel’s newest model, which has been updated to account for 2024-25 season data, and applied it to player scoring data from the 2024-25 regular season.
From that basic NHLe, I then make adjustments for age, height, and position, as well as a modest upward adjustment to the NHLe for low-scoring, draft-eligible players playing in high-level professional leagues. I then normalize the resulting output and call it the prospect’s “Data Score.” This number no longer projects NHL scoring but is (hopefully) useful in describing the relative strength of prospects. I’ve gone through the methodology in more detail previously here and here.
Answering a few additional questions up front: First, this is a skater-only list. Second, I use a 15-games-played minimum threshold to be included on the watchlist. Third, scoring from international events (such as the World Junior Championship) is not included. Fourth, data from all levels of club play is included in calculating “Data Score.” However, for simplicity, the watchlist below actually displays the scoring data for only the highest league reached by the player. (For example, Radim Mrtka’s line displays his 10 games in the Czech Extraliga, Czechia’s highest pro league, before coming to North America to play in the WHL for the Seattle Thunderbirds and compiling three goals and 32 assists in 43 games.)
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I don’t consider this a prospect “ranking” in the traditional sense. I am not engaging in the challenging process of subjective prospect-to-prospect comparison here. Instead, I’m simply providing a list based on scoring and other translatable measures to facilitate further analysis or discussion. I suspect this is how the best-run NHL teams use NHLe data or other data-based measures.
Without further ado, here are the top-200 first-time-eligible draft prospects in Data Score:
Here are the top-200 re-draft prospects (prospects that were previously eligible but didn’t get selected) in Data Score:
The full Data Score watchlist is approximately 9000 entries long and will be made available shortly to Sound Of Hockey patrons.
Big picture data takeaways
This draft has solid high-end talent and depth in the forward group playing in the CHL. The Canadian-born class is also solid, generally speaking. It looks relatively weak in most other areas
The very top of the draft is, at best, average. Defenseman Matthew Schaefer and forward Michael Misa are blue chip players, but their data profiles fall short of last year’s top pick, Macklin Celebrini. Indeed, two other players from the 2024 class, Zeev Buium and Zayne Parekh, arguably had better data than anyone here. (To be clear, as a scouting matter, I’d prefer Schaefer to Buium or Parekh.)
The blue line class is also thin at the top. Schaefer is the only blueliner in the top 16 on the watchlist.
The European class is relatively barren, saved only by two Swedish forwards from Djurgårdens IF, Anton Frondell and Victor Eklund, each of whom could go in the top 10. Czechia’s towering defenseman Mrtka may also be drafted in that range, but it wouldn’t be surprising if no other European players get selected in the first round.
Finally, after a strong run, it was a down year from the United States National Team Development Program. At this point, I think it would be an upset if any Program player is drafted in the first round.
Focusing on first-time eligible prospects, the OHL continues to be the top development league. The top four prospects on the watchlist, defenseman Schaefer and forwards Misa, Porter Martone, and Jake O’Brien, all hail from the OHL. The OHL also has 30 of the top 200 first-time-eligible players on the watchlist, more than any other league. The WHL tracks in second with two top players, Ben Kindel and Cole Reschny, checking in at Nos. 5 and 6 on the watchlist, and 29 players overall on the list. The first non-CHL player on the watchlist is NCAA forward James Hagens at No. 7.
Breaking down the first-time eligible prospects by nationality, Canada has the most prospects by far in terms of volume (74 of 200) and total “Data Score” value. The United States trails by a significant margin and is followed by Russia, Sweden, and Finland, in that order.
Prospects notes
As mentioned, one use of the watchlist is to identify players that lack public buzz and notoriety as potentially undervalued targets. A few names stand out at the top. Kindel is No. 5 of the watchlist, despite being ranked 21st among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Likewise, Reschny is No. 6 on the watchlist and No. 25 for NHL Central Scouting. Both players are 5-foot-10 and likely fall into the “size concern” category, but both have been highly active and engaged as junior players (though in slightly different ways). Each could be a nice value for a team in the mid-to-late first round.
Most notable, perhaps, are two BCHL players, Jeremy Loranger and Kale Dach, who check in at 16 and 18 on the watchlist, respectively. Loranger led the BCHL in scoring with 105 points, which was the fifth-most by a BCHL player in the last 15 years. His production puts him among the company of Bradly Nadeau, Tyson Jost, Alex Newhook, and Kent Johnson. Even so, he is barely ranked by most public sources. Size will certainly be an issue for Loranger (5-foot-8), but the data likely warrants at least a flyer pick. If teams are willing to roll the dice on the 5-foot-7 Cameron Schmidt (No. 43 for NHL Central Scouting), they should at least consider Loranger too.
Dach has bit more size (5-foot-11) and a very strong BCHL scoring profile (87 points, second in the BCHL). Even so, he, too, may be significantly undervalued by NHL Central Scouting, which has him as the No. 136 North American skater. The data suggests there may be more there.
What’s next?
Our 2025 NHL Draft coverage is just getting into gear here at Sound Of Hockey. As the draft gets closer, we’re planning to publish the Big Board, a seven-round Seattle Kraken mock draft, and much more. If you need more in the short term, check out our recent first-round mock draft, our post-Lottery analysis of five players who could be available to the Kraken at the No. 8 overall pick, or just drop us a question or comment below. You can also reach us on X @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on BlueSky @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com.
Header photo of Seattle Thunderbirds defenseman Radim Mrtka taken by Brian Liesse, courtesy Seattle Thunderbirds.
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.
The Seattle Kraken’s 2024-25 season ended in much the same way as their prior campaign: another year of watching the playoffs from afar, with their head coach again being shown the door—this time after just one season behind the bench. Now that the dust has settled on Dan Bylsma’s firing and Jason Botterill’s move into the general manager’s seat, speculation about who will succeed Bylsma will surely begin to heat up.
The Kraken are historically tight-lipped about who they are interviewing, but it never hurts to make some educated guesses about which coach could land behind the bench next season.
A chaotic offseason ahead on the coaching carousel
In the coming months, the coaching carousel is going to spin faster and more furiously than we’ve ever seen before. Including the New York Rangers—who already got their next guy in former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan—and the Anaheim Ducks—who opted to accept the PR fallout of putting Joel Quenneville back behind an NHL bench—eight out of 32 teams plan to enter next season with a new head coach at the helm. There’s still a chance more teams could part ways with their respective bench bosses as well.
What this means for the Kraken is that if they’re looking to lure one of the biggest available coaching names out there, they’ll face competition from around the NHL and may have to prove to their preferred candidate why Seattle is the right fit.
The good news on this front is that there’s a case to be made for Seattle as one of the more attractive destinations among the markets seeking new coaches. The organization has a strong prospect pool with young players knocking at the door, salary cap space and draft capital to improve this summer, and an ownership group committed to becoming a sustained winner in the near future.
That said, there are also draws in other cities, including the lore of more traditional markets like Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh—not to mention the chance to coach a budding superstar like Connor Bedard in Chicago.
What the Kraken need in a coach
At the Kraken’s end-of-season presser, in which they officially introduced Jason Botterill as the next general manager of the team, I asked Botterill if he has any criteria in mind for his next coach. Here’s what he said:
“That’s something that we look forward to, just beginning our discussions and getting to know people a little bit better from that standpoint. I think one that’s— there’s going to be a lot of attributes that you certainly come into. I think finding someone who’s a leader down there in the locker room, has a strong voice and is certainly good at communication, but also good at utilizing the resources that this organization has. Whether you talk about R&D, the development staff, information from Coachella Valley, our strength and conditioning staff, there’s a lot of information.
“I think that a head coach [is like the] CEO down there and can certainly utilize that in building his lineup and building his roster, and we want to find someone who’s willing to utilize all that to put the best team forward on the ice for the Kraken.”
That says a lot without saying much, but it does give a glimpse into what may have been lacking in the relationship between Dan Bylsma and the front office and other departments—something Botterill hopes to correct with the team’s next hiring.
Botterill didn’t say this directly, but I have to think there’s also a desire to hire a coach who’s a relatively sure thing to get success out of this team. At this point, we know Bylsma wasn’t a unanimous pick to become the most recent coach, and it had been a long time since he had been a head coach at the NHL level. So something tells me that whoever Seattle lands on this time around will be somebody who has been behind an NHL bench recently and has had success in the league.
The candidates
Friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and senior writer for ESPN.com, Greg Wyshynski, put together a comprehensive list of all the coaching candidates out there. It’s behind the ESPN paywall, but it’s worth a read if you have access. Wyshynski placed the candidates into categories like “The Big Bosses,” which includes Jay Woodcroft and Rick Tocchet; “The Fresh Firings,” including Drew Bannister, Derek Lalonde, Peter Laviolette, John Tortorella, et al.; and “The Well Traveled,” with guys like Bruce Boudreau, Gerard Gallant, and Mike Yeo, among others.
Since Wyshynski wrote that on April 25, there has already been some clarity in the coaching market, with Sullivan heading to the Rangers and Quenneville to the Ducks and David Carle committing long-term to stay at the University of Denver.
I’ve also often wondered if any coaches who reached the playoffs but bowed out quickly could become available—like Jared Bednar or Jon Cooper (Cooper would probably have to leave of his own volition)—but both of their general managers stated definitively that they’ll be back with Colorado and Tampa Bay, respectively, next season. Similarly, I’ve always thought Rod Brind’Amour would fit in Seattle if he were ever to hit the market, but with the Hurricanes getting deeper into the playoffs and his son playing in the organization, Rod the Bod feels highly unlikely to make his way to the Northwest.
Thinking about the list of candidates that Wyshynski put together, I’m whittling my list down to a few specific individuals that I think could end up being in the conversation to become the next coach of the Kraken. This is not based on insider knowledge, and I won’t pick a favorite or anything like that; I’m just connecting dots to figure out who could be a fit.
Rick Tocchet
Lots of folks have assumed Rick Tocchet—who recently excused himself from the dumpster fire up the road in Vancouver—will want to go to one of his former teams from his playing days, like the Philadelphia Flyers or Pittsburgh Penguins.
I’m not totally convinced, though. Those clubs finished last and second-to-last in the Metropolitan Division this season, and while the Flyers have some exciting young talent, they appear far from being competitive again. Meanwhile, the Penguins are heading into several seasons of misery as they phase out their aging core of veterans.
I know the Kraken have missed the playoffs in three of their first four years and were near the bottom of the Pacific Division this year, but I still believe they’re heading toward consistent playoff contention. The potential for an immediate payoff from joining the Kraken feels higher than for other teams seeking coaches.
Tocchet, 61, makes sense for Seattle because he clearly believes in open communication with the players and brings a harder-nosed approach that could push both veterans and rookies. It speaks volumes that although the Canucks are coming off a disappointing year that featured several soap operas, the Vancouver front office very much wanted him back.
There’s also a history between Tocchet and Seattle, and we do believe the front office is interested in hiring him. Remember, Tocchet was expected to be named the team’s first head coach back in 2021, but in the 11th hour, for some unknown reason, the Kraken changed course and went with Dave Hakstol.
Tocchet has a career coaching record of 286-265-87. In two and a half seasons with the Canucks, he went 108-65-27 and won the Pacific Division in 2023-24. That season, Vancouver defeated the Nashville Predators in the first round of the playoffs before being ousted by the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
Jay Woodcroft
Another available coach who appears to be a hot commodity this offseason is Jay Woodcroft, who has a shorter track record than Tocchet but a good one nonetheless.
Woodcroft, 48, has an interesting story. He started his coaching career as Detroit’s video coach back in 2005. He then became an assistant under Todd McLellan in San Jose and followed him to Edmonton two months after both were let go by the Sharks in 2015. His first pro head-coaching gig came with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, in 2018. After a successful stint as interim head coach of the Oilers—he guided them to the Western Conference Finals—he was made the full-time head coach the following season.
The Oilers thrived under Woodcroft in his one full season behind the bench, racking up 109 points in the standings before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Vegas Golden Knights, in the second round of the playoffs.
Things got off to a very rocky start in Edmonton in 2023-24, though, and after a 3-9-1 record dropped the Oilers to the bottom of the Pacific Division standings, Woodcroft was shown the door. Interestingly, the last game he coached that season was against the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena, a game Edmonton won 4-1. Regardless, Woodcroft was fired the next day.
I remember being in his last press conference at CPA, and he seemed to know the firing was coming. He had clearly had enough with Sportsnet columnist Mark Spector and answered all of his questions with one word: “No.”
Woodcroft does appear to be a good fit with Seattle as well, in that he strikes me as a forward-thinking coach. I am curious, though, how he can fare without the luxury of having superstars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Peter Laviolette
Beyond those two fairly obvious names, I have a hard time finding a perfect fit among other available candidates. There’s a big group of coaches who have been fired recently, including veterans like John Tortorella and Peter Laviolette. I could eat my words, but I don’t think I see the Kraken hiring Torts.
I don’t really see them hiring Laviolette either, but they certainly would know what they’re getting in a guy like him. Laviolette has coached nearly 1,600 regular-season games in the NHL and 170 playoff games. He had long stints in Nashville, Carolina, and Philadelphia, then a three-year stay in Washington and two years with each of the New York teams, most recently getting fired by the Rangers after a 39-36-7 season. He won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006 and coached the Flyers and Predators to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010 and 2017, respectively.
Jay Leach
I’m including Jay Leach here because he was a candidate last year and is well regarded by the Kraken organization for the work he did with the blue line as an assistant under former head coach Dave Hakstol.
When Leach did not get the head coaching job last summer, he returned to the Boston Bruins organization, where he had previously been the head coach of their AHL affiliate in Providence.
I think Leach will be a good head coach, but I also still think Seattle is looking for somebody with a proven NHL track record right now. This is why I don’t foresee them hiring Leach or other up-and-comers like Mitch Love (currently an assistant coach for Washington) or Pat Ferschweiler (just won the NCAA championship with Western Michigan).
What do you think, folks? Who will the Kraken hire, and who else do you think they’re considering as candidates to be their next head coach?
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.
