…And in his 28th NHL game, Berkly Catton was officially off the schneid. The 19-year-old rookie connected with his teammates for his first and second career goals on Tuesday, helping the Seattle Kraken to a head-spinning 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins.
The victory extended Seattle’s win streak to four games (the win streak is hereby named Win Streak David, per the National Win Streak Service, named after David Pastrnak) and their point streak to nine games, improving to 8-0-1 over that stretch. It also meant they swept their third back-to-back in their four recent tries, picking up an almost unfathomable 15 of 16 possible points in those pairs of games.
The two teams ahead of the Kraken in the standings, Edmonton and Vegas, both won Tuesday. So, Seattle didn’t leapfrog into first place as they could have if those other teams lost, but they did hold serve and also gained two points of breathing room on fourth-place Los Angeles. It was a big win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 7-4 Kraken win over the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Catton’s big night
For as good as Catton has been in his first NHL season, you just knew it was eating him up that he hadn’t put the puck in the net yet. After scoring a combined 92 goals in 125 games over his last two seasons in the WHL, and considering he’s been playing on good lines with good players throughout the season, it was shocking that he hadn’t even gotten a fluky one to go in.
That is, of course, until the dam finally broke for Catton on Tuesday.
At 2:48 of the second period, with a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann fed Catton in the right circle off a rush. From a sharp angle, Catton let it rip. The puck pinballed off the inside of Jeremy Swayman’s blocker and in. Jubilation and relief swept across the young winger’s face as he celebrated with McCann, who Catton later referred to as a “mentor.”
BERKLYYYYYYYYYYY! 🐱 🚨
Berkly Catton FINALLY does it! With a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann sets him up, and he rips it through Swayman.
Gotta love that smile! 1st career goal at long last.
“A lot of weight off the shoulders for sure,” Catton said. “I dreamed of that for a long time, so that was awesome… I kind of just blacked out there. I don’t even know where it went in, to be honest.”
“It’s the best,” McCann said. “I said ‘finally’ [when I celebrated with him]. He’s been working really hard, and we were due. Just keep plugging away. I’m really happy for him.”
Once he got the monkey off his back, what did Catton do? Score his second one, of course.
With the game seemingly out of reach for Boston—although it did get a hair close for comfort in the end—at 5-2, Catton came out with the second power-play unit. He made a ridiculous play to pass to Freddy Gaudreau at the blue line and then slice his way through four defenders, suddenly getting behind all of them at once. Gaudreau threaded a beautiful pass back to him, and Catton deked to his backhand and banked it off the post and in to make it 6-2.
“I figured maybe if I get one, they would start to come a little bit more,” Catton said. “So, that one felt good too… Great pass by Freddy. He kind of gave me a breakaway, and I just got it up, and it went in.”
Coach Lane Lambert also had some nice words about Catton when I asked him what it meant to see his young rookie break through.
“I thought it was awesome,” Lambert said. “I’ve said a few times… that once he scores, I think he’ll score a few. Obviously, he scored another one tonight as well, beautiful goal, by the way, and it’s huge. He’s a well-liked teammate, he works, he’s learning, he’s growing. And I’ve said it many, many times, I love the way he wants the puck.”
Takeaway 2: Critical power-play goal
Something that could get lost in the shuffle of everything that happened in this game is that it was anybody’s contest, tied 2-2, until the final two minutes of the second period. At that point, Jordan Eberle had scored on a 5-on-3, Catton had gotten his first, and Pastrnak had scored two bangers.
Wow, what a goal by David Pastrnak!
Tempers then flare after Ryker Evans throws him into the end boards.
The fourth line, which was altered for this game (more on that in the Bonus Takeaway), connected yet again when Tye Kartye found Ben Meyers for a bang-bang goal at 18:23 of the second to make it 3-2.
Then, with the clock winding down, McCann scored a critical buzzer-beater that I believe was the most important goal of the contest. With seven seconds left, McCann whistled a one-timer off the glass that nearly went all the way out of the offensive zone. But Vince Dunn saved it at the blue line and fed McCann again higher in the zone. This time, McCann’s shot was perfectly placed, and it appeared to beat the horn, even though the green end-of-period light had come on behind Swayman, not the red goal light.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨
It's a power-play goal with 0.5 seconds left on the clock! The green light came on, but the puck was already in. #SeaKraken take a 4-2 lead to the dressing room after 2 periods. pic.twitter.com/M7sdTUeOLw
Review showed that the puck crossed the line with 0.5 seconds left—a massive break for the Kraken that sent them to the room with a two-goal cushion.
“I saw the [green] light on, so I didn’t know if I got it in in time,” McCann said. “So I looked at the bench, and everybody’s like, kind of looking at me dumbfounded, and I don’t think they did, really, either. So, yeah, luckily it went in [in time].”
In the third, Seattle ran up the score enough that the Bruins’ late push was—albeit slightly scary—ultimately too little and too late.
Takeaway 3: The Kraken are a scoring machine
The Kraken have been dumped on by many throughout this season for being one of the lower-scoring teams in the NHL, but if those naysayers watched only these last two games, they would think Seattle is an elite offensive club. In just over 24 hours, the Kraken racked up 12 goals in two contests after potting five in Calgary on Monday and then seven against Boston on Tuesday—the most they’ve scored in a game this season.
“Pucks are going in for us,” Lambert said. “I mean, we had some opportunities in those games when we were low scoring where we maybe couldn’t quite find the back of the net. But things are going in right now. Sometimes it has a way of ebbs and flows of the season, that kind of thing.”
Added McCann: “It was kind of a run-and-gun type of game tonight, not something we’re used to kind of playing. We showed that we could score goals, but we know we can be a bit better defensively.”
It was a nice stat-padding night for a lot of players, with Kaapo Kakko getting two goals and an assist, Catton scoring twice, McCann posting a goal and an assist, and Vince Dunn and Matty Beniers each recording two assists.
I do want to ring a very small alarm bell, though, related to that last comment from McCann. Sometimes when a defense-first team suddenly has a big offensive outburst, it can lead to bad habits and cracks in structure. The Kraken have gotten to this point by playing “the right way,” so look for them to get back to that against an outstanding Minnesota Wild team on Thursday.
Bonus Takeaway: Kartye returns, fourth line changed
Eeli Tolvanen was a late scratch due to illness, replaced in the lineup by Kartye, who had been a healthy scratch for three games. Considering how well the trio of Ryan Winterton, Meyers, and Jacob Melanson had been clicking, I was surprised—and frankly didn’t like—that Lambert chose to move Winterton up the lineup instead of keeping that line together and slotting Kartye into Tolvanen’s spot.
But to Lambert’s credit, the fourth line once again came through, and it was Kartye who picked up the assist on the goal.
“I liked Tye tonight,” Lambert said. “The hard decision [to scratch Kartye] came [a week] ago. I thought he played really well in Anaheim, I thought he played well in LA, and then we had some numbers, so he came out of the lineup. It wasn’t like he was playing poorly. And him and Meyers and Melanson were playing well in those games too, so I put that line back together. I just thought Winterton was a better fit to go up there with [Chandler] Stephenson and playing sort of a top-six role that plays against the Pastrnak line.”
Lambert could have even tougher decisions coming soon, if Tolvanen comes back next game and Jaden Schwartz is also ready to go.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Seattle Kraken’s win against the Flames on Monday marked the 40th game of the season and therefore brings another installment of 10 for 10, where I go through 10 stats that add context and color to the Kraken’s season to date and how things are trending.
These last 10 games have been the Kraken’s best stretch of the season, which is a far cry from the doom‑and‑gloom 10‑for‑10 piece I wrote after Games 21 through 30 in the middle of December. This stretch began with a disappointing regulation loss, albeit a valiant effort, against the Colorado Avalanche back on Dec. 16.
Let’s get into it.
Data point 1: Grabbing points in the division
The Kraken’s ascension back into the playoff picture wasn’t just the result of improved play; it was also well timed with stumbles from the teams they were chasing. On Dec. 15, at the 30‑game mark, the Kraken sat sixth in the Pacific Division. Today, they’re third and just one point behind the first‑place Vegas Golden Knights.
During this 10‑game stretch, the Kraken earned five regulation wins against division opponents, and with Monday’s win over Calgary, they have now defeated every Pacific Division team at least once. No other Pacific team has managed that so far this season.
Despite the recent run, the division remains extremely tight, with just three points separating first and sixth place.
Data point 2: Second game of a back‑to‑back
The Kraken went 0‑12‑0 on the second night of back‑to‑backs last season. Zero points. Not even an overtime loss. Lane Lambert mentioned this in his initial press availability and emphatically stated it would improve.
Over the last 10 games, the Kraken had three back‑to‑backs and delivered five out of a possible six points in the second game of those sets.
Data point 3: Penalty kill improvement
In Games 21–30, the penalty kill stood out like a sore thumb and plagued the team throughout that stretch. They made some tweaks, and over the last 10 games, the results have dramatically improved.
Data point 4: Scoring first
I’ve mentioned the importance of scoring first several times this season. The Kraken are 15‑5‑3 when scoring first compared to 4‑9‑4 when allowing the first goal. They scored first in eight of the last 10.
Data point 5: Blocked shots
One thing that stood out in the eye test over this stretch was the shot blocking, so naturally I dug into the numbers. The Kraken blocked an average of 18.4 shots per game, their highest average over any 10‑game stretch this season. They’ve been blocking a lot of shots all year, but this was another level.
Part of this is driven by the state of the game. When you score first, you lead more often, and when you lead in the third period, you naturally fall into a more defensive structure. That leads to more blocked shots as you close out games.
Data point 6: Expected goal differential vs. actual goal differential
“The Kraken are getting lucky” has been a common narrative among the haters this season. People often cite expected‑goal models or the MoneyPuck “Deserve to Win O’Meter.” It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into more deeply, and I still plan to, but for now I put together a simple(ish) visual comparing expected goal differential to actual goal differential.
In short: anytime the X is below zero, the Kraken were expected to lose, where the colored bar represents the actual goal differential.
According to the chart, the Kraken should have lost six of their last eight games… but they won seven of their last eight and earned points in all of those. One might suggest luck, but I’d argue the Kraken do something unique that models underrepresent, such as a stronger defensive structure that invites more shot attempts against but limits dangerous ones.
Models are great and far more informative than most of the simple stats on NHL.com, but there are always outliers. This is no different than an undrafted player going on to play 1,000 NHL games. It challenges logic, but it still happens.
For the season, the Kraken have won 12 games they were “expected” to lose and lost five they were “expected” to win.
My hypothesis: the team plays distinctively differently when holding a lead, limiting high‑quality chances and giving goalies more opportunities to make saves. This inflates expected goals against while suppressing expected goals for. Combine that with strong goaltending, and you get the disproportionate goal differential. There’s more work to be done here, but this is my jumping‑off point.
Data point 7: Goaltending has been stellar
I’m sure the analytics‑fluent crowd would prefer something like goals saved above expected, but for a host of reasons I’m keeping this simple. Since this 10‑game window began on Dec. 16, the goaltending has been outstanding from both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord.
I really like the cadence of alternating every other game, and that should work well throughout January with so many one‑day‑or‑less breaks between games.
Data point 8: The 2021 NHL Draft class
One of the most enjoyable developments over the last 10 games has been the Kraken’s fourth line. It has featured some combination of Ben Meyers, Tye Kartye, Ryan Winterton, and Jacob Melanson, with the Winterton/Meyers/Melanson trio sticking together for the last four games.
One goal in particular stood out: the Melanson‑to‑Winterton finish in the home game against Vancouver.
That got me thinking, both Winterton and Melanson were part of the Kraken’s inaugural 2021 draft class. So I looked into how that class stacks up league‑wide for this season.
The Kraken have the third‑most NHL games played by their 2021 draft class. That’s impressive on its own, but the context makes it even more so. Arizona had two first‑round picks and three second‑round picks. Carolina had no first‑round picks but three seconds and 13 total picks. The Kraken had just one pick in each of the seven rounds. It’s also worth noting that only one of the Arizona/Utah picks still plays for that organization, and two Carolina picks in the NHL are still Hurricanes, while all four of Seattle’s are still Kraken.
Most draft analysts have been high on Seattle’s draft classes from the start. We’re now seeing that materialize at the NHL level.
Data point 9: Return of the depth?
Depth was a hallmark of the 2022–23 Kraken playoff team, and the KHN broadcast crew referenced it after Monday’s win over Calgary. Right now, contributions are coming from everywhere, and goals are coming from the most unlikely players. Ryan Lindgren, Cale Fleury, and Jacob Melanson each scored their first goals as Seattle Kraken during this stretch.
The Kraken still aren’t scoring a ton overall, but 16 unique goal scorers since Dec. 16 is the most in the league.
Data point 10: Points per game for Eeli Tolvanen
The last player I want to highlight is Eeli Tolvanen, who, after a slower start, has been coming on strong. It was great to see him named to Finland’s Olympic team alongside teammate Kaapo Kakko.
Wrapping it up
If the last 10‑for‑10 was about surviving the storm, this one is about what happens when the clouds finally break. The Kraken aren’t just banking points, they’re building an identity again. The defensive structure looks connected, the goaltending is giving them a chance every night, and the depth that defined their best hockey is resurfacing at exactly the right time.
There’s still plenty of season left, and the Pacific Division is tight enough that a single bad week can undo a lot of good. But for now, the Kraken have put themselves firmly back in the mix.
We’ll see where the next 10 games take us, but this stretch has reminded us that when this team is rolling, they can be a handful for anyone.
The Seattle Kraken continued their torrid play on Monday, riding another ho-hum 41-save performance by Philipp Grubauer and pulling away from the Calgary Flames in the third period for a 5-1 win. The victory came with some memorable moments and extended Seattle’s point streak to eight games (7-0-1) since the end of their 1-9-1 skid that spanned nearly a month.
Ironically, the last game of that painful stretch was a 4-2 loss to these same Calgary Flames on Dec. 18. But the Kraken won their next game against the San Jose Sharks two days later, and they haven’t looked back since.
Including that previous loss at Calgary, the Kraken had scored first in their last nine games before conceding the icebreaker to Adam Klapka on Monday. Still, the fourth line once again got things on track in the second period, and it was all uphill from there with five straight goals.
“We used everybody tonight, everybody contributed, and I thought our third period was outstanding,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We limited their scoring chances, and we capitalized on ours.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a convincing 5-1 Kraken win over the Flames.
Takeaway 1: Jacob Melanson gets his first NHL goal
With the way that fourth line has been cooking, it was only a matter of time before Jacob Melanson got his first NHL goal. It came Monday in his fourth straight game with a point, following a great play by Ryan Winterton to get his own rebound off Dustin Wolf and—instead of shoveling it right back into the Calgary netminder—one-touching a cross-crease pass to Melanson at the backdoor.
MELLY CELLY! 🚨
The fourth line does it AGAIN, and this time, it's Jacob Melanson getting his FIRST NHL GOAL!
Nice play by Winterton to get his own rebound and send it across.
“Getting that first goal is unreal, and it’s cool that it came from ‘Wints,’ so it means a lot,” Melanson said. “We’re on the hunt, on the forecheck, and we reloaded well, and good things are going to come from us doing the right thing. So, I mean, we had a good reload, and ‘Winnie’ found me backdoor, which was nice to see.”
It was also a crucial goal in the game, because Seattle did not exactly dominate possession through the first two periods and allowed 31 shots on Philipp Grubauer by the time the second period horn sounded. But with Melanson scoring early in the frame at 2:17, Seattle just needed to get out of the period, and it would be a whole new game in the third.
“Second period, we were a little under the fire there, but we managed to get away and get out of that one with a tie,” Grubauer said. “And it was, I think, a phenomenal third period, different than the other night [against Nashville], for sure. We were giving them less time and space and didn’t give them time to make some plays. I thought that was incredible, and that’s how we need to play.”
Takeaway 2: A huge third period
Coming out of the second intermission, this game felt like another down-to-the-wire barnburner. Instead, Seattle turned on the jets and took over, getting rewarded with both a game-winning goal from birthday boy Shane Wright at 1:57 of the frame and an insurance goal from Vince Dunn at 5:12.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! ☔️
Yet another impactful play by Ben Meyers, who makes a perfect saucer pass to Shane Wright, crashing the net for his first goal in eight games.
Remarkably, even when the fourth line isn’t technically “on the ice,” they still seem to make an impact lately. In this case, Ben Meyers got a rare shift with Wright and Jared McCann and showed his offensive prowess again, lofting a perfect saucer pass into a spot where only Wright could get to it. Wright had gotten behind Calgary’s defense, so all he had to do was skate into the pass and chip it over Wolf.
“[Meyers] had some open ice there, and I saw the D step up a little bit, so I thought I could find some room behind him,” Wright said. “And, I mean, he made an unbelievable pass.”
On a personal level for Wright, it was a big goal. He hadn’t scored in eight games and was without a point in five, despite playing on what could be a productive line with McCann and Berkly Catton.
Dunn’s goal three minutes later came off a beauty of a pass from Kaapo Kakko, who has also found his game since being elevated to a line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. After Dunn scored what should have been the game-winner in overtime against Vancouver on Friday—only to have it negated by a Catton interference penalty—you could tell he was holding his breath to see if it counted when Beniers flattened Wolf a split second after the puck went in.
HE DUNN DID IT! 🚨
Perfect pass by Kaapo Kakko, and Vince Dunn snipes it past Dustin Wolf just before Beniers runs him over.
Freddy Gaudreau added an empty-netter at 17:25, Beniers cleaned up a McCann rebound just 14 seconds later, and the Kraken rode their high horse out of Calgary with two more points.
Takeaway 3: Kraken continuing to climb
While the Kraken have been on fire, their Pacific Division counterparts have (almost) all been stumbling, making it the perfect time for Seattle to go on this run. Vegas has lost five straight, Edmonton has dropped its last two, and the Anaheim Ducks—who held first place for a good stretch of the season—have nosedived into a six-game losing streak.
The upshot is that with Seattle earning 15 out of a possible 16 points during this stretch, they’ve skyrocketed up the standings from last place in the division as recently as Dec. 21 to now third place. They also boast a points percentage good enough to actually sit ahead of Edmonton, who has played two more games, and just one point back of the Golden Knights for first place in the division. They will officially hit the halfway point of the season after Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
It’s all shocking when you consider how down and out this team felt just two weeks ago, but it’s also a stark reminder of how tight and tenuous the NHL standings are this season. The Kraken can’t stop winning now, or they’ll find themselves right back on the outside even faster than they climbed their way back in.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Curtis and Darren are back from a Vancouver road Kraken game in which they were very “friendly” to the home faithful.
The Kraken, by the way, have been rolling lately, and there are lots of positive things to talk about this week.
Their winning week means there’s a Kraken Player of the Week named on this episode. Other segments include Bad Boys, Weekly One-Timers, and What’s Good?
It was not the prettiest of victories, but the Seattle Kraken managed to grind out a 4–3 shootout win in Vancouver to sweep another back-to-back. Yes, you read that right: shootout, back‑to‑back, and win in the same sentence.
The Kraken opened the scoring with the most unlikely of goal scorers. Cale Fleury, who had been a healthy scratch for the first 30 games of the season and hadn’t scored since November, 2019, uncorked a bomb to net his first goal as a Seattle Kraken.
The Kraken added a second goal on a wild power‑play sequence when Jordan Eberle found Chandler Stephenson on a rush chance down low halfway through the second. That goal came moments after Vancouver had flubbed a 2-on-0 opportunity at the other end, failing to put a shot toward Joey Daccord.
The fourth line chipped in again at a critical moment. Late in the second, after the Canucks had pulled within one, Jacob Melanson made a sharp defensive‑zone play to spring Ryan Winterton through the neutral zone. Winterton streaked down the boards, drove low, and eventually found Ben Meyers, who out‑hustled a pair of Canucks to bury a perfect feed for Seattle’s third goal of the night. It’s exactly the kind of play we’ve come to expect from this trio, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
KRAKEN GOAL!!!! The 4th line comes through again. Melanson-Winterton to Ben Meyers. Huge goal in the final minutes of the 2nd period. #SeaKraken up 3-1. pic.twitter.com/Co6lxewnfh
Vancouver answered with a power‑play goal late in the second to pull within one, then tied it in the third on a Linus Karlsson backhander that forced the overtime.
The game would eventually land in a shootout where Vancouver’s first three shooters could not convert while Freddy Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko fell short for Seattle. That would set up Matty Beniers as the final shooter of the night.
There were long stretches where it felt like the Canucks were dictating play with sustained zone time, but as we’ve seen time and time again this season, the Kraken’s defensive structure kept them afloat long enough to steal the win.
Takeaway 1: A shootout win, in this economy?
Before Friday night, the Kraken were 0–4 in shootouts this season, and their shooters were converting at just 16.7 percent, well below the league average of 31.9 percent. It was starting to feel like simply reaching a shootout meant a loss was incoming.
Speaking to the media after the game, head coach Lane Lambert admitted they needed to shake things up: “This is no disrespect to any of the guys that have gone previously, we just haven’t been able to win one. So we had to switch it up, and we did.”
Matty Beniers entered the night 1‑for‑10 in his career and hadn’t taken a shootout attempt in the previous four shootout games this season. His last and only shootout goal came back in December, 2023.
Takeaway 2: Bend, don’t break
As mentioned above, Vancouver controlled massive stretches of play with sustained pressure in the Kraken zone. While Seattle would have preferred not to surrender the tying goal in the third, it could have been far worse given how much time the Canucks spent buzzing in the Kraken zone. And yet, the Kraken actually out‑shot Vancouver 28–23. As we’ve talked about all season, this team is perfectly comfortable in tight, low‑event games, and Friday night was another classic example of what this 2025–26 Kraken group is all about.
Takeaway 3: Contributions of Shane Wright
Going a little off the board here, but Shane Wright deserves recognition for two specific plays. He wasn’t on the scoresheet and has struggled offensively of late, with just one shot in each of his last four games and no goals since Dec. 16. He’s well off last season’s pace in both goals and assists, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t contributing.
His first impact play came on Fleury’s goal, where he planted himself net‑front and created the perfect screen. The first goal is always huge, and I’m not sure that puck goes in if Shane isn’t on top of the crease stirring things up.
WE HAVE A #SEAKRAKEN GOAL. Cale Fleury with an absolute bomb. Kraken take a 1-0 lead with less than two minutes left in the first. pic.twitter.com/iprzoiM7mt
The second contribution was arguably a turning point. With the game tied and Seattle on the power play, Ryker Evans committed a brutal turnover that led to the aforementioned 2‑on‑0 shorthanded opportunity for Vancouver. Wright never gave up on the play, hustling back to get his stick on Kiefer Sherwood’s pass to Drew O’Connor, who had an empty net waiting. The Kraken scored 25 seconds later.
KRAKEN GOAL!!!! what a sequence of events…almost a disaster. Stephenson will eventually score on a great feed from Eberle. #SeaKraken up 2-0. pic.twitter.com/z4uy652EUG
You never know how the game unfolds if O’Connor buries that chance, and it’s a perfect example of how the little details can have dramatic impacts on a game.
The Kraken have points in seven straight games (6-0-1) and now sit in the first wild‑card spot, just two points back of the third‑place Anaheim Ducks with two games in hand. There’s still a long road ahead, but you have to like how this team is playing right now. Seattle gets two days off before heading to Calgary on Monday to begin the busiest stretch of the season.
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One note, although Jared McCann was on the bench throughout, he did not play the last eight minutes of regulation or overtime, and lines were clearly getting shuffled to work around him for the late stages of the game. He came out for a twirl during one of the late TV timeouts, appearing to test out the leg that has been causing him problems, but then we didn’t see him take another shift. His status will be something to monitor moving forward.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll have a quick news check-in and schedule update from the World Junior Championship and a mid-season update to my personal Kraken prospect ranking. After that, we’ll pass along other news from around the organization, weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, a preview of the week ahead, and more.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Mid-season Kraken prospect ranking
The criteria I have adopted for considering a Kraken organization player a “prospect” are: (1) the player must have Calder Trophy eligibility, and (2) the player must be under 25 years old. The former criterion eliminated Ryan Winterton from the list (he would have figured in around No. 10), and the latter criterion eliminated goalie Victor Ostman. (That said, I think I may extend goalie eligibility to include the age-25 season moving forward, since goalies often develop more slowly and a player like Ostman still has a realistic shot to play meaningful NHL minutes.)
The column marked PS Rank is my 2025 preseason rank for the player, which can be found (along with John Barr’s preseason rank) here. The column marked “diff” represents the difference in rank between the two time periods. While many players held their stock steady, there were a few who have significantly helped or hurt their stock over the last few months.
For me, there seems to be a top-9 tier, a top-18 tier, and then another tier that reaches to about 26. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the order beyond that.
Kraken prospect risers
Jagger Firkus has stepped up as a key playdriver at the AHL level. In so doing, he has proven that his size won’t hold him back in what might be the second-best professional league in the world. Firkus will need to be even more locked in on his details if he is to make the jump to the NHL level, but it’s looking more and more likely to me that the AHL’s U23 goal-scoring and total points leader will get at least an audition as a top-nine scoring winger in the NHL. (One could make a very reasonable case Firkus should still be behind Miettinen and Villeneuve in this ranking, but his skill level is tantalizing for a Kraken team in desperate need of offense.)
Jacob Melanson is a bit of a wild card at No. 10 on this list. His ceiling is relatively lower than many who follow him, but I elevated him because I believe he has demonstrated an NHL-competent checking-line skill set, and there is a clear path to consistent NHL minutes in the short to medium term for him in Seattle. He’s not a traditional “top-10 prospect,” but I think he deserves the placement with his play since being called up.
Nathan Villeneuve is cut from the same cloth as Melanson, but brings more offensive skill. After holding his own in the AHL playoffs at 18 years old last year and lighting it up offensively in the OHL this season, I’m about as confident as I could be that Villeneuve will be a productive NHL player within the next two years.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard is not a “big riser,” ascending only one spot, but I feel compelled to note how impressive his skill game has been at the AHL level. He can transport the puck with speed and defeat defenses with puckhandling and precision passes. Layer this on top of his heady two-way play, and his size and physicality are the only developmental milestones left. The transition to North American play has been seamless.
Kaden Hammell has been a low-key revelation, with his physical two-way game and nose for the goal from the blue line translating to the professional game better than many of his more highly drafted teammates. He still may top out as a quality AHL player, but he has risen to a level of all-around professional competence quickly enough that you have to wonder if there could be more.
In just a few months, Loke Krantz has ascended from obscure seventh-round pick to professional player in the SHL and member of the Sweden WJC team. Krantz will have to start paying off those coaching evaluations with production as he continues through this season and into next, but the leap in his potential prospect stature is undeniable.
Carson Rehkopf has hit an AHL stumbling block similar to the challenge David Goyette encountered in his first professional season. Rehkopf has not found the space to use his offensive skills in the same way he did at the junior level, and without that goal-scoring production, is he a net positive? His discipline and defensive play are suspect, and there are flaws in his transition game. Rehkopf still flashes skill in the offensive zone, and he is young, but we’ll need to see him getting to scoring areas and converting more regularly by this time next season, or the concerns may get louder. You could say the same things about Eduard Sale.
I do not view Caden Price as a “disappointment” in his first few professional months, but I may have been a bit too aggressive in ranking him within the top 10 to begin the season. Since the end of last year’s WJC, Price has not contributed much offensively. I thought that might rebound, but we haven’t seen it yet this season. I still like the base of skills and athleticism he brings, but he’s a borderline NHLer if he can’t find his offense again.
Lukas Dragicevic has struggled defensively in his initial exposure to pro hockey. One could say the same thing about Tyson Jugnauth (to an extent), but Jugnauth has been able to translate his offensive game and make an impact there. Dragicevic, who is also an offense-first defenseman, hasn’t found the scoresheet with any regularity either. Like Rehkopf, the question for Dragicevic is whether he can take the adversity and respond over the next year-plus.
What do you think? Who should be higher or lower? Let us know in the comments below.
Updates from the World Junior Championship
As we noted last week, four Kraken prospects are on rosters at the 2026 World Junior Championship: Jakub Fibigr for Czechia, Loke Krantz for Sweden, and Juilius Miettinen and Kim Saarinen for Finland. This is a smaller group than Kraken fans have come to expect in recent years, but the tournament has been very interesting for draftniks, with a number of high-end 2026 NHL Draft prospects playing—and playing well.
After an off-day on New Year’s Day, the tournament begins its elimination stage on Friday. Friday begins with Denmark and Germany playing to avoid relegation to the IA level. (Norway will replace the loser of that game after winning gold at the IA level earlier this month.) After that, Krantz and Sweden take on Latvia, and Fibigr and Czechia take on Switzerland. Miettinen and Finland will then square off with the United States in a 2025 final rematch at 3:00 pm PT. Canada will take on Slovakia to close out the night. Play resumes with the semifinals on Sunday.
The quarterfinal games will be broadcast on NHL Network. ESPN+ will carry the relegation game and also the Czechia-Switzerland quarterfinal.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Team Czechia (WJC)
Fibigr has been very solid, averaging around 22 or 23 minutes per game as a top-four defenseman and top penalty-kill option for Czechia. Fibigr has also worn the “A” for a team with gold medal aspirations.
Julius Miettinen | F | Team Finland (WJC)
Miettinen missed the first game of the tournament when he was not registered to Team Finland’s roster due to an “operational error.” Since then, Miettinen has taken up the mantle of first-line center and team leader. In Finland’s most recent game against Canada, Miettinen wore the “C” for Team Finland with captain Aron Kiviharju out of the lineup. His 20:22 of ice time was tops among Finnish forwards in that game. Miettinen has two points (one goal and one assist) in three games.
Kim Saarinen | G | Team Finland (WJC)
Saarinen has not seen the ice since pre-tournament action, yielding all of Finland’s starts to Petteri (“Mr. Showtime”) Rimpinen. At this point, it seems likely it will be Rimpinen’s crease for as long as Finland stays alive. Though not unexpected, it is still mildly disappointing that we will not get to see Saarinen on this stage.
Loke Krantz | F | Team Sweden (WJC)
Krantz has been active for three of Sweden’s four games and registered his tournament-high 8:03 TOI in Sweden’s most recent contest against the United States. Krantz is still looking for his first WJC scoring point.
Highlights of the week
The Kraken reassigned forward Jani Nyman to the Coachella Valley Firebirds earlier this week, and Li’l Jani drew into his first AHL contest of the season on Wednesday. In some respects, Nyman’s first game back in a heavy-usage role was a struggle (he was a minus-5), but he was able to finish on the power play in classic Nyman fashion.
Miettinen has the only Seattle Kraken prospect goal at the 2026 WJC thus far, but it was beauty. It came in transition off a feed from Everett Silvertips teammate Matias Vanhanen.
Andrei Loshko scored his first two goals of the season in the last week, and he added an assist for good measure. In three games he bested his point total from his 20 other games this season. He was a strong contender for Player of the Week.
Logan Morrison, 23, is tied with Jagger Firkus for the fourth-most goals in the AHL among all players under 25 years old.
Semyon Vyazovoi had a very strong week, including a shootout win in which he stopped 45 of 46 shots on goal. His sterling .948 save percentage across two starts was enough to snag him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week honors.
Visa Vedenpaa earned his first Liiga start since Nov. 15, but struggled a bit, saving only 24 of 28 shots on goal.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3: Jagger Firkus
2: Julius Miettinen, Kim Saarinen, Semyon Vyazovoi
We’ll give our Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week to the WJC quarterfinal matchup between Sweden and Latvia. Sweden’s Krantz feels due for a breakthrough.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Tomas Chrenko
Tomas Chrenko is a Slovak center who has played the better part of two seasons for HK Nitra in the top-level Slovak professional league. Many draft prognosticators have him as a late first-round pick in June’s draft, though that projection may be trending upward after Chrenko’s WJC performance. Through the round-robin stage, he leads the tournament with five goals.
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
Seattle Kraken forwards Eeli Tolvanen and Kaapo Kakko will be heading to the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games as members of Team Finland.
“It would mean a lot,” Tolvanen said Wednesday, before the official announcement was made, when asked what it might mean to be included on the roster. “I mean, I feel like everybody dreams of playing in the Olympics, or even playing for their country, and I think I’m not different on that. Every time I have the chance to represent my country, I would love to.”
After scoring a career-high 23 goals for Seattle last season, the 26-year-old Tolvanen is in the midst of another strong campaign. He’s second on the team in scoring with 25 points (seven goals, 18 assists) in 38 games and has earned the trust of coach Lane Lambert, being deployed in all situations as one of Seattle’s top wingers.
A passionate hockey nation, Finnish players are known for responsible, two-way hockey, and Tolvanen is an embodiment of that ethos. His style of play should serve Finland well in a tournament that will feature the best players in the world, with NHLers returning for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.
“I just think he does things really correctly for the most part in all different areas,” Lambert said. “We started trying to maybe not have him on both special teams, but we put him on the penalty kill, and he’s done a really good job there. His forechecking is good in that when he gets in on the forecheck, he can create separation. He’s done that a number of times, and he’s committed. He blocks shots, he hits, he’s played very well. He’s earned the ice time he’s been given.”
This will not be Tolvanen’s first time representing his country or even playing in the Olympics. He competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games before becoming a full-time NHLer, posting nine points (three goals, six assists) in five games, including a four-point game against Germany. He also played twice at the IIHF World Junior Championship and twice at the IIHF Men’s World Championship, including last summer, when he recorded nine points (7-2=9) in eight games.
“It’s something that I think Finns take really seriously as fans and as players too, and everybody wants to play for the national team,” Tolvanen said. “I feel I’ve just had good success lately in the World Championship and everywhere they put the team together.”
As for Kakko, the 24-year-old former No. 2 overall draft pick has had much of his season derailed by injuries but has been returning to form in recent weeks, skating on Seattle’s top line with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers.
This will be Kakko’s first Olympics, though he too is no stranger to international competition. Kakko has represented Finland on several occasions, including at the WJC in 2019, two appearances at the World Championship, and he was a bottom-of-the-lineup participant in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. At 4 Nations, Kakko, played two games and posted one assist.
Philipp Grubauer excited for the opportunity
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer is the only other Kraken player who has been named to an Olympic roster so far. He was one of the first six players selected for Team Germany during the summer and has since put up stellar numbers in a No. 2 role with Seattle this season, posting a 6-3-1 record with a 2.44 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
“It’s obviously a huge honor,” Grubauer said. “It’s something I grew up watching because we didn’t have the NHL to watch, obviously, and it’s a huge honor to represent Germany at that stage.”
Grubauer, who hails from Rosenheim in southern Germany, said he expects a large contingent of family to make the trip to Milan for the Games, noting it’s a relatively easy drive.
“They already planned it,” Grubauer said. “I think it’s only like a four-hour drive for them, so a bunch of family members are coming. It’s going to be nice, because we always vacation down there [in northern Italy]… It’s really familiar.”
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There is also a chance Kraken prospect Oscar Fisker Mølgaard receives an Olympic nod for Team Denmark, though their roster has not yet been announced.
There was some chatter that Brandon Montour had an outside shot at making Team Canada, but the defenseman—currently out of the Kraken lineup with an upper-body injury—unsurprisingly did not make the cut for Canada’s stacked roster.
Women’s Team USA roster announced
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, four Seattle Torrent players were officially named to Team USA on Friday, with captain Hilary Knight set to lead the team in her fifth and final Olympics. Forward Alex Carpenter and defender Cayla Barnes will each play in their third respective Olympics, while 24-year-old forward Hannah Bilka will make her Olympic debut.
Just two weeks ago, many Seattle Kraken fans had undoubtedly jumped ship on the 2025-26 team’s hopes of making a playoff run. After a 1-9-1 stretch, Seattle had nose-dived to the basement of the Pacific Division standings and was losing, losing, losing toward throwing in the towel and scuttling another campaign.
But oh, what a difference two weeks can make. Since a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Dec. 18, the Kraken have completely reversed course, going 5-0-1 in their six games since, racking up 11 points and jumping all the way back into the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, with games in hand on almost everyone.
While their grip on that playoff position is extremely tenuous—with four teams within one point of Seattle—the Kraken are also just five points back of the first-place Edmonton Oilers and have played three fewer games.
Seattle arrived in this surprising position thanks to its latest win, an impressive 4-1 victory over a surging Nashville Predators squad at Climate Pledge Arena on New Year’s Day.
Here are Three Takeaways from that Kraken win over the Predators.
Takeaway 1: Philipp Grubauer does it again
I’m running out of ways to write about how awesome Philipp Grubauer has been, but he was outstanding again on Thursday, earning second-star honors with 24 saves and improving to 7-3-1 with a 2.32 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. The shot volume wasn’t especially high, but the number of acrobatic, shouldn’t-be-bending-that-way stops was elevated, particularly in the third period.
“Grubi’s been an absolute rock in net,” Matty Beniers said. “No easy goals, and even their one goal [tonight] is an absolute rip top shelf from walking down the slot. And he made a couple saves that he’s [maybe] not supposed to be making out there tonight. Every time he’s been in, he’s been awesome.”
The Kraken came roaring out of the gates and built a rare three-goal lead in the first period, but unsurprisingly allowed momentum to shift in the second when Nashville woke up and began dictating play. The one Nashville goal Beniers referenced was scored by Roman Josi at 17:34 of the second period, cutting the lead to 3-1.
Then, with one minute left in the frame, a Nashville 3-on-2 rush turned into a 3-on-1 when Vince Dunn tripped over the blue line. Michael Bunting coasted down to the bottom of the right circle uncontested and fired a shot that Grubauer calmly kicked aside.
It certainly wasn’t his most spectacular save of the night—those came later during multiple net-front scrambles in the third—but it may have been the most important. Had that gone in, the Predators would have entered the third period brimming with belief. Instead, Grubauer sent his team to the room with a two-goal cushion, then dazzled again in the final frame.
“That was really one of the only great chances I think they had. It’s not like they had that much,” Grubauer said, deflecting credit to Seattle’s defensive play. “I think we controlled them really well, but yeah, for sure, if that goes back in, it’s 3-2, it’s a completely different game.”
Takeaway 2: A fun first period
Based on what I heard from Nashville coach Andrew Brunette, starts have been an issue for the Predators—an affliction that has also plagued the Kraken at various stretches in their history. Brunette definitely did not like his team’s start on Thursday, as Seattle came out flying and took advantage of a heavy-legged team playing the second night of a back-to-back with travel after a 4-2 win in Vegas on Wednesday.
While Nashville searched for its footing, the Kraken pounced, scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes and providing all the offense Grubauer would ultimately need.
The first and third goals came from Matty Beniers, whom the Kraken badly need to start filling the net. The second goal was scored by Jamie Oleksiak following a dominant shift from the fourth line (more on them in Takeaway 3). Kraken games have been so tight this season, the three-goal first period felt downright foreign.
The second and third periods were far from perfect, but Seattle did what it needed to do to protect the lead and secure the two points.
“We’re usually in the tight, one-goal kind of games,” coach Lane Lambert said. “To build a bit of a lead was fine. What I felt like is—and you see it throughout the league—is when teams get two- and three-goal leads, the other teams come and there isn’t anything to lose at that point for them. And so this is why two- and three-goal leads are disappearing again.
“But I thought our commitment level was high, and we did a lot of the things that we needed to do. There was probably a couple of moments in that game that are really good teaching moments for us when we do get in the lead. You can’t change the way you play just because you’re in the lead.”
Takeaway 3: That fourth line, though
Has Jacob Melanson’s arrival on the fourth line helped turn things around for this team? It sounds like hyperbole, but he and his fellow former Coachella Valley Firebirds—Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton—have been relentless every time they’ve hit the ice.
“They’ve been awesome,” Beniers said. “Every night, honestly, they’ve been creating chances, O-zone shift after O-zone shift, setting up the next line for good O-zone shifts. So they’ve been awesome, bringing energy, physicality, kind of everything you want in your fourth line. So, yeah, I can’t say enough great things about them.”
The Dirty Birds™️, as I’ve begun calling them, even earned additional ice time in this game, with all three skating north of 11 minutes, and they generated a goal for the second straight contest.
The Oleksiak goal itself won’t make highlight reels, but the shift that led to the eventual game-winner was fourth-line bliss in its purest form. Here it is in all its glory.
The speed, the hitting, the forechecking, the shooting, the cycling, the grinding… it’s just… [begins shedding tears]… it’s so beautiful.
Huge kudos also to Oleksiak, who was an absolute warrior, scoring the big goal and later painfully blocking a Nic Hague slap shot in the third period that sent him to the locker room briefly before returning for his final three shifts.
“I think that’s one of the things that I enjoyed most about the game was just our commitment level to paying the price and working for each other,” Lambert said. “And definitely, Oleksiak did a great job of that, and so did [Ryan] Lindgren [Eeli] Tolvanen, and the list goes on and on in terms of the blocks.”
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.
Happy New Year, Kraken fans. As the Seattle Kraken roll into 2026, it is time for the January update of the Strive for 95 points series.
The Kraken stumbled into December on a three-game skid to close November. They aimed to right the ship, but the turnaround took longer than expected. Seattle went 1-9-1 over an 11-game stretch, earning just three points. That tied the worst 11-game run in franchise history. The previous stretch came during the inaugural season from Feb. 14, 2022, through March 8, 2022.
Seattle opens January at home against the Nashville Predators, beginning the third of four straight back-to-back sets. The Kraken finally broke through with a second-leg back-to-back win on Dec. 23, the first time they had done that in more than a year and a half. They have also earned points in each of their last three back-to-backs, collecting four total points across those three games. That is a trend worth monitoring.
December recap
There is no sugarcoating December. The losing streaks playfully dubbed Losing Streak Camille and Cynthia by the Sound Of Hockey Podcast were not kind to Seattle. As losses piled up, the Kraken slid down the standings and were tied for last in the NHL in points from Dec. 19 through Dec. 21.
Panic followed, much like the elves in my favorite Christmas movie when Santa was seen (bonus points if you can name the movie). In that moment, Steve steadied the North Pole and guided them through a Level 3 gift wrap incision. The Kraken did the same, closing December on a 4-0-1 run and climbing from last place to two points out of a wild-card spot with games in hand. By points percentage, Seattle currently ranks eighth in the Western Conference and would hold the final wild-card position. The playoff race is very much alive.
A closer look at December shows only one truly poor outing, a 9-4 loss to Edmonton. Seattle has historically struggled against the Oilers, holding a 4-13-1 lifetime record in the series. Teams have off nights, and this one fits that category. Outside of that game, the Kraken went 5-6-1 over their other 12 contests.
Head coach Lane Lambert emphasized defensive structure, and it showed. Excluding empty-net goals, all 12 of those games were decided by a single goal. Seattle lost more than it won, but consistently played tight, competitive hockey. That approach should translate over the long haul and turn close games into points more often than it did in December.
Between the pipes
Seattle received strong goaltending throughout December. The lack of wins was not the fault of Joey Daccord or Philipp Grubauer.
Grubauer led the way with a .920 save percentage and a 2-3 record in five starts. Daccord posted a .908 save percentage with a 3-4-1 record. Both appeared in the nine-goal loss to Edmonton. If that game is excluded, Daccord’s save percentage improves to .926, while Grubauer’s rises to .935.
Joey Daccord
Philipp Grubauer
One of the biggest differences this season compared to previous years is consistency. The Kraken are playing the same style regardless of who is in net. That requires confidence in the goaltenders and a defensive structure that allows them to anticipate shots and manage rebounds.
Many believed Seattle should have bought out Grubauer’s contract during the offseason. Through the first half of the season, general manager Jason Botterill looks wise for holding onto him.
When asked by Darren Brown where Grubauer’s confidence level sits after a strong stretch, Grubauer said, “Just taking it one game at a time. Working with [goaltending coach Colin] Zulianello has been unbelievable. The support from the coaching staff is always huge.”
Target win percentages
December’s target was 16 points. The Kraken fell short, earning 11 points. They now need to make up five points over the next three and a half months.
This update includes games through Feb. 5 due to the Olympic break from Feb. 6 through Feb. 24. The March update will cover Feb. 25 through March 31. With the standings tightly packed, the playoff cut line could fall below 95 points, but the Strive for 95 pace remains the benchmark. Below are the updated target win percentages needed to maintain a 95-point pace.
Updated tiers
This season has made tiering difficult with so many teams clustered together. In the Eastern Conference, every team sits above .500 and within six points of a playoff spot. The Western Conference shows slightly more separation, though much of the conference remains tightly packed behind Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota.
Bolded teams are teams the Kraken play this month. ‘x2’ indicates the Kraken face that team twice. Up and down arrows show teams that moved between tiers.
Notes on tier movement
Playoff Bound tier
Minnesota moves into this tier. The Wild made headlines by trading for superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes. Since the trade, Minnesota is 6-1-1 and holds the third-best record in the NHL. Colorado and Dallas sit atop the league, completing a Central Division podium sweep.
Bubble tier
Buffalo joins the bubble after a 10-game winning streak to close December, moving into the final wild-card spot in the East. New Jersey welcomed back Jack Hughes from a hand injury on Dec. 21, but the Devils have failed to gain traction, going 1-3-1 since his return. Nashville enjoyed an outstanding month, collecting 10 wins, moving them to just one point outside a wild-card spot. Calgary also moves up a tier after finding its stride, rattling off nine wins in December. Calder Trophy runner-up and former Everett Silvertips goaltender Dustin Wolf started eight of those nine victories.
Tanker tier
Tanker teams: Chicago and Winnipeg slid to the bottom after a brutal December. The two teams combined for only five wins in December, two by the Jets and three by the Blackhawks. Chicago and Winnipeg both posted a .286 points percentage for the month of December.
January and early February breakdown
With the standings bunched, most of Seattle’s upcoming opponents fall into the bubble tier. That group accounts for 16 of the Kraken’s next 19 games. Seattle faces two Playoff Bound teams, hosting Minnesota before a road trip to Carolina. The lone tanker matchup is the season’s second meeting with Vancouver on Friday.
The Kraken closed December with a shootout loss to Vancouver in the second leg of a back-to-back. The Canucks did not look sharp in that game. Coincidentally, the Jan. 2 rematch also comes at the end of a back-to-back, giving Seattle a chance to respond after the shootout loss.
Of the 19 games leading into the Olympic break, Seattle plays 10 on the road and nine at home. A six-game homestand from Jan. 19 through Jan. 29 ties for the longest of the season. January is the busiest month on the schedule with 17 games. Including early February games, the Kraken face four back-to-back sets and will need continued strong play from their goaltending tandem.
The overall target for the month is 24 points in 19 games. Tier-specific targets break down as follows:
Playoff Bound: two points in two games
Bubble: 20 points in 16 games
Tanker: two points in one game
There’s always time for a bow
With the named losing streaks (hopefully) in the rearview mirror and a five-game point streak in hand, the Kraken look to start the new year on the right note against Nashville at Climate Pledge Arena.
As the league approaches the Olympic break, this stretch could shape Seattle’s approach to the March 6 trade deadline. With a three-week pause, general managers will have time to assess whether to buy, sell, or stand pat. If the Kraken remain in a playoff position or within striking distance, limited activity makes sense. A slide could push Seattle into seller territory. As John Barr recently pointed out in a Kraken Roundtable on the trade deadline, “If an opportunity arises to add a player like Jordan Kyrou, someone who fills a clear need and has meaningful term left on his contract, the Kraken should absolutely jump at it.”
The second half of the season sets up compelling storylines as separation in the standings begins to take shape. With games in hand and a track record of tight, competitive play, a playoff spot remains a realistic outcome for the Kraken.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
As the Seattle Kraken close out the calendar year, it’s safe to say they’ve turned things around on the penalty kill. Statistically, they’ve gone from completely off the map in a dreadful league of their own—as bad as five percentage points behind the then-31st-ranked Ottawa Senators at 64.8 percent—to taking over that 31st spot themselves at 71.7 percent.
There is still room for improvement. After a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 6 capped a three-game stretch in which Seattle allowed seven power-play goals on eight chances, the Kraken switched formations and have since been one of the NHL’s better penalty-killing teams, killing 85.7 percent of opportunities.
“Something’s got to be done about it, and there’s only one way to go,” coach Lane Lambert said after that Detroit game. Indeed, something has been done about it.
In this Kraken Notebook, we’ll look at how a formation change has helped turn the PK around, learn about Berkly Catton switching to No. 27, and much more.
New PK versus old
After that Detroit game, I broke down in Three Takeaways what was wrong with the PK, most notably that seam passes were far too easy to come by for opposing teams. While digging through the Sound Of Hockey… dot com… archives for that story, I came across another article I’d written about the 2022-23 playoff team and how it improved its penalty kill in the middle of the season.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. That season, the Kraken ranked 31st in the NHL on the penalty kill while using the wedge-plus-one system. After a 7-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on New Year’s Eve, during which they allowed two power-play goals, Seattle began working on a simplified diamond system. Over the next three-plus months, the Kraken killed 83.9 percent of penalties.
The details aren’t exactly the same, but Seattle’s PK is going through an almost identical evolution right now.
“I think we switched it up probably about a couple weeks ago, three weeks ago, maybe, and it’s a bit of a learning experience at the start,” Ryan Winterton said. “I think learning anything new is a little different, but I think the guys have bought into it, and our kill since then has been pretty good.”
Added Matty Beniers, who was used more frequently in the old formation: “I think there’s a lot of shared responsibilities in [the old system]… One guy’s kind of trying to focus on the bumper [in the slot], but also trying to take away the backside. Honestly, what we did was kind of take a little bit of the onus off the forwards and put a little bit more on the D, and the D have just done a great job with that.”
Beniers indicated that things are more clear-cut for the forwards, who can now focus on defending one player at a time while allowing the defensemen to handle being outnumbered more often. Defensemen are better suited to deal with 2-on-1 situations than forwards, making that a positive change.
Now, instead of constant rotation and reading off one another to determine who is pressuring at the top of the zone, the formation moves as one. It expands and contracts, with rotation only occurring when the entire diamond is pulled far enough in one direction to effectively turn the whole formation, as shown below from a successful kill against the Canucks.
Here, as the puck moves around the zone, all four players move together, with Chandler Stephenson (F1) moving from the top of the diamond to the right side, Ryan Winterton (F2) moving from the left to the top, Jamie Oleksiak (D1) moving from the right to the bottom, and Cale Fleury (D2) moving from the bottom to the left. The players never trade with one another like they did before, they just shift around.
The biggest improvement from this new look has been taking away the wide-open seam passes that were plaguing the Kraken, as noted in Three Takeaways after the Detroit game.
“100 percent, I think that’s what we try to take away. You always try to take the seam pass away,” Eeli Tolvanen said. “They’re the hardest thing to— you know, if you get the seam, stuff opens up. So I think, yeah, for sure, we’ve done a better job with that now, not giving them those lanes and keeping the puck on the outside.”
The main reason this works so much better is that there are now two players across the middle of the ice, instead of a triangular formation that placed two players near the crease and one in the slot. When a puck is contested along the wall, the diamond quickly spreads as Seattle’s skaters pounce and try to advance it out of the zone. If they lose possession, they retreat right back into position, with minimal confusion about assignments.
Oleksiak also credited small personnel tweaks, with himself, Adam Larsson, Ryan Lindgren, Fleury, Ben Meyers, Freddy Gaudreau, Stephenson, Tolvanen, and Winterton carrying most of the PK duties, and said the killers have grown more comfortable with one another.
PK usage since Dec. 10.
“I think it’s a product of being more comfortable to pressure more,” Oleksiak said. “That kind of comes with chemistry, learning each other’s tendencies. And I think working with the coaches, we’ve been very diligent in practice and whatnot, and I think it’s been good.”
Added coach Lane Lambert: “I think [assistant coach] Aaron Schneekloth has done a real good job of having the guys understand exactly what we’re looking for. We made some changes, that’s all there is to it, and I think we’re more aggressive with those changes.”
Berkly Catton back in 27
The team officially announced a rare in-season jersey number change for Berkly Catton, who ditched No. 77 in favor of his more familiar No. 27, previously worn by Mason Marchment before he was traded.
Catton said he learned Tuesday that changing back to the number he’s worn since childhood—and briefly with Seattle before the Kraken acquired Marchment in the offseason—would be possible.
“I had 27 before, just for a short time before [Marchment] came, and actually, [Jason Botterill] called me yesterday and told me there was a chance that they could do it this year,” Catton said. “Obviously, I was kind of thinking next year, maybe, but then [head equipment manager Jeff Camelio] and his staff obviously worked hard and got it done. So I’m really grateful for that.”
Catton added that he’s worn the number for as long as he can remember and believes it was chosen for him by his mother, whose birthday is April 27.
It was noted during Catton’s availability that even his team-issued workout sneakers had already been updated to No. 27. The equipment staff works fast.
Lambert happier with Oleksiak’s game
During Seattle’s back-to-back Losing Streaks Camille and Cynthia, Oleksiak found himself in Lambert’s doghouse. For the first time since joining the Kraken in their inaugural season, Oleksiak was a healthy scratch for two games.
At the time, I asked Lambert several times about the surprising lineup decision and finally got a more telling answer on attempt No. 3.
“I think he’s been okay,” Lambert said before Oleksiak was scratched for the second time on Dec. 8. “There’s a couple areas, and I’m not gonna get into that with you guys here, but he and I have talked about that, where we would like him to be better. But he’s not the only guy, either.”
Since Seattle’s 4-1 loss that night to the Minnesota Wild, Oleksiak has played every game and—anecdotally—appears more willing to use his massive frame to body opponents off pucks.
“I have [seen improvement],” Lambert said Monday. “Every once in a while, and it doesn’t matter who you are, you have to be reminded a little bit, and I think he’s been solid since. Certainly, I think he’s been more physical, more assertive, which we need from him. He’s a big body, so I think he’s played well here. And you know, for the most part, he’s played well all season.”
Oleksiak was thoughtful when asked how tough it was to be a healthy scratch at this stage of his Kraken tenure.
“I mean, obviously, things like that are difficult, but it’s a long year. There’s ebbs and flows, and you’ve just got to kind of respond to a situation like that the right way,” Oleksiak said. “And that’s what I try and do. I try not to get negative and try to find the opportunity in it. And again, it’s a long season. It’s a roller coaster. Things happen, and I think you’ve just got to learn along the way. So, yeah, I think I’ve really been mindful of bringing what I can to help the team win.”
Winterton makes big impact in return to lineup, Melanson’s special moment
Speaking of healthy scratches, Winterton sat out Seattle’s 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday before returning Monday, scoring a big goal against the Canucks, and helping the team earn a point in the 3-2 shootout loss.
Winterton, who had a few cups of coffee at the NHL level over the past two seasons, has solidified himself as a full-time player this season, though the occasional healthy scratch has started to appear for him. This was only the second time all season he’s been out of the lineup (the previous was Seattle’s 4-2 loss at the Calgary Flames on Dec. 18), though, and he didn’t seem too bothered by it.
“Obviously, it’s pretty cool being up here at the big club,” Winterton said. “I’ll hopefully stay as long as I can, and I think it’s been great for my development, just kind of playing with faster, stronger guys, and trying to learn the systems and do what I can to stay here.”
His goal Monday was a beauty, coming on a cross-crease pass off the rush from fellow 2021 draftee and former Coachella Valley Firebirds teammate Jacob Melanson.
WINTER IS HERE! ❄️ 🚨
More sketchy defending from leaky VAN, and the fourth line burns them. Jacob Melanson gets his FIRST NHL POINT, setting up Ryan Winterton, and JOEY DACCORD GETS THE SECOND ASSIST!
That's Winterton from Melanson and Daccord, just as we expected.
It was a special moment for the hard-nosed Melanson as well, who earned his first NHL point with the primary assist and has continued proving his worth as a prototypical bottom-six winger.
“After I saw the puck in the net, I kind of looked over to see who made the pass and saw it was Melly,” Winterton said. “And I think there’s a picture going around that— we’re kind of both just smiling. I kind of blacked out a little bit, but I’m super happy for him. It’s probably the first of many, so it was a big one for him, and a big one for the team at the time.”
“It’s special,” Melanson said. “I mean, you always want to get your first NHL point, and for it to happen like that with Winnie being able to score was pretty cool, and I mean, it’s something I’ll remember forever.”
Melanson said his phone lit up afterward with messages from friends and family back home in Nova Scotia.
“I mean, I’m from Amherst, a small town, so everyone was paying close attention to me,” Melanson said. “I got a ton of texts from back home, and a lot of people reaching out, just saying, ‘Congratulations.’ It’s awesome to have that support and see all that.”
Odds and ends
Just a few more quick tidbits…
For those wondering why Joey Daccord wore his standard white gear instead of his black setup with Seattle’s Abyss jerseys on Monday, he said he felt he looked smaller in the black gear and that the holes appeared more visible. Coincidental or not, he’d been giving up more goals in that setup, so he reverted to white.
Adam Larsson was absent from practice Wednesday, but Lambert said he’s just “under the weather” and will be fine.
Aside from Larsson being replaced by Josh Mahura, the team ran the same line rushes we saw against Vancouver.
Jani Nyman was reassigned to Coachella Valley on Tuesday. Here’s what Lambert said about that: “Jani did a lot of good things here, and I think for him, part of his development was certainly being here—and he’ll be back again—getting to understand the way things are done, how we’re doing things here. And it’s important for him to keep playing as well, and it’ll be nice for him to go down there, playing the power play, have some success that way, and get himself ready to come back whenever that might be.” Lambert added that he wants Nyman to focus on what he is supposed to do when he doesn’t have the puck.
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.
