The Seattle Kraken are back at home after an atrocious and concerning road trip in which they went 1-4-0, with the four losses coming consecutively to close out the journey. The players returned to Kraken Community Iceplex on Thursday for practice, staying upbeat, with the dressing room mood remaining quite positive.
A few items of note have popped up over the past few days, so I thought some sort of book for those items of note… a “Notebook” if you will… felt appropriate.
About that Oliver Bjorkstrand healthy scratch…
Head coach Dan Bylsma made headlines and raised eyebrows by scratching Oliver Bjorkstrand from the lineup Tuesday in Colorado. The Kraken’s lone representative at the All-Star Game last season played all 82 games for Seattle last season and missed just one game the year before for the birth of his son. He has scored 20 goals in each of the last two seasons and has five points (3-2=5) in 13 games this season. So, although he hasn’t been racking up huge numbers, he has contributed intermittently.
I hypothesized on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast that perhaps the scratch was more about getting a message through to the team that nobody is immune to being pulled from a game if they don’t perform and that Bjorkstrand was being used more as an example. But after talking to Bylsma about it on Thursday, it sounds like he has been underwhelmed by Bjorkstrand’s play for some time now.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with Oliver over the past six games, and so I think he was quite clear on the expectations and his play,” Bylsma said. “And I think we’re going to have a great response from Oliver because of it.”
It’s also a gutsy move by Bylsma, and a lever that we never saw the previous regime pull. Dave Hakstol would often use the healthy scratch shakeup as a way to try to get the team producing, but he never sat core veteran players; it was always members of the frequently rotating fourth line that would get the pressbox treatment. Now we’ve seen that Bylsma is not afraid to do something like this if he thinks a player is not doing what he needs him to do.
So how did the rest of the team receive that message?
“From the team standpoint, I think if we go with the status quo, then I don’t think we’re going to move to where we think we can get, what we think we can be,” Bylsma said. “And so, I think there was a team message there as well in Oliver not playing in that game.”
The sense I got from the dressing room was that the players understood the move and were not upset about it, but they also will back each other up. They know that they need to execute better to start winning games and avoid having more of these kinds of messages delivered.
You can bank on Bjorkstrand returning to the lineup Friday when Seattle welcomes the high-flying Vegas Golden Knights to Climate Pledge Arena. He was back on a line with Eeli Tolvanen and Shane Wright at practice, and as of the writing of this story, the Kraken are carrying no extras to insert into the lineup after they reassigned John Hayden, Ryan Winterton, and Cale Fleury to Coachella Valley on Wednesday.
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer was mysteriously absent from the skate, with EBUG Michael Henrichsen stepping in. Bylsma said Grubauer had suffered an “unfortunate accident at home,” but it didn’t sound like anything too serious and indicated Grubauer would be back on the ice in the next few days.
Grubauer will not be available to back up on Friday, though, so the Kraken recalled Ales Stezka on an emergency basis.
Vince Dunn progressing
I do not think it is a coincidence that the Kraken’s struggles began when Vince Dunn’s injury forced him right back out of the lineup after he played just four games. This team took a nosedive last season when it traded Alex Wennberg to the New York Rangers at the Trade Deadline, and then Dunn had a season-ending injury soon after. With that in mind, I’m beginning to think this team simply can’t survive without Dunn.
With Vince Dunn’s long-term injury status starting on Oct. 17, he’s technically eligible to return on Nov. 12, when the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town. However, with how the Kraken have handled injuries in the past, I would have expected to see Dunn on the ice by now if he was planning to play in that game. He was not there Thursday, but Bylsma indicated that the aforementioned timeline is still within the realm of possibility.
“He’s not on the ice yet,” Bylsma said. “He’s in a rehab workout phase off the ice, and he’ll be progressing to the ice in a few days… I’ll say in the four-to-seven-day range.”
The Nov. 12 game is only five days away, but even so, Bylsma said Dunn’s return for that game is “not unlikely,” but also hedged that it could take a few more days beyond that Columbus game before we see him in game action.
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.
Coming off a 1-4-0 road trip, we assemble to discuss the state of the Seattle Kraken in a dark hour. What has gone right? What has gone wrong? How did we get here? Where do the Kraken go from here? Can it improve?
We dive into those questions and more in an early season Sound Of Hockey Roundtable Discussion.
Let’s find a positive
Curtis Isacke: Let’s start on a positive one. What has gone right for the Kraken so far this season? Darren, as our resident optimist, why don’t you go first?
Darren Brown: A positive… A positive… Hmm…
Well, I think goaltending has been pretty good in general, so that’s nice, but without goal scoring, it’s fairly moot. So, I’ll go in this direction: it’s still relatively early in the season, and winning streaks can happen in the same way that losing streaks do. There are ups and downs in every campaign, and perhaps Seattle is just in a rut right now that they will break out of in the relative near future.
The fact of the matter is that the 2022-23 team never had a losing streak of greater than three games, and the Kraken just surpassed that with their fourth straight ‘L.’ So, that stings and makes me wonder if this team is actually closer to the 2023-24 team than I originally thought.
Having a rut like this happen at this stage–if this just ends up being a blip on the radar and a relative low point in the season–is better than having it happen later on. The Kraken remain right in the thick of things in the Pacific Division for now, but it is true that they need to start winning some games.
John Barr: I will talk about the goaltending. I’m not prepared to say the goalies have been outstanding, but I think they have been very solid—solid enough to win games. Joey Daccord appears to have established himself as the starter with a .915 save percentage. Philipp Grubauer’s numbers don’t look as strong, but he has still played well. Even in the most recent game against Colorado, where he allowed five goals, they were all quality goals, with three coming on the power play. Sure, you’d like to see him steal a game now and then, but goaltending isn’t the reason they’re losing right now.
Curtis: I agree, John, the goaltending situation looks as stable as it has ever been during the four years of the Kraken. Last year, Daccord had a very strong run of games, but there were questions about the health and productivity of the backups during that time–and about wearing Joey out. Right now I think both goalies are giving the team a chance to win and neither should get overused.
I’ll add to that the play of the young cornerstone centers, Matty Beniers and Shane Wright. The production hasn’t quite been there yet, but they’re both playing fast and with strong, subtle contributions. Wright hasn’t been put in a favorable offensive context recently, but my enthusiasm for him hasn’t dampened. And Beniers looks much more decisive and agile through the neutral zone this year, which has allowed him to weaponize his puck-handling skill with more regularity.
Blaiz Grubic: The Kraken have dominated against weaker opponents, decisively beating Montreal, Philadelphia, and Nashville by a combined score of 21-9. They’ve proven they can score (depending on the night)—and score in bunches. With a relatively easier remaining schedule ahead in November, these offensive surges are something they can build on.
Tough road trip
Curtis: This recent road trip through Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, and Colorado was a tough one, with Seattle taking only the first game against the Canadiens. Is there one factor that stands out as the primary reason Seattle went 1-4-0 on the trip? John, you’re up first this time.
John: I’ll leave the scoring topic for someone else, but I want to point out that the team has often been trailing early in games. When a team is struggling, giving up the first goal can feel devastating, forcing them to play from behind. Colorado’s first goal against the Kraken on Tuesday marked the 10th time this season—leading the league—that the Kraken have allowed the first goal.
Curtis: Again, good point, John. When you add in the manner in which the first goals were scored–late in the period or on relatively low-danger looks–the psychological challenge associated with coming back builds. Which brings me to another point: I don’t think the team has responded particularly well in the immediate wake of getting scored upon. I thought the team was competitive through the first period in Toronto and then gave up a goal with 4.7 seconds left, came out flat to start the second, and gave up a second goal quickly. A similar dynamic played out in Boston–the team really flatlined after giving up the first point shot goal. It’s hard to win if you’re letting a negative shift affect your next.
Darren: I’ll take the bait on scoring. I keep talking about two seasons ago, but this team has not consistently recaptured the offensive magic that it showed in 2022-23. That year, it seemed like a different player or line would step up (almost) every night and get the crucial goal when Seattle needed it.
Of course, it took the 2022-23 group a while to build that confidence, so maybe this current iteration is still getting there. And, to be fair, Seattle currently ranks 21st in the NHL in goals for per game (improved from 29th last season), but that’s still not enough production, and a lot of the goals have also been lumped into a few high-scoring victories.
It was good to see them get a few against Colorado after scoring just one total goal in the previous three games, but they were again chasing throughout, as John pointed out. They need to figure out how to spend more time possessing the puck, and less time chasing other teams around the ice.
Blaiz: Head coach Dan Bylsma often talks about “connected play,” but from the eye test, the Kraken have looked very disconnected in their recent losses. They seem rushed to make passes, with no one nearby to receive them, leading to frequent turnovers. When they do manage to set up in the offensive zone, they keep the puck near the boards and struggle to get it into high-danger scoring areas. According to moneypuck.com, the Kraken are 31st in the league with only 31 high-danger shots; only the Detroit Red Wings have fewer, with 27.
On the power play, while the Kraken have players positioned in the bumper and at the net front, they still rely heavily on getting the puck to the wings for their preferred shot. Shane Wright has consistently been in the bumper spot but has zero high-danger shots on the power play. That’s not due to a lack of shooting, but because the Kraken aren’t getting the puck inside.
What’s gone wrong?
Curtis: Assuming the Kraken have fallen short of your expectations so far, what has gone wrong more generally? Or are things more-or-less what you expected?
I’ll take this one to begin. Of course, the inability to generate quality looks on offense when other teams effectively take away rush chances is glaring. But I want to introduce defense into the conversation. The team’s continued defensive lapses, particularly net front, have been concerning because I don’t see a talent-level explanation for it. I counted at least five instances on the trip where both defensemen (or both defensemen and the center) get caught on one side of the ice in the defensive zone, leaving a backside player unchecked for a chance. These mistakes could be covered by a collapsing winger, but the defensive awareness just isn’t there.
Bob Woods’ defenses in Minnesota succeeded by shrouding the middle and forcing the opponent to stay outside, but this defense feels like it’s always chasing and opening holes for attack.
Likewise, the penalty kill has been bafflingly conservative to the point of stagnation–posing little resistance in the defensive zone as the opponent works to get into its preferred look.
Blaiz: Yes, they have fallen short, but their overall point total isn’t far off the pace for a playoff team, as I’ve been tracking in the Strive for 95 (points) posts. The Kraken’s performance against the top tier (“Playoff Bound”) has been 0-6-1. In seven games against this tier, they’ve managed just 10 goals. The Kraken need to find a way to generate offense against the league’s top teams.
John: It may sound cliché, and you often hear players describing their play this season in similar terms, but the team needs to deliver more consistent 60-minute efforts. Even in losses, there are moments when they seem to be skating well and keeping pace with their opponents, but an early lapse or a period where they come out flat can doom them. We saw this clearly in the season opener against St. Louis: the Kraken dominated for 55 minutes, but the Blues scored three goals in under three minutes during a key lapse.
Darren: I agree with all of you. All of those things have gone wrong.
Playoffs? We talkin’ about playoffs?
Curtis: As of Wednesday morning, MoneyPuck has the Kraken playoff odds at 10.7 percent. Before the Colorado game, HockeyViz had Seattle projected to finish 12th in the West and miss the playoffs, and The Athletic had the team in a longshot bracket to make the playoffs at about a 10 percent chance. Do these numbers jive with your view of the team right now? How do you view the team’s playoff prospects? Or do you reject the idea of playoff odds discussion 14 games into the season?Blaiz, you get this one first.
Blaiz: It’s still too early to make a definitive call after only one month of play. In the Strive for 95 (points) posts, I’ve assigned point percentages for how many they should rack up against each team tier: Playoff Bound = 45 percent, Bubble = 58 percent, and Tankers = 75 percent. Based on this formula, the Kraken are currently on pace for 91 points. In the last 10 full seasons, 91 points has secured a playoff spot 40 percent of the time. November brings an easier schedule: the Kraken will face six Tanker teams, four Bubble teams, and just one Playoff Bound team. With the season’s longest homestand starting Friday, it’s a prime opportunity to turn things around and build some offensive confidence.
Darren: Yeah, I tend to not worry too much about what national rankings say, because they don’t pay attention to the Kraken like we do. I think they’re better than they’ve shown so far, but eventually they do need to start proving it to make anyone–locally or nationally–start believing they can make it. I still think they’re a playoff team, but I’m less certain of that now than I was a week ago.
John: It feels like a long shot—not because public sites have done the math, but because the team hasn’t shown the consistency and effort you’d expect from a playoff team.
Curtis: I came into this question prepared to suggest that Seattle’s season may be on the line in November, but Blaiz, you convinced me it’s true. The Kraken need to make headway in the standings in the upcoming favorable context. As of Nov. 6, Seattle is 13th in the West by points percentage. The Kraken are just four points out of the playoffs, but there are five teams between them and a spot. I’d put the end-of-month benchmark at just two teams between them and the playoffs. If they can get to that position or better, we may yet get a real hockey season.
Reasons to believe there will be improvement
Curtis: Looking for silver linings at this low point, is there something that has you feeling optimistic about the team moving forward? Darren, back to you.
Darren: Well, they were looking pretty good before Vince Dunn went out, and his injury last season also seemed to be when things took a permanently negative turn. In theory, he is eligible to return on Nov. 12, which would give the Kraken back their two-headed offensive defenseman monster of Dunn and Brandon Montour.
BUT… Aside from the Kraken reassigning Cale Fleury, John Hayden, and Ryan Winterton to Coachella Valley on Wednesday (I believe this is just a salary cap move), I haven’t seen any indications that Dunn is preparing to return in six days. Put a pin in that.
Curtis: A couple things. First, the true talent level of this team is better than they are showing right now. It’s not this bad. They “should” be able to defend well, and there is enough skill to get closer to league average on offense if the coaching staff can push the right buttons. Add in the solid goaltending, and this team ought to be competitive most nights. Second, I’ll circle back to the promise of young forwards Beniers and Wright. Based on what I’m seeing right now, I’m confident their production will trend upwards for the balance of the season. If you can add in blue line production from a healthy Dunn to complement the excellent Montour, things could look much better two months from now. The question is, will the team still be in it by then?
Blaiz: I have two reasons for optimism. First, the November schedule should help a lot—playing Columbus, Chicago, Anaheim (twice), and San Jose (twice) gives them a good chance to turn things around. Second, while I don’t like seeing Oliver Bjorkstrand as a healthy scratch, I love the message the coaching staff is sending. It didn’t get them points against the Avalanche, but it sparked their offense to three goals after being shut out in the previous two games, which is something they can build on.
John: Blaiz nailed it. November. Not only are there some favorable matchups ahead, but potentially getting Dunn back should help create more scoring opportunities. Either way, we should know by the end of the month whether this team has any real chance.
After an emotional roller coaster of a day, you’re surely thrilled to read about a fourth straight Seattle Kraken loss and the end of an abysmal road trip. In this one, the Kraken at least found the back of the net a few times, but the end result was the same: a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Once again, the Kraken fell behind early, and were forced to chase the game against the Avalanche. They did get back to level at 1-1 and 2-2, thanks to goals by Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann, but both times, the Avalanche responded and scored the next goal to regain the lead.
Admittedly, I have been quite distracted on this particular game night, but I’ll do my best here.
These are Three Takeaways from a 6-3 Kraken loss to the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: What happened on that offside challenge?
A big turning point in this Kraken-Avalanche matchup came when Mikko Rantanen appeared to give Colorado a 4-2 lead at 9:11 of the second period with a one-time power-play ripper off a Cale Makar pass.
BUT WAIT!
The Kraken challenged for offside for the second game in a row, and a rewind showed that Artturi Lehkonen had entered the zone well before the puck crossed the blue line and landed on his stick. So, the officials announced that the play was, indeed, offside.
BUT WAIT!
Colorado coach Jared Bender called the official over, had a conversation, and suddenly the review continued. The additional review showed that Yanni Gourde’s shot had missed the net, rattled around the glass, and went all the way through the neutral zone to the waiting Lehkonen.
And so, the officials overturned the successful challenge AND THEN ruled that it was, in fact, a good goal, which ALSO meant that the Kraken got a penalty for the failed challenge.
You don’t see that every day. The #SeaKraken had successfully challenged for offside, but then Jared Bednar argued and played an UNO Reverse card. Because it was a Kraken shot that led to the offside, it’s NOT offside.
“The linesmen, I guess, looked at it again after… I don’t know… After they had called it offside,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “They looked at it again, and I think there’s an interpretation of the rule whether we intentionally played the puck back. But we were the last team to touch the puck before [it came] back, and that’s what they ruled.”
The rule reads, If a player legally carries, passes, or plays the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in such defending zone, the offside shall be ignored and play permitted to continue.
Based on the writing of the rule, it doesn’t really matter if it was intentionally played backward. Based on that, they also got the right call in the end, but it was all kind of shady. Did Colorado challenge the challenge?
I’d also like to re-raise issue with the fact that the Kraken got the penalty for the failed challenge after EVEN THE NHL ITSELF was initially fooled into negating the goal. But I digress…
Takeaway #2: An interesting shakeup
Bylsma sent a strong message to his veteran core on Tuesday, benching Oliver Bjorkstrand—Seattle’s only All-Star last season—as a healthy scratch, along with Tye Kartye and Josh Mahura. The Kraken recalled Ryan Winterton earlier in the day, and Bylsma inserted him, along with John Hayden, into a game for the first time this season.
Bylsma indicated after morning skate that the decision to take Bjorkstrand out was a message for the whole group that everyone needs to be better. But it can’t feel good for Bjorkstrand, who has scored 43 goals since joining the Kraken before the 2022-23 season and had previously missed just one game for Seattle.
I concede that I haven’t been closely watching Bjorkstrand’s game lately, but he hasn’t struck me as the central problem for the Kraken. So, he probably wouldn’t have been the guy I would have benched, but it is nonetheless an interesting move by Bylsma and something the previous regime never did (that I can recall), taking a prominent player out of the lineup.
The shakeup also came with changes to the blue line, with Brandon Montour playing the left side for the first time next to Adam Larsson.
The big mixup didn’t work in this game, but doing something like sitting a veteran in the pressbox can have lasting implications, both positive and negative. I’ll be curious to see how things go for Bjorkstrand and other veterans moving forward.
Takeaway #3: What a terrible road trip
Following last Tuesday’s high-flying 8-2 Kraken win over the Canadiens, optimism about this team’s direction was easy to muster. But Seattle came back down from that high with a thud, dropping four straight over the rest of the trip in Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, and finally Colorado.
Now, I’ve said it a couple times that I worried after the 8-2 win that some bad habits may have crept in during that contest, because that tends to happen after a game when the goals come a little too easily. But did I think things would turn this badly? No, I certainly did not.
On what he hopes the team has learned from the trip, Bylsma said: “I hope we get a clear understanding of how we have to play and how we have to compete on an every-night basis to have success. I mean, each game is probably a little bit different lesson, but that should be the overall riding theme. And it’s the time of year to learn the lesson now, not wait for later in the year to try to learn the lesson.”
Indeed, at this stage in the season, Seattle can right the ship and will at some point, but points matter now just as much as they do in March. The Kraken need to find their game quickly, and their don’t seem to be any easy answers.
The players showed their frustrations at the end of this game, which harkened back images of some rather low moments in past seasons. Schwartz got hit with a Larsson shot that stung him and took it out on the Voodoo Ranger IPA ad in front of the Kraken bench.
Jaden Schwartz gets stung by an Adam Larsson shot and breaks his stick over the boards.
Hopefully, there will be no supplemental discipline after that one.
Thankfully, this pitiful road trip is finally over. Now it’s up to Bylsma and the Kraken to turn all this frustration into positive change.
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.
One day after a rough start and an ugly loss in Ottawa, the Seattle Kraken once again appeared unprepared and stumbled to a 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins. For the second straight day, the Kraken failed to register a goal, yet somehow again remained (sort of) in the game until the end despite clearly not having their best.
But both games have been painful to watch, as the Kraken have struggled to generate offense for long stretches.
“The first 20 minutes or so, [we were] just mentally stuck and not finding a play, not making a play,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “And those turnovers resulted in a lot of momentum for Boston in the first period.”
With their third consecutive loss, the Kraken are now officially on a losing streak for the first time this season. Here are Three Takeaways from another brutal-to-watch 2-0 Kraken loss to the Bruins.
Takeaway #1: Can we blame daylight savings?
I wondered if the slow start of the Kraken might have simply been because they forgot to set their clocks back after the end of this year’s daylight saving period. Maybe they thought the game started an hour later than it did? But this couldn’t have been the case, because in theory, with the clocks going back an hour, Seattle should have technically started earlier if the team was confused about what time it was. Right?
Ultimately, I don’t think we can blame the poor first period on this yearly disruption, when we begin being plunged into darkness at 4:00 p.m. We might be able to blame some of it on the back-to-back games with travel, but at the end of the (already very dark) day, Seattle just stunk in that first period.
It was easily the worst first period the team has played this season, and aside from a few opening frames in which opposing teams filled the net, this was one of the worst periods ever from the Kraken.
How bad was it? Seattle didn’t register a single shot on goal until the 17:01 mark of the first period. 17 MINUTES WITH NO SHOTS?!
Bylsma said the Kraken lacked the confidence to “make a play, to execute, in the start of the game.”
Indeed, the Kraken were penned in their zone for much of the period, compounded by the fact that they kept taking penalties, three times in the opening period and five times total during the game. While the Kraken were managing a measly three shots total in the opening 20 minutes, the Bruins pumped 15 toward Joey Daccord, who played very well in this game.
Boston scored twice, once at 3:23 when Justin Brazeau got a piece of a Nikita Zadorov shot that would have been off the net, and again at 9:57 when the Kraken penalty kill overcommitted to David Pastrnak in the middle of the ice and left Charlie Coyle wide open on the far side. Coyle had all day to wait out and dangle around Daccord to make it 2-0.
Oops! #SeaKraken forget about Charlie Coyle, who has all day to dangle around Daccord and make it 2-0 Bruins. PPG.
The Bruins scored a third time in the period, which would have made it 3-0 on a Pavel Zacha deflection, but a challenge for offside showed that Zacha did enter the zone before the puck, negating the marker. That should have been a turning point, but the second period brought more of the same, with the Kraken again getting outshot 15-7 in the middle stanza.
PHEW! 😅
Pavel Zacha scores to make it 3-0, but the #SeaKraken successfully challenge for offside.
It’s nice to run up the score against an opponent, like the Kraken did against the Montreal Canadiens with an 8-2 drubbing on Tuesday. But a concern that comes along with those kinds of wins is that bad habits can creep in because the offense is coming a little too easily. Remember, the Kraken were outshot in that game too and had lower shot quality than the Habs.
Since that game, Seattle’s offense has been nearly nonexistent. It’s like they’re expecting things to still come easily, like they did in that game against Montreal, and that simply has not been the case against Toronto, Ottawa, or Boston—three opponents in which the Kraken have scored ZERO goals at 5-on-5. ONE total goal across three games isn’t going to bring success, no matter how well your goalies are playing.
This lack of offense is a major concern. I’m not even thinking about the panic button yet, but seeing all Seattle players go cold at the same time brings echoes of last season and even the inaugural season. And two shutouts in a row is unprecedented.
One thing to encourage some semblance of hope: while the Kraken deserved to lose this game with 100 percent certainty, they also got a bit unlucky, with multiple posts hit and a few timely saves from Jeremy Swayman to keep Seattle from really ever putting Boston on the ropes. Also, Seattle did tilt the ice for most of the third period and ended up with a semi-respectable 23 shots on goal, so there’s that.
Takeaway #3: Both goalies have been good
Aside from the late push, there is one positive Takeaway from this weekend. While the rest of the team has struggled, both goalies have been solid in these last two games, and both deserved better results against the Senators and Bruins than what they got.
Grubauer allowed a goal that I didn’t think should have counted and one that got double deflected. Daccord allowed the tip-in goal and the power-play goal on which he was completely hung out to dry. Both goalies posted save percentages above .900, and both had positive GSAx numbers, with .41 goals saved above expected for Grubi and 2.49 for Joey.
“Throughout the whole game, but especially in the first period, the opportunities we gave them from turnovers were really good chances for their really good players,” Bylsma said. “A mini-breakaway for [David] Pastrnak, Joey came up big there. But their power play is a real dangerous power play as well, and they had five opportunities tonight.”
Here’s hoping the Kraken can find a way to start giving their netminders run support again, and here’s hoping that this positive goaltending trend will outlast this stretch of dismal stretch of nonexistent offense.
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.
Welcome to Down on the Farm, your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. You know the drill at this point. We’ll feature one Kraken prospect, provide notes on a few more, and then get you statistics for the week that was and the season to date after that. (Our prospect Q&A is coming soon, I promise. A lot of behind the scenes work on other Sound Of Hockey projects this week meant I didn’t get to watch the extra games necessary to address your questions. I will soon!) Let’s dive in.
Featured Kraken prospect: Clarke Caswell
Swift Current Broncos (WHL) | Forward | Age: 18 | 12 games played | 2 goals | 15 assists | 1.42 PPG
Since Clarke Caswell joined the Swift Current Broncos, he has passed every test on the ice. Last season, he led the Broncos with 77 points. This total was 10th-most among WHL players aged 18 or younger. Late in the 2023-24 season, Elite Prospectswas highly complimentary of Caswell’s skill level and intelligence, particularly as a playmaker: “Once he gets the puck, he instantly finds the next play, whether he’s delaying for a lane to open, deceiving opponents, finding the trailer, or hitting the middle driver.” This play led to Caswell’s selection by the Kraken in the fifth round of the 2024 NHL Draft.
With the draft in the rearview mirror and now established as a point-per-game junior player, the 2024-25 season brings two new challenges for the Brandon, Manitoba-born forward. The first is one of leadership after the Broncos named Caswell team captain. Caswell has never been a team captain at any level he has played and is soft-spoken (at least with the media), but he views the captaincy as an opportunity to develop this aspect of his hockey personality.
“One of my goals is to grow my voice a little bit more and take command of the room a little bit more,” Caswell told the Broncos This Week podcast. “My first goal is to lead by example on the ice and off the ice, do the little things right. We [have] a lot of younger guys coming into the room this year. So I want to do my best to welcome [them] to the league and make the best player out of them.”
He stepped into a difficult position right away, as the team was 0-2 when Caswell returned to the team from Seattle Kraken training camp. At the time, he admitted the Broncos were playing “a little bit sloppy,” but his hope was to “calm down” the club and get it back to the win column. If the on-ice results are a referendum on his leadership, Caswell passed, as the Broncos have taken eight of 12 games since his return.
The second challenge ahead is to improve his athleticism and physicality in order to bridge the gap to the next level of hockey competition. He learned a lot about the mentality necessary to succeed at NHL camp. In that same interview, Caswell said he especially looked to “guys like Yanni Gourde and [Brandon] Tanev–some smaller guys that I’d probably say that I’m closer to. It’s great to see their work ethic and how they got there and just their day-to-day lives. I mean, they’re there to do their job and that’s their full-time job. So they take no days off and that’s the biggest thing that I take away from it.”
Caswell has taken those lessons and incorporated them into his routine back in the WHL. When asked about the details that make the difference, Caswell said, “[t]he biggest thing for me is just take care of your body and those little things, being good on nutrition and going into the gym afterwards.”
There is a long development road ahead for the talented Caswell–not dissimilar from the challenges faced by Jagger Firkus and David Goyette at a similar stage. But, in the early going, he has met the challenges in front of him by getting the Broncos back into the win column and averaging 1.42 points per game. This pace puts him among the league leaders, slightly ahead of good childhood friend Berkly Catton as of Nov. 1, 2024–a fact that would surely bring a smile to Caswell’s face.
Alex Bernier, a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, had a stellar week. He posted two goals, two assists, and an eye-popping plus-seven across two junior hockey contests. Bernier is now ninth in on-ice plus-minus and tenth in points among all defensemen in the QMJHL. The former might be expected based on his scouting pedigree, but the latter stat is a welcome development given concerns about his offensive game during Seattle’s development and rookie camps.
Bernier’s strong performance earns him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week. (Admittedly, it’s a tough beat for forward Carson Rehkopf who had a goal and five assists in two OHL games for the Brampton Steelheads.)
Victor Östman
Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL) | Goalie | Age: 24 | 2 games played | 1.51 GAA | 0.923 save %
Victor Östman, who is splitting starts in goal for the ECHL Kansas City Mavericks with veteran Jack LaFontaine, made his second professional appearance this week, and it was a stellar one. He had a shutout at the Allen Americans last Friday on 16 shots against. (For his part, LaFontaine matched the feat on Saturday, posting a second consecutive shutout win for the Mavericks.)
Östman is now 2-0 as a pro with a strong .923 save percentage. He struggled in his senior year at the University of Maine, losing control of the net to Albin Boija late in the regular season. But, as a junior, he was one of the hottest undrafted prospect names in the entire NCAA, posting a .918 save percentage. It’s still early, but it’s possible Östman has recaptured some of that magic in Kansas City.
Barrett Hall
St. Cloud State Univ. (NCAA) | Forward | Age: 20 | 7 games played | 2 goals | 5 assists | 1 PPG
Similar to the previously profiled Justin Janicke, Barrett Hall is an unheralded late-round pick quietly performing in the NCAA ranks in the early going. Now a sophomore with the vaunted St. Cloud State Huskies, Hall is tied for the team lead in scoring with seven points over seven contests. This is nearly double his scoring pace from his freshman year. Hall (No. 15 in White) had a couple of assists since our last update in a game against Augustana University. Thanks in part to Hall’s contributions, the Huskies are 6-1 on the season and second in the NCHC, behind only reigning national champion Denver. Assuming no change to Hall’s NCAA status, the Kraken have his exclusive signing rights until August 2027.
Kraken prospect data
Julius Miettinen had three points in three games over the last seven days, but more notable than that was his play in sticking up for teammate Landon DuPont when Everett’s game against Edmonton got nasty at the end. Miettinen’s a big, hardnosed player who continues to look like a high-floor, complimentary power forward.
Near the end of the game, Landon DuPont took a check from behind into the boards (looked like to the head) from EDM’s Marshall Finnie. Julius Miettinen stepped in to police.
David Goyette’s growing pains continue as he transitions to the professional ranks. He was scratched from both of Coachella Valley’s games over the last week–even after Seattle recalled John Hayden. It’s possible he is dealing with an injury of some sort, but that’s conjecture. Either way, Goyette has ample skill to respond and not only earn a regular role but be a key contributor by the end of the year. These are the challenges young players face. It’s up to Goyette to battle back.
It was a light week for the goalies in the system, with only five starts total. Visa Vedenpää hasn’t played since Oct. 15, and he only played 20 minutes in that game. Again, perhaps he is likely dealing with an injury of some sort.
Overall, Rehkopf continues to pace the skaters in the Seattle Kraken system in both total points and points per game.
Semyon Vyazovoy continues to draw KHL starts and has been performing very well of late. Vyazovoy has consistently succeeded in the Russian ranks, which makes the 2021 sixth-round pick a name to monitor.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Alexis Bernier: 1
Clarke Caswell: 1
Berkly Catton: 1
Previewing the week ahead
Ben MacDonald’s Harvard Crimson join the hockey season when Harvard takes on Dartmouth Friday. With that, every team with a member of the Kraken reserve list is finally underway.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds are looking at four games in six days, after having only five games total over the course of 20 days to begin the season. With two back-to-backs, we may see two starts from top goalie prospect Niklas Kokko.
The week ahead in the WHL brings several matchups of Kraken prospects. On Friday, Lukas Dragicevic and the Prince Albert Raiders host Caswell and the Broncos, and Tyson Jugnauth and the Portland Winterhawks visit Catton and the Spokane Chiefs. (Jugnauth will then play in the Seattle area Saturday, with the Winterhawks playing the Thunderbirds in Kent.) Tuesday of next week, Catton and the Chiefs are visited by the Kelowna Rockets and Caden Price.
On the OHL side, Nathan Villeneuve and the Sudbury Wolves go to Niagara to take on Andrei Loshko and the IceDogs on Sunday.
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.
Sometimes an easy win does not breed ongoing success. After the Seattle Kraken rolled to an 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but wonder how they would handle the elite offensive prowess of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
Lo and behold, Seattle struggled to stop the four-headed monster in Toronto’s forward corps and followed up their drubbing of the Habs with an uninspiring result against the Buds.
Here are Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs.
Takeaway #1: Goals to end the period
At practice on Oct. 23, one day after the Kraken lost 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche, coach Dan Bylsma said he doesn’t worry too much about when goals are scored in a period. Instead, he indicated he doesn’t think there’s much of a difference between goals scored in the first minute or last minute of a period, and that it’s “all part of the 60 minutes.”
However, I’ve always believed that giving up a goal in the last couple minutes of a period can be devastating for a team’s momentum. Having been in a dressing room when my team just gave up an important goal, I’ve seen firsthand the toll it takes on morale. Seattle did it twice that night against Colorado, and they gave up a crusher on Thursday against the Maple Leafs as well.
In this one, Toronto was the better team in the opening frame, but Joey Daccord stood tall for the first 19 minutes, turning aside the first 13 shots he faced. When your netminder does that, and you get to the intermission tied 0-0, you go out for the second period knowing it’s anyone’s game and that you’ve weathered the storm. But when you allow a late goal, it drains your momentum and can easily carry over to the next period.
With nine seconds left in the first on Thursday, the Kraken iced the puck. Chandler Stephenson appeared to win the ensuing draw backward, but Auston Matthews brilliantly jumped around him and snagged it before it could reach another Kraken player. From here, Seattle had a major breakdown in coverage and left Mitch Marner all alone on the far side. Matthews found Marner, who one-touched it to Matthew Knies at the top of the crease, and the result was an easy goal to make it 1-0.
Toronto’s best players were its best players on Thursday, with each member of the “Core Four”—Matthews, Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares—making a mark on the scoresheet. Matthews and Marner helped set up the Knies goal, and Nylander scored two easy-looking goals after great setups, one through a seam by Morgan Rielly, and one all-world pass by Tavares.
The Tavares setup was especially impressive. After getting knocked down in the slot, Tavares somehow knew that Nylander had found a soft spot next to Daccord. His blind pass from a knee went right through Jordan Eberle’s skates and onto Nylander’s stick for his second easy tally of the period.
Of course, this is what good goal scorers do: finding quiet areas on the ice and managing to elude defenses. But when top-end scorers are on the ice, the Kraken defenders must stay glued to the William Nylanders of the world, ready to take their sticks away at a moment’s notice.
That didn’t happen on this night, and the elite offensive skill of the Maple Leafs made the Kraken look disorganized at times. Matthews capped the game off by scoring an empty-netter without even registering a shot on goal, impressively banking it off the sideboards in the neutral zone and into the open cage.
Each of Tavares, Matthews, and Nylander ended the night with two points.
Takeaway #3: A poor night for the power play
The Kraken went 0-for-3 on the power play against the Maple Leafs, which isn’t terrible as long as they’re producing at 5-on-5. However, they weren’t effective at 5-on-5 either. One game after they scored at will against Montreal, they struggled to get enough traffic in front of Joseph Woll to challenge him.
When that happens, Seattle needs its power play to capitalize on its chances. In this game, the power play was ineffective, especially with time ticking down in the second period. At that point, the Kraken were already down 3-0, but a goal there could have put the Maple Leafs on their heels to start the third period, giving Seattle a shot at a comeback.
Instead, Seattle struggled to gain the offensive zone. When they did get the puck into Toronto’s end, they coughed it up almost immediately, and Toronto would get an easy clear.
“Just 30 seconds left on this uneventful power play,” play-by-play announcer John Forslund said, as the time wound down. That pretty much summed it up.
Unsurprisingly, the Kraken registered zero shots on that power play and went into the second intermission with their heads down.
Now, the Kraken face a back-to-back with travel in Ottawa and Boston over the weekend. Here’s hoping the offensive punch we saw Tuesday in Montreal will return against the Senators.
