This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. As of Mar. 27, the AHL and the ECHL are the only leagues with Kraken prospects that still have regular-season games remaining. Teams in other European, collegiate, and junior hockey leagues have moved into their postseason phases. This means that the season is fully over for some players, while it is hitting its highest stakes for others. We’ll update you on playoff season and where to find your Kraken prospects still playing hockey as we turn the calendar to April.
After that, we’ll update you on Jake O’Brien’s OHL franchise scoring achievement, pass on additional Kraken prospect news, video, and data updates, and, as always, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
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.
Previewing the CHL playoffs
All of Seattle’s CHL prospects—two in the QMJHL, three in the OHL, and three in the WHL—are on teams that advanced to the playoffs and remain in action. Several have a legitimate shot at a Memorial Cup run on stacked teams.
Of local interest in the Puget Sound area, Ryden Evers and the Penticton Vees will visit the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday, Mar. 31, and Wednesday, Apr. 1. Julius Miettinen and the Everett Silvertips are driving for the WHL Championship with a local matchup against the Portland Winterhawks that started on Friday, Mar. 27. Let’s dive in.
The Chicoutimi Saguenéens are the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference of the QMJHL playoffs and a legitimate contender to win that league and perhaps even more. The Saguenéens finished third in the final regular-season CHL Top-10 Ranking. For his part, Bernier joined the team in a midseason trade and entered the lineup a few weeks later after being cleared from offseason ACL reconstruction surgery. His two-way play had an immediate impact. In 21 games, he had an eye-popping +17 on-ice goal differential at even strength, not to mention 12 points. As of late Friday, Mar. 27, the Saguenéens are up 1-0 in their series.
QMJHL Playoffs: Will Reynolds, D, Newfoundland Regiment
The Newfoundland Regiment enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, matched up with the No. 6 Cape Breton Eagles. Reynolds showed a solid two-way game in the regular season, posting a +25 plus-minus, which was second-best on the team. He also had three goals and 22 assists; his 25 points were second-most among defensemen on the Regiment. Reynolds has an assist and is plus-one through the first two games of the series, which is level at one game apiece. The series resumes Tuesday in Cape Breton.
While the teams will reseed going into the second round, if all of the favorites prevail, we could see a second-round matchup pitting Reynolds against Bernier.
OHL Playoffs: Jake O’Brien, F, Brantford Bulldogs
Kraken 2025 first-round pick and (nearly) consensus top prospect Jake O’Brien and the Brantford Bulldogs are the No. 1 seed in the OHL Eastern Conference and No. 6 overall in the final regular-season CHL Top-10 Ranking. O’Brien has been the Bulldogs’ captain and leading scorer this season, piling up 93 points in just 53 games played. Brantford’s first-round opponent is Nathan Villeneuve’s former team, the Sudbury Wolves. Though O’Brien was held off the scoresheet in Game 1, the Bulldogs prevailed and lead the series 1-0 as of Friday, Mar. 27.
OHL Playoffs: Nathan Villeneuve, F, and Jakub Fibigr, D, Windsor Spitfires
The Windsor Spitfires are the No. 2 seed in the OHL’s Western Conference and face the Guelph Storm in the first round. 2024 second-round pick Nathan Villeneuve had been sidelined following a hit taken on Mar. 8, but he returned for Game 1 of this playoff series, scoring a goal. 2024 seventh-round pick Jakub Fibigr had a goal and an assist in the opener, which was a win for the Spitfires. Villeneuve and Fibigr both joined the Spitfires in midseason trades. While their scoring production has cooled a bit since joining Windsor, they have each played important roles for a team with hopes of a deep playoff run.
WHL Playoffs: Julius Miettinen, F, Everett Silvertips
The Everett Silvertips are a wagon. The team finished the season with 57 wins, smashing their franchise record and nearly equaling the all-time WHL mark. The Silvertips are the No. 1-ranked team in the final regular-season CHL Top-10 Rankings. Kraken 2024 second-round pick Julius Miettinen has been a big part of the team’s success, scoring 76 points in 52 games to go along with strong defensive-zone play. For the Silvertips, who are the No. 1 seed in the WHL Western Conference, anything short of a WHL Championship will be a disappointment. The Silvertips took Game 1 against the Portland Winterhawks on Friday, Mar. 27, and Miettinen was the first star, scoring two goals and adding an assist.
WHL Playoffs: Ryden Evers, F, Penticton Vees
The Vees are a remarkable success story in their first season in the WHL. They set the record for most wins by a WHL expansion team and finished at No. 8 in the final regular-season CHL Top-10 Ranking. Recent Kraken free-agent signee Ryden Evers has been a big part of that equation as the team’s top center. During the regular season, Evers led the team in goals, was second in points, and third in plus-minus. The Vees are the No. 2 seed in the WHL Western Conference and took Game 1 against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday, Mar. 27.
Over in the WHL’s Eastern Conference, 2025 second-round pick Blake Fiddler and the Edmonton Oil Kings are the No. 3 seed. Fiddler had a solid scoring season, but his on-ice impact may have improved more on the defensive side of things. His +23 on-ice goal differential at even strength was a marked improvement from last season. The Oil Kings dropped Game 1 to Saskatoon on Friday, Mar. 27, and will look to even things up on Sunday as the series continues.
Previewing the NCAA Frozen Four tournament
Unlike the grinding seven-game series in the CHL, the NCAA postseason is a single-elimination tournament. Three of the four Kraken prospects playing in the NCHC made the NCAA field of 16 and have now advanced to the final eight. This includes a Sunday rematch of Zaccharya Wisdom and Western Michigan against Clarke Caswell and Denver University. Let’s break it all down.
NCAA Playoffs: Ollie Josephson, F, Univ. of North Dakota
After a strong season that saw the team finish first in the NCHC regular-season standings, though fall short in the playoffs, the University of North Dakota still earned the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA tournament field. Ollie Josephson was a utility center for the Fighting Hawks, playing in all situations and driving solid results. However, a lower-body injury suffered during the NCHC playoffs has held him out of the NCAA tournament thus far. Even without Josephson, the Fighting Hawks defeated Merrimack in their first-round matchup and will square off against Quinnipiac on Saturday, Mar. 28, with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line.
NCAA Playoffs: Clarke Caswell, F, Denver Univ.
Perennial powerhouse Denver University finished second in the NCHC regular season but took the conference crown in the postseason tournament with a string of dramatic victories. Seattle Kraken prospect Clarke Caswell has played a key top-six role for the Pioneers all season and drove the play that handed Denver the NCHC championship in overtime.
#SeaKraken prospect Clarke Caswell set up Kristian Epperson's double-overtime game winner on Saturday, which delivered Denver University the NCHC championship.
Caswell also scored in the game, giving him four points in four NCHC Frozen Faceoff games.pic.twitter.com/NNUVxx6ghl
Denver’s strong play continued in the NCAA tournament, as the team defeated Cornell University 5-0. That sets a regional final matchup against NCHC rival Western Michigan University on Sunday. With Zaccharya Wisdom on the other side, we’re guaranteed to have a Kraken prospect in the Frozen Four.
NCAA Playoffs: Zaccharya Wisdom, F, Western Michigan Univ.
The Western Michigan Broncos bowed out of the NCHC tournament in a thrilling game against the Pioneers and now get a rematch on an even bigger stage in the regional final of the NCAA tournament. Wisdom played a big role in the Broncos’ first-round win, scoring a goal and adding an assist in a win over Minnesota State. (Also, check out this video on Wisdom’s journey.)
Previewing the European leagues playoffs
When we look overseas, Seattle goaltending prospects take center stage. Though Visa Vedenpaa missed the Liiga playoffs, fellow Kraken goalie prospect Kim Saarinen not only made the playoffs, he has already powered his club HPK through the first round. In the KHL, Semyon Vyazovoi is also in the playoffs and performing well so far.
As for the skaters, forward Loke Krantz’s SHL team missed the playoffs, and defenseman Karl Annborn’s season is also done. (More on him in a moment.)
Liiga Playoffs: Kim Saarinen, G, HPK
Saarinen started four games in a span of five days for his Liiga team, HPK, in the first round of the Liiga playoffs. By winning three of those games, HPK advanced to the second round. Saarinen was a big reason why HPK is still playing. He posted a .967 save percentage and a shutout in the first-round matchup. HPK gets Tappara in the next round, with play starting on Saturday, Mar. 28. Can Saarinen go as far in the Liiga playoffs as fellow Kraken prospect Nikke Kokko did in his age-19 season? The younger goalie is off to a good start.
KHL Playoffs: Semyon Vyazovoi, G, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Like Saarinen, Semyon Vyazovoi has started each of his club’s playoff games so far. Vyazovoi’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa lead their series against Yekaterinburg Avto two games to one. Vyazovoi has one win via shutout, and in the other two games he has given up five goals total. In a curious coincidence, four of those goals were scored by Seattle Kraken legend Daniel Sprong.
Notes on three other Kraken prospects
Karl Annborn | D | HV71 (SHL)
As the season neared its end, Kraken prospect Karl Annborn’s SHL club, HV71, recalled him from a loan to Allsvenskan team Västerås IK. Annborn suited up in three games down the stretch, including one game for HV71 in the relegation tournament.
If HV71 playing in relegation sounds familiar, it should. HV71 won the relegation round to avoid demotion to Allsvenskan in each of the last two years with Kraken prospect Oscar Fisker Mølgaard on the roster. Back in the same position again, HV71 once again saved itself from demotion with a win over Leksands IF. (In another interesting parallel, Västerås IK also saved itself from relegation from Allsvenskan via postseason play.) Annborn’s season is now over. He projects to return to HV71 next season with the goal of earning a regular role in the SHL.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard earned a promotion to the NHL this past week, but before he did, he had five points in two AHL games, including a game-tying goal and an overtime winner.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) March 22, 2026
This performance is enough to make Fisker Mølgaard your Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, narrowly edging sterling postseason performances from Saarinen and Vyazovoi. The NHL promotion was the tiebreaker.
Jake O’Brien | F | Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
O’Brien and the Bulldogs are focused on the postseason now, but a regular-season accomplishment is worthy of note. O’Brien now owns the Bulldogs’ franchise record for career regular-season points. He set the mark on a power-play goal last Friday late in a matchup with the North Bay Battalion. With an assist later in the game, he finished with 255 career points. O’Brien is very likely to be in the AHL next season (if not the NHL), so this will likely be where his OHL mark remains.
Check out O’Brien’s shifts from the record-setting game, along with the team celebration after his landmark goal, below.
Kraken prospects data update
Jani Nyman’s first game back with the Coachella Valley Firebirds saw him score two more AHL goals.
Ty Nelson is closing out the season on a strong scoring pace. With two goals and two assists in the last week, he has narrowed the gap with Tyson Jugnauth for second-most points among defensemen on the Firebirds.
Nikke Kokko had a strong week, posting a .919 save percentage in two starts, both wins.
Victor Ostman kept pace with Kokko, winning his lone start on the strength of a .903 save percentage.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3 wins: Jagger Firkus, Jake O’Brien, Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
This week’s Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is the Sunday NCAA Tournament matchup between NCHC rivals Denver and Western Michigan. The game is on ESPN 2 and ESPN+.
Setting the NHL Draft Lottery
Reports indicate that the NHL Draft Lottery has been scheduled for May 5, 2026. If the Kraken do not make the playoffs, they will enter the draft lottery. Currently, the Kraken are No. 10 in the draft lottery, which gives the team a 3.5 percent chance of the No. 1 overall pick. Looking the other direction, the Kraken are just three points out of the second wild-card position.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Adam Goljer
Adam Goljer is a Slovak right-shot defenseman who skated for Team Slovakia at both the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2026 World Junior Championship. He’s got pro size and mobility, as well as experience playing against professionals in the top-level Slovak league, which makes for an appealing package. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic had Goljer No. 32 in his most recent prospect rankings. Goljer was No. 45 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.
It’s been a pleasure to follow the Seattle Kraken on the road for their last two games at the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The hockey was fun—they racked up three out of four possible standings points in unlikely fashion, rallying back from a late three-goal deficit to get a point against the Panthers on Tuesday and then putting forth a gritty, full-team performance against the Lightning on Thursday, stealing a 4-3 overtime win from a top-tier opponent in a tough building.
But this article really isn’t about what happened with the team, more so what fans should expect if considering making the trek to Florida to watch their favorite team take on the Panthers and the Lightning. It’s written from the perspective of somebody following the Seattle Kraken, but most of it is applicable for fans considering the trip from any city around the NHL.
The Florida / Tampa Bay road trip is a good one for NHL fans
While the NHL schedulers won’t always put these two Sunshine State matchups in the same order (i.e., Panthers, then Lightning), teams regularly visit these two opponents in relatively quick succession, making for a very feasible multiple-game road trip that you should consider adding to your hockey bucket list if you haven’t done it before.
As far as sunny destinations go, I liked it better than Southern California. Dallas and Vegas are also great for very different reasons (I generally dislike going to Las Vegas, but as a hockey trip, it’s about as easy as it gets and features tons of built-in entertainment beyond going to the game), but those are likely single-team, single-game trips.
If you’re looking to hit more than one game and also catch some rays, this combination of Florida-based contests is a great option. In terms of maximizing convenience, I still don’t think you can beat a trip to the New York area, where you may theoretically get to watch your team play three games against the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils, all while taking trains to the three arenas and not even having to change hotels.
This Florida trip is not nearly as convenient as that, but it comes with some great perks.
Challenging logistics for Sunrise
The Florida swing is not the easiest trip Seattle makes by any means—the flights are long, and getting from South Florida to Tampa (or vice versa) requires either a flight or a four-plus-hour drive. What’s more, the remote location of Amerant Bank Arena (home of the Panthers) isn’t all that accessible for visiting fans.
Having gone there, I now understand why Florida has not drawn that well historically, and sadly, they are back to this trend, with the seats only about half-full Tuesday despite two straight Stanley Cups and Paul Maurice coaching his 2,000th game that night (to be fair to the fans, the Panthers organization should have made a much bigger deal out of this than they did).
While I absolutely think you should make this trip, there are a few things to consider when you’re planning your jaunt to Florida in the next couple of seasons.
First, for my Seattle readers, there aren’t many flight options from SEA in either direction for either destination. With Amerant Bank Arena located in Sunrise, you can fly into (or out of, if the schedule is reversed on the next trip) Miami or Fort Lauderdale, which creates a couple more non-stop choices. I ended up flying to Miami because of a more suitable arrival time on Delta (my preferred airline), but after talking to former Panther Brandon Montour, I learned that teams stay near the beach in Fort Lauderdale and that this is widely viewed as the best base of operations.
I do agree with that sentiment, having now stayed in that area, which makes for a proper beach vacation feel. You’ll also be close to the infamous Elbo Room, which is a truly comical, cash-only, open-air dive bar famously frequented by Panthers players.
Knowing what I know now, I would still stay near Fort Lauderdale Beach but would instead fly to FLL. Flying to Miami, I got stuck in rush-hour traffic between MIA and my hotel in Fort Lauderdale Beach, which extended that commute from 45 minutes when I mapped it out to an hour and 15 minutes in actuality. So, fly to FLL.
Aside from the great beach situation and high-end hotel and dining options, another reason teams stay in the Fort Lauderdale Beach area is that the Panthers’ beautiful practice facility (I would argue even nicer than Kraken Community Iceplex) is 10 minutes away. The Kraken held morning skate at that rink on Tuesday, went back to their hotel, and then bused the 40-minute ride out to Sunrise for the game in the evening. Fans won’t be allowed at morning skate, so this isn’t really a factor to consider, but it was something I took into account for my own purposes. If you catch wind of an open practice happening while you’re in town, Baptist Health IcePlex is a nice side quest.
I’m sure you could also get away with staying in Hollywood or Boca Raton, but I can’t really comment on those locations since I didn’t visit them. It is also possible to stay out near Amerant Bank Arena, but don’t do that. Aside from a mall in the area, it’s desolate around there.
The location of Florida’s arena also brings ground transportation into the conversation. I’m not a huge fan of renting a car when I travel, and you could probably make it work Ubering around, but I think the costs mostly balance out between rideshares and a rental car. Parking in Fort Lauderdale Beach was tough. I read somewhere that there is street parking, but I couldn’t find a place to leave my rental car overnight. So, I ended up shelling out quite a bit of money to use the valet at my hotel. Still, with Amerant Bank Arena being so far away—and given my long commute from MIA to Fort Lauderdale—I was very thankful to have my own wheels.
As for getting from the Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood area to Tampa (or vice versa), I don’t think there’s a wrong choice between flying and driving (but again, if you fly, I wouldn’t recommend MIA). Assuming your trip starts with a game at the Panthers, you may already have a rental car, which makes driving relatively easy, but bear in mind it is a solid (and boring, straight-across-the-Everglades) four hours without traffic. The total door-to-door travel time whether you drive or fly is probably in the same ballpark, and driving is cheaper.
Tampa is much easier
The Tampa portion of the trip is much easier than the Sunrise part. TPA airport is 10 minutes from downtown, Benchmark International Arena is in the heart of the city, and you truly do not need your own vehicle; Ubers are easy and cheap, and the city is fairly compact. I ended up keeping my rental car for the entirety of the trip, but I wish I had ditched it once I got to Tampa.
I stayed 10 minutes from the arena in Ybor City, the historic district, which boasts some cool architecture and cobblestone streets, tons of restaurants, bars, and cigar lounges (a Tampa specialty), and—oddly, but also awesomely—a massive population of wild chickens roaming the neighborhood.
You can also look into the Hyde Park neighborhood, which felt more upscale than Ybor City, or even stay downtown within walking distance of the arena. That area was also quite buzzy.
I knew very little about Tampa before spending a couple of days there, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great visit. I didn’t get out and explore the nearby beaches in Clearwater or St. Petersburg, nor did I go to Busch Gardens. (As a roller coaster lover who doesn’t get to ride many roller coasters, I wanted to get on the world-renowned Iron Gwazi. Next time!) Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed being in Tampa and getting to experience a Lightning game day.
Arena comparisons
Neither Benchmark International Arena in Tampa nor Amerant Bank Arena is new. At 30 and 28 years old, respectively, they lack many of the modern amenities that Climate Pledge Arena boasts, though both have received cosmetic upgrades over the years. Still, you can tell they’re older buildings.
Comparing the two, however, the whole vibe in Tampa is infinitely better. It’s a loud crowd, you’re in the heart of the city with plenty of pre- and post-game options in the neighborhood, and the massive pipe organ and lightning coils that send visible bolts around during the pregame show are all highly unique touches. If you’re choosing just one of the two road stops, pick Tampa, but both places naturally bring a solid hockey/vacation mix.
I hope this is helpful when you plan your own NHL road trip to Florida. For those that have made this trip before, what would you do differently?
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.
Seattle Kraken coach Lane Lambert wondered aloud on Wednesday if his team’s rally back from a three-goal deficit to steal a standings point at the Florida Panthers on Tuesday could be the “event” that gets the group playing up to its potential again, something it has not done since before the Olympic break. After watching the Kraken play at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, there may be something to Lambert’s theory.
Facing long odds in this game, the Kraken played some of the best and most emotional hockey they’ve played in months, sticking up for each other, cutting down on (but not eliminating) defensive mistakes, and capitalizing on their opportunities. They also got a huge game from Philipp Grubauer—in the second half of the contest, especially—and rewarded him with a 4-3 overtime win.
Brandon Montour scored twice, Bobby McMann scored his sixth goal in seven games as a Kraken, Kaapo Kakko finished a dazzling play by Chandler Stephenson, and Berkly Catton had his first NHL fight and was generally awesome in this game.
“We were resilient,” Lambert said. “It was a hard game, and we had some guys get banged up. I thought Berkly Catton stepping up and fighting was a real spark for our hockey team. It just shows his character, and I just thought that we were resilient.”
Meanwhile, the Nashville Predators lost 4-2 at home to the New Jersey Devils, so Seattle is back within three points of a playoff spot with a game in hand.
Here are Three Takeaways from a big-time 4-3 Kraken win over the Lightning.
Takeaway 1: Taking their lumps, playing for each other
As Lambert indicated with his comment about guys getting “banged up,” there were two situations in this game in which I thought a player was about to leave but ended up staying. The first was when Shane Wright took a nasty slam into the end wall after an awkward hit by Charle-Edouard D’Astous. He was hunched over on the bench and talking to head athletic trainer Justin Rogers for several minutes but stayed in the game and ended up making a play to create the game-winning goal.
In overtime, Catton tried to make a cross-crease pass to Montour, but Andrei Vasilevskiy read the play and deflected the puck out of harm’s way… or did he? Wright—who had looked very hurt in the first period—reacted quickly and beat Nikita Kucherov to a loose puck at the top of the right circle, quickly sending it back to Montour at the bottom of the circle. Montour delayed and showed pass before letting a sneaky shot go that slipped through Vasilevskiy’s pads.
“Obviously, Shane [made a great play] on that one with the back check,” Montour said. “[It was] 3-on-2. I tried the five-hole a couple times, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And with a good goalie like that, you hope to catch him off guard, and luckily, we did.”
MONTY MONEY! 💰 🚨
Great play by Shane Wright to keep the play alive, and Brandon Montour scores his second of the game to WIN IT 4-3 over the Lightning! #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/eNMjWOxUiz
Also in this game, Jordan Eberle took a nasty hit from Emil Lilleberg two minutes into the second period and hit his head on the ice. Catton—of all people—challenged the first guy he found, which happened to be J.J. Moser, not Lilleberg, who had actually made the hit.
“Apparently I got the wrong guy. I didn’t even know,” Catton said. “I just kind of was looking for whoever got him, and I don’t know… one of their guys looked at me, so we just kind of dropped them.”
BERKLY CATTON FISTICUFFS?! 🥊
Jordan Eberle hit his head on the ice after a borderline slew foot by Lilleberg.
This was Catton’s first career fight at the NHL level after also dropping the gloves once in the WHL. His inexperience showed a bit, but he did well to take one punch, throw one, and then get to the ice. He said his eye was partially closed immediately after, so although he didn’t know if he got punched, he thought Moser may have caught him.
The timing of Catton’s bout was funny. I had just interviewed him at morning skate on Thursday and asked him which player on the team he looked up to and tried to emulate the most, and he immediately said, “Jordan.” Watch that interview here:
– Featuring an interview with TOP-LINE winger Berkly Catton – Oscar Fisker Mølgaard is back – Shane Wright on wing – Defensive "hesitation" pic.twitter.com/8g8tESrf6G
“It’s your captain,” Catton said after the game. “You’ve got to pick up your captain, that’s just kind of an unwritten rule of hockey. So I did the best I could, but I had to do it.”
Catton’s fight was one of several brouhahas in a game that turned into one of the feistiest and most emotionally charged of the season for Seattle.
Eberle, by the way, went down the tunnel for a while but returned and finished the game. Matty Beniers also looked shaken up for a brief period in the second and didn’t play the first nine minutes of the third. For a time, the Kraken were down to just eight healthy forwards, because Lambert had opted to roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second game in a row, scratching Jacob Melanson and keeping Cale Fleury in. Lambert said he did this because he liked that it allowed him to move people around and “double-shift” Catton.
But the coach also said with a laugh, “I didn’t like [the 11 and seven lineup] when we had about three injuries and we were down to eight forwards, but it was what it was.
“It’s a huge moment for our hockey team, just guys battling through the adversity,” Lambert said. “So there’s no question that those guys [Eberle, Wright, and Beniers] gutting it out… it was a very, very gutsy win for our hockey team.”
Takeaway 2: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard shows well in first game after call-up
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, who was recalled on Wednesday from the Coachella Valley Firebirds and replaced Jani Nyman on the roster, was thrown right in on the third line.
I thought he was excellent in the game, looking fast and confident and defending like a veteran center. Lambert, too, raved about Mølgaard’s performance.
“I liked him. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s smart. He’s a good hockey player,” Lambert said. “You can rely on him in those [defensive] areas. That’s huge for any young player—you have to be able to rely on them defensively—and certainly, you could tell he’s played the game at a higher level, Olympics, elite leagues, and all those things. He’s having a great year in Coachella Valley and well deserving of the call-up. And we’ll continue to use him, and I expect his ice time to grow.”
Mølgaard drew a penalty 13 minutes into the game when he got in first on the forecheck and was body-slammed to the ice by Lilleberg. Just after that penalty ended, Mølgaard was back on the ice for an offensive-zone face-off. The puck came out of the zone, and Mølgaard sprinted after it and used his body positioning to fight Jake Guentzel off the puck. In one motion, he bumped it off the boards to start Seattle’s transition back to offense, and in a flash, Freddy Gaudreau found Montour cutting to the net, and Montour deposited it for his first of two goals on the night.
Takeaway 3: Big game for Philipp Grubauer
The Kraken have been relying heavily on Joey Daccord lately, which Lambert said at morning skate was because of Joey’s puck play and the fact that the organization viewed him as “the guy” at the start of the season. Since Grubauer’s last start—which happened to be a 6-2 loss to these same Lightning (one could argue that none of the six goals scored in that game were his fault) on St. Patrick’s Day—Daccord went 0-2-1 in three consecutive starts with uninspiring stats.
The time was right to get Grubauer back in, and he was up to the challenge against the high-octane Lightning, making 30 saves on the night.
The goals Grubauer allowed in this one came from a blown coverage for a wide-open Anthony Cirelli, a Guentzel breakaway, and Corey Perry marching down the slot and one-timing a power-play goal.
All three of those came in the first half of the game, and from then on, Grubauer shut things down and held on long enough for Montour to find the game-winner.
His most critical save came with two minutes left in the second period when Ryker Evans fanned on a pass at the offensive blue line, which sprung Pontus Holmberg on a breakaway. Grubauer shouldered it away to keep the game tied at 3-3 heading to the second intermission.
“I think at that point, every save is critical because I gave one up on the earlier breakaway there, so if that goes in, it’s a different story, maybe,” Grubauer said.
Added Lambert: “He played an outstanding game. He played a game that we needed him to play, and certainly with some of the ice times were high for the forwards because of guys being out… Grubi made some huge saves, including in overtime.”
What a win. The Kraken have life, folks!
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.
This is a great episode featuring a GREAT interview with Matty Beniers. Darren has been on the Kraken road trip for the games in Florida and was able to sit down with the team’s alternate captain with some crowdsourced questions from fans, which led to some fun discussions and stories.
Aside from the interview, a recap of the recent games, some big themes from the past week, and much more.
Segments include Bad Boys, Weekly One-Timers, and What’s Good?
The Seattle Kraken are truly on their last tentacle. The other seven tentacles have been sliced off at this point, and while the rest of the Pacific Division has done everything in its power to keep the Kraken afloat by mostly matching Seattle’s losing pace, the Nashville Predators—sadly—did not get the memo. After selling a couple of fringe pieces at the deadline, Nashville has surprisingly caught fire with five straight wins and a 7-2-1 record in its last 10, including two victories over Seattle.
Meanwhile, the Kraken finally turned on the desperation we’ve been hoping to see Tuesday at the Florida Panthers, but they didn’t do it until they were down 4-1 with six minutes left to play. They rallied back to salvage a point but came up short in a shootout.
It appears the hole the Kraken have dug themselves since the Olympic break—going 4-9-1 in 14 games to fall five points out of a playoff spot—will be too deep to escape, but coach Lane Lambert isn’t ready to write off the season just yet. He indicated he hopes the comeback in the third period against Florida can be the spark that finally gets his team back on track.
“There was a lot of positives to that game, and obviously, the comeback was huge,” Lambert said at an optional practice at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa on Wednesday. “The point was huge. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get two, but to be down like that, mount the comeback like that, hopefully that catapults us here. We kind of always say there has to be some sort of event that happens. Maybe that was our event.”
There are technically three games left on this six-game road trip, but the Kraken will face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, then head home for a day to change their clothes before going back out to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Tuesday. The Lightning are 4-0-1 in their last five games and just embarrassed the Kraken 6-2 at Climate Pledge Arena on St. Patrick’s Day, and the Sabres have lost in regulation just once since Feb. 5. Hold onto your butts.
Top-line Berkly Catton
Being on the road with the team has its benefits, like the occasional opportunity to be the only reporter in a press scrum with the team’s head coach. That’s what happened Wednesday, so I took full advantage and held Lane Lambert “hostage” with a wide range of questions that led to a surprisingly long 1-on-1 presser.
One thing I wanted to dig into a little more with Lambert was his decision to elevate Berkly Catton to the top line in Seattle’s 5-4 shootout loss in Sunrise on Tuesday. Of course, part of that is just looking for a spark, and it worked in a way, as Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle (Catton’s linemates) both scored, and Bobby McMann—who vacated the line and was replaced by Catton—also potted the game-tying goal to complete the third-period comeback.
“If you watch Berkly play, obviously, on the production side of it, we’d love to have more,” Lambert said. “But at the same time, he’s making plays. He made a couple of extremely elite plays last night. And for me, from an offensive standpoint, we need him, certainly with [Jared] McCann being out and [Jaden] Schwartz being out. I think he’s got some elite vision, elite talent in order to make some plays. And so I thought he played a very good game last night.”
That’s some high praise of the 19-year-old rookie.
Meanwhile, although I didn’t explicitly state it in Three Takeaways on Tuesday, I thought Beniers—who is also the guest on this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast, publishing relatively soon—was Seattle’s best player against Florida. His play to drive to the net, deke, and tuck the puck into an open net while falling to the ice was an outstanding individual effort and was representative of the type of desperation this team has needed for several weeks now.
Matty Magic! 🚨
Impressive individual effort from Beniers, but still down by two, likely too little, too late. #SeaKraken
“I do [agree that he’s putting forth an outstanding effort], actually,” Lambert said. “I think that his leadership qualities… they’re coming through, as well, coming through on the bench. There’s different things that he’s doing that maybe people don’t see from that standpoint, and he’s bringing his ‘A’ game, he’s bringing his desperation.”
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard in, Jani Nyman out
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard has been recalled from AHL Coachella Valley, and Jani Nyman has been reassigned. Lambert hasn’t plainly stated that Nyman is a bad fit for his roster right now, but his actions have certainly indicated that.
After Nyman took a minus-four rating in just 8:15 of ice time on the fourth line at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Lambert was so disinterested in putting him back in the lineup on Tuesday that he opted to dress Cale Fleury as a seventh defenseman and play one forward short. All that to say, it was unsurprising when the Fisker Mølgaard swap was officially made Wednesday.
“We’ve been running with four penalty killers here, a little bit,” Lambert said. “Oscar’s a pretty smart player, obviously, a penalty killer, he’s playing well down there. I think, as it stands right now, his game is a little more suited for this time of the year, from that standpoint. So we’ll see where we go.”
How I read this is that Lambert simply doesn’t trust Nyman defensively but does feel more comfortable putting Fisker Mølgaard in, if needed.
Wishing the Winterton family the best
Ryan Winterton has been absent from the Kraken roster for several days, and it was revealed Wednesday that his older brother, Jacob, passed away after a battle with cancer.
The #OHL is saddened to learn of the passing of Jacob Winterton following a courageous battle with cancer at the age of 25.
“Obviously, it’s an extremely difficult time for Ryan and his family,” Lambert said. “We’re obviously always very, very supportive of him. I can’t imagine… And certainly, we just want everyone from [the Winterton] family to be as good as they could possibly be. In terms of his game, when he comes back… We miss him, and we can use him.”
Devastating news. Ryan is such a genuinely nice young man and doesn’t deserve to experience this kind of loss. Wishing peace and love to the entire Winterton family and all those who were close to Jacob.
Other odds and ends
Jaden Schwartz, out indefinitely with an upper-body injury after getting inadvertently kicked in the face in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7, has been on the road trip—a good sign that he remains on the road to recovery after that scary incident.
Matty Beniers told me during his SOH Podcast interview that he thinks Seattle tends to get a “bad rap” around the league. I asked why this is, and he said he thought it was mostly related to the weather. He refuted the claim nicely. Give that interview a listen when it comes out; it’s a fun one.
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.
Sept. 22, 2018. That was the last time the Everett Silvertips hoisted a green-colored banner, their 2017-18 Western Conference championship banner to be specific, to the rafters at then-Xfinity (now Angel of the Winds) Arena in downtown Everett.
Despite three (technically four, counting the shortened 2021 season) U.S. Division titles, two Scotty Munro Trophies for best regular-season record, and never missing the playoffs, the ultimate prize of WHL champion has eluded the Silvertips’ grasp.
The Silvertips will host Games 1 and 2 of their first-round playoff series on Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28, against *gulp* their arch-rival Portland Winterhawks, the team that has knocked them out each of the last two seasons.
It sounds like a broken record at this point, but the Silvertips have been fixtures in the playoffs every season, qualifying all the way back to the franchise’s first year. In fact, to put into detail how impressive the team’s longevity of regular-season success is, all but one team in the WHL has missed the playoffs at least three times since the team entered the league in 2003-04. The lone team with only one miss is Medicine Hat. Insane.
Winning the Scotty Munro Trophy and having regular-season success is fun, but it’s not the ultimate goal.
“It signifies, obviously, we’ve had a good run here in the regular season,” head coach Steve Hamilton said. “It’s not the trophy we’re here to play for.”
The playoffs are “a whole different animal” for the Silvertips, especially of late. This year’s team just feels different, though.
Setting franchise records for wins (57), points (117) and goals (304) in a single season, many factors play into the Silvertips’ favor. They play at a pace much faster than everyone else, and it’s tough for opponents to match their energy. The team finished the season with four of the top five leaders in plus/minus in the WHL.
Led up front by Seattle Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen, his fellow Finn Matias Vanhanen, and Rylan Gould, alongside a cast of players such as Detroit Red Wings prospect Carter Bear and Zackary Shantz, the Silvertips boast a lineup of speed, versatility, and power. These are players who can will their team to victory night after night.
Landon DuPont leading the way on blue line
While the forward corps has been good, Everett’s bread and butter is on the blue line, particularly star defenseman Landon DuPont. Ahead of what is sure to be a hectic, attention-filled draft year for DuPont, the Calgary, Alberta, native has proven repeatedly this season why he is projected to be chosen first overall in 2027.
In 63 games this season, he scored 18 goals and added 55 assists. The intangibles and details that make up his game are worth the price of admission alone, and it will be fascinating to see his second go-around in the WHL playoffs. As a reminder, he’s still just 16 years old.
Having a player like him on the back end has been a key element to the team’s sustained success over the last two seasons. Anaheim Ducks third-rounder and Silvertips captain Tarin Smith attested to this.
“That kid does some ridiculous things with the puck,” Smith said. “I feel like no matter what he’s doing with it or where I am, like he can always find me,” Smith said. “It’s like, he’s got seven pairs of eyes all around his head.”
Along with the pairing of DuPont and Smith, the defensive corps is rounded out by reliable players such as Brek Liske and Kayd Ruedig.
And in goal, following in the long lineage of great Silvertips netminders, Anders Miller and Raiden LeGall have been steady all year. A 2.54 team save percentage ranks second in the league. There isn’t really a flash-of-the-leather type who can steal a game this year, but sometimes steadiness is all you need, and in the case of this team, that will be important if it expects to achieve its goal.
This year’s Memorial Cup is in Kelowna, British Columbia, about a five-hour drive from Everett. While it may be a bit premature to count eggs before they hatch and guarantee victory for the green and silver, let just say it’s a very convenient year for the tournament to be relatively close.
“We’re a confident group,” Smith said. “A lot of times, no matter what the scoreboard says or stuff like that, we know that no matter what, we have it in us.”
Seattle gets in
This season has been a rocky one for the Seattle Thunderbirds. What was expected to be a step-forward year turned into a process of finding the right pieces and putting everything together.
Trading Braeden Cootes midseason to Prince Albert put a dent in expectations, but acquiring Cameron Schmidt from Vancouver helped get the team back on track.
Finishing seventh in the Western Conference, the Thunderbirds will take on the Penticton Vees in their first playoff appearance since ascending from the BCHL. The Thunderbirds are always feisty in playoff series and aren’t an easy out by any means, so it will be interesting to see how they navigate this one against a good Vees team.
Header courtesy of Evan Morud and the Everett Silvertips.
Just when you think they’re 100 percent dead—season’s over, nothing left to see here—the Seattle Kraken rally back from a three-goal deficit in the third period… and still lose in a shootout to the Florida Panthers.
The single point in the standings means Seattle is now five points out of the last playoff spot with just 12 games remaining, two teams to jump, and they’re chasing the Nashville Predators, who are on a five-game win streak and a 7-2-1 heater over their last 10.
Seattle once again did not play with the urgency of a desperate team fighting for its playoff life until it fell behind 4-1 and recognized its season hung in the balance against a very beatable team.
Coach Lane Lambert threw his lines in a blender for this one, moving Berkly Catton to the top line with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers and dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Jani Nyman as a healthy scratch.
“I just felt like from a defenseman standpoint, I felt like Fleury needed to come in, and this gave us an opportunity to move our forwards around a little bit and double up on Catton and a couple other guys,” Lambert said. “So I thought worked out pretty well.”
I guess that tells you what Lambert thinks of Nyman’s performance in Columbus on Saturday.
Anyway, in a weird night for Joey Daccord, in which pucks were finding ways to skip through him, off him, and around him, he came up big in overtime. But his mates couldn’t find the game-winner and ultimately came up empty in the shootout.
Here are Three Takeaways from a wild 5-4 Kraken shootout loss to the Florida Panthers.
Takeaway 1: A furious comeback
This was a miserable game to watch for 54:17 of game time. But an outstanding individual effort by Matty Beniers and two quick strikes from Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann rallied the Kraken back from the dead and erased a 4-1 deficit in a span of just 2:23.
The comeback started with Beniers catching a high-to-low pass from Brandon Montour and driving hard to the net, then taking advantage of an overly aggressive Sergei Bobrovsky and pulling it around the netminder and into an open net as he was falling to the ice.
Matty Magic! 🚨
Impressive individual effort from Beniers, but still down by two, likely too little, too late. #SeaKraken
“Bobrovsky plays pretty aggressive,” Beniers said. “Earlier, I think in the first, [Berkly Catton], made a nice play to me coming down, and [Bobrovsky] was way out. So, I kind of knew if I could get to the weak side of the ice, I might be able to just tuck it in there.”
That goal, which came less than two minutes after a Shane Wright own goal that made it 4-1, seemed to give the team belief that it could get back in. Sure enough, Eberle stole a puck at the blue line and scored on a breakaway, then McMann did the exact same thing to tie the game just 12 seconds later.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨 TIE GAME! #SeaKraken have erased a three-goal deficit in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
“I think the guys were doing a good job tracking that one,” McMann said of what led to his goal. “And then I just had to stay on the puck and was able to pull it free, tried to separate with some speed, and was able to move laterally on him and get it in there.”
Now THAT is the urgency this team needs to show from the hop. They just never seem to find it until they’re way behind the eight ball.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re playing with that urgency all the time,” McMann said. “So it’s really good that we found it. But we’ve got to play with that from the drop of the puck, consistent throughout entire games to put those efforts forward.”
Takeaway 2: Kraken pick up Shane Wright
This was a tough night for Shane Wright. Immediately after two separate goals, he could be seen looking skyward and questioning his choices. The first came when he tried to sling a quick pass to Brandon Montour to start a breakout, but he missed his teammate’s stick by a solid two feet and instead put it on Carter Verhaeghe’s tape in the slot. Verhaeghe lost control of it, but scored with a bank shot off Joey Daccord from the corner. That goal made it 3-0 at 7:37 of the third period.
After Ryker Evans got a good bounce of his own—off the end wall, off Bobrovsky, and in—to finally get the Kraken on the board 33 seconds later at 8:10, another Wright miscue ended up in the Kraken net. This one was just a bad bounce that went off his stick and into an open goal, but Wright was once again left looking dejected as the score ticked up to 4-1.
Shane Wright did everything right on this play, except… where he redirected the puck.
“We turned the puck over on their fourth goal at their blue line. We can’t do that,” Lambert said, indicating that Brandon Montour shouldered more of the blame for that goal than Wright. “We pass it right to them in the slot on their third goal. We can’t do that. So, if we can eliminate those mistakes, there’s more positive days ahead than not. But again, this is what’s happening, and we’ve got to cut out those catastrophic errors.”
The Kraken didn’t quit after that, though. Instead, they picked up their young teammate and fought back into the game.
“Things like that happen,” Beniers said. “I can think of five or six off the top of my head that I remember pretty clearly on my mistakes. So everyone makes mistakes; it’s a game of mistakes. He did a good job of brushing it off and going back out to the next shift and playing his game. And that’s a really hard thing to do, especially when it goes off your stick and finds the back to the net. It sucks. He knows we’ve got him.”
Takeaway 3: A night of milestones
It was a big milestone night, with Aaron Ekblad playing his 800th NHL game, all with the Panthers; Paul Maurice becoming just the second coach in history behind Scotty Bowman to coach his 2,000th NHL game; and Adam Larsson skating in his 1,000th NHL game.
That brought lots of good vibes to an optional morning skate on Tuesday, where Kraken players, coaches, and staff donned special Adam Larsson t-shirts commemorating the accomplishment, and he waxed poetic about his time in the league and in Seattle.
“It’s kind of hard to reflect on the whole journey to get here, but it’s been awesome,” Larsson said. “My last five years in Seattle has probably been the most fun I’ve had going to the rink on a daily basis. Obviously, we’ve had some tough seasons, but it’s still been very fun to come to the rink and kind of be around the guys and all that kind of stuff. So to look back all the way to my first year is pretty crazy.”
Considering there’s been some conversation around our Sound Of Hockey community recently about top players not wanting to come to Seattle, Larsson saying these have been some of his best times in hockey is somewhat reassuring.
Larsson has had a lot of support along his way to 1,000 and has endured some difficult times—especially during his Edmonton years, when he lost his father unexpectedly. Robert Larsson, a former pro hockey player himself, died in 2018 at age 50, when Adam was just 25 years old.
But Seattle has given Larsson the change of scenery he needed.
“I was looking for a fresh start. I got that, and I’ve had some just amazing teammates, coaches, support staff, and all that kind of stuff.”
Seeking the opposition’s perspective, I asked the always thoughtful and eloquent Paul Maurice about Larsson’s game and how he’d describe him “as a competitor.”
“That’s the word that you would fire out when you describe him,” Maurice said. “The change of defensemen over the last 30 years is that style of defense would have been a really big, bruising, fighting defenseman 30 years ago. They play just as tough now, but it’s a different style of game. So, he’s hard on pucks, he’s hard in corners, he’s hard net front, he can move the puck, he can get up ice, but his calling is that 1-on-1 battle area. So to be good at that, you have to do it every night. That’s where the strength of his career has been for me is that he’s been very consistent in his compete level.”
Maurice, by the way, got a nice ovation from the relatively light home crowd at Amerant Bank Arena and gave a heartfelt wave when he was recognized for his truly exceptional milestone Tuesday night.
Larsson said the best advice he ever received was, “Believe in yourself. I’ve never doubted myself by any means, but I’ve gone through some tough stretches, tough years, and stuck with it. I’ve had some tremendous leaders, coaches and kind of brings you back again, and that’s been a huge part.”
The Kraken did believe in themselves this night, at least in the third period. But it wasn’t quite enough to make Larsson’s 1,000th game unforgettable.
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.
From the friendly skies, hello and welcome to a WRITTEN version of the Sound Of Hockey Patreon Mailbag. I’m en route to South Florida, where I’ll catch up with the embattled Seattle Kraken for the next two contests against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, games from which they desperately need to pick up some standings points.
Last week, we recorded our monthly Patreon Mailbag podcast episode, delivered as one of the benefits of being a Sound Of Hockey Patreon subscriber. We answered the below questions and many more, but those verbal answers are typically off the cuff and intentionally lead to debate between myself and my co-hosts, John Barr and Curtis Isacke.
We always get great questions from our Patreon subscribers, but after spending some time thinking about some of these questions, I wanted to put more thoughtful responses down on paper. I’m offering this written version up to all Sound Of Hockey readers in the hopes that a few more of you may be inclined to join our Patreon community by clicking here.
Either way, enjoy!
John O. – “If you could lock up Bobby McMann before July 1, how much money and term do you think would do the trick, and how much would be too much?”
The Bobby McMann contract situation is such a fascinating one. Despite being 29 years old, he’s really only been a full-time NHLer for the last two seasons, and he’s scored 43 goals in that time, plus 15 more as a part-timer in 2023-24.
With that lack of experience comes a current contract that pays him just $1.35 million AAV. Also bearing in mind that this could be the only time McMann can really cash in on the open market, his salary is set to skyrocket on his next deal.
Will that next deal come in Seattle or elsewhere? How much will it take for the Kraken to keep him around and forgo his one chance in his prime years to hit unrestricted free agency? Is he viewed as a player who will consistently rack up 25-ish goals, now that he’s completed his long and winding journey to the NHL?
My guess is that if he continues producing, even sporadically, the rest of the season, the Kraken will want him back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they feel the need to go north of $5 million per year over, say, five years. But even then, the opportunity to choose his next playing home could prove too enticing to keep him in the Pacific Northwest. I would be hesitant to offer a player with this short of a track record anything more than the $4-5 million range, and that already feels quite rich.
One other thing to consider: McMann burst onto the scene with four goals and two assists in his first three games with the Kraken. In the two games since—at Nashville and at Columbus—he’s been held off the scoresheet. This aligns with the “streaky scorer” scouting report that we received upon his acquisition from Toronto, so it may behoove the Kraken to wait a little longer and see if he keeps piling up numbers or if his early output was just a “new team” bump.
Anna R. – “It seems like we will either barely make it or barely not make it to the playoffs. I don’t see any of our players in development as a generational talent. How can the Kraken get better if they don’t tank? Right now it seems like we will be perpetually in the middle.”
I don’t blame you for feeling this way, Anna, and I’ve also been struggling to understand the big-picture plan from the organization (you likely heard me complaining about the state of the franchise on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast or in this Three Takeaways).
One thing that is encouraging to me is that Seattle has successfully developed several of its players into full-time NHLers. We all would have hoped to see Shane Wright take another step this year—and I do worry that if they end up cutting bait and trading him, he’ll immediately flourish in a different system with more offensive talent around him.
But aside from Wright, Seattle also has Jacob Melanson, Jani Nyman, Ryan Winterton, and Ryker Evans on the current roster after drafting those players and bringing them up through Coachella Valley. Plus, there’s Matty Beniers and Berkly Catton, who made the jump straight to the NHL, and Joey Daccord, who one could argue was “developed” by the Kraken organization after they plucked him from Ottawa in the 2021 Expansion Draft.
So that’s roughly a third of the roster made up of young players who were either drafted and went straight to the NHL or spent time with the Firebirds before ascending. And of course, there are other young players knocking on the door, and it likely won’t be long before we see Jake O’Brien in deep sea blue.
The draft-and-develop plan takes an exceedingly long time, though, as we’re seeing. Now that those young players are starting to arrive, it’s not like they can jump in and dominate the league. We still have to wait for them to mature into veteran players, and even then, there’s no guarantee they will become core contributors.
So how does the front office speed up that process? I see just one possible route: cashing in some of the extensive draft capital the Kraken have built up from being sellers three out of their first four years and finding creative ways to land a couple of star players via trade. General manager Jason Botterill and president of hockey ops Ron Francis have implied at times that they want to make these kinds of moves and that they don’t intend to use all the draft picks they’ve obtained, but aside from a few moves for middle-of-the-pack players, they’ve never made a big swing.
If they’re serious about improving faster than just waiting on the kids to become the core of the team, this is the route they’ll need to take.
Kendall A. – “Should I get a Melanson jersey?”
That’s a fantastic question about a topic I generally enjoy and one I’ve oddly put a lot of thought into over the years: maximizing your jersey selection return on investment.
First, let me say that you can’t really go wrong with any player name/number. (I’m not a big fan of personalized ones with the fan’s name or some random saying or nickname on the back, but I know these are also popular choices, and I don’t dump on people who go this route; it’s just not my personal jam.)
As for narrowing it down and deciding which player’s jersey to buy, there are two factors that make for a “good” selection. The first is landing on a player with staying power. You can maximize your return by choosing a relatively young player you expect to stick with the team for a long time.
But I also find value in some level of obscurity—choosing a jersey that won’t show up on 1,000 of your closest friends when you attend a game. For example, we all expect Matty Beniers to stick with the team for many years, and he’s a big fan favorite. So although No. 10 is probably a safe purchase in terms of long-term relevance, you’ll be but a mere foot soldier in an army of Beniers jersey-wearers. It’s just a bit too “mainstream” for my liking.
Having said all that, although I have strong opinions about what makes a good jersey selection, I’m not a big purchaser of jerseys. I’ve only bought two players’ jerseys over my many years of hockey fandom. One was a massive hit in terms of value, and the other was Chris Driedger, purchased in advance of the Kraken’s inaugural season when I thought he’d be the “1B” goalie to Philipp Grubauer for several years (he played 29 total games for Seattle across three seasons).
The “massive hit” was a Jonas Brodin Minnesota Wild jersey that I bought during his second season in the NHL, when he was just 20 years old. In retrospect, it was a risky bet, because Brodin was so young that there was no telling at the time if he’d stick around long-term. But 12 years later, he still flies under the radar—meaning his jersey isn’t all that mainstream—and he’s still logging 20-plus minutes per night for the Wild.
Now, back to Kendall’s actual question: “Should I buy a Melanson jersey?” There’s some risk there. Melanson has mostly stuck with the NHL team this season and has been a big part of its success when Seattle has strung together wins. But he’s also been a healthy scratch at times and never plays big minutes.
If he sticks as a Kraken for at least five years, you’ve knocked it out of the park by purchasing his jersey. If he doesn’t, you’ll end up with a relic. Relics are also cool (my favorite Kraken jersey I’ve seen in the wild is a Dennis Cholowski jersey), but you have to recognize that this is a real possibility with Melanson.
If you’re comfortable accepting that risk, I say buy the jersey.
Paul W. – “Would you rather play Colorado in the first round or secure the fifth-best lottery odds in this year’s draft?”
That’s a tough call, but I’d rather play Colorado. A fifth-overall pick is great, but realistically, whoever that player ends up being is at least three or four years away from making a real impact. I’d like the Kraken to start accomplishing their stated goal of making the playoffs every year.
Plus, the Avalanche have faced such little adversity this season that you just never know what can happen.
Adam R. – “It seems like Seattle is not a desirable location for a lot of players in the league. Why? Is it just the lack of proven success? We’re a no-tax location (for now), with a state-of-the-art practice facility and a brand-new barn. Winters are pretty mild, though not sunny. What gives?”
I do think it’s a lack of success. Players are treated very well and have first-class facilities, plus an ownership group committed to spending whatever it takes to be considered a top-flight organization. But if a player has a say in where he lands and can choose between the warm, sunny weather of Dallas, Vegas, Florida, Tampa Bay, or even Carolina—five organizations that have either won recently or appear ready to win—versus a team that has so far demonstrated that it is simply waiting for its kids to become the core, why would he choose rainy Seattle?
While fans need a clear vision and direction to get on board and fill the arena, I think this is also true of players. Before they sign a five-year contract to uproot their families and move to a dreary (in the winter) and expensive city, they want to know they’ll be able to win and put up their own personal stats so they can still make good money on their next contract. The Kraken are built to be a defense-first team, and the coaches that have been hired (and fired, in Dan Bylsma’s case) reinforce this line of thinking. Big offensive numbers are hard to come by for Kraken players, aside from Year 2 when everything seemed to click under Dave Hakstol.
The Kraken don’t have a great track record of winning or allowing players to flourish offensively at this point, and that is creating a vicious cycle for them.
Connor D. – “If you had to play a round of golf using only one club, which one would you pick?”
When I read this question on the Patreon Mailbag podcast, I was wavering between a six iron and a seven iron. Now that I’ve thought about it for a few days (and I have thought about it), I’ve landed on a seven iron. I’m obviously sacrificing distance off the tee by choosing a mid-iron, but I want something with enough loft that I can still chip around the green, because I know I won’t be hitting many greens without a full complement of clubs. The seven is the longest club I’m comfortable using for chipping. Plus, I can still hit my seven about 170 yards with decent accuracy, so even on a 500-yard par five, if I hit my first two shots 170 and 170, I’m within range of the green in regulation on my third shot. A long par four will be bad news, but such is life.
So, seven iron is the play. Putting will be hard, but that would be true of any club in the bag other than the putter, and I’m not using the putter as my one club.
(From the SOH Discord) – FMammal: “I think Darren’s too depressed to make a Three Takeaways for the CBJ game.” LoveMonkey: “Do we need a wellness check for Darren?”
I do appreciate the concern. I’m fine, I just couldn’t bring myself to waste another hour or two of my beautiful Saturday writing about that miserable game after I had already invested three hours of agony into watching it.
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.
It was a devastating week for the Kraken, yet remarkably, they remain in the playoff hunt, albeit hanging on the outside right now. This is uncharted territory for the franchise, which has never truly been in a nip‑and‑tuck race to get into the playoffs. In three of their four seasons, the Kraken were obvious sellers at the deadline and well out of the picture by March. The only exception was Season 2, when they maintained an eight‑point cushion and never really flirted with falling out.
That’s what makes this stretch so frustrating. The opportunity has been sitting right there, practically begging to be taken, because every other wild‑card hopeful has been stumbling too. Seattle, San Jose, and Los Angeles went a combined 1‑7‑2 last week. And the Pacific ineptitude doesn’t stop there: the teams holding the conference playoff spots went 4‑5‑1. It’s been a mess across the board, which only makes the Kraken’s skid feel that much worse. If Seattle had simply split their four games against Nashville and St. Louis, they’d be in a wild-card spot, two points behind Edmonton for third place in the division, and three points behind Vegas for second place with two games in hand on both those teams.
The Kraken aren’t playing poorly, but they’re also not elevating their game at a time when most of the league finds a way to do exactly that. Yes, two of their last three losses came against high‑caliber teams in Tampa Bay and the red‑hot Columbus Blue Jackets, but with a 4‑9‑0 record in 13 games since the Olympic break, that explanation doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
Ice‑cold scoring
The Kraken have averaged just 2.6 goals per game since the break, and even that number feels a bit inflated thanks to three games where they scored five or more goals. That’s good enough for 25th in the league since the break. They’ve scored more than two goals in only four of 13 games since returning. Their shooting percentage sits in the lower half of the league, and their shots on goal per game rank 26th. Shot quality hasn’t been terrible, their high‑danger and medium‑danger chances are only slightly below average, but the finishing simply isn’t there.
The OG: Adam Larsson
The Big Cat is set to play in his 1,000th NHL game on Tuesday as the Kraken take on the Florida Panthers. I’ll always have a soft spot for the players who chose to be here in that inaugural season. Larsson was technically an expansion pick from Edmonton, but he signed with Seattle during the exclusive expansion‑draft signing window, a subtle but meaningful distinction.
He’s been a perfect fit from Day 1: steady, reliable, and quietly one of the emotional anchors of the room. He’s not the guy in front of the camera, but he’s often the one facing the media after some of the toughest losses in franchise history. He also chose to sign an extension after the disappointing 2023–24 season, when it would’ve been easy to look elsewhere.
Larsson holds the franchise records for time on ice and games played, and he’s missed only one game in Kraken history — to be there for the birth of his first child. Stick taps for the Big Cat.
The fourth line had a rough night in Columbus. One of the primary jobs of a fourth line is simply not to get scored on, and they were on the ice for all three of Columbus’s first‑period goals. Plus/minus isn’t everything, but Jani Nyman is a minus‑five in just over 14 minutes of NHL ice time since being called up.
One bright spot since the Olympic break: the penalty kill. The Kraken have killed 86 percent of their penalties, third‑best in the league over that span.
It’s not saying much, but the Kraken are the best team in the Pacific when playing other Pacific teams. They have five divisional games left.
I know it won’t be feasible for everyone, but seeing the Kraken play in Finland sounds like an incredible experience. Based on all the texts I’ve received since the announcement, I am not the only one who thinks so.
Injuries are part of the game, but it really stings not having some of Seattle’s top forwards available. With so many close games, it’s not hard to imagine guys like Jaden Schwartz and (more recently) Jared McCann could have made a difference.
Congratulations to the Wisconsin Badgers on winning the Women’s National Championship. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on women’s hockey, but I’ve casually watched for over a decade, and the skill level this weekend was unlike anything I’ve seen from the college game. The talent pool is deep and trending upward.
On the NCAA men’s side, the Kraken will have three prospects in the 16‑team NCAA tournament: Clarke Caswell (Denver), Zaccharya Wisdom (Western Michigan), and Ollie Josephson (North Dakota). The tournament kicks off Thursday.
I mentioned this on the most recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast, but the Seattle Torrent now average the highest attendance across the league. If you haven’t been to a game yet, check them out. Those games are a ton of fun.
Player performances
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (CVF/SEA) – OFM posted two goals and three assists over two games for Coachella Valley, including the overtime winner.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) March 22, 2026
Jake O’Brien (BFD/SEA) – O’Brien had eight points over the Brantford Bulldogs’ final two regular‑season games. He finished the year leading the OHL in assists and placed third in points. The Bulldogs open their playoffs Friday against the Sudbury Wolves.
Semyon Vyazovoi (SLA/SEA) – The Russian goaltending prospect closed out his KHL season with a 39‑save shutout. He finished fifth in the league in save percentage. The KHL playoffs begin this week.
The week ahead
I don’t say this lightly: this could be the nail‑in‑the‑coffin week for the Seattle Kraken. They have one of the toughest stretches on their schedule at the worst possible time. After having already lost at Nashville and Columbus, they’ll face Florida on Tuesday, Tampa Bay on Thursday, and then a Saturday matinee against world-beating Buffalo Sabres. Even Florida, who will be looking for payback after their embarrassing loss in Seattle last week, will be a tough out. There’s a chance Tampa Bay and Buffalo ease off the gas as they prepare for the playoffs, but I wouldn’t count on it.
The Kraken put themselves in this position by squandering opportunities over the last few weeks. Anything less than three points, which is a big ask, will likely push them out of realistic playoff contention.
The NHL is sending the Seattle Kraken overseas next fall for a two‑game set in Helsinki as part of the 2026 NHL Global Series.
Seattle will face the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 12 and 14 at Veikkaus Arena, home of Jokerit and a building that has seen plenty of Finnish hockey history. These will be the first regular‑season games the Kraken have ever played outside North America.
The Kraken currently boast three Finnish players on the roster: Kaapo Kakko, Eeli Tolvanen, and Jani Nyman, though it is worth pointing out that Tolvanen is set to be a free agent this summer if the Kraken don’t sign him to an extension before the July 1 free agency period. In addition to the current rostered players, the Kraken have several Finnish prospects in the pipeline: Ville Ottavainen, Nikke Kokko, Julius Miettinen, Kim Saarinen, and Visa Vedenpää.
Why Finland? Why now?
The NHL has been taking regular‑season games to Europe for more than a decade, to help expand the fanbases that follow the league from afar. Finland, in particular, has become a staple stop, a hockey‑mad country with a deep connection to the NHL and a long list of stars who grew up dreaming of playing in the league.
Carolina, meanwhile, will be making its second trip to Finland for regular‑season play. They bring their own Finnish firepower in Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, so expect the locals to have plenty of rooting interests on both sides.
For fans in Seattle, this trip offers a rare and unique chance to see the Kraken play abroad while experiencing a foreign country. If you’ve ever wanted to combine a Kraken road trip with a European vacation, this is your moment.
Game times
Nov. 12: 7:00 p.m. EET / 9:00 a.m. PT
Nov. 14: 8:00 p.m. EET / 10:00 a.m. PT
Fans traveling to Helsinki should also expect a slate of events celebrating the NHL’s presence in Finland. More information is located here, and there’s also a sign-up page for fans looking for information on travel packages.
And really, that’s what makes this whole thing interesting. For a team that’s still figuring out who it is in the grand scheme of the NHL, a trip like this isn’t just a novelty stamped into the schedule, it’s a unique moment to reach fans abroad while creating a fun experience for fans making the trip. A little weird, a little cool, and very on‑brand for a franchise that somehow ended up with a ton of Finns in its prospect pool.
For the Finnish guys on the team, it’s a homecoming. For everyone else, it’s a chance to play in a country where hockey is basically a civic duty. And for fans, whether you’re actually making the trek or just rolling out of bed for a 9 a.m. puck drop, it’s something different, the good kind of different.
