The point streak lives! While Win Streak David—the second named win streak of the season—officially came to a close at four games, the Seattle Kraken rallied back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period and stole a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. It was the 10th straight game in which the Kraken earned a point (8-0-2), and it kept them in third place in the Pacific Division on a night when every team around them in the standings also earned points.
“It was contested, there’s no question,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We knew it would be. I thought both goaltenders played well. We certainly had our opportunities, they had their opportunities. So it was a pretty good hockey game overall, if you’re up in the stands watching it. I don’t know if I loved it overall, standing behind the bench watching.”
After giving up two goals through traffic in the first period, Philipp Grubauer was once again electric the rest of the way and gave Seattle every chance to complete the comeback. But in the extra frame, the Kraken looked as bad as we’ve seen them look in an overtime period, and Mats Zuccarello ultimately finished a 2-on-1 rush with Kirill Kaprizov to give the Wild the win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken loss to the Wild in overtime.
Takeaway 1: Poor start
Minnesota is an elite team in the NHL, no question about it. But man, the vibes of this game—aside from Pride Night happening, which always brings fun energy—were not good. While the Kraken didn’t give up many Grade A chances, they also couldn’t get much going at the offensive end of the ice, and there were shades of earlier games this season where they’d get the puck on their sticks and just hand it over to the Wild’s pesky and skilled forwards.
“The first period was awful, and our execution was probably the main— biggest part of that,” Vince Dunn said. “It’s just tough when you’re chasing the game a little bit to start the game.”
And chase they did, something that hasn’t happened much for this team of late, as they dropped into a 2-0 hole by the end of the first.
Both goals came off quick-up passes from Minnesota defensemen to start rushes, and both were scored on floating wrist shots from distance that found their way through bodies in front of Grubauer.
Ryan Hartman scored the first after Jamie Oleksiak made a solid defensive play to break up the initial attack. But Hartman got to the loose puck and used Oleksiak as a screen to beat Grubauer and make it 1-0 at 5:00.
This hasn't been a great start for the #SeaKraken.
Ryan Hartman uses Jamie Oleksiak as a screen and floats one past Grubauer.
Brock Faber then scored at 15:54 to make it 2-0 on a controversial goal in which Matt Boldy held Dunn’s stick for a longtime, then laid it to Quinn Hughes, who made a fancy-Dan pass back to Faber.
Matt Boldy holds Vince Dunn's stick for about three seconds, doesn't get called, and Brock Faber scores immediately after.
Dunn and McCann were both giving it to the official after that one.
Dunn cleverly declined to comment on the non-call against Boldy after the game.
While the defensive structure appeared mostly sound, it did not feel like Seattle was going to have the juice to get back in this one against a top opponent.
Takeaway 2: Nice rally
BUT! The Kraken adjusted and dug deep in the second period, slowly tilting things back in their favor for stretches.
“I thought we started to really play with about seven or eight minutes left in the second period, where we started to create some zone time,” Lambert said. “We did a really good job there, and I thought it carried over to the third.”
With momentum shifted in the third, Adam Larsson broke through “The Wall of St. Paul” (Jesper Wallstedt) after Dunn’s shot hit the post and ricocheted all the way out to Larsson at the other point.
THE BIG CAT! 🦁🚨
Vince Dunn hits the post, but it skips all the way out to Adam Larsson, who rips it past his countryman.
Then, with momentum fully shifted, the Kraken earned two consecutive power plays. They came up empty on the first but quickly converted on the second, with Matty Beniers finding a Jared McCann rebound and putting it away.
“Give our guys credit. They did a great job to come back,” Lambert said. “It’s a huge point for us, but again, the disappointment for me is that the game started slow for us, and we can’t do that.”
The Wild regained momentum after Beniers tied it, but Grubauer was stellar down the stretch and got his teammates to the extra frame—where they laid a big, rotten egg.
Just when you think they’re out on this point streak, the Kraken pull you… BACK IN!
Takeaway 3: What was up with that OT?
One thing Seattle typically does a good job with is earning and maintaining puck possession in 3-on-3 overtime. That… uh… did not happen Thursday.
Here is a list of mistakes that occurred in just 2:09 of gameplay during the extra frame:
Chandler Stephenson lost the opening draw.
Stephenson won a puck in the neutral zone but then immediately gave it back to Quinn Hughes.
Vince Dunn gained control in Seattle’s zone but passed it backward to nobody, handing possession back to Minnesota.
Matty Beniers gained full possession and rushed up the ice while his teammates changed. Instead of circling back or dumping the puck all the way back to restart, he tried to force a 1-on-2 and lost the puck.
Beniers almost turned it over again at the defensive blue line, but that created a 3-on-1 opportunity when the Wild got overzealous.
On said 3-on-1, Ryker Evans failed to get a pass through Brock Faber, which created the fatal 2-on-1 the other way, leaving forward Freddy Gaudreau—who astutely pulled up on the 3-on-1, recognizing the Kraken were overcommitted—as the lone player back against Kaprizov and Zuccarello.
Lambert summed up the OT mishaps nicely.
“We started off with a lost face-off, couldn’t get the puck back. They’ve got some dynamic players over there, there’s no question about it. So they had a couple of really good opportunities, but I thought our goaltender was excellent. And then what we’ve been really good at this year in overtime, is possessing the puck and making plays when we get it, and we weren’t good at that tonight. We gave it back to them, we had an opportunity to catch them tired, and we were changing so that we could have had that puck on our stick a long time. And we tried a 1-on-1 move, lost the puck, and then we didn’t execute on a 2-on-1. So that overtime was not one of our better ones, that’s for sure.”
—
One additional note: Kraken captain Jordan Eberle did not play in this game due to an upper-body injury. Lambert had called him a game-time decision at morning skate. After the game, Lambert said, “I’m hoping it’s more of a day-to-day thing. Certainly, that’s a hole and a blow for us to have our captain out. We’ll see where we go from here. We miss him out there.”
Lambert did confirm that Eberle is going on the team’s five-game road trip, which begins Saturday in Carolina.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Seattle Kraken are riding a nine-game point streak, going 8-0-1 in that stretch. On Dec. 19, just before the streak began, Seattle was tied for last in the NHL with 30 points after matching a franchise-worst stretch at 1-9-1. Since then, the Kraken have collected 17 of 18 possible points and now sit third in the Pacific Division.
As fans suffered through Losing Streak Camille and Losing Streak Darren, there were still reasons for optimism. All but two games, both against Edmonton, were one-goal losses once empty-net goals were removed. The Kraken were competitive but consistently finished on the wrong side of the result. Interestingly, by the eye test, Seattle has not played as clean during the current points streak as it did during the losing stretch.
To explore that discrepancy, I compared game-level data from three segments: the current point streak, the losing streaks, and the games prior to Camille and Darren. With the point streak at nine games, the losing stretch at 11, and the pre-Camille segment at 21 games, all comparisons use per-game averages. Data is based on all situations and sourced from MoneyPuck.
Pre-Camille: 21 games from Oct. 9 to Nov. 22
Losing streaks: 11 games from Nov. 23 to Dec. 18
Points streak: nine games from Dec. 20 to Jan. 6
Expected and actual goals
On Nov. 22, just before Losing Streak Camille, the Kraken ranked third-to-last in the NHL in goals scored. With only 2.58 expected goals for per game, Seattle relied heavily on defensive structure and low-event games.
Several trends stand out in the data. During the pre-Camille stretch, expected and actual goals for and against tracked closely. As Seattle pushed for more offense during the losing streak, expected goals for increased by 16.9 percent. The results did not follow. Actual scoring fell to two goals per game, while expected goals against jumped 27.4 percent to 2.91.
That trend reversed during the turnaround. Expected goals for climbed again to 3.16, but the finishing finally arrived. Over the past nine games, the Kraken have averaged 3.89 goals per game while allowing just 1.89.
There are also red flags. During the point streak, expected goals against sit at 3.69 per game. Across the season to date, a 3.69 xGA would rank last in the NHL. Vancouver currently holds that honor at 3.52. As the eye test suggested, Seattle often posted higher expected goals for than expected goals against during the losing streaks, but the scoring support was not there.
Goaltending
For this section, the focus is on team-level goaltending rather than individual performances. Team save percentage shows a strong relationship with goal support, particularly when Seattle scores first.
Pre-Camille: 13 of 21 games with the first goal, 61.9 percent
Losing streaks: three of 11 games, 27.3 percent
Point streak: eight of nine games, 88.9 percent
Goaltending has been a major strength during the point streak, after dipping below .900 during the losing stretch.
Playing with the lead also continues to set this team up for success. Seattle has scored first in 24 of 41 games this season.
Despite expected goals against reaching their highest point of the season, the goaltenders have delivered. Over the last nine games, the Kraken have posted 16.2 goals saved above expected. Across the rest of the season, including pre-Camille and the losing streaks, they sit nearly even at minus 0.4.
Shots
Before the losing streak, Seattle generated only 24.4 shots on goal per game. If that pace held through Jan. 6, the Kraken would rank last in the NHL. During that stretch, there was a clear shift toward urgency and putting more pucks on net.
Shots on goal increased from 24.4 to 28.3 per game, a 16 percent jump that closely mirrors the 16.9 percent increase in expected goals for. Shot attempts rose even more sharply, up 19.5 percent.
That increase came with tradeoffs. Missed shots rose 23.1 percent and blocked shots climbed 21.9 percent. Both exceeded the growth in overall shot attempts, meaning a larger share of shots failed to reach the net.
The point streak tells a different story. Shot attempts are at their lowest point of the season, driven in part by Seattle frequently playing with the lead.
During the point streak, the Kraken have trailed for just 3.1 percent of total game time, or 17:03.
Even with fewer shot attempts, shot quality and efficiency have improved. Missed shots are down 39.5 percent and blocked shots are down 33.1 percent. Shots on goal have dipped by only one per game, to 27.3, and remain 11.9 percent higher than during the pre-Camille stretch.
Kraken can’t rest on their laurels
The Kraken continue to benefit from the current point streak, but there is little margin for complacency. Offensive progress is real, and goaltending has been the anchor. The balance between offense and defensive structure remains a constant tug-of-war. Limiting high-danger chances and bringing expected goals against back down should be a priority as Seattle looks to sustain its scoring gains.
The Kraken will look to extend their point streak to 10 games Thursday against the Minnesota Wild at Climate Pledge Arena. The Wild are coming off two losses to the Los Angeles Kings (one regulation and one shootout loss).
Feel free to leave any comments or questions below, and Go Kraken.
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.
As the PWHL season marches on, now almost a third of the way through the season, it’s becoming clear that the vibe of the Seattle Torrent fandom is fun and whimsical. Yes, the fans enjoy high quality hockey and will cheer on the team no matter what, but they are too busy exchanging trinkets during intermissions and kissing anytime they get on the twins to be taking things too seriously. I love it, hockey is a game, after all.
International Updates
USA Hockey announced their Olympic roster, and four Torrent players made the cut: Hilary Knight, who will be headed to her fifth Games, Alex Carpenter, Cayla Barnes, and Hannah Bilka who will be making her Olympic debut. Seattle has the second-most US Olympians on their roster; only Minnesota has more. Aneta Tejralová, as expected, was named to the Czechia Olympic roster. Canada’s roster announcement is expected on January 9.
Goalie Gear (and more) Corner
Murphy’s mask has big Seattle landmark energy. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
During the last few weeks, we got to know a few of the Torrent goalies a little better.
Rookie Hannah Murphy admitted to having chills when she stood in goal and heard the crowd chant her name for the first time. Her roommate, Jenna Buglioni, who also roomed with goalies in college, shared that all goalies are weird but “[Murphy] is the least weird one.”
CJ Jackson spoke to us about their new Torrent mask. They said their vision for their gear was a minimalist pad setup, with the mask as the centerpiece. Being a fantasy fan (the Throne of Glass series is a favorite) CJ turned again to a knight-themed mask, but with a sparkly, grungy, Seattle twist. They love what knights symbolize, the idea of people who commit their lives to something greater than themselves.
The backplate is their all-time favorite, and got a little emotional when speaking about it. The art is based on a photo from their hometown of their dad’s rowboat. The boat was named after the family’s childhood cat, Maggie, and that’s what was on the initial design. But CJ’s cat Fiona passed away right before they moved to Seattle, so they decided to change the name—last minute— in her memory. The art reminds them of all the people who have loved them along their journey. In all a cool mask, but a great story behind it.
Notes and Notions
After Saturday’s game against Toronto, Alex Carpenter became the third player ever—and the first American—to reach 50 points in the PWHL.
Injury Update: Prior to the Montréal game, Coach Steve O’Rourke confirmed rookie center Jenna Buglioni, who went down the tunnel during the previous game, is on concussion protocol and is day-to-day.
Suspension Update: Defender Aneta Tejralová was suspended for two games after her game misconduct penalty against New York was reviewed by the player safety committee. She will be eligible to return for the Jan. 11 game at Minnesota.
Game Recaps
12.23 vs. Victoire @ Home
First off, the winner of the (unofficial) walk-in ugly sweater contest was undoubtedly Corrine Schroeder.
Montréal came into the game hot, on a four game winning streak and perched at second in the league standings.
Period 1
The Torrent started the game at higher execution and performance level than previous games, with a concerted effort to send more pucks to the net. Even so, the game started out pretty evenly matched. The Victoire had more time in their offensive zone, but the Torrent had more shots on goal. With one minute left in the period, Montréal’s star first line connected on a pretty passing play, Poulin to Stacey to Roque, and Roque finished past Murphy to put them up 1-0 in the first.
Period 2
The Torrent even the score early in the second period. On a 2-on-1 Alex Carpenter put away a rebound off a shot from Julia Gosling. The Torrent then had some good shots and possession on a delayed penalty, but the resulting power play was lackluster. Megan Carter got called for roughing with five minutes left, and Hannah Murphy came up with some big saves. The rest of the period saw the momentum shift towards the Victoire, and the Torrent had trouble getting the puck out of their end.
Period 3
Three minutes in, the Torrent made good on another delayed penalty situation, and a Julia Gosling one-timer from Hilary Knight put the Torrent up 2-1. There were good chances at both ends, but more chances for Montréal, as they finished the period putting up 15 shots on goal to the Torrents paltry three. Murphy shut the door, though, and preserved the win, even when a second Carter penalty and a pulled goalie led to a 6-on-4 in the dying minutes of the game.
12/28 vs. Sirens in Dallas, Texas
The Torrent fell 4-3 to New York in their first Takeover Tour game in Dallas to a crowd of 8,514.
Dallas is the furthest south the PWHL has ever played, and the game featured the league’s only two Texans: Seattle’s Hannah Bilka, and New York’s Allyson Simpson. The pair dropped the puck at the Dallas Stars game the night before.
This game marked the start of the team’s first real road trip, playing four games over 16 days. Their only other away game this year was the season opener in Vancouver.
New York’s win snapped a four-game losing streak (which started these teams last faced off in Seattle).
Alex Carpenter surpassed 100 faceoff wins this game, the first to reach that milestone in the PWHL this season.
The Torrent starting lineup on the ice at the American Airlines Center. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
Period 1
The Torrent started with some good pressure, and both teams took early penalties. Danielle Serdachny scored her first of the season on a chance she created purely with speed. Hannah Murphy notched her first point on the goal.
Aneta Tejralová took down Sirens star Sarah Fillier with a check to the head and received a well-deserved game misconduct. The Torrent then had to kill a five minute major for the first time, and Murphy came up with some clutch saves. With a minute and a half left in the first, New York rookie Casey O’Brien scored her first professional goal. One minute later, Grant-Mentis crashed the net and put away her first goal with the Torrent. New York had 21 shots to Seattle’s 11 in the first frame, but Seattle held a 2-1 lead.
Period 2
The second period was more sedate. A Carpenter slashing penalty led to a second O’Brien goal. The end of the period had chances back and forth, but New York seemed to have most of the momentum. The teams ended the second tied 2-2.
Period 3
A Lexie Adzija goal came early off some great work behind the goal by Grant-Mentis. The momentum never fully shifted, and Maddi Wheeler scored coming out of the penalty box for New York. A Serdachny hooking penalty led to another O’Brien goal, giving her a hat-trick in the same game she scored her first career goal (You don’t see that every day). The Torrent had some good possession with the goalie pulled, but nothing came of it. Murphy made some good saves throughout, but this was the first game where there were a couple she would probably like back.
1.3 vs. Sceptres in Hamilton, Ontario
The Torrent notched their first road win, but took only two standings points in a 3-2 shootout victory against the Sceptres.
This was the Torrent’s second straight Takeover Tour game and the first-ever PWHL game in Hamilton. The game was definitely less of a neutral site than other Takeover Tour games, as Hamilton is about an hour and a half drive from Toronto proper.
The game was the first hockey game played at TD Coliseum after large scale renovations, and boasted over 16,000 fans. Although the quality of the ice seemed sub-par, there was a takeover tour logo at center ice!
With this game, Seattle is no longer a newcomer and has officially played against all the other PWHL teams.
Cayla Barnes battling hard against the Sceptres. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
Period 1
Out of the gate the Adzija—Snodgrass—Grant-Mentis line was forechecking well and playing heavy on the puck. Five minutes in, Grant-Mentis backhanded the puck to Adzija, who kept at it until horn sounded for her second goal in two games. Seattle did a great job of breaking up Toronto’s zone entries through the period and dominated overall, out-shooting Toronto 14 to 6.
Period 2
The second period started shakily though. A loose puck in the neutral zone led to a Natalie Spooner goal to tie the game. Schroeder came up big with some highlight-reel saves to keep the Sceptres at one for the period. This game was the first time I really noticed how much more involved the goalies in the PWHL are without the “trapezoid rule”, and Toronto’s Raygan Kirk stood out as noticeably mobile.
Period 3
The Torrent dominated possession to start the third, and had a lot of good, dangerous chances. Daryl Watts got a goal against the run of play to put Toronto ahead 2-1. The Torrent turned the pressure up again, until Alex Carpenter put away a deflection with ice in her veins to tie it up with four minutes left and send the game to overtime.
Overtime & Shootout
Seattle defended well in OT and had some quality possession, outshooting Toronto 4-0, despite an initial struggle to get the puck out of their zone.
Hannah Bilka scored on the first shootout attempt in Torrent history, and Anna Wilgren showed off some sick hands to get Seattle’s second goal of the shootout. Corrine Schroeder stopped all of the Sceptres attempts, to record her first win with the Torrent.
Up Next
The Torrent play away again on Wednesday at 4:00 PST against the top of the table Boston Fleet.
…And in his 28th NHL game, Berkly Catton was officially off the schneid. The 19-year-old rookie connected with his teammates for his first and second career goals on Tuesday, helping the Seattle Kraken to a head-spinning 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins.
The victory extended Seattle’s win streak to four games (the win streak is hereby named Win Streak David, per the National Win Streak Service, named after David Pastrnak) and their point streak to nine games, improving to 8-0-1 over that stretch. It also meant they swept their third back-to-back in their four recent tries, picking up an almost unfathomable 15 of 16 possible points in those pairs of games.
The two teams ahead of the Kraken in the standings, Edmonton and Vegas, both won Tuesday. So, Seattle didn’t leapfrog into first place as they could have if those other teams lost, but they did hold serve and also gained two points of breathing room on fourth-place Los Angeles. It was a big win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 7-4 Kraken win over the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Catton’s big night
For as good as Catton has been in his first NHL season, you just knew it was eating him up that he hadn’t put the puck in the net yet. After scoring a combined 92 goals in 125 games over his last two seasons in the WHL, and considering he’s been playing on good lines with good players throughout the season, it was shocking that he hadn’t even gotten a fluky one to go in.
That is, of course, until the dam finally broke for Catton on Tuesday.
At 2:48 of the second period, with a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann fed Catton in the right circle off a rush. From a sharp angle, Catton let it rip. The puck pinballed off the inside of Jeremy Swayman’s blocker and in. Jubilation and relief swept across the young winger’s face as he celebrated with McCann, who Catton later referred to as a “mentor.”
BERKLYYYYYYYYYYY! 🐱 🚨
Berkly Catton FINALLY does it! With a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann sets him up, and he rips it through Swayman.
Gotta love that smile! 1st career goal at long last.
“A lot of weight off the shoulders for sure,” Catton said. “I dreamed of that for a long time, so that was awesome… I kind of just blacked out there. I don’t even know where it went in, to be honest.”
“It’s the best,” McCann said. “I said ‘finally’ [when I celebrated with him]. He’s been working really hard, and we were due. Just keep plugging away. I’m really happy for him.”
Once he got the monkey off his back, what did Catton do? Score his second one, of course.
With the game seemingly out of reach for Boston—although it did get a hair close for comfort in the end—at 5-2, Catton came out with the second power-play unit. He made a ridiculous play to pass to Freddy Gaudreau at the blue line and then slice his way through four defenders, suddenly getting behind all of them at once. Gaudreau threaded a beautiful pass back to him, and Catton deked to his backhand and banked it off the post and in to make it 6-2.
“I figured maybe if I get one, they would start to come a little bit more,” Catton said. “So, that one felt good too… Great pass by Freddy. He kind of gave me a breakaway, and I just got it up, and it went in.”
Coach Lane Lambert also had some nice words about Catton when I asked him what it meant to see his young rookie break through.
“I thought it was awesome,” Lambert said. “I’ve said a few times… that once he scores, I think he’ll score a few. Obviously, he scored another one tonight as well, beautiful goal, by the way, and it’s huge. He’s a well-liked teammate, he works, he’s learning, he’s growing. And I’ve said it many, many times, I love the way he wants the puck.”
Takeaway 2: Critical power-play goal
Something that could get lost in the shuffle of everything that happened in this game is that it was anybody’s contest, tied 2-2, until the final two minutes of the second period. At that point, Jordan Eberle had scored on a 5-on-3, Catton had gotten his first, and Pastrnak had scored two bangers.
Wow, what a goal by David Pastrnak!
Tempers then flare after Ryker Evans throws him into the end boards.
The fourth line, which was altered for this game (more on that in the Bonus Takeaway), connected yet again when Tye Kartye found Ben Meyers for a bang-bang goal at 18:23 of the second to make it 3-2.
Then, with the clock winding down, McCann scored a critical buzzer-beater that I believe was the most important goal of the contest. With seven seconds left, McCann whistled a one-timer off the glass that nearly went all the way out of the offensive zone. But Vince Dunn saved it at the blue line and fed McCann again higher in the zone. This time, McCann’s shot was perfectly placed, and it appeared to beat the horn, even though the green end-of-period light had come on behind Swayman, not the red goal light.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨
It's a power-play goal with 0.5 seconds left on the clock! The green light came on, but the puck was already in. #SeaKraken take a 4-2 lead to the dressing room after 2 periods. pic.twitter.com/M7sdTUeOLw
Review showed that the puck crossed the line with 0.5 seconds left—a massive break for the Kraken that sent them to the room with a two-goal cushion.
“I saw the [green] light on, so I didn’t know if I got it in in time,” McCann said. “So I looked at the bench, and everybody’s like, kind of looking at me dumbfounded, and I don’t think they did, really, either. So, yeah, luckily it went in [in time].”
In the third, Seattle ran up the score enough that the Bruins’ late push was—albeit slightly scary—ultimately too little and too late.
Takeaway 3: The Kraken are a scoring machine
The Kraken have been dumped on by many throughout this season for being one of the lower-scoring teams in the NHL, but if those naysayers watched only these last two games, they would think Seattle is an elite offensive club. In just over 24 hours, the Kraken racked up 12 goals in two contests after potting five in Calgary on Monday and then seven against Boston on Tuesday—the most they’ve scored in a game this season.
“Pucks are going in for us,” Lambert said. “I mean, we had some opportunities in those games when we were low scoring where we maybe couldn’t quite find the back of the net. But things are going in right now. Sometimes it has a way of ebbs and flows of the season, that kind of thing.”
Added McCann: “It was kind of a run-and-gun type of game tonight, not something we’re used to kind of playing. We showed that we could score goals, but we know we can be a bit better defensively.”
It was a nice stat-padding night for a lot of players, with Kaapo Kakko getting two goals and an assist, Catton scoring twice, McCann posting a goal and an assist, and Vince Dunn and Matty Beniers each recording two assists.
I do want to ring a very small alarm bell, though, related to that last comment from McCann. Sometimes when a defense-first team suddenly has a big offensive outburst, it can lead to bad habits and cracks in structure. The Kraken have gotten to this point by playing “the right way,” so look for them to get back to that against an outstanding Minnesota Wild team on Thursday.
Bonus Takeaway: Kartye returns, fourth line changed
Eeli Tolvanen was a late scratch due to illness, replaced in the lineup by Kartye, who had been a healthy scratch for three games. Considering how well the trio of Ryan Winterton, Meyers, and Jacob Melanson had been clicking, I was surprised—and frankly didn’t like—that Lambert chose to move Winterton up the lineup instead of keeping that line together and slotting Kartye into Tolvanen’s spot.
But to Lambert’s credit, the fourth line once again came through, and it was Kartye who picked up the assist on the goal.
“I liked Tye tonight,” Lambert said. “The hard decision [to scratch Kartye] came [a week] ago. I thought he played really well in Anaheim, I thought he played well in LA, and then we had some numbers, so he came out of the lineup. It wasn’t like he was playing poorly. And him and Meyers and Melanson were playing well in those games too, so I put that line back together. I just thought Winterton was a better fit to go up there with [Chandler] Stephenson and playing sort of a top-six role that plays against the Pastrnak line.”
Lambert could have even tougher decisions coming soon, if Tolvanen comes back next game and Jaden Schwartz is also ready to go.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Seattle Kraken’s win against the Flames on Monday marked the 40th game of the season and therefore brings another installment of 10 for 10, where I go through 10 stats that add context and color to the Kraken’s season to date and how things are trending.
These last 10 games have been the Kraken’s best stretch of the season, which is a far cry from the doom‑and‑gloom 10‑for‑10 piece I wrote after Games 21 through 30 in the middle of December. This stretch began with a disappointing regulation loss, albeit a valiant effort, against the Colorado Avalanche back on Dec. 16.
Let’s get into it.
Data point 1: Grabbing points in the division
The Kraken’s ascension back into the playoff picture wasn’t just the result of improved play; it was also well timed with stumbles from the teams they were chasing. On Dec. 15, at the 30‑game mark, the Kraken sat sixth in the Pacific Division. Today, they’re third and just one point behind the first‑place Vegas Golden Knights.
During this 10‑game stretch, the Kraken earned five regulation wins against division opponents, and with Monday’s win over Calgary, they have now defeated every Pacific Division team at least once. No other Pacific team has managed that so far this season.
Despite the recent run, the division remains extremely tight, with just three points separating first and sixth place.
Data point 2: Second game of a back‑to‑back
The Kraken went 0‑12‑0 on the second night of back‑to‑backs last season. Zero points. Not even an overtime loss. Lane Lambert mentioned this in his initial press availability and emphatically stated it would improve.
Over the last 10 games, the Kraken had three back‑to‑backs and delivered five out of a possible six points in the second game of those sets.
Data point 3: Penalty kill improvement
In Games 21–30, the penalty kill stood out like a sore thumb and plagued the team throughout that stretch. They made some tweaks, and over the last 10 games, the results have dramatically improved.
Data point 4: Scoring first
I’ve mentioned the importance of scoring first several times this season. The Kraken are 15‑5‑3 when scoring first compared to 4‑9‑4 when allowing the first goal. They scored first in eight of the last 10.
Data point 5: Blocked shots
One thing that stood out in the eye test over this stretch was the shot blocking, so naturally I dug into the numbers. The Kraken blocked an average of 18.4 shots per game, their highest average over any 10‑game stretch this season. They’ve been blocking a lot of shots all year, but this was another level.
Part of this is driven by the state of the game. When you score first, you lead more often, and when you lead in the third period, you naturally fall into a more defensive structure. That leads to more blocked shots as you close out games.
Data point 6: Expected goal differential vs. actual goal differential
“The Kraken are getting lucky” has been a common narrative among the haters this season. People often cite expected‑goal models or the MoneyPuck “Deserve to Win O’Meter.” It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into more deeply, and I still plan to, but for now I put together a simple(ish) visual comparing expected goal differential to actual goal differential.
In short: anytime the X is below zero, the Kraken were expected to lose, where the colored bar represents the actual goal differential.
According to the chart, the Kraken should have lost six of their last eight games… but they won seven of their last eight and earned points in all of those. One might suggest luck, but I’d argue the Kraken do something unique that models underrepresent, such as a stronger defensive structure that invites more shot attempts against but limits dangerous ones.
Models are great and far more informative than most of the simple stats on NHL.com, but there are always outliers. This is no different than an undrafted player going on to play 1,000 NHL games. It challenges logic, but it still happens.
For the season, the Kraken have won 12 games they were “expected” to lose and lost five they were “expected” to win.
My hypothesis: the team plays distinctively differently when holding a lead, limiting high‑quality chances and giving goalies more opportunities to make saves. This inflates expected goals against while suppressing expected goals for. Combine that with strong goaltending, and you get the disproportionate goal differential. There’s more work to be done here, but this is my jumping‑off point.
Data point 7: Goaltending has been stellar
I’m sure the analytics‑fluent crowd would prefer something like goals saved above expected, but for a host of reasons I’m keeping this simple. Since this 10‑game window began on Dec. 16, the goaltending has been outstanding from both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord.
I really like the cadence of alternating every other game, and that should work well throughout January with so many one‑day‑or‑less breaks between games.
Data point 8: The 2021 NHL Draft class
One of the most enjoyable developments over the last 10 games has been the Kraken’s fourth line. It has featured some combination of Ben Meyers, Tye Kartye, Ryan Winterton, and Jacob Melanson, with the Winterton/Meyers/Melanson trio sticking together for the last four games.
One goal in particular stood out: the Melanson‑to‑Winterton finish in the home game against Vancouver.
That got me thinking, both Winterton and Melanson were part of the Kraken’s inaugural 2021 draft class. So I looked into how that class stacks up league‑wide for this season.
The Kraken have the third‑most NHL games played by their 2021 draft class. That’s impressive on its own, but the context makes it even more so. Arizona had two first‑round picks and three second‑round picks. Carolina had no first‑round picks but three seconds and 13 total picks. The Kraken had just one pick in each of the seven rounds. It’s also worth noting that only one of the Arizona/Utah picks still plays for that organization, and two Carolina picks in the NHL are still Hurricanes, while all four of Seattle’s are still Kraken.
Most draft analysts have been high on Seattle’s draft classes from the start. We’re now seeing that materialize at the NHL level.
Data point 9: Return of the depth?
Depth was a hallmark of the 2022–23 Kraken playoff team, and the KHN broadcast crew referenced it after Monday’s win over Calgary. Right now, contributions are coming from everywhere, and goals are coming from the most unlikely players. Ryan Lindgren, Cale Fleury, and Jacob Melanson each scored their first goals as Seattle Kraken during this stretch.
The Kraken still aren’t scoring a ton overall, but 16 unique goal scorers since Dec. 16 is the most in the league.
Data point 10: Points per game for Eeli Tolvanen
The last player I want to highlight is Eeli Tolvanen, who, after a slower start, has been coming on strong. It was great to see him named to Finland’s Olympic team alongside teammate Kaapo Kakko.
Wrapping it up
If the last 10‑for‑10 was about surviving the storm, this one is about what happens when the clouds finally break. The Kraken aren’t just banking points, they’re building an identity again. The defensive structure looks connected, the goaltending is giving them a chance every night, and the depth that defined their best hockey is resurfacing at exactly the right time.
There’s still plenty of season left, and the Pacific Division is tight enough that a single bad week can undo a lot of good. But for now, the Kraken have put themselves firmly back in the mix.
We’ll see where the next 10 games take us, but this stretch has reminded us that when this team is rolling, they can be a handful for anyone.
The Seattle Kraken continued their torrid play on Monday, riding another ho-hum 41-save performance by Philipp Grubauer and pulling away from the Calgary Flames in the third period for a 5-1 win. The victory came with some memorable moments and extended Seattle’s point streak to eight games (7-0-1) since the end of their 1-9-1 skid that spanned nearly a month.
Ironically, the last game of that painful stretch was a 4-2 loss to these same Calgary Flames on Dec. 18. But the Kraken won their next game against the San Jose Sharks two days later, and they haven’t looked back since.
Including that previous loss at Calgary, the Kraken had scored first in their last nine games before conceding the icebreaker to Adam Klapka on Monday. Still, the fourth line once again got things on track in the second period, and it was all uphill from there with five straight goals.
“We used everybody tonight, everybody contributed, and I thought our third period was outstanding,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We limited their scoring chances, and we capitalized on ours.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a convincing 5-1 Kraken win over the Flames.
Takeaway 1: Jacob Melanson gets his first NHL goal
With the way that fourth line has been cooking, it was only a matter of time before Jacob Melanson got his first NHL goal. It came Monday in his fourth straight game with a point, following a great play by Ryan Winterton to get his own rebound off Dustin Wolf and—instead of shoveling it right back into the Calgary netminder—one-touching a cross-crease pass to Melanson at the backdoor.
MELLY CELLY! 🚨
The fourth line does it AGAIN, and this time, it's Jacob Melanson getting his FIRST NHL GOAL!
Nice play by Winterton to get his own rebound and send it across.
“Getting that first goal is unreal, and it’s cool that it came from ‘Wints,’ so it means a lot,” Melanson said. “We’re on the hunt, on the forecheck, and we reloaded well, and good things are going to come from us doing the right thing. So, I mean, we had a good reload, and ‘Winnie’ found me backdoor, which was nice to see.”
It was also a crucial goal in the game, because Seattle did not exactly dominate possession through the first two periods and allowed 31 shots on Philipp Grubauer by the time the second period horn sounded. But with Melanson scoring early in the frame at 2:17, Seattle just needed to get out of the period, and it would be a whole new game in the third.
“Second period, we were a little under the fire there, but we managed to get away and get out of that one with a tie,” Grubauer said. “And it was, I think, a phenomenal third period, different than the other night [against Nashville], for sure. We were giving them less time and space and didn’t give them time to make some plays. I thought that was incredible, and that’s how we need to play.”
Takeaway 2: A huge third period
Coming out of the second intermission, this game felt like another down-to-the-wire barnburner. Instead, Seattle turned on the jets and took over, getting rewarded with both a game-winning goal from birthday boy Shane Wright at 1:57 of the frame and an insurance goal from Vince Dunn at 5:12.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! ☔️
Yet another impactful play by Ben Meyers, who makes a perfect saucer pass to Shane Wright, crashing the net for his first goal in eight games.
Remarkably, even when the fourth line isn’t technically “on the ice,” they still seem to make an impact lately. In this case, Ben Meyers got a rare shift with Wright and Jared McCann and showed his offensive prowess again, lofting a perfect saucer pass into a spot where only Wright could get to it. Wright had gotten behind Calgary’s defense, so all he had to do was skate into the pass and chip it over Wolf.
“[Meyers] had some open ice there, and I saw the D step up a little bit, so I thought I could find some room behind him,” Wright said. “And, I mean, he made an unbelievable pass.”
On a personal level for Wright, it was a big goal. He hadn’t scored in eight games and was without a point in five, despite playing on what could be a productive line with McCann and Berkly Catton.
Dunn’s goal three minutes later came off a beauty of a pass from Kaapo Kakko, who has also found his game since being elevated to a line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. After Dunn scored what should have been the game-winner in overtime against Vancouver on Friday—only to have it negated by a Catton interference penalty—you could tell he was holding his breath to see if it counted when Beniers flattened Wolf a split second after the puck went in.
HE DUNN DID IT! 🚨
Perfect pass by Kaapo Kakko, and Vince Dunn snipes it past Dustin Wolf just before Beniers runs him over.
Freddy Gaudreau added an empty-netter at 17:25, Beniers cleaned up a McCann rebound just 14 seconds later, and the Kraken rode their high horse out of Calgary with two more points.
Takeaway 3: Kraken continuing to climb
While the Kraken have been on fire, their Pacific Division counterparts have (almost) all been stumbling, making it the perfect time for Seattle to go on this run. Vegas has lost five straight, Edmonton has dropped its last two, and the Anaheim Ducks—who held first place for a good stretch of the season—have nosedived into a six-game losing streak.
The upshot is that with Seattle earning 15 out of a possible 16 points during this stretch, they’ve skyrocketed up the standings from last place in the division as recently as Dec. 21 to now third place. They also boast a points percentage good enough to actually sit ahead of Edmonton, who has played two more games, and just one point back of the Golden Knights for first place in the division. They will officially hit the halfway point of the season after Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
It’s all shocking when you consider how down and out this team felt just two weeks ago, but it’s also a stark reminder of how tight and tenuous the NHL standings are this season. The Kraken can’t stop winning now, or they’ll find themselves right back on the outside even faster than they climbed their way back in.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The holiday season winding down means the World Junior Championship is also soon coming to a close.
The IIHF World Junior Championship is an annual, two-week tournament featuring the world’s premier under-20 players. Many current and former NHLers have become household names after playing in this event, ringing especially true for Kraken captain Jordan Eberle.
Four Seattle Kraken prospects have participated in this year’s tournament: Julius Miettinen and Kim Saarinen for Finland, Loke Krantz for Sweden, and Jakub Fibigr for Czechia.
While the participating players have been showing out for their home nations, things haven’t been going swimmingly in the Twin Cities when it comes to attendance.
Group A, which included the U.S., played at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, home of the Minnesota Wild. Canada’s Group B competed at 3M Arena in Minneapolis, home of the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Games involving the United States drew relatively strong crowds, averaging about 13,500 fans per game, but attendance for other nations has lagged. Some games have drawn just 28 percent of capacity, prompting online questions about the future of the event in the United States.
The U.S. has hosted the tournament three times since 2005, twice in Buffalo, N.Y., and once split between North Dakota and Minnesota.
The 2018 tournament in Buffalo saw Canada outdraw U.S. games at KeyBank Center, with the Canada–Sweden gold medal game the only contest to draw more than 10,000 spectators (not counting the USA–Canada outdoor game).
What might be contributing is the tournament being predominantly CHL-driven. In a historically college-dominated region like Minnesota, it might be difficult for local fans to keep track of all of the players and teams involved, since many top prospects play in Canadian markets with less U.S. media coverage.
No U.S. market will ever truly match the intensity and devotion of Canadian markets, which have hosted the tournament a record 17 times and will host two of the next three.
But if there’s a region in the U.S. with the junior hockey foothold and infrastructure to replicate that atmosphere, it’s Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, which has previously attempted to attract the tournament.
The U.S. won’t host the tournament again for at least three years, with host locations set through the 2028–29 season, which leaves ample time to begin building the case for the Pacific Northwest as the next host region.
The Seattle area venues
There are many great venues in the region that could be enticing host sites. The obvious flagship would have to be Climate Pledge Arena in downtown Seattle (home of the Kraken and Torrent), which holds 17,151 spectators for hockey. It would bring in the NHL and WHL crowds, as the Seattle Thunderbirds called it home from 1989 to 2008, and the two local WHL teams have played each other there once a year for the last five years.
Typically, the host country’s group plays in the larger venue, with the other group playing in the secondary venue. The U.S. at CPA sure would be a sight to behold.
The two other WHL venues would offer similar amenities for the other group as well.
Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett is an unmatched setting for WHL games, with a seating capacity of 8,149. About 45 minutes north of Seattle, Silvertips fans consistently pack the arena during the season. Complete with deafening cowbells that add to the intimate experience, it’s a unique environment in which to watch a game.
Everett is also about an hour south of the Canadian border, well located to draw fans in the Vancouver metro area and beyond to make their way down.
There’s also a second ice rink attached to the arena that could be used for team practices.
Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent is another facility that could be used for the event. About 30 minutes south of Seattle, the Thunderbirds always have the venue rocking no matter the year.
The horseshoe-like footprint of ShoWare might make it challenging for visiting fans to maneuver, but given its proximity to Sea-Tac Airport, it would offer added ease of access for visiting fans and media flying in.
Practice venues include the aforementioned rink attached to Angel of the Winds Arena, Kraken Community Iceplex, and various other rinks throughout the Seattle metro area.
Other possible hosts
The IIHF doesn’t strictly limit itself when it comes to proximity of the buildings used. The event usually stays within the same general region, but it does branch out from time to time and utilize venues that are farther away from each other. Right now, it’s in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region, with the two cities about 15 minutes apart, but in 2026, Edmonton and Red Deer, Alb. will share hosting duties despite being almost two hours apart.
Strong arguments also exist for other venues, such as Numerica Veterans Arena in Spokane or the Toyota Center in Kennewick. Both cities offer excellent facilities and top-tier fanbases who consistently show their support. There’s also a compelling case to include Portland, or even having the Rose City serve as the primary host city on its own, given its two venues and the strength of its fan base.
But Seattle and Everett makes the most sense. It would offer ease of coordination for the event, with other factors to consider like transportation accessibility, arena availability, and things to do in the area.
There are some challenges and work-arounds too with hosting a tournament like this. If done in an NHL city, often the NHL team goes on a prolonged road trip. The Wild had a seven-game road trip to accommodate the tournament this season. That would be something to consider for the Kraken.
But what do you think? Where would you like to see World Juniors games played if they came here?
It was not the prettiest of victories, but the Seattle Kraken managed to grind out a 4–3 shootout win in Vancouver to sweep another back-to-back. Yes, you read that right: shootout, back‑to‑back, and win in the same sentence.
The Kraken opened the scoring with the most unlikely of goal scorers. Cale Fleury, who had been a healthy scratch for the first 30 games of the season and hadn’t scored since November, 2019, uncorked a bomb to net his first goal as a Seattle Kraken.
The Kraken added a second goal on a wild power‑play sequence when Jordan Eberle found Chandler Stephenson on a rush chance down low halfway through the second. That goal came moments after Vancouver had flubbed a 2-on-0 opportunity at the other end, failing to put a shot toward Joey Daccord.
The fourth line chipped in again at a critical moment. Late in the second, after the Canucks had pulled within one, Jacob Melanson made a sharp defensive‑zone play to spring Ryan Winterton through the neutral zone. Winterton streaked down the boards, drove low, and eventually found Ben Meyers, who out‑hustled a pair of Canucks to bury a perfect feed for Seattle’s third goal of the night. It’s exactly the kind of play we’ve come to expect from this trio, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
KRAKEN GOAL!!!! The 4th line comes through again. Melanson-Winterton to Ben Meyers. Huge goal in the final minutes of the 2nd period. #SeaKraken up 3-1. pic.twitter.com/Co6lxewnfh
Vancouver answered with a power‑play goal late in the second to pull within one, then tied it in the third on a Linus Karlsson backhander that forced the overtime.
The game would eventually land in a shootout where Vancouver’s first three shooters could not convert while Freddy Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko fell short for Seattle. That would set up Matty Beniers as the final shooter of the night.
There were long stretches where it felt like the Canucks were dictating play with sustained zone time, but as we’ve seen time and time again this season, the Kraken’s defensive structure kept them afloat long enough to steal the win.
Takeaway 1: A shootout win, in this economy?
Before Friday night, the Kraken were 0–4 in shootouts this season, and their shooters were converting at just 16.7 percent, well below the league average of 31.9 percent. It was starting to feel like simply reaching a shootout meant a loss was incoming.
Speaking to the media after the game, head coach Lane Lambert admitted they needed to shake things up: “This is no disrespect to any of the guys that have gone previously, we just haven’t been able to win one. So we had to switch it up, and we did.”
Matty Beniers entered the night 1‑for‑10 in his career and hadn’t taken a shootout attempt in the previous four shootout games this season. His last and only shootout goal came back in December, 2023.
Takeaway 2: Bend, don’t break
As mentioned above, Vancouver controlled massive stretches of play with sustained pressure in the Kraken zone. While Seattle would have preferred not to surrender the tying goal in the third, it could have been far worse given how much time the Canucks spent buzzing in the Kraken zone. And yet, the Kraken actually out‑shot Vancouver 28–23. As we’ve talked about all season, this team is perfectly comfortable in tight, low‑event games, and Friday night was another classic example of what this 2025–26 Kraken group is all about.
Takeaway 3: Contributions of Shane Wright
Going a little off the board here, but Shane Wright deserves recognition for two specific plays. He wasn’t on the scoresheet and has struggled offensively of late, with just one shot in each of his last four games and no goals since Dec. 16. He’s well off last season’s pace in both goals and assists, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t contributing.
His first impact play came on Fleury’s goal, where he planted himself net‑front and created the perfect screen. The first goal is always huge, and I’m not sure that puck goes in if Shane isn’t on top of the crease stirring things up.
WE HAVE A #SEAKRAKEN GOAL. Cale Fleury with an absolute bomb. Kraken take a 1-0 lead with less than two minutes left in the first. pic.twitter.com/iprzoiM7mt
The second contribution was arguably a turning point. With the game tied and Seattle on the power play, Ryker Evans committed a brutal turnover that led to the aforementioned 2‑on‑0 shorthanded opportunity for Vancouver. Wright never gave up on the play, hustling back to get his stick on Kiefer Sherwood’s pass to Drew O’Connor, who had an empty net waiting. The Kraken scored 25 seconds later.
KRAKEN GOAL!!!! what a sequence of events…almost a disaster. Stephenson will eventually score on a great feed from Eberle. #SeaKraken up 2-0. pic.twitter.com/z4uy652EUG
You never know how the game unfolds if O’Connor buries that chance, and it’s a perfect example of how the little details can have dramatic impacts on a game.
The Kraken have points in seven straight games (6-0-1) and now sit in the first wild‑card spot, just two points back of the third‑place Anaheim Ducks with two games in hand. There’s still a long road ahead, but you have to like how this team is playing right now. Seattle gets two days off before heading to Calgary on Monday to begin the busiest stretch of the season.
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One note, although Jared McCann was on the bench throughout, he did not play the last eight minutes of regulation or overtime, and lines were clearly getting shuffled to work around him for the late stages of the game. He came out for a twirl during one of the late TV timeouts, appearing to test out the leg that has been causing him problems, but then we didn’t see him take another shift. His status will be something to monitor moving forward.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll have a quick news check-in and schedule update from the World Junior Championship and a mid-season update to my personal Kraken prospect ranking. After that, we’ll pass along other news from around the organization, weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, a preview of the week ahead, and more.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Mid-season Kraken prospect ranking
The criteria I have adopted for considering a Kraken organization player a “prospect” are: (1) the player must have Calder Trophy eligibility, and (2) the player must be under 25 years old. The former criterion eliminated Ryan Winterton from the list (he would have figured in around No. 10), and the latter criterion eliminated goalie Victor Ostman. (That said, I think I may extend goalie eligibility to include the age-25 season moving forward, since goalies often develop more slowly and a player like Ostman still has a realistic shot to play meaningful NHL minutes.)
The column marked PS Rank is my 2025 preseason rank for the player, which can be found (along with John Barr’s preseason rank) here. The column marked “diff” represents the difference in rank between the two time periods. While many players held their stock steady, there were a few who have significantly helped or hurt their stock over the last few months.
For me, there seems to be a top-9 tier, a top-18 tier, and then another tier that reaches to about 26. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the order beyond that.
Kraken prospect risers
Jagger Firkus has stepped up as a key playdriver at the AHL level. In so doing, he has proven that his size won’t hold him back in what might be the second-best professional league in the world. Firkus will need to be even more locked in on his details if he is to make the jump to the NHL level, but it’s looking more and more likely to me that the AHL’s U23 goal-scoring and total points leader will get at least an audition as a top-nine scoring winger in the NHL. (One could make a very reasonable case Firkus should still be behind Miettinen and Villeneuve in this ranking, but his skill level is tantalizing for a Kraken team in desperate need of offense.)
Jacob Melanson is a bit of a wild card at No. 10 on this list. His ceiling is relatively lower than many who follow him, but I elevated him because I believe he has demonstrated an NHL-competent checking-line skill set, and there is a clear path to consistent NHL minutes in the short to medium term for him in Seattle. He’s not a traditional “top-10 prospect,” but I think he deserves the placement with his play since being called up.
Nathan Villeneuve is cut from the same cloth as Melanson, but brings more offensive skill. After holding his own in the AHL playoffs at 18 years old last year and lighting it up offensively in the OHL this season, I’m about as confident as I could be that Villeneuve will be a productive NHL player within the next two years.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard is not a “big riser,” ascending only one spot, but I feel compelled to note how impressive his skill game has been at the AHL level. He can transport the puck with speed and defeat defenses with puckhandling and precision passes. Layer this on top of his heady two-way play, and his size and physicality are the only developmental milestones left. The transition to North American play has been seamless.
Kaden Hammell has been a low-key revelation, with his physical two-way game and nose for the goal from the blue line translating to the professional game better than many of his more highly drafted teammates. He still may top out as a quality AHL player, but he has risen to a level of all-around professional competence quickly enough that you have to wonder if there could be more.
In just a few months, Loke Krantz has ascended from obscure seventh-round pick to professional player in the SHL and member of the Sweden WJC team. Krantz will have to start paying off those coaching evaluations with production as he continues through this season and into next, but the leap in his potential prospect stature is undeniable.
Carson Rehkopf has hit an AHL stumbling block similar to the challenge David Goyette encountered in his first professional season. Rehkopf has not found the space to use his offensive skills in the same way he did at the junior level, and without that goal-scoring production, is he a net positive? His discipline and defensive play are suspect, and there are flaws in his transition game. Rehkopf still flashes skill in the offensive zone, and he is young, but we’ll need to see him getting to scoring areas and converting more regularly by this time next season, or the concerns may get louder. You could say the same things about Eduard Sale.
I do not view Caden Price as a “disappointment” in his first few professional months, but I may have been a bit too aggressive in ranking him within the top 10 to begin the season. Since the end of last year’s WJC, Price has not contributed much offensively. I thought that might rebound, but we haven’t seen it yet this season. I still like the base of skills and athleticism he brings, but he’s a borderline NHLer if he can’t find his offense again.
Lukas Dragicevic has struggled defensively in his initial exposure to pro hockey. One could say the same thing about Tyson Jugnauth (to an extent), but Jugnauth has been able to translate his offensive game and make an impact there. Dragicevic, who is also an offense-first defenseman, hasn’t found the scoresheet with any regularity either. Like Rehkopf, the question for Dragicevic is whether he can take the adversity and respond over the next year-plus.
What do you think? Who should be higher or lower? Let us know in the comments below.
Updates from the World Junior Championship
As we noted last week, four Kraken prospects are on rosters at the 2026 World Junior Championship: Jakub Fibigr for Czechia, Loke Krantz for Sweden, and Juilius Miettinen and Kim Saarinen for Finland. This is a smaller group than Kraken fans have come to expect in recent years, but the tournament has been very interesting for draftniks, with a number of high-end 2026 NHL Draft prospects playing—and playing well.
After an off-day on New Year’s Day, the tournament begins its elimination stage on Friday. Friday begins with Denmark and Germany playing to avoid relegation to the IA level. (Norway will replace the loser of that game after winning gold at the IA level earlier this month.) After that, Krantz and Sweden take on Latvia, and Fibigr and Czechia take on Switzerland. Miettinen and Finland will then square off with the United States in a 2025 final rematch at 3:00 pm PT. Canada will take on Slovakia to close out the night. Play resumes with the semifinals on Sunday.
The quarterfinal games will be broadcast on NHL Network. ESPN+ will carry the relegation game and also the Czechia-Switzerland quarterfinal.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Team Czechia (WJC)
Fibigr has been very solid, averaging around 22 or 23 minutes per game as a top-four defenseman and top penalty-kill option for Czechia. Fibigr has also worn the “A” for a team with gold medal aspirations.
Julius Miettinen | F | Team Finland (WJC)
Miettinen missed the first game of the tournament when he was not registered to Team Finland’s roster due to an “operational error.” Since then, Miettinen has taken up the mantle of first-line center and team leader. In Finland’s most recent game against Canada, Miettinen wore the “C” for Team Finland with captain Aron Kiviharju out of the lineup. His 20:22 of ice time was tops among Finnish forwards in that game. Miettinen has two points (one goal and one assist) in three games.
Kim Saarinen | G | Team Finland (WJC)
Saarinen has not seen the ice since pre-tournament action, yielding all of Finland’s starts to Petteri (“Mr. Showtime”) Rimpinen. At this point, it seems likely it will be Rimpinen’s crease for as long as Finland stays alive. Though not unexpected, it is still mildly disappointing that we will not get to see Saarinen on this stage.
Loke Krantz | F | Team Sweden (WJC)
Krantz has been active for three of Sweden’s four games and registered his tournament-high 8:03 TOI in Sweden’s most recent contest against the United States. Krantz is still looking for his first WJC scoring point.
Highlights of the week
The Kraken reassigned forward Jani Nyman to the Coachella Valley Firebirds earlier this week, and Li’l Jani drew into his first AHL contest of the season on Wednesday. In some respects, Nyman’s first game back in a heavy-usage role was a struggle (he was a minus-5), but he was able to finish on the power play in classic Nyman fashion.
Miettinen has the only Seattle Kraken prospect goal at the 2026 WJC thus far, but it was beauty. It came in transition off a feed from Everett Silvertips teammate Matias Vanhanen.
Andrei Loshko scored his first two goals of the season in the last week, and he added an assist for good measure. In three games he bested his point total from his 20 other games this season. He was a strong contender for Player of the Week.
Logan Morrison, 23, is tied with Jagger Firkus for the fourth-most goals in the AHL among all players under 25 years old.
Semyon Vyazovoi had a very strong week, including a shootout win in which he stopped 45 of 46 shots on goal. His sterling .948 save percentage across two starts was enough to snag him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week honors.
Visa Vedenpaa earned his first Liiga start since Nov. 15, but struggled a bit, saving only 24 of 28 shots on goal.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3: Jagger Firkus
2: Julius Miettinen, Kim Saarinen, Semyon Vyazovoi
We’ll give our Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week to the WJC quarterfinal matchup between Sweden and Latvia. Sweden’s Krantz feels due for a breakthrough.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Tomas Chrenko
Tomas Chrenko is a Slovak center who has played the better part of two seasons for HK Nitra in the top-level Slovak professional league. Many draft prognosticators have him as a late first-round pick in June’s draft, though that projection may be trending upward after Chrenko’s WJC performance. Through the round-robin stage, he leads the tournament with five goals.
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.
Seattle Kraken forwards Eeli Tolvanen and Kaapo Kakko will be heading to the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games as members of Team Finland.
“It would mean a lot,” Tolvanen said Wednesday, before the official announcement was made, when asked what it might mean to be included on the roster. “I mean, I feel like everybody dreams of playing in the Olympics, or even playing for their country, and I think I’m not different on that. Every time I have the chance to represent my country, I would love to.”
After scoring a career-high 23 goals for Seattle last season, the 26-year-old Tolvanen is in the midst of another strong campaign. He’s second on the team in scoring with 25 points (seven goals, 18 assists) in 38 games and has earned the trust of coach Lane Lambert, being deployed in all situations as one of Seattle’s top wingers.
A passionate hockey nation, Finnish players are known for responsible, two-way hockey, and Tolvanen is an embodiment of that ethos. His style of play should serve Finland well in a tournament that will feature the best players in the world, with NHLers returning for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.
“I just think he does things really correctly for the most part in all different areas,” Lambert said. “We started trying to maybe not have him on both special teams, but we put him on the penalty kill, and he’s done a really good job there. His forechecking is good in that when he gets in on the forecheck, he can create separation. He’s done that a number of times, and he’s committed. He blocks shots, he hits, he’s played very well. He’s earned the ice time he’s been given.”
This will not be Tolvanen’s first time representing his country or even playing in the Olympics. He competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games before becoming a full-time NHLer, posting nine points (three goals, six assists) in five games, including a four-point game against Germany. He also played twice at the IIHF World Junior Championship and twice at the IIHF Men’s World Championship, including last summer, when he recorded nine points (7-2=9) in eight games.
“It’s something that I think Finns take really seriously as fans and as players too, and everybody wants to play for the national team,” Tolvanen said. “I feel I’ve just had good success lately in the World Championship and everywhere they put the team together.”
As for Kakko, the 24-year-old former No. 2 overall draft pick has had much of his season derailed by injuries but has been returning to form in recent weeks, skating on Seattle’s top line with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers.
This will be Kakko’s first Olympics, though he too is no stranger to international competition. Kakko has represented Finland on several occasions, including at the WJC in 2019, two appearances at the World Championship, and he was a bottom-of-the-lineup participant in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. At 4 Nations, Kakko, played two games and posted one assist.
Philipp Grubauer excited for the opportunity
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer is the only other Kraken player who has been named to an Olympic roster so far. He was one of the first six players selected for Team Germany during the summer and has since put up stellar numbers in a No. 2 role with Seattle this season, posting a 6-3-1 record with a 2.44 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
“It’s obviously a huge honor,” Grubauer said. “It’s something I grew up watching because we didn’t have the NHL to watch, obviously, and it’s a huge honor to represent Germany at that stage.”
Grubauer, who hails from Rosenheim in southern Germany, said he expects a large contingent of family to make the trip to Milan for the Games, noting it’s a relatively easy drive.
“They already planned it,” Grubauer said. “I think it’s only like a four-hour drive for them, so a bunch of family members are coming. It’s going to be nice, because we always vacation down there [in northern Italy]… It’s really familiar.”
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There is also a chance Kraken prospect Oscar Fisker Mølgaard receives an Olympic nod for Team Denmark, though their roster has not yet been announced.
There was some chatter that Brandon Montour had an outside shot at making Team Canada, but the defenseman—currently out of the Kraken lineup with an upper-body injury—unsurprisingly did not make the cut for Canada’s stacked roster.
Women’s Team USA roster announced
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, four Seattle Torrent players were officially named to Team USA on Friday, with captain Hilary Knight set to lead the team in her fifth and final Olympics. Forward Alex Carpenter and defender Cayla Barnes will each play in their third respective Olympics, while 24-year-old forward Hannah Bilka will make her Olympic debut.
