This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll update you on where Seattle Kraken prospects postseason update. In particular, we’ll highlight a couple of young forwards heading to the NCAA Frozen Four.
We’ll also get you up to speed with some shuffling of the Coachella Valley Firebirds roster as the team deals with a spate of injuries. Beyond that, we’ll have our Kraken prospect notes, video, and the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, as always.
If you’re interested in Kraken prospects, you should also check out The Athletic‘s system ranking, which has the Kraken ranked as the seventh-best prospect pool in the league.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column or mailbag, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
The Firebirds navigate injuries, opportunities for others
On April 1, the Coachella Valley Firebirds published an injury update that might have been confused for a prank. Regrettably for the team and players involved, it was anything but.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds PR (@AHLFirebirdsPR) April 2, 2026
If you have been following the team closely, many of these injuries were already known, affecting the roster for much of March. However, the bulk update did bring news of a week-to-week injury for Jagger Firkus. Add in a lower-body ailment suffered by Logan Morrison on Friday, Apr. 3, that the team has designated a week-to-week injury, and you have a club in triage mode.
Over the last couple of weeks, the AHL club has recalled forwards Jackson Berezowski, Justin Janicke, and Landon McCallum from the ECHL Kansas City Mavericks, as well as signed ECHL defenseman Drake Burgin and college free agent defenseman Valtteri Piironen to tryout agreements.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds signed college free agent defenseman Valtreri Piironen to a tryout agreement.
Piironen is a 24 year-old, 6-foot-4, left-shot blueliner who had 7 points in 29 games for Ferris State Univ. this season. He played three ECHL games before joining CV.
On Wednesday, Apr. 1, it seemed like the roster might have hit a breaking point, dropping a 7-0 blowout to the Ontario Reign. Undeterred, though, the team rebounded with a gritty 2-0 win over the Abbotsford Canucks on Friday, Apr. 3.
The team sits fourth in the Pacific Division, which is a solid playoff position. (Author’s note: The Firebirds clinched a playoff spot later Saturday, Apr. 4, after this article was originally posted.) At this point, the team needs to simply survive the final stretch, with the hope of getting Morrison, Firkus, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, and a host of defensemen back for the playoffs.
Kraken prospects advance to the NCAA Frozen Four
Two of Seattle’s three prospects who made the postseason field remain alive, with only four teams remaining.
NCAA Playoffs: Ollie Josephson, F, Univ. of North Dakota
Ollie Josephson missed the regionals with a lower-body injury suffered during the NCHC playoffs, but his teammates picked him up, earning victories over Merrimack College and Quinnipiac University. North Dakota now gets Wisconsin in the Frozen Four semifinal, with puck drop scheduled for 2:00 p.m. PDT on Thursday, Apr. 9. With any luck, Josephson will be out there.
NCAA Playoffs: Clarke Caswell, F, Univ. of Denver
Clarke Caswell and the University of Denver won perhaps the most competitive regional, with victories over Cornell University and Western Michigan University. Caswell was a big part of the story, scoring a goal and adding two assists in the two games. The Pioneers will now square off against the University of Michigan on Thursday, Apr. 9, at 5:30 p.m. PDT, with a trip to the NCAA Championship Game on the line.
Caswell’s performance makes him your Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week. You can check out his shifts from the team’s win over Western Michigan here.
NCAA Playoffs: Zaccharya Wisdom, F, Western Michigan Univ.
Wisdom and the Western Michigan Broncos defeated Minnesota State University before falling to the University of Denver in the regional finals—the team’s second postseason loss to the Pioneers after bowing out of the NCHC tournament against the same squad. It’s a frustrating end to a productive season for Wisdom. He was involved in three of the Broncos’ five goals in the NCAA tournament, scoring a goal and adding two assists.
Check out his shifts from Western Michigan’s last game of the year below.
Checking in on the CHL playoffs
Seattle’s junior players comprise a pool of players who could hypothetically assist the injury-ravaged AHL roster via assignment or tryout agreements. That said, few, if any, of these players figure to be available in the near term, as their junior teams cruise toward first-round playoff series victories.
The Chicoutimi Saguenéens swept the Halifax Mooseheads in the first round of the QMJHL Playoffs. Alexis Bernier was scoreless in the series but characteristically drove a positive goal differential when he was on the ice. He led the team with eight penalty minutes.
QMJHL Playoffs: Will Reynolds, D, Newfoundland Regiment
The Newfoundland Regiment lead their first-round series against the Cape Breton Eagles three games to two. The matchup continues at 10:30 a.m. PDT on Sunday, with Reynolds and his teammates one win away from the second round. Reynolds has four points, all assists, which are tied for the most in the series among Regiment defensemen.
OHL Playoffs: Jake O’Brien, F, Brantford Bulldogs
The Brantford Bulldogs swept their first-round series against the Sudbury Wolves. Kraken prospect Jake O’Brien had a solid series, recording six points, all of which were assists. He led the team in total helpers and was second in points. The Bulldogs await their second-round opponent in the OHL’s Eastern Conference.
OHL Playoffs: Nathan Villeneuve, F, and Jakub Fibigr, D, Windsor Spitfires
Likewise, the Windsor Spitfires swept their first-round series against the Guelph Storm, ending it with an 11-3 exclamation point on Thursday, Apr. 2. Defenseman Jakub Fibigr finished the series with a team-leading six assists and seven total points. Nathan Villeneuve contributed a goal for his only point of the series in his return from injury.
With all of the Western Conference series settled, we know Windsor will host the Flint Firebirds beginning on Friday, April 10, at 4:05 p.m. PT.
WHL Playoffs: Julius Miettinen, F, Everett Silvertips
Miettinen’s Everett Silvertips swept the Portland Winterhawks in the first round of the WHL Playoffs and will now sit idle as they await a second-round opponent. Miettinen led the Silvertips with four goals and seven points and was second on the team with a +7 plus-minus in the series.
WHL Playoffs: Ryden Evers, F, Penticton Vees
Evers and the Penticton Vees swept the Seattle Thunderbirds in the first round and will now await their next opponent, just like the Silvertips. Evers was second on the Vees in the series with four goals and six points.
Blake Fiddler has been out of the lineup since game two of the Edmonton Oil Kings’ series after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Rowan Calvert.
Now, without Fiddler, the Oil Kings are the only team in this update at imminent risk of first-round elimination. The Oil Kings trail their series against the Saskatoon Blades three games to two.
If Edmonton fails to advance, assuming health, Fiddler may be a prime candidate to sign a tryout agreement with the Firebirds. While I have not yet seen any reports linking Fiddler to a school, it strikes me that he could be a candidate to join an NCAA team for the 2026–27 season. With this in mind, I should note my understanding that an AHL tryout agreement would not jeopardize his eligibility. That said, if some risk exists, it could be a reason to avoid this path.
Updating the European leagues playoffs
As in North America, Seattle’s European prospects have found success in the postseason so far.
Liiga Playoffs: Kim Saarinen, G, HPK
Kim Saarinen and HPK trail their best-of-seven, second-round series against Tappara three games to one. Just as in the first round, Saarinen has drawn every start, and he has played reasonably well despite the disappointing team results thus far. He has posted a .910 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average in the series. They’ll look to extend the series on Tuesday, Apr. 7, at 8:30 a.m. PDT.
KHL Playoffs: Semyon Vyazovoi, G, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Semyon Vyazovoi and Salavat Yulaev Ufa prevailed over Yekaterinburg Avto four games to two in the Conference Quarterfinals. Like Saarinen, Vyazovoi drew every start and played well. He posted a .927 save percentage in the series, including a multi-overtime performance in the series clincher. Salavat Yulaev Ufa will begin the conference semifinals on Wednesday, Apr. 8, against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
SHL Playoffs: Zeb Forsfjall, F, Skellefteå AIK
Skellefteå, a top SHL team, won its first-round series against the Malmö RedHawks four games to one. Forsfjall played his typical checking role but also contributed three assists in the series. Check out his shifts from Skellefteå’s Mar. 29 game below.
Notes on three other Kraken prospects
Justin Janicke | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Justin Janicke, a 2021 seventh-round pick, recorded his first AHL point of the season on Sunday, Mar. 29. He has spent the bulk of the year in the ECHL, gradually improving his game.
#SeaKraken 2021 seventh-round pick Justin Janicke (No. 9 in red) had his first AHL point of the season, an assist, in the Firebirds game on Sunday.
Janicke has 15 goals and 19 assists in 56 games for the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL this season.pic.twitter.com/L6lxRhoZBS
Kaden Hammell | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Kaden Hammell was found on the dreaded bulk-injury update, but he has since returned to the lineup as of Friday, Apr. 3. He’s a key piece on the blue line as the team awaits the return of several other injured players, including Ty Nelson, Lukas Dragicevic, and Caden Price.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
As Fibigr looks to extend his OHL playoff run with Windsor as long as possible, he has arranged plans for next season, committing to play collegiate hockey with Ohio State University.
Kraken prospects data update
Lleyton Roed led the Firebirds in goals and points this week.
Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman have played an important role in buoying the Firebirds amidst the injury turmoil in front of them.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3 wins: Jagger Firkus, Jake O’Brien, Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Alessandro Di Iorio
Alessandro Di Iorio is a smooth-skating, two-way Canadian center who earned underage roles with the Canadian U18 team last year. Though Di Iorio is clearly well regarded for his overall game, the gaudy scoring numbers you expect to see from a high-profile junior center have not been there this season. He had just 31 points in 45 OHL games for Sarnia. NHL teams will need to decide whether he projects to provide more offense in the future before investing a top pick in the player. Di Iorio was No. 42 on our mid-season Big Board.
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
When a team goes from being firmly in a playoff position to effectively playing itself out of the conversation, one might expect the mood at a late-season practice—with eight games left, a four-point deficit, and four teams to leapfrog to return to the postseason picture—to be fairly drab. That’s not what we saw Friday, though. From the way Seattle Kraken players were acting on the ice, you’d think they were on a 10-game winning streak with their ticket punched. Players were hooting and hollering, ribbing each other, excessively celebrating goals, and even [gasp] smiling.
Now, this isn’t exactly a new thing. You always hear some chatter on the ice when the team skates together, regardless of the situation, but considering the circumstances the Kraken have put themselves in now, it was nonetheless a surprisingly chipper mood at Kraken Community Iceplex.
In a way, the positive energy of the skate was by design.
“It was important for us to get on the ice as a group,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Reality is what it is, but what is your perception of reality? We’re four points out of the playoffs. Clearly, if we had won seven of our last eight games, and we’re in the exact same position as we are right now, there would be a different mood. But we’d be in the exact same position we are now. So it’s our mental mindset and our perception, and [let’s] move forward. Past is past, and we have an opportunity moving forward here. That’s all we can think about, and that’s all the players were thinking about today… I thought it was a good day for them.”
Forward Jaden Schwartz echoed Lambert’s sentiment. “You don’t want to be so tight where you lose a game, you come in the next day and you’re down. You’ve got to get back up. We’ve got a lot of games in a short amount of days here, so you’ve got to turn the page quickly… be excited, and enjoy the days and the opportunity that we have.”
Players-only meeting
So with how things have spiraled since the Olympic break—the Kraken are 5-11-2 and have fallen from third in the Pacific Division to having the sixth-best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery—just where could this positivity be coming from?
Well, the Kraken players held a brief closed-door, players-only meeting in the dressing room immediately following their miserable 6-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday. That conversation may have sparked some improved perspectives and outlooks when the team returned to practice Friday.
“We’ve got eight games left, and we know where we’re at, so let’s put it all out there,” defenseman Vince Dunn said. “And that’s kind of been the mentality that we’ve had since the break, is to put it all out there. But we’ve really put ourselves in an interesting spot right now with somehow still a chance to make the playoffs.”
**Editor’s note: Dunn put emphasis on “still,” as if to indicate that even he is as shocked as the rest of us that this team has not been mathematically eliminated from contention at this point, considering its extended poor performance. Ok, back to Dunn.
“So keep that at the front of your mind, rather than the back of your mind. Let’s not be like, ‘Oh, we might make the playoffs.’ It’s kind of, ‘Play like we are in the playoffs,’ right? Like, it’s all more of a mentality right now.”
Continuing to dissect what has gone wrong, Dunn confirmed that the players feel what many of us see when watching the Kraken play.
“We just get a little deflated when goals are happening. And this wasn’t discussed in the locker room [Thursday], but I look back on games like the Columbus game, it’s a puck off a foot, and then it’s like bouncing everywhere, and then it goes in the net, and that’s the first goal against. Look at the Edmonton game, it’s a puck… off someone’s head. And then last game, it’s a forward trying his best to block a shot, and it’s off his hip. Those are the first goals you give up in a game, and all the guys are trying to do the right thing. So if you’re that guy, maybe you need to be the teammate beside him and be like, ‘Hey man, you did your best. Let’s go out and maybe try to score one, or let’s go out the next shift and really put some pressure on and not get deflated.’”
Indeed, watching the Kraken play against Utah, you could feel the tying goal coming in the second period. Jacob Melanson appeared to make it 3-1, but it was negated after a successful goalie interference challenge, and from then on, it felt like only a matter of time before Utah flipped the script from what was almost 3-1 Seattle to 2-2—and after that, a matter of time before Utah took the lead and grabbed hold of the game.
We’ve seen this from this club on many occasions over its five years of existence, including earlier this season when the Kraken went 1-9-1 in 11 games between Nov. 23 and Dec. 18 before getting hot and winning eight of their next nine. They seemed to settle the fragility in the stretch before the break, too, rolling with the punches and minimizing the damage of letdowns in games. But now, it’s like if any little thing doesn’t go their way, they collapse.
These conversations being had by the players are great, although they will almost surely end up being too little, too late. Still, it was refreshing to hear that the players are aware of their situation and their shortcomings as a team, that they care, and that they are not giving up.
Jaden Schwartz feeling good after “scary incident”
We chatted with Schwartz for the first time since he was inadvertently kicked in the face by Nick Cousins in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7. Considering how badly that could have gone if that skate swung in just a slightly different direction, fans should be very thankful that Schwartz is back after just three weeks and appears no worse for wear.
Wow. Scary one there.
Eeli Tolvanen laid a huge hit on Nick Cousins, and Cousins' skate came up and clipped Jaden Schwartz in the face.
“I’m feeling better, for sure,” Schwartz said. “It was a tough couple of weeks, but then I kind of turned the corner and was able to start training a little bit, and [I’ve had] a couple games now to get the legs under me. But the head’s feeling pretty good, so still feeling more and more comfortable as we go here.”
Schwartz said he didn’t remember too much about what happened on the play and that he had to watch it the next day to see exactly what had occurred.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Schwartz said. “It was obviously unlucky, but lucky at the same time that something more serious didn’t happen.”
Bobby McMann settling in
Forward Bobby McMann has been a revelation since he was acquired in a last-second, deadline-beating trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 6. Since joining Seattle, he’s racked up eight goals and four assists in 10 games and scored again against the Mammoth to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.
It’s no secret McMann is on an expiring contract, and with the way he’s performed down the stretch, you’d have to think the Kraken will want to keep him around. So, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least find out how McMann is settling in and if he’s so far enjoying his time in the Pacific Northwest, despite all the losing the team has been doing.
“So far, it’s been great,” McMann said. “The guys have been great, the organization’s been great, management’s been helpful and making sure I get everything I need. And not that there’s anything that I’ve really asked for, but they’ve just been making sure that everything is all good with me, with the transition, which is always super helpful, just to know that you have those resources. And then guys have been super helpful trying to help me figure out where to go in the city and figure out where to go eat, stuff like that. That’s all been nice.”
McMann recognized immediately that the Seattle market is quite different from hockey-mad Toronto, where the Maple Leafs are the center of attention all day, every day. And he does seem to appreciate the opportunity to help build a hockey culture in this still relatively new market.
“I think that that’s special, and that’s fun, and that’s been really enjoyable to kind of see and feel the energy of the crowd and feel the energy of this city becoming a new hockey city. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m excited to continue to be a part of that.”
That last part, though… “Continue to be part of that,” you say?
Other odds and ends
Lambert implied some big changes could be coming to the power play in the near future. After the loss Thursday, he mentioned that they can’t keep running the same guys out there—even though they’re mostly veterans that the coaching staff trusts—if they continue to come up empty. He cited the fact that even zone entries, an area that the power play has excelled in throughout much of the season, have dried up.
“[We’ll] change personnel completely and see where that takes us.”
Speaking of changing personnel, Lambert also implied that Eeli Tolvanen, who has been playing on the fourth line most recently with Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and Jacob Melanson, could find himself on a new line Saturday when the Chicago Blackhawks visit Climate Pledge Arena. We would not be surprised to see even more of a shakeup as Seattle looks to find the offense that has been so elusive.
Shane Wright continued to skate in a red jersey Friday, so don’t expect him back in the lineup on Saturday.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
That feels like the end of the Seattle Kraken’s playoff hopes. Optimism around the team’s chances had certainly waned in recent weeks, as the group continued to sputter its way farther out of the picture. But entering Thursday’s game three points out of the last wild card spot with nine games left to play, it was beyond time to start make hay.
The Kraken made no such hay against the Utah Mammoth, frittering away a strong start and a 2-0 lead by allowing Utah to score six unanswered goals and roll to an easy 6-2 win.
“We certainly do find ways to, I guess, beat ourselves at times,” coach Lane Lambert said. “The special teams were poor tonight, the power play wasn’t good, the penalty kill gave up three goals for the first time in, [I don’t know] how long. [We took] two four-minute minor penalties for high sticking. You can’t come through those types of careless plays with your stick.”
While Seattle didn’t deserve to win the game, it also couldn’t catch any breaks, and Joey Daccord had another tough outing—he’s now been under a .900 save percentage in three straight starts and has dropped below that number for the season—and Lambert went out of his way to say he thought the team needed some more saves from him.
Here are Three Takeaways from a (probably season-ending) 6-2 Kraken loss to the Mammoth.
Takeaway 1: Goalie interference call shatters fragile team
One of the many things that has plagued this team since the Olympic break has been its inability to overcome bad breaks. Something goes the other team’s way, and that’s all the Kraken need to shrivel up and fade quietly into the night.
On this particular night, that thing was a negated Jacob Melanson goal in the second period, which completely turned the game on its ear.
Seattle had gotten out of the gates hot, scoring 41 seconds into the first after 1,000-game honoree Adam Larsson fired a puck at Karel Vejmelka, on which Jordan Eberle cleaned up the rebound to make it 1-0.
O, CAPTAIN! 🫡 🚨
Moments after getting honored for 1K games, Adam Larsson gets the primary assist after a tasty dish from Jared McCann. Jordan Eberle cleans up the rebound.
Bobby McMann also scored his eighth goal in 10 games since joining the Kraken at the trade deadline to make it 2-0 at 13:45 of the first, finding a loose puck after a lane drive by Chandler Stephenson and sweeping a backhander past Vejmelka.
But after Logan Cooley cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 16:27, the next goal felt critical.
At 6:11 of the second, Melanson appeared to reestablish a two-goal lead, tipping Ryan Lindgren’s wrist shot out of the air and past Vejmelka. Melanson even had a fantastic “Melly Celly,” aggressively dusting off the ice with his right glove. But the feeling of elation quickly turned into the wind being sucked out of Climate Pledge Arena.
Utah challenged for goalie interference on Melanson, and the overhead replay showed the slightest contact between Melanson’s right skate and Vejmelka’s left pad, with the contact happening in the blue paint. That was enough to overturn the goal.
Melanson scores, but Utah successfully challenges for goalie interference.
Hoo, boy, that's a SOFT goalie interference call. 😓
“Rules are rules, but it’s a tough break, for sure,” Melanson said. “We can’t have excuses like that. It doesn’t count, we’ve got to get right back to it and get another one.”
Four minutes later, Daccord coughed up a juicy rebound to Logan Cooley, who scored his second goal of the game to tie it 2-2 at 10:05.
The Kraken completely collapsed after that—a microcosm of the post-Olympic portion of the season—and it was all Utah for the second half of the game.
Takeaway 2: Horrendous special teams
Seattle’s special teams haven’t been great in these later stages of the season. In fact, the power play has been dreadful—it hasn’t scored a goal since a 5-2 loss at Columbus on March 21—and the Mammoth picked apart the penalty kill in this one for three goals.
“32nd in the league after the break. It’s just not good enough,” Eberle said of the power play. “I mean, we’ve had chances, we can say that. But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to be a catalyst in the game and score goals so that we can have a chance to win hockey games. It’s that simple. We’re not doing that, so that’s on me and that’s on the rest of the power play.”
“Tonight was an off night [for the PK],” Lambert said. “When you’re trying and being forced to kill multiple minutes at a time, it becomes a problem. They’ve got a good power play over there, high-end skill over there, and we know this. So penalty kill has been good [lately]. The power play was really good before the break. The power play has been not good after the break, and we’ve been looking for solutions, and we have to find them. The players themselves have to be better, they have to take accountability of that situation. They are the veteran guys for the most part, we trust them, we keep putting them out, but you can only do that for so long.”
While the power play showed its ineptitude in the game, going 0-for-3, the Kraken also gave Utah six opportunities—twice off four-minute high-sticking penalties on Berkly Catton and Eberle. Cooley and Nick Schmaltz each scored on the power play to help take the game from 2-0 Seattle to 3-2 Utah. Michael Carcone added one of the uglier goals you’ll ever see with a manpower advantage in garbage time.
Takeaway 3: Nail in the coffin (probably)
With the playoff picture looking as bleak as it did entering the game, it felt like this game was going to be the last gasp for Seattle. Win and stay alive to fight another day, lose and watch the rest of the field pull away.
Indeed, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas, and Edmonton all picked up a point or more, and the hill grew to four points with four teams to leap over in eight games. It could still happen if the Kraken win—let’s say seven of their last eight—but the problems are just too plentiful for this very fragile team right now.
What a wasted opportunity this post-Olympic stretch has been.
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.
April is here and the regular season enters its final month. The Seattle Kraken have nine games remaining and sit just three points out of a playoff spot. The vibes around the team have been low since the Olympic break, thanks to Seattle going a dismal 5-10-2 in that stretch. Only the Vancouver Canucks have fared worse in the NHL, going 4-11-2. Coincidentally, two of the Kraken’s five wins came against Vancouver.
At the beginning of the season, few believed the Kraken could contend for a playoff position. Fans told me they just wanted meaningful hockey in March and April. Well, we are here, and they got their wish. The Kraken are in the hunt for a wild-card spot. Watching them lose stings, but a path to the playoffs still exists.
Six-team race
Six teams are realistically chasing the final playoff spot: Nashville, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, San Jose, St. Louis and Seattle. The good news? No team has taken charge. St. Louis and Winnipeg have surged back into the picture, but the race remains wide open.
There is still hope. The Kraken hold the tiebreakers against most teams, with only St. Louis having more regulation wins at 27. Seattle is tied for second with Nashville and Winnipeg at 25 regulation wins but owns the second tiebreaker with 31 total wins. The way games are trending, the playoff cutoff line is tracking toward 86 points.
If the cutoff line ends up at 86 points, that would tie the mark for the lowest point total for a playoff team since the wild-card format debuted in the 2013-14 season. For the seasons shortened by COVID (2019-20 and 2020-2021), the values above reflect projected points over 82 games.
Strength of schedule favors Seattle
Another positive: the Kraken’s remaining strength of schedule. I looked at each team’s points percentage since the Olympic break and averaged their remaining opponents. The Kraken have the second-easiest schedule among the six teams in the hunt.
With the Kraken sitting at 75 points, they need 11 more to reach the projected 86-point cutoff. That means five wins and an overtime loss in nine games. Going 5-3-1 would cut it close, and then they’d likely have to lean on the tiebreakers. Any point total of 86 or more would help, but let’s start with 5-3-1 as a surmountable target. Losses will happen, but for the moment, we will spot the Kraken three losses, so that not every game feels like a must-win (though a 9-0 finish would work too).
Updated tiers
With roughly two weeks left in the regular season, the tiers matter less than they did before. However, here is the April update.
Bolded teams are teams the Kraken play this month. ‘x2’ indicates the Kraken face that team twice. Up and down arrows show teams that moved between tiers.
The Kraken’s remaining nine games all come against Western Conference opponents.
Playoff-bound teams
Minnesota and Colorado, both on the road are the two games the Kraken face in this tier. Minnesota has played .500 hockey since the Olympic break at 7-7-2, making them beatable. Colorado has dominated at 12-6-1 since the break. However, the Kraken face the Avalanche in the regular-season finale. Colorado currently holds an eight-point lead in the Presidents’ Trophy race and have a game in hand. By that final game, the Avalanche may rest their starters, giving the Kraken an edge. It could also be an interesting game because if the Kraken make the playoffs, Colorado is the most likely first-round matchup. Target: two points.
Bubble teams
Seattle will play five games against Utah, Winnipeg, Los Angeles and Vegas twice. Playing Vegas twice means the Kraken could create a four-point swing. Vegas has managed only a 6-10-2 record for a .389 points percentage since the break, which led to the firing of Bruce Cassidy and the hiring of John Tortorella. The Kraken will hope Vegas continues to slide rather than getting a boost from a new-coach bump.
Los Angeles and Winnipeg carry extra weight as the only Kraken games against wild-card hopefuls. Also, Utah holds a five-point cushion but does not want to slip and open another wild-card spot for teams to fight over. Target: seven points.
Tanker teams
Two games remain in this tier: Chicago and Calgary. The Flames have been winning lately, sitting at .500 since the break (8-8-2). Oddly, the Kraken hold a .462 points percentage against tanker teams this season, their worst category. They have played better against the Playoff Bound tier (.533) and Bubble tier (.522). Target: two points, but four would be ideal.
What if the Kraken fall short?
Making the playoffs is the goal, and the Kraken have a slim but realistic path to get there. If they fall short, though, the news is not all bad. Pacific Division point totals this season trail the rest of the league. Anaheim leads the division with 87 points and sits fourth in the Western Conference, yet that total would not earn a playoff spot in the East. Columbus currently holds the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 88 points.
How does that help Seattle? The Kraken sit 26th in the league standings. If the season ended today, they would be in line for the seventh overall pick before the draft lottery. At seventh, the Kraken would have a slim chance at moving up to the first overall pick, but getting any top-10 pick would be a good consolation prize.
The final push
Nine games stand between the Kraken and the end of the regular season. The math is simple: go 5-3-1 or better and the playoffs are within reach.
Before the Olympic break, the Kraken played some of their best hockey of the season. Seattle went 11-6-2 in calendar year 2026 heading into the break, a stretch that vaulted them into the playoff conversation. Since the break, they have slipped. A 5-10-2 record tells the story of a team struggling to recapture its rhythm.
The good news is the Kraken do not need to be perfect; they need to be the team they were before the break. An 11-6-2 pace over nine games translates to roughly a 5-3-1 clip. That gets them to 86 points and in the playoff conversation and maybe their tie-breakers push them over the top.
Now the question is whether they can find that level one more time when it matters most. The path is there. Nine games to take it.
It will not be easy. The Kraken have won just five of their last 17 games, but they have the tiebreakers, the schedule, and a proven stretch of winning hockey to draw from. The opportunity is real.
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.
The Seattle Kraken played a decent game against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday but didn’t take advantage of their opportunities and—as we’ve seen so many times with this team in its five years of existence—made the opposing goalie, in this case Connor Ingram, look like a star.
It wasn’t so much that Ingram was standing on his head; it was just that the 27 shots Seattle took against him never looked all that dangerous. He simply had to be solid, not dazzling, to earn his second shutout of the season.
“We had some, not a lot, but we had some good enough chances to score,” coach Lane Lambert said. “It was a low-scoring game, and we did not convert on our opportunities.”
The Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings were both idle on Tuesday, so Seattle remained two points out of the last wild-card spot. But two more teams—the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets—have crowded their way into the field with two straight wins each. The Sharks are level with the Kraken at 75 points but have played one fewer game, putting them above Seattle in the standings.
Ostensibly, that looks like a *lot* of teams for the Kraken to jump to sneak into the playoffs. With just nine games left, the playoff picture will get murkier for the Kraken every time they lose from here on out.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Oilers.
Takeaway 1: Bad first period dooms Seattle
Typically, if you can hold the high-flying Edmonton Oilers to two goals on 23 shots in a game (Connor McDavid did get on the scoresheet with an empty-netter that made it 3-0 at 17:34 of the third), then you’ve given yourself a chance to win.
Seattle did just that, showing a solid defensive structure and getting another strong game from Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 21 of 23 shots.
But more than half the shots Grubauer faced came in the first period, when the Oilers tilted the ice for much of the frame. A bad break and a costly mistake ended up in Seattle’s net, and those two goals were all the Oilers would need against the Kraken’s ineffective offense.
Edmonton’s first goal came off a point “shot” by Jake Walman that looked like it was sailing well wide of the net, but it hit Max Jones in the shoulder and pinballed in to make it 1-0 at 5:28 of the first.
#SeaKraken fall behind early. Bad break. Jake Walman's shot looked like it was going wide, but it hit Max Jones up around the shoulder and pinballed in.
Then Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn were playing catch at the offensive blue line, and when Larsson tried to return it to Dunn, he clearly didn’t see that Kasperi Kapanen had crept high in the zone, anticipating the pass. Larsson got baited into it, Kapanen stole it and took off on a partial breakaway, and put a perfect shot between Grubauer’s blocker and right pad, just inside the far post. That made it 2-0 at 12:43 of the first.
Uh oh. #SeaKraken don't want to get into a track meet with the Oilers, but if they're going to be in this game, they may have to do that.
Bad D-to-D pass by Adam Larsson leads to a partial breakaway by Kasperi Kapanen.
“Clearly, it wasn’t the start we wanted in terms of, they dump the puck in, it’s going eight feet wide, and it goes in off their back. That’s kind of the way it’s going right now,” Lambert said. “It certainly wasn’t anything necessarily structural, but a fortunate break for them. And we make a mistake at the offensive blue line when we’ve got complete control of the puck, that ends up in the back of the net.”
The Kraken should have been able to overcome those two goals, but the lack of finishing ability on this roster once again reared its ugly head.
Takeaway 2: Better second and third
The Kraken looked much better in the second and third periods, to the point that one could argue they were the better team in those frames. But as mentioned earlier, Ingram simply wasn’t tested the way the Kraken needed to test him. They had solid shot volume the rest of the way—firing 13 pucks at Ingram in the second and eight in the third—but it’s hard to recall many moments where Seattle truly had the middling goalie scrambling.
“A little bit more desperation in our game [in the second period],” Matty Beniers said. “Getting more pucks to the bottom, we had success there. We didn’t do it enough in the first, and we started getting to that, started getting more shots on net, more chaos. And we had our opportunities, we just didn’t put any in.”
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz returns
It was good to see Jaden Schwartz return to the lineup after being inadvertently kicked in the face by Nick Cousins in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7. That injury led to Schwartz being labeled “out indefinitely,” a timetable that can sometimes mean months or even years.
Considering how horrific that injury could have been, Schwartz’s return after about three weeks was a big sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Shane Wright missed the game Tuesday after getting blasted with a high hit by Logan Stanley on Saturday in Buffalo. He did practice on Monday, so I’m guessing his absence will be relatively short-term.
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 back to another edition of Tactics 101. Today, we discuss the cycle.
In the first installment of Tactics 101, we described how the midlane drive can open up space for offensive players during rushes, generating scoring chances. The midlane drive is particularly effective when the offensive team outnumbers the defenders in a rush situation. A midlane drive forces the defense to make difficult coverage tradeoffs and was utilized last Kraken game by Bobby McMann to help create a goal for Chandler Stephenson.
STEVIE DOES IT! 🚨
After Chandler Stephenson forced a turnover at the blue line, the #SeaKraken transitioned quickly.
Kakko – who scored after a great pass by Stephenson last game – returns the favor to Stephenson, who scores under the bar.
While good NHL teams can generate scoring chances frequently off the rush, great NHL teams create extended possession sequences, wearing down opponents over the course of a 60-minute game. One tactic that teams can employ to create and maintain these extended possession sequences is the cycle. While the midlane drive is a rush tactic that forces difficult defensive coverage choices, the cycle is a more patient approach. It places more emphasis on wearing down a team’s defensive structure until a break in coverage results in a high-danger scoring chance.
Defensive-zone coverage
Before we talk about cycling, let’s talk about how teams typically defend. Hockey coaches sometimes demarcate the rink through the dot line. Imagine if you drew a line that connected each of the face-off dots (excluding center ice) throughout the defensive zone, neutral zone, and offensive zone. The area within the dot lines represents the more dangerous parts of the ice.
Players can use the dot line as a reference point to defend against rushes, protecting the inside spaces. In the defensive zone, teams are happy to concede shots from outside the dot line because the expectation is that competent goaltenders should be able to stop those shots.
As the offensive team, constantly shooting from outside the dot line without intention can be tantamount to handing over possession of the puck. The goalie can freeze it for a face-off or the defensemen can recover it to try and start the breakout the other way. As a result, good hockey teams don’t just shoot from anywhere; they want to generate shots from higher-danger scoring areas.
How cycling works
The simplest implementation of the cycle involves the three forwards deep in the offensive zone. The puck carrier, often starting near the goal line, brings the puck up the boards toward the blue line. A defender will try to keep the puck carrier on the boards and force a turnover.
The second offensive forward supports the puck carrier by skating 10 to 15 feet behind the puck carrier, towards the goal line. The third offensive forward is in the slot, trying to position their body for a pass and quality scoring opportunity.
If a pass or lane to the net is unavailable or the puck carrier is being heavily pressured, the puck carrier angles the puck off the boards back toward the second forward, being sure to always keep the puck on the boards (and away from the defender’s stick). The first forward, now free of the puck, loops toward the slot for a possible pass and scoring chance. The forward that previously occupied the slot now skates below the goal line to support the new puck carrier. The process repeats until possession is lost or a quality scoring chance within the dot line is generated.
The cycle in action
One of the problems with illustrating the cycle in action is that it doesn’t often show up in your everyday highlight package.
As it turns out, watching a team own possession for a minute straight with savvy wall play isn’t conducive to Instagram reels or condensed highlight packages. Fortunately, the entirety of the 2010 men’s Olympic hockey tournament has been posted to YouTube. It’s “dated” footage in some sense (featuring a 23-year-old Sidney Crosby and a 24-year-old Alexander Ovechkin), but seeing as we just came off an incredible Olympic tournament featuring some of the best hockey we’ve seen in years, it seems fitting that we use clips from an Olympic tournament to illustrate the effectiveness of the cycle.
Most of the clips we’ll show today will feature the quarterfinal matchup between Canada and Russia, a highly anticipated matchup at the time. For context, Canada had suffered a disastrous 2006 Olympic tournament, finishing a humiliating seventh and being eliminated at the hands of Russia. The 2010 team had also had some early struggles during the tournament and looked disjointed at times. They had struggled to score against Switzerland and lost to the Americans in the round robin, leading to an early quarterfinal match against Russia. The Canadians were in a crucible of pressure as the host nation facing elimination.
Cycle example 1
For our first example, we’ll look at a cycle featuring Jarome Iginla, Eric Staal, and Sidney Crosby. Unfortunately, due to embedding restrictions the @olympicvancouver2010 YouTube channel has placed on their videos, I can’t embed the clip directly into this article, and you will need to click on a link to view it in YouTube instead.
To set the scene, Iginla and Staal initiate the cycle, with Iginla (CAN #12) on the boards and Staal (CAN #21) in a low support position below the goal line. Notice how Iginla shoulder checks multiple times to see if Crosby (CAN #87) is available for a pass in the slot, but the passing lane is well covered by multiple defensive sticks so he patiently sends the puck down low to Staal.
Staal moves up the boards toward the hashmarks, with Crosby rotating below the goal line and Iginla rotating into the slot. Again, the pass to the slot is well covered and instead of forcing the play and turning the puck over, Staal cycles it back low to Crosby.
Crosby sends the puck up to Drew Doughty on the blue line, who makes a nice individual play to buy space and create a jam play at the net. It might not be the exact look the team wanted to create, but as the game continues, Canada sticks to their game plan, leading to better scoring opportunities as you can see in the next example.
Cycle example 2
Extended cycling leads to fatigue from the defense, which can create lapsed assignments.
Here, Corey Perry (CAN #24) finds himself in congested space below the goal line and relieves pressure by finding Dan Boyle (CAN #22) at the blue line. Boyle chooses to send the puck back down low to initiate the cycle.
Moments later, Ryan Getzlaf (CAN #51) finds himself with the puck on his backhand but with limited passing options. Brenden Morrow (CAN #10) is covered at the net front, and Boyle, who has jumped into the play, finds himself covered as well. Getzlaf chooses to cycle the puck, and Morrow, reading the play, skates behind the net to where the puck will go.
Morrow skates the puck up toward the hashmarks, and Perry skates around the net and below the goal line to support Morrow.
Perry misses the rim, but Boyle is able to pinch down low and keep the cycle going. Eventually the puck makes its back to Boyle again in the high slot. On his backhand, he doesn’t have time or space to get a shot off. Instead of forcing the play, he puts the puck down low to re-engage the cycle.
This is where Russia’s coverage breaks down. They’ve been defending for over 40 seconds now and have not managed to get a single stick on the puck. Look how three Russians, including defensemen Ilya Nikulin (RUS #5) and Andrei Markov (RUS #79) have been drawn up high in the zone, leaving center Sergei Zinoviev (RUS #42) as the only player to defend low in the zone. A momentary lapse in defensive coverage by Zinoviev gives Morrow the opening he needs to walk to the net and capitalize with a jam play at the net.
By the first intermission, Canada had outshot Russia 21-12 and led the game 4-1. Post game, Russian goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov said of Canada, “They came out like gorillas out of a cage”. Canada had arrived at this tournament, and they would not be looking back. Canada would continue to employ their cycle game in the second and third period, draining the clock and tiring out the Russians.
When you play an opponent that constantly has the puck in your defensive zone, it’s a long, frustrating game that leaves you little energy to try to put points on the board, no matter how talented you are. Mikko Rantenan succinctly described how it feels to defend all game long after Finland played Canada during their recent Olympic semifinal.
Mikko Rantanen on today’s 3-2 loss to Canada.
“We tried, but when you defend for 25 to 30 seconds in your defensive zone, there's not one guy in the world who can go on offence after that. They were just coming at us. The third period was tighter, but they were still pushing…
The previous examples all featured the cycle being employed primarily low in the zone, beneath the hashmarks. The primary puck carriers were forwards with defensemen typically staying at their positions high in the zone by the blueline.
Nowadays, the game has evolved, with offensive-zone sequences becoming more position-less. Defensemen like Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes are the modern archetypes for puck-moving defensemen, jumping into the play more often, opening up new offensive possibilities. In this last example, we see Red Wings rookie defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka work with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat on a high cycle to score a goal.
Sandin-Pellikka (DET #44) pulls the puck off the wall and initiates the cycle with Patrick Kane (DET #88) before getting lost in coverage.
The Flames defense overcommits to Kane, pursuing him with two defenders, which opens up a hole in their defensive coverage.
Kane cycles to DeBrincat (DET #93), who finds himself with time and space to make a play.
Meanwhile Sandin-Pellikka has gotten lost in coverage, and DeBrincat is able to exploit the lapse to find him for a high-quality scoring chance that he capitalizes on.
Cycling and hockey fundamentals
The cycle is an effective tactic to wear down opponents and keep the clock running. It’s not always pretty hockey, but players who can cycle well exhibit strong hockey fundamentals. They have strong wall skills, know how to use body positioning to protect the puck, and are able to make plays in congested space against organized defenders. They also have good hockey IQ, as they’re able to read where the puck is going to go next.
The next time you watch a hockey game, keep your eye open for how teams leverage the cycle to extend possession and generate scoring opportunities.
