Splish splash, went the Seattle Kraken on the first day of their first-ever NHL free agency period. When the waves of last week’s Expansion Draft calmed into ripples, Seattle had three relatively young goalies in the fold in Chris Driedger, Vitek Vanecek, and Joey Daccord. But the makeup of the team’s goaltending platoon changed dramatically on Wednesday when the Kraken signed the top backstop on the unrestricted free agent market, Philipp Grubauer, to a six-year deal worth north of $35 million.
The 29-year-old Rosenheim, Germany, native was a Vezina Trophy finalist this past season, after putting up outstanding numbers in Colorado. He finished the year with a 30-9-1 record, boasting a 1.95 goals against average and .922 save percentage in 40 games. Those numbers are not an anomaly. Throughout his career, which spans six seasons with the Capitals and three seasons with the Avalanche, his save percentage is an impressive .920 in 214 games. He also won a Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018, though he only had a couple of playoff appearances that year, with Braden Holtby getting the vast majority of playing time.
There was plenty of talk prior to the Expansion Draft that the Kraken would select Carey Price and his monster $10.5 million annual cap hit for the next five years. General manager Ron Francis confirmed at the time that he and his staff had seriously considered it, but they ultimately decided it was just too big of an investment. Instead, they went the UFA route to bring in Grubauer, who is four years younger than Price and will cost them $5.9 million against the cap. So, it’s a big contract, but in the context of what Seattle almost had, this is a fair price and term for an elite NHL netminder.
Grubauer is not gigantic by goalie standards at 6-foot-1, 188 pounds, but he plays big in the net. He has quiet feet and reads the play in front of him exceptionally well. With that anticipation, he puts himself in position to make the save just about every time.
“We’re excited to add a goaltender of Philipp’s caliber, especially coming off of a season where he was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy,” Francis said via press release. “He was a part of a Stanley Cup-winning team and has been one of the top goaltenders in the league over the past few seasons, and we’re happy that he chose to join our team.”
Seattle is poised to have a strong blue line in its inaugural season, and with a top-tier netminder playing behind it, this is going to be a hard team against which to score goals. The question remains whether the Kraken will be able to score goals of their own, although they did make a couple more moves on Thursday in adding Jaden Schwartz and Alex Wennberg to address that concern.
Vitek Vanecek traded back to Capitals
Though Francis previously made it sound like he and his staff were very comfortable going into the season with Driedger and Vanecek as their battery, we at Sound Of Hockey had a hunch the team still hoped to add a more veteran goalie either through free agency or trade. Though both of those netminders are promising, it just seemed unlikely that this team would bank so heavily on two players with essentially one full year of NHL experience each and zero years as a true No. 1 starter. Going with that combo was always Plan B.
“We took Vitek Vanacek thinking that he’d be part of our goaltending tandem with Chris Dreidger,” Francis said Wednesday. “I don’t think we expected Grubauer to get to free agency. I think any team would tell you when you’ve got a goaltender that has that experience you’ll sleep a lot better at night.”
The Grubauer signing meant that the Kraken needed to jettison one of their goalies. Driedger just signed a three-year contract and was one of the six players the Kraken trotted out on stage at the Expansion Draft, so they clearly saw him as part of the puzzle. Vanecek would require waivers to get to the AHL, so the Kraken opted to move him and get an asset out of the selection. Remarkably, they are getting a second-round pick in 2023 back from the Capitals, the team from which they snagged him just one week ago.
The #SeaKraken have traded goaltender Vitek Vanecek to the Washington Capitals for a second round pick in the 2023 #NHLDraft.
With Vanecek out, the Kraken still have north of $16 million in cap space. They do need to get Vince Dunn under contract still (we project him in the range of $3 million to $3.5 million), plus perhaps their three other RFA’s, Carsen Twarynski, Dennis Cholowski, and Will Borgen. Those three will likely be on two-way deals, though, so they can be assigned to the AHL and will not count against the cap.
There are likely a lot more moves coming in this condensed offseason, but starting your inaugural campaign with a good blue line, elite goal crease, decent forward group, and more than $10 million in cap space is a pretty good spot for Seattle.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Remember when the Expansion Draft happened… like… a year ago? Oh, what? It was last Wednesday? Well, it certainly feels like it happened much longer ago, because so much has transpired for the Seattle Kraken in such a short period of time. In the frenzy of pre-Expansion Draft activity, one particular little nugget of news briefly showed its face before retreating back down into the depths of Lake Union. The Seattle Kraken had apparently had conversations with free agent left wing Jaden Schwartz about signing him and in turn selecting him from the St. Louis Blues. The conversations happened during Seattle’s 48-hour exclusive window in which it could negotiate with unrestricted free agents.
The Kraken had contract talks with pending UFA Jaden Schwartz but ultimately did not sign him during the window which just closed, source confirms. So the Kraken's pick will be another Blues player. Dunn? Tarasenko?@TSNHockey@TheAthletic
Sure enough, the Kraken did circle back with Schwartz, and on Tuesday, the day before free agency officially opens, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reported that the deal was done.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the terms of the contract were unknown, but Schwartz is coming off of a five-year deal that carried an annual $5.35 million hit against the salary cap.
What the Kraken have in Jaden Schwartz
With the hockey world clamoring for the Kraken to snag Vladimir Tarasenko and his $7.5 million cap hit in the Expansion Draft, the team resisted and instead selected 24-year-old defenseman Vince Dunn from the Blues.
Why that’s relevant here is that one has to wonder if Schwartz was truly ready to sign with Seattle during its 48-hour exclusive negotiating window, but the team instead opted to have him wait so it could also get Dunn. Whether that’s the case or not, it’s a masterful job by general manager Ron Francis and company to end up with two very valuable pieces from St. Louis instead of one.
So what do the Kraken have in Schwartz? Well, first and foremost, he possesses the “never quit” attitude that Seattle clearly values in the players it has brought in so far. Watch him get in on the forecheck to pry a puck loose, then find a quiet spot in front of the net and bat the cross-crease pass out of the air to give his team a late lead in the 2018-19 opening playoff round against Winnipeg.
That season, when the Blues won the Stanley Cup, Schwartz played an enormous role, potting 12 goals in total and adding eight assists in the postseason. In the below video, you’ll get a good understanding of the types of goals that Schwartz scores. He has a nose for the net, and he’s willing to grind and battle in front to find space. But he also has good puck skills and regularly uses his exceptional hand-eye coordination to find and re-direct pucks.
The 29-year-old Wilcox, Saskatchewan, native remains a fan favorite in St. Louis, and it was interesting to see replies from Blues fans on Twitter Tuesday, who were generally quite angry that the team had reportedly lost Schwartz to the Kraken. That’s typically a good sign. In fact, even the Blues themselves apparently find him to be quite marketable, being that he still adorns the homepage of their website.
Jaden Schwartz by the numbers
In ten total seasons with St. Louis, Schwartz had 154 goals and 231 assists in the regular season, plus 26 goals and 28 assists in the playoffs. His peak offensive output came in 2014-15, when he posted 63 points in 75 games, including 28 goals. Schwartz was drafted No. 14 overall by St. Louis in 2010 after one season with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. He then played two seasons at Colorado College before turning pro and splitting his first season between the AHL and NHL.
He really emerged as a mainstay in the top six for the Blues in 2013-14 when he erupted for 25 goals and 31 assists. His possession numbers have been good over the course of his career as well (he was a plus player in Corsi for and expected goals for percentages in 2019-20), but those dipped into the minuses in the shortened 2020-21, when he also missed time with injury.
We shall see what the details of the contract are when they are announced (we assume) on Wednesday, but if the Kraken got even a fair deal here, Jaden Schwartz is a great signing that should be a huge factor in the early days of this organization.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
What a week it was. The Seattle Kraken held an Expansion Draft, participated in an NHL Entry Draft, and signed some UFA’s all in one week. It probably was the busiest week the Kraken will ever experience.
A lot happened, starting with the Expansion Draft held at Gas Works Park.
The anticipation was high thanks to some of the big names that were left exposed to the Kraken. On top of that, the hockey world expected so many side deals that Seattle was going to have a bucket of extra NHL Draft picks – yes, they keep those in buckets.
Well, the party was fun, but we didn’t get big-name vets nor extra draft picks.
That led to the NHL Entry Draft where Seattle had seven picks and selected seven players. Matty Beniers was the prize, and Seattle snapped up a great player up with the No. 2 pick.
When the week ended, the Kraken had a full roster of players, seven new prospects, and a ton of cap space to keep tinkering with the roster. Here’s a look back at the week that was.
Expanding on Kraken Expansion Draft
We didn’t get the side deals we were hoping for, and Ron Francis didn’t spend all his money loading up on veterans with big contracts. In the end, the Kraken went young.
Seattle has two players over 30 years of age – Jordan Eberle (31) and Mark Giordano (37) – and 17 who are 25 or younger. The defense looks solid with Giordano, Adam Larsson, and the big Jamie Oleksiak. Up front there are solid vets like Yanni Gourde, Eberle, Joonas Donskoi, and Jared McCann. Most of the scoring is on the wings, and at first glance, the Kraken are a bit of a donut team – missing centers.
But before we start planning for the 2022 NHL Draft lottery, let’s wait to see the finished product.
“We’ll see what things happen here over the next few months, but you know we like to say this is kind of a snapshot in time,” Francis said following the Expansion Draft at Gas Works Park. “There’s still opportunities. We’re going to draft on Friday night with the second pick overall and we might get a guy that can step into our lineup.
“Then on Monday, you have the qualifying offers that are necessary for restricted free agents and there might be some guys that shake loose. We certainly will be looking at free agency next week and then, you know, as you go through the summer there are teams that have to get cap compliant to start the season. We have some cap space, and we’ll look at taking advantage of that if we can.”
So, not done.
Francis has over $30 million in cap space available to him on Tuesday, the day before NHL free agency opens on Wednesday morning. That doesn’t mean he’s going to go on a shopping spree by throwing money at every top free agent on the market, but there will be additions to the roster.
Only three teams have more cap space and two of them – Detroit and Buffalo – are in serious rebuilds and are unlikely to be big-time buyers this week. Seattle will be able to offer a potential free agent more money than their competitors.
On top of that, the Expansion Draft show at Gas Works demonstrated to the league how amazing Seattle is and how rabid the fans are before one puck has been sent deep. The Kraken should be attractive.
Getting playing time and stepping up
Joining an expansion team means some players will be getting more playing time and will be put in better positions than with their previous teams. Example No. 1 is William Karlsson with the Vegas Golden Knights.
When Vegas selected Karlsson from Columbus, the center had never scored more than nine goals in any season. Year one in Vegas? 43.
That’s not to say that Seattle has a Karlsson sitting on its roster now, but there are some players who could benefit from more minutes in an elevated role.
One player to watch here is Morgan Geekie.
Morgan Geekie has scored everywhere he’s played. (Checkers photo)
Playing mostly in the bottom six on a talented Hurricanes roster last year, the 23-year-old center scored just three times along with six points. But he’s scored every other stop in his career. In junior, with the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Geekie had back-to-back 30-plus goal seasons before turning pro.
In the AHL, he has two full seasons with the Charlotte Checkers in which he scored 19 and 22 goals respectively.
He has a chance in Seattle to move up the forward rotation.
Geekie was relegated to just under 10 minutes a game last season and only generated .8 shots per game. But, in the AHL when he was a top-six player in 2019-20 – his best year – he produced 2.34 shots a contest and shot an impressive 17 percent. In his rookie year in the AHL, he shot 20 percent.
The kid can shoot.
Even in his limited role last year in the NHL he shot a healthy 10 percent.
His underlying numbers with the Hurricanes last year are also encouraging as he was a positive possession player and had an expected goal (xG) percentage of 52 percent.
What will his offensive numbers be if he gets 15 or 20 minutes a game with the Kraken?
Matty Ice first-ever Kraken draft pick
There was not a whole lot of drama at the top of Friday’s NHL Draft. Buffalo took Owen Power as nearly every single person predicted, and that cleared Seattle to select Michigan center Matty Beniers.
It’s an exciting pick. Not only is he the first Kraken drafted but he’s a player that checks off a lot of boxes. He can score, play defense, and make his linemates better.
“I think what tipped the scales into his favor is his unbelievable enthusiasm and work ethic,” Kraken director of amateur scouting Robert Kron said. “He’s got a never quit attitude and his energy level is very high at the beginning of the shift or late in the shift. He plays a very strong game in all three zones, and on top of that will show that he’s got incredible offensive upside as well.”
Beniers was also part of history as never before had two teammates gone first and second overall. By the end of the night, Michigan had four players selected over the first five picks. That includes Luke Hughes, who will be a freshman at Michigan next year.
With a loaded lineup, the Wolverines could be favorites to win the Frozen Four. That is, of course, assuming all four guys come back to college which is now the big question for Seattle. Will Beniers sign before the season or return for one more college year and sign with the Kraken in the spring?
“Honestly, I really don’t know what exactly the best thing is for me next year,” Beniers said Friday in the Zoom call with media. “Whether it’s going back or going to play for the Kraken.
“Obviously, I think that’d be really exciting to get to play with the Kraken. I think going back another year to keep building confidence [would be important] … But I think at the end of the day it’s what is the right thing for me to do as a hockey player and as a person?”
You have to love that maturity.
Will Beniers eventually wear a ‘C’?
Leadership is a big thing in hockey and the captain holds a special place within a team. Beniers has been praised by scouts as a leader with the Michigan team.
He was impressive in his press tour after the draft and has ‘future captain’ written all over him. There are different types of leaders. Some will be vocal, with a lot of yelling and screaming and maybe smashing something, while others will lead by example.
Both can be effective if the right guy is in place.
“I’m grateful that other people see me as a leader,” Beniers said. “I think for me it’s just being a guy that people are going to approach. It’s setting the example for other guys, whether it’s off the ice, on the ice, or in the locker room.
“For me, the way I lead I think it’s not as much talking, saying things people already know. It’s kind of going out there and showing them, showing them by example, lead by example, and doing the hard stuff out there. Hopefully, guys will follow, and I think that’s how to build really good team chemistry.”
What a great answer.
Draft day two
If you watched and managed to stay awake during the unbearable length of NHL Draft day two, you saw the Kraken select six more players in rounds two through seven.
Perhaps the most intriguing pick for Seattle came in the third round when the Kraken selected center Ryan Winterton from the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. The OHL did not play last season due to COVID-19 which meant Winterton had no film or live viewings to impress scouts until he played seven games for Canada at the U18 World Championships.
He did play in 53 games as a 16-year-old for Hamilton in 2019-20 and scored 12 goals and 23 points which are impressive numbers for a rookie in the OHL. It’s one of the more fascinating aspects of this year’s draft as amateur leagues were up and down, shortened, and in Winterton’s case, canceled.
Hamilton rookie Ryan Winterton scores his 10th goal of the season.
But, reading the wrap-ups from the myriad of draft experts, Winterton is a guy that consistently was praised by those that have seen him play as a great pick by the Kraken. So, tune in to some Bulldogs games this coming season.
Best moment of the week that was for the Kraken
There was so much good that went down over the past week in Kraken land. They have a roster and at the Expansion Draft party, there were six actual NHL players wearing actual Kraken jerseys. It doesn’t get much better than that. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.
But, the best moment of the week was witnessed by just a handful of people.
Just prior to the Expansion Draft show starting, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman held a pre-draft media scrum with the local press. The scrum was held behind the stage right at the Lake Union water’s edge. The handful of reporters and television cameras attracted the kayakers and boaters that were out enjoying the sunny weather.
As is tradition, the kayakers booed Bettman. Always willing to play the heel, Bettman turned around and yelled to the booers, “That just proves that you are true hockey fans.” The result? The boos turned to cheers and a ‘Gary!’ chant broke out from the kayakers, paddle boarders, and a nearby boat.
The Seattle Kraken are armed with enough salary cap space to make legitimate runs at highly sought-after players when the free agency period opens Wednesday morning. We reviewed the top 10 free agents available entering free agency to evaluate the chances of the Seattle Kraken landing one of the big fish that will be on the market.
Gabriel Landeskog – Forward – Colorado Avalanche
Estimated Term and Salary: Seven years at $8 million to $9 million per year.
It’s no secret that Gabriel Landeskog, the rugged 28-year-old winger, will be coveted in free agency. The current captain of the Colorado Avalanche has averaged close to a point per game over the last three seasons. Most prognosticators never thought Landeskog would reach free agency and would just sign an extension with the Avalanche, but here we are. All 32 teams would love having a guy like Landeskog on their rosters, but very few have the salary cap space to make that kind of a commitment.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Moderate. Seattle certainly has the space and the need for someone like Landeskog, but he might be more interested in taking his services to a true Stanley Cup contender before taking his chance on an expansion franchise.
Dougie Hamilton – Defenseman – Carolina Hurricanes
Estimated Term and Salary: Seven years at $8 million to $9 million per year.
Hamilton is the standout defenseman in this year’s crop of free agents, and like Landeskog, can probably pick his spot. He is a big, scoring defenseman that will likely quarterback the power play wherever he lands.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Slim. The Kraken prioritized defense in the Expansion Draft and Mark Giordano is probably penciled in to run the power play.
Philipp Grubauer – Goalie – Colorado Avalanche
Estimated Term and Salary: Five years at $6 million to $7 million per year.
Grubauer is a one of the few top-tier goalies out there in free agency. He has been one of the more consistent netminders in the NHL, having never dipped below a .915 save percentage over a season since he broke into the league back in 2013-14. He will be looking for a significant pay raise from his $3.3 million salary.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Slim. The Kraken drafted and signed Chris Driedger in the Expansion Draft, and it appears Driedger and Vitek Vanecek will be the goaltenders in year one of the franchise.
Mike Hoffman – Forward – St. Louis Blues
Estimated Term and Salary: Five years at $5 million to $6 million per year.
Hoffman has flown under the radar the last few years and has averaged over 25 goals per season his entire career. Hoffman had 17 goals last season which ties the highest goal scorers on the Kraken’s current roster (Joonas Donskoi and Yanni Gourde both had 17 last season).
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Moderate. Hoffman is 31, and the analytic projections do not favor players that are over 30, but the Kraken need scoring, and they need centers.
Phillip Danault – Forward – Montreal Canadiens
Estimated Term and Salary: Seven years at $5.5 million to $6.5 million per year.
Danault is a brilliant two-way center that has a lot of versatility. He can be used on the penalty kill and can slot in with a top line at five-on-five. He has never scored a lot of goals but can be relied upon for ~10 per season.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Somewhat high. Danault fits the identity of what the Seattle Kraken appear to be building and might have more goal scoring capabilities in him if he plays higher in the lineup.
Zach Hyman – Forward – Toronto Maple Leafs
Estimated Term and Salary: Seven or eight years at $5 million per year.
Hyman is a strong, offensive, play-driving forward. With his hard-working approach, he can be relied upon for ~20 goals a season
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Slim. It sounds as if Hyman has an agreement in principle with Edmonton, and if his rights are traded to Edmonton before free agency begins, he will sign an eight-year deal. Otherwise it will be a seven-year deal, the max allowed for free agents that weren’t previously with the team.
Alex Wennberg – Forward – Florida Panthers
Estimated Term and Salary: Five years at $4.5 million to $5 million per year.
At 26, Wennberg is one of the youngest top-tier free agents on the list. The scouting report on Wennberg is that he is a very skilled pass-first center but seemed to change his game a bit this year. In his one and only year with Florida, he had 17 goals and 12 assists, the most goals he has scored in a single season.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Somewhat high. Wennberg looks like a perfect fit for Seattle, but most teams would love his services, so he will have options.
Brandon Saad – Forward – Colorado Avalanche
Estimated Term and Salary: Four years at $4.5 million to $5 million per year.
Saad has been an annual 20-goal scorer in the league. He is not an elite scorer or playmaker but can be a great supplementary piece to a line that does have an elite forward. He is also a two-time Stanley Cup Champion.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Moderate. The Kraken need goal scorers and Saad can score goals.
Linus Ullmark – Goalie – Buffalo Sabers
Estimated Term and Salary: Five years at $5 million to $6 million per year.
Ullmark has been an outstanding goalie on a bad team in his three full seasons with Buffalo. He is big, athletic, and consistent. He has the skills to make a playoff team into a Stanley Cup contender, though he has not been given this opportunity so far.
Likelihood of landing in Seattle: Slim. As stated above, the Kraken have their goalies accounted for and barring a trade, they will start the season with Driedger and Vanecek.
Pius Suter – Forward – Chicago Blackhawks
Estimated Term and Salary: Four years at $3.5 million to $4.5 million per year.
Suter has only one year under his belt in the NHL but showed he belongs with 14 goals over 55 games during the 2020-21 campaign. Prior to the NHL, he played pro hockey in the Swiss league where he led the league in scoring during the 2019-20 season. At just 25 years old, he is on the younger side of the free agents.
Likelihood landing in Seattle: Moderate. He does have a scoring touch and the Kraken need goal scorers. With only one pro season in North America to assess, signing Suter has some risk.
Setting expectations for free agency
Landing a top-10 free agent is rare, and if the Kraken can land one of the forwards from this list, it should be considered a major success. Conversely, if the Kraken do not land a top-10 free agent, there is still plenty of value out there. Signing Jaden Schwartz (this one sounds like it might actually happen), Blake Coleman, or Kyle Palmieri as free agents would be great additions to the Seattle Kraken, and they may not require as big of salaries or terms that some of the top-10 candidates would require.
This week, John and Darren talk to the first head coach in Seattle Kraken history, Dave Hakstol. The focus of the conversation is to get Dave’s thoughts on what has transpired over the last week, with the Kraken completing their Expansion Draft, then selecting seven prospects in the NHL Entry Draft, including No. 2 overall pick, Matty Beniers. This is a good insider’s look on what’s happening with the team right now.
Aside from the Hakstol interview, John, Andy, and Darren give their own takes on what has been happening around the Kraken and the rest of the league, including their thoughts on where the Seattle roster stands and where it might end up before opening night. Plus, plenty of general NHL trade talk, signing talk, schedule talk, and free agency talk.
Segments include Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
SEATTLE – The Seattle Kraken announced Monday that the team made qualifying offers to all seven of the restricted free agents on its roster after last week’s Expansion Draft.
The NHL deadline for the offers expired at 3 p.m. Pacific on Monday afternoon. Had Seattle not extended these offers, the seven players would have become unrestricted free agents on Wednesday, free to sign with any team.
Receiving offers were Carsen Twarynski, Kole Lind, Alexander True, Vince Dunn, Will Borgen, Dennis Cholowski, and Cale Fleury. Qualifying offers are one year in length and give Seattle the right of first refusal to any offer sheets that are submitted to the seven players.
Any of the seven could refuse his qualifying offer, but the Kraken would retain the player’s rights and he would then remain a restricted free agent.
Twarynski was selected by the Kraken from the Philadelphia Flyers via the Expansion Draft. He was previously a third-round draft pick of the Flyers in 2016 and split his time last season between the NHL and the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Lind was the Vancouver Canucks pick for the Kraken. The former Kelowna Rocket winger spent most of last season in the AHL before a seven-game call-up at the end of the year.
True was selected from the San Jose Sharks but is most known for his time with the Seattle Thunderbirds. True spent 2014 to 2017 with Seattle, and the Danish center scored the series-winning goal for the Thunderbirds in overtime of Game 6 of the Western Hockey League Championship Series in 2017.
Dunn came to the Kraken from St. Louis, where the 24-year-old defenseman played a big role in the Blues’ Stanley Cup win in 2019. Borgen is a young defenseman from the Buffalo Sabres who has just 14 NHL games under his belt.
Cholowski was the Detroit Red Wings first-round pick during the 2016 NHL Draft and played 32 games with the Portland Winterhawks in 2018 following a trade from the Prince George Cougars. He has played in 104 NHL games, all with the Red Wings.
Fleury comes to the Kraken via the Montreal Canadiens and will join his brother Haydn in Seattle. Fleury is a 22-year-old defenseman who spent last season in the AHL with the Laval Rocket.
NHL free agency opens Wednesday at 9 a.m. Pacific time. According to Cap Friendly, the Kraken will have just over $30 million available to spend on free agents.
Stay tuned to Sound Of Hockey for updates on Seattle’s moves during the free agency period.
On their own, those distinctions set Weatherby apart from most everyone else. He also boldly uses his platform as a high-performance athlete to draw attention to social justice issues in a manner that’s unusual for most hockey players.
“I’d drive down there six hours, my stepdad had season tickets since they were (an expansion) franchise, and I’d go to games. I think that it was an unbelievable opportunity, and at the same time I think that another year in college is only going to benefit me and maybe leaves me entering, hopefully, an NHL roster that much more prepared,” Weatherby, 23, said during a phone interview last month from his father’s home in Bend, Ore.
Completing his college eligibility and not signing with the Sharks could allow him to become a free agent next year, but he said that didn’t really influence his decision because of his attraction to the team and respect for general manager Doug Wilson and others in the organization.
“It was obviously a really tough decision,” Weatherby, a marketing major, said. “I really respect everything San Jose does from their GM to their player development coaches and even some of the younger prospects on the team. They’re great guys, but at the same time I was kind of thinking about my development and trying to get that degree. Just trying to build on my on-ice things that I can do well and trying to improve so when I do hopefully make that jump, I’m the best prepared I can be.”
As one of the top college hockey programs in the country, North Dakota is accustomed to having some of its best players turn pro before completing their NCAA eligibility. Fighting Hawks head coach Brad Berry is excited to have Weatherby back, especially after losing eight seniors and seeing junior defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker and sophomore forward Shane Pinto leave early to sign with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
“To have a player like Jasper come back four years, that says a lot about him,” Berry said by phone last month. “You know, I’m sure there’s probably opportunities for him to sign a pro contract with San Jose, but just talking with him and how mature he is (it’s great for UND) knowing that he wants to continue to round his game out and get better.”
After improving his production each year at North Dakota, including 14 goals and 24 points in 29 games last season, Weatherby is poised to continue his progression in 2021-22. In addition to training and watching his nutrition this offseason, he said he’s making sure to be mentally prepared so he shows up refreshed and feeling good for the start of the hockey season.
“He’s a big-bodied centerman, extremely smart, competitive, can make plays and also finish plays scoring goals,” Berry said of the 6-3 and 212-pound Weatherby. “So you know when you get players in college, when you recruit new players it’s sometimes tough finding big-bodied centermen that have all those attributes that I just described to you, and we’re very blessed and fortunate to have him in our group here for another year.”
Chasing a college hockey dream across a continent
Weatherby’s cross-continent hockey journey began in Ashland, which is better known for Shakespeare than slapshots. Weatherby was born in Portland, grew up in Ashland, and played his minor hockey 13 miles away at The Rrrink in Medford.
“In high school I kind of knew I was serious about the game, (so) I was going to have to leave the Rogue Valley in Oregon. There just wasn’t quite enough there to fulfill the dreams of trying to play college hockey and then hopefully pro hockey,” Weatherby said.
At 13 he enrolled in the Canadian International Hockey Academy outside of Ottawa where he played Bantam AAA in 2012-13 and Minor Midget AAA the next season. Weatherby had been in a spring league in Vancouver, B.C., in eighth grade, but immersing himself in the Canadian prep school hockey environment took things to another level.
“They’re unbelievable. I wouldn’t be here without them,” Weatherby said of the academy instructors at the boarding school in Rockland, Ontario. “It was an eye opening experience for sure.”
Weatherby had seven points in 29 games in his first season, and 18 points in 32 games in 2013-14 at CIH. The big jump in the quality of skills from Medford – “Oh my gosh these kids can really play,” he recalled about his introduction – greatly helped his hockey development.
While many classmates at CIH were eyeing the Ontario Hockey League route, Weatherby was focusing on playing college hockey instead of major junior. He moved to Nebraska where he finished high school and played two years for the Omaha AAA Lancers program in the North American Prospects Hockey League where he scored 23 points in 25 games for the 18U team in 2015-16.
After Omaha, Weatherby returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2016-17 to join the Wenatchee Wild of the British Columbia Hockey League. He said he “didn’t play a ton” in the first season, scoring 12 goals and 32 points in 46 games, but he learned a lot from veteran players and head coach Bliss Littler and his coaching staff.
“I think you can’t really go to Wenatchee without being a good human being,” he said. “They would rather have somebody who’s a good human being and maybe not as good a hockey player. But they want that team environment and everyone’s growing and looking to go and play college.
A painful longest game
Nearly three months after North Dakota lost a five-overtime epic to Minnesota-Duluth in the longest game in NCAA tournament history, the wounds were starting to heal for Fighting Hawks forward Jasper Weatherby.
“I think that as time goes you will look back on that as more of a positive memory. It’s just such a unique game to be a part of,” he said. “It was a lot of fun, and you learn a lot about the guys in that locker room, and you definitely think about it. Just happy and excited to be part of something kind of special like that.”
After falling behind 2-0 in the third period, North Dakota scored twice in 47 seconds with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker to even it up at the end of regulation. The teams had played an NCAA record 142 minutes and 13 seconds when the Bulldogs scored to win the game.
“You just kind of go back into your locker room and just kind of almost collapse in there,” Weatherby said. “They were just bringing us in all the food from the concession stand, and everything, you know, protein bars and anything that could get us calories.
“It’s pretty crazy. We have an intermission clock in the locker room that’s ticking down and (I’d) be like ‘all right, you know, two more minutes I gotta stand up here.’ I stand up and you’re just like kinda going into the zone and you’re like ‘all right, I’ve got a job to do.’”
That 3-2 loss March 27 in the Fargo Regional final cost the Fighting Hawks a spot in the NCAA Frozen Four and will provide Weatherby and his teammates with motivation to make it further next postseason.
“The big thing is you want to win those last four games of the season, if you were lucky enough to get in the tournament. So for us, my goal is always to win a national championship,” he said.
Jasper Weatherby had 14 goals, 10 assists and was a plus-seven as a junior for the University of North Dakota last season. (North Dakota Athletics photos)
“So that was a great experience. My first year we ended up losing in the playoffs the second round. And then the second year I came back and a lot of the guys, better players, had moved on to college, and I just kind of got given some opportunities and tried to put the work in that summer. Luckily they gave me some opportunities.”
In his second year he seized those opportunities, leading the league in scoring (74 points) and tying for the lead in goals (37) en route to winning the Vern Dye Memorial Trophy as the league MVP. Weatherby then led the BCHL playoffs in goals (15), assists (23), and points (38) as the Wild won the Fred Page Cup as league champions.
Weatherby’s successful stint in Wenatchee almost never happened, however. He wasn’t someone who was a top recruit guaranteed to get a roster spot. Weatherby got there with some hard work and good fortune.
“Not a lot of people know this, but I didn’t make a lot of junior teams and I think I must have been cut from like eight junior teams throughout those two years in Omaha and even before Omaha,” Weatherby said. “So Wenatchee was kind of like my last chance to make a good junior team. And I came in, there was I think five guys, and there was one spot. You know, I just played well and got lucky, and they ended up giving me that last spot.”
Oregon was not one of Wenatchee’s territory states from which it could recruit, but fortunately Weatherby’s mother was living in Lummi Island at the time. She had been filing his taxes from Washington state, so he was considered a resident and could compete for the Wild’s one opening for a Washington local (which explains why hockeydb.com lists his birthplace incorrectly as Lummi Island).
“It’s kind of funny how sometimes the stars align in that way,” Weatherby said. “I look back, if I hadn’t been from Washington, I wouldn’t have ever been able to play for Wenatchee because they did not have an opening for another import slot.”
A leader on and off the ice
Weatherby was an assistant captain last season and has a chance to become captain this year. Although the players vote to decide who wears the C and the A’s, Berry said he expects Weatherby to be wearing a letter again this season.
“I think he’s one of those guys that he doesn’t say probably a whole lot, but when he does it resonates in the locker room,” Berry said. “But you know the good leaders are the ones that back it up on the ice, or in the weight room, or in the community. They always do things at the highest level and every day. We call those guys ‘everydayers.’ And he is an everydayer, and guys follow that. And your bar is only going to go as high as your leaders, and he’s been an outstanding leader for us, especially over this last season. We’re really looking for great things for him and his leadership this year.”
Weatherby’s leadership extends beyond the dressing room and the ice rink. He’s one of three National Collegiate Hockey Conference representatives on the College Hockey for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion task force, and he’s a member of the UND Student-Athlete Inclusion and Diversity group.
After George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020, Weatherby and Bernard-Docker took part in a Black Lives Matter march in Grand Forks, N.D. Before the Fighting Hawks’ 2020-21 season opener, the two players knelt during the playing of the U.S. national anthem to protest racial injustice.
Believed to be the first Division I hockey players to kneel during the anthem, Weatherby wasn’t afraid of anyone’s criticism or trolling on social media. He said he and Bernard-Docker, who is from Canada, expected the mixed responses they received.
“So we kind of talked that summer, and I said I was going to do it. And he took his time … and decided that this was something he wanted to do,” Weatherby said of his close friend and former roommate of three years. “So we came out with an article beforehand kind of explaining why we’re doing it.
“The positive stuff for us really outweighed the negative stuff. We had minority people messaging us on campus saying, ‘Thank you for that; sometimes we feel that North Dakota isn’t the most welcoming place for people like ourselves.’ And for us that’s all we needed to hear. If we can make UND and North Dakota welcoming for one person who doesn’t feel like it’s welcoming then we’ve done our job, and we’ve done the best we can.”
Preceding that season opener was a team meeting where everyone had a chance to share their views while others respectfully listened. By the sounds of it, a good percentage of our society could take a lesson from how the Fighting Hawks players from various parts of Canada and the U.S. learned about each other’s perspectives.
“It was really powerful to hear people’s opinions of what they believe in. And at the end of the day that’s kind of what makes these two countries so great is that people can have different opinions and still fight for the same cause,” Weatherby said. “I wasn’t gonna tell anyone that not kneeling is a bad thing, and I wasn’t gonna, hopefully, wasn’t gonna hear from my teammates that kneeling was a bad thing either. So we came to a mutual respect, and it brought our team a lot closer, which was a great thing.”
Family history of standing up against injustice
Weatherby’s grandmother and step-grandfather’s activism for social justice issues had significant influence on Weatherby and his family. Ann Macrory took part in the Selma to Montgomery, Ala., civil rights march in 1965 and was a civil rights lawyer. Ralph Temple, who was Jewish, moved to the United States from London at 7 because of Nazi advances across Europe, and he went on to become a civil rights lawyer who worked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU. (Read the Grand Forks Herald’s coverage to learn about many more examples of Weatherby’s family’s passion for social justice.)
Jasper Weatherby is on the College Hockey for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion task force and UND’s Student-Athlete Inclusion and Diversity group. (North Dakota Athletics photo)
To those who make knee-jerk complaints that socially conscious athletes should be quiet and “stick to sports,” that’s not how Weatherby was brought up. To his critics, his response is, “educate yourself.”
“I’m a human being first, I have beliefs and feelings, and I’m an athlete second,” Weatherby, whose adopted brother is Black, said. “I think that sometimes in this world we like to put athletes on a pedestal and say just because you can shoot a ball through a hoop … that’s the only thing you are. And that’s so not true. I think that when you look at athletes who are able to voice their opinions and really become the people that they want, they’re just going to flourish in life. So I challenge those people and I say that my sport does not define who I am. Being a human being defines who I am and making choices for myself.”
Berry suggests Weatherby also developed his maturity, empathy, and some worldliness from moving around North America, living in different places, and being around different people.
“He’s a very deep thinking person. He’s a guy that is very sensitive, and he has a lot of care for everybody, and a lot of care for his teammates, and a lot of care for the people around him,” Berry said. “You know, he always approaches his day with kind of a deep thought process and that’s great to see.”
Being unafraid of standing out and drawing attention to yourself is quite unusual for hockey players. The culture of the sport has historically forced individuals to conform to certain restrained behaviors as a group. Being outspoken or drawing attention to yourself would be breaking one of those old “codes” that discourage actions that some might consider as individualistic.
Unfortunately it took awful events such as the killing of George Floyd, the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, racism directed at former NHLer Akim Aliu, and other incidents to prompt more players to change old habits, but it’s a start.
“I think for a long time it has kind of been a sport that’s been so stoic maybe, and not in a bad way, but hockey players are tough and they’re good people. I think that sometimes that can be misled for staying in line and don’t step out of the boundaries, but I think what we’re realizing now is that it’s good to be unique,” Weatherby said.
Becoming the seventh Oregon-born player to skate in the NHL would be unusual. Courageously standing up against racial injustice, trying to make college hockey more inclusive, and working to improve diversity on UND’s campus are proof that Weatherby isn’t just an anomaly in hockey; he’s someone truly exceptional.
Jim Wilkie is a longtime Northwest journalist, former NHL editor and NHL Insider writer for ESPN.com, onetime GSHL All-Star, and SJHA hockey dad. Follow him on Twitter @jimwilkie.
9:42AM – The Seattle Kraken did exactly what we expected them to do on the first day of the NHL Entry Draft, selecting Matty Beniers with their first-ever selection. Beniers was the guy that virtually every pundit thought would land in Seattle, and the Kraken agreed with that analysis of where the University of Michigan standout belonged on their draft board. When Saturday rolled around, it was quickly apparent that the Kraken were ready to do their own thing, prognosticators be damned.
And so, just a few minutes into the second round, when the Kraken were on the clock with the third pick of the round, they surprised all those prognosticators by taking Ryker Evans, a 5-foot-11, 189-pound defenseman from the Regina Pats of the WHL. Pre-draft rankings had Evans as high as No. 67 overall and as low as No. 192 among draft-eligible players. Seattle took him at No. 35, so clearly they have seen him plenty despite the pandemic and really like his game.
Evans is known as a smart and deceptive player who can jump up in the rush. FCHockey says he plays with “an elite level of poise and commands the ice.”
Notable about the Calgary native, Evans was eligible and was passed over in last year’s NHL Entry Draft, so this was his second chance at getting selected. He definitely showed some significant growth in 2020-21, when he improved from a half-point-per-game-player the year prior to better than a point per game. On this growth, Evans says the pandemic-induced pause really helped him, because it let him “Work on things you would never really get to work on during the season. That just allowed my confidence and my belief in my abilities to skyrocket and with the help of my teammates, that all kind of contributed to my success this year.”
When Evans comes to Seattle, it will not be his first visit to the area, as he has faced the Silvertips and Thunderbirds during his WHL career. He mentioned the Thunderbirds “Gotta have some of the best fans in the league, and just knowing that, I’m excited.” He also referred to the Seattle sports fanbase as “passionate” and expects the rowdiness of its resident WHL teams to carry over to the NHL culture.
11:01AM – In the third round, the Kraken looked to the other side of Canada and selected Ryan Winterton, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound right wing from the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. Since the OHL was completely shut down during the 2020-21 season, Winterton did not get to play competitively this year, except with Team Canada at the IIHF U18 World Championship in Texas.
At the U18’s, Winterton helped his country win a gold medal and had a good showing, notching two goals and two assists in seven games. During the long layoff, he kept busy by playing in some pick-up games arranged by his agent and says he benefitted from being able to at least play some five-on-five hockey on occasion before the U18’s, a luxury that many of his OHL counterparts did not have.
Born in Sept., 2003, Winterton was one of the youngest players available in this NHL Entry Draft, but he comes across as quite mature, considering he is just 17 years old. He is known for his relentless work ethic and two-way play, not unlike top-pick Beniers.
He agrees this is a fair generalization of his game. “I’m always a competitor, [and that’s] always useful on any team. Just competing to the best of my ability and then doing whatever I can for the team,” Winterton said after being selected No. 67 overall. “You have to play that way to enter the NHL. I need to get more work done in the offseason and stuff, but I think next year’s going to be a big year for me competing.”
12:07PM – With the No. 99 overall pick, the Kraken made their first international selection, taking Finnish defenseman Ville Ottavainen. At 18 years old, Ottavainen is quite sizable at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, but reports indicate he can get up and down the ice with relative ease thanks to a powerful skating stride.
Ottavainen has had an interesting journey over the past couple of years, as he played in the OHL for the Kitchener Rangers in 2019-20, then went to Finland on loan in 2020-21. There, he worked his way up to SM-Liiga, the nation’s top pro league, and appeared in 22 games for JYP, notching a goal and two assists.
Sadly, there was no media availability for Ottavainen on Saturday because, well… Finland.
The Kraken have now gone forward-defenseman-forward-defenseman through four rounds. Is that a trend or a coincidence?
1:39PM – We’re pausing this post for now to go catch the team’s media availability, but we will be back later in the day to close out Seattle’s last couple picks.
5:00PM – Ok, media availability is over, so we’re playing catchup now! The Kraken really managed to run the gamut of leagues today, and took their first pick out of the QMJHL with Jacob Melanson of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at No. 131 overall. Melanson is a right winger (so the oscillating between forward and defense continued to this point), who had 19 points in 18 games with the Titan during a shortened 2020-21 season. He played the previous year with the Quebec Remparts, where he posted 10 points in 39 games.
Though not enormous at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, FC Hockey’s scouting report on Melanson indicates that he plays with a lot of physicality and can bring value by grinding out battles for loose pucks.
Melanson had a tough season two years ago in Quebec. He broke his collarbone, recovered, and then got hurt again. He also didn’t think he was getting much of a chance with the Remparts, so his agent facilitated a trade to Bathurst, where he really turned it on after showing up for camp in what he said was the best shape of his life. Healthy and with a better opportunity with the Titan, Melanson feels he showed what he can do on the ice this past season.
Aside from the recent injuries, he also grew up commuting over an hour to get to his youth-level practices and games and did that for most of his life. So Melanson’s journey to this point has taken a real commitment from himself and his support system.
He considers himself a two-way forward, but agrees with the analysis about him, stating, “My physical presence is probably the biggest part of my game and my scoring touch. I’m a fast guy, but I also need to work on my skating if I want to make it to the next level, so that’s what I’ll be working on the next few years, and hopefully I’ll be a Kraken one day.”
5:16PM – The Kraken rounded out the day with netminder Semyon Vyazovoi in the sixth round and forward Justin Janicke in the seventh.
Vyazovoi comes from Tolpar Ufa in the Russian junior league, where he has been stellar, posting a .939 save percentage and 2.06 goals against average in 26 games last year. He participated on the international stage for Russia at the U16 and U17 levels but did not see much playing time.
Janicke is a native of Maple Grove, Minn., and has been playing for the US National Team Development Program for the last two years. He was part of a silver-medal-winning Team USA at the 2019 U17 World Hockey Challenge, where he had five points in six games. Like all the other forwards taken by Seattle before him, Janicke plays a good two-way game.
We did not get to hear from Janicke or Vyazovoi following their selections.
5:29PM – Kraken general manager Ron Francis and director of amateur scouting Robert Kron seemed quite pleased with how things played out on day two of the NHL Entry Draft. Kron mentioned that he didn’t feel they had to deviate much from their plan at all, and both he and Francis seemed especially excited about the selection of Ryker Evans.
Up next is free agency, which opens on Wednesday. The Kraken have about $30 million in salary cap space, so they will be active, but it’s unlikely they will spend all the way to the cap before the start of the season. “We’ll certainly look to spend in free agency, but where we are and with the cap, it’s going to be hard to get to that. Unless we get every guy we go after, which usually doesn’t happen,” Francis said after the draft.
Thanks for following along, folks!
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
There it is! The Seattle Kraken officially selected Matthew Beniers as their first-ever pick in the NHL Entry Draft on Friday. Since Seattle was awarded the No. 2 overall spot in the Draft Lottery back on June 2, scouts and pundits have been zeroing in on defenseman Owen Power and his University of Michigan teammate Beniers as the likely top-two picks. The Buffalo Sabres, who held the top pick, and the Kraken both took the chalk.
Beniers, an 18-year-old center from Hingham, Mass., is regarded as perhaps the most NHL-ready player in this pool of draft-eligible players, thanks to his powerful skating, relentless approach, and willingness to compete at both ends of the ice. Making him extra valuable is his natural ability as a center, typically the hardest position at which to find elite talent.
After Wednesday’s Expansion Draft, it became immediately clear that the Kraken’s initial roster is strong on the blue line but lacks depth up front and especially in the middle. According to Kraken general manager Ron Francis in his pre-draft availability, this didn’t factor into the decision to take Beniers.
“We really haven’t drafted anybody to this point on the amateur side,” Francis said. “So, I think for us it’s getting the best player available at that position No. 2. [We’re] not really concerned about position as much as just the player himself.” Still, there’s no question that Seattle’s current setup is heavy on defense, so whether this was a factor or not, it should pay dividends in the relatively near future to get some center talent in their very shallow pipeline.
Beniers really emerged as a future top-line NHLer this year with his appearances as the only draft-eligible player on Team USA at both the World Junior Championship and the IIHF World Championship. At the WJC, he had a goal and two assists in seven games, and at the World Championship—where he was competing against current NHL players—he posted a goal and an assist in six games.
At Michigan, he was a point-per-game player as a freshman and before that, he was at or near a point per game at every stage of his career with the US National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. It’s not really his scoring touch that makes him so good, though; it’s his all-around play in every zone on the ice. He never quits, never cheats, and does as much in the defensive zone as he does in the offensive zone.
Like Power, it remains to be seen if Beniers will make the jump to immediately turn pro or if he will return for a second year with the Wolverines. Amongst the trio of Power, Beniers, and Kent Johnson, it was a common theme at the top prospects media availability on July 6 that those players do not feel like they’ve gotten the true college experience at Michigan to this point, so take that as you will.
Whenever he does make the jump, the Kraken will have a potential cornerstone player for many years to come in Matty Beniers.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
If everything goes as planned, there won’t be much drama for the Seattle Kraken during the NHL Draft’s first round. Seattle holds the second pick Friday and should have its options narrowed down to a couple of players.
Buffalo holds the first pick overall, which means Seattle general manager Ron Francis will get to make the franchise’s first ever Draft selection early into the festivities. The team surprisingly didn’t acquire any additional picks for Friday’s first round or Saturday’s second round. That could still change prior to the Draft’s kickoff but for now, it’s just the one pick Friday and six more Saturday.
So, who is the likely first choice? There are some obvious names that have been out in public for a while, but until we hear Francis announce it, we can’t say for sure. Let’s take a look at the options.
Tier one: The most likely Kraken NHL Draft picks
Matthew Beniers, Center, Michigan
One of three University of Michigan players who will hear their names called in Friday’s top ten picks, Beniers is the most likely Kraken pick. The 6-foot-1 center is coming off a point-per-game freshman season with the Wolverines but also impressed at the World Junior Championship and the IIHF World Championship for Team USA.
He’s a playmaker who elevates his linemates and plays the proverbial 200-foot game. Beniers appears to be one of the more NHL-ready players in the first round and can play on both the power play and the penalty kill.
Matt Beniers rags the puck for nearly 20 seconds while killing a penalty.
For the most part, the NHL Draft is all about selecting the best player available, regardless of the position. However, the Kraken Expansion Draft was heavy on defensemen which would make picking up a young center to eventually anchor your top six, like Beniers, almost a no-brainer for Seattle.
Owen Power, Defenseman, Michigan
If Buffalo goes against the grain and takes Beniers first overall, the Kraken need to jump on Owen Power.
Power is a 6-foot-5 puck-moving defenseman who ended the season ranked as the No. 1 skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting. He can do a bit of everything on the back end and projects to have potential as a top-pairing defenseman in the NHL.
He is a fluid skater, despite his frame, and plays with a calm demeanor as he retrieves pucks and leads the offensive rush the other way. Power isn’t afraid to jump into the rush and can finish.
Would the Sabres pass on Power and leave him available to the Kraken? It’s a long shot but they did select defenseman Rasmus Dahlin first overall in 2018. Power and Dahlin are both left-shooting blueliners with similar skill sets which could create a redundancy. Further, Buffalo faces an offseason where they could lose center Jack Eichel and forward Sam Reinhart. That might make a player like Beniers more attractive.
Tier two: Could be in the mix for the Kraken to draft
The brother of Jack and Quinn, Hughes is a slick-skating, offensive-oriented player who could sneak up the draft board. He’s a top-end puck handler, can draw defenders to him, and can transition the puck from defense to offense in the blink of an eye.
Luke Hughes is a flashy defenseman similar to his brother Quinn (USA Hockey)
Francis drafted defensemen in three of the four NHL Drafts he handled when he was with Carolina which makes a player like Hughes a possibility.
Simon Edvinsson, Defenseman, Frolunda
Edvinsson is another sizeable defenseman – listed at 6-foot-4 and 198 pounds – who is ranked as the second-best international skater by Central Scouting.
His play may not be as refined as Hughes or Power, but he has raw skills and can skate with the best of them. The potential is there and if the Kraken draft him, there would be a couple years of development ahead of him before he gets to be NHL ready.
William Eklund, Left wing, Djugårdens
Eklund is NHL Central Scouting’s top-rated international skater and has been getting some buzz as a top-of-the-Draft prospect. He played in the prestigious SHL in Sweden last year, a professional league, and scored 23 points in 40 games. He has the creative play-making skills to be a top-line forward at the NHL level.
Tier three: So, you’re saying there’s a chance
It’s tough to predict how a team has ranked prospects in their internal Draft rankings. If they like a player enough, they’ll take him regardless of public rankings. It’s unlikely these players will hear Francis call their names at pick No. 2, but there’s a chance, no matter how remote.
Kent Johnson, Forward, Michigan – Another Michigan guy, Johnson might be the most creative scorer available in the Draft. He grew up in North Vancouver and lit up the BCHL prior to his freshman year in college.
Mason McTavish, Center, Olten – With the Ontario Hockey League canceled last season, McTavish went to play in the Swiss League. He rose up the Draft ranks as a big, tough center with a ton of offensive skill.
Brandt Clarke, Defenseman, Nove Zamky – Another OHL ex-patriot, Clarke is a right-handed defenseman who can run a power play and could end up on your top pairing.
