Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll pass along some Kraken-related takeaways from our preliminary 2026 NHL Draft work, along with a couple notable injury updates. Beyond that, we’ll have other news, weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and a preview of the week ahead, as always.
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 at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Way-too-early 2026 NHL Draft thoughts
Yesterday, we posted the mid-season Sound Of Hockey Big Board, which ranked 411 draft prospects based on nine public draft analyst and scouting sources. Personally, I’m still deep in the weeds sorting through the early-round candidates in an effort to form comparative thoughts. I’d say I’m about halfway there, hoping to complete enough viewings by the end of the CHL season, when we at Sound Of Hockey tend to publish our final “Data Score” watchlist. (You can find the preseason version here.)
A complicating factor this early is that there is still significant uncertainty about where Seattle will be drafting. By the time you read this, Seattle’s first-round pick could sit anywhere between No. 8 and No. 18 in a hypothetical draft order (without even considering the added variable of the draft lottery). And it’s not outlandish to think that the pick could be outside this range when all is said and done. We can be a bit more confident with the Tampa Bay first-round pick Seattle holds due to the Yanni Gourde/Oliver Bjorkstrand trade. That pick will very likely fall in the 26-to-32 range.
In attempting to project the pick, there is yet one further variable: The Seattle Kraken shuffled responsibilities among their assistant general managers after hiring Ryan Jankowski. Alexandra Mandrycky, who has more of an analytics bent, moved to the pro scouting side, and Jankowski, who is a bit more of a traditional scout and player-development executive, took over the top spot in managing the amateur side. Of course, the Kraken still have Jason Botterill (and Ron Francis) at the top. It’s hard to know how much this management change will matter, if at all, when it comes to the players considered and selected in June. But it’s a point to track.
With all of that said, here are the top 35 on the mid-season Big Board:
At first blush, this draft presents Seattle with a prime opportunity to select a “Grade A” top-four defenseman. I’d put Keaton Verhoeff (No. 3), Chase Reid (No. 4), Carson Carels (No. 7), Daxon Rudolph (No. 12), and Alberts Smits (No. 6) in this category. Each is worthy of a high first-round pick and would justify departing from my general inclination toward drafting forwards high. I’d put Xavier Villeneuve (No. 9) and Ryan Lin (No. 16) in a second tier as intriguing smaller, offense-forward options as well.
The last time we had a defense-heavy top of the draft (2024), we saw a few of those players fall down the board a bit as teams prioritized big forwards and centers in particular. If history were to repeat here, it is not difficult to imagine one or more of Ethan Belchetz, Caleb Malholtra, or Oliver Suvanto getting drafted before Reid or Carels, for example.
My way-too-early thought is that Reid or Carels at a pick like No. 8, or Rudolph at a pick like No. 17, would be a solid win for the Kraken. When it comes to Tampa Bay’s pick, I’d just be spitballing at this point, but assuming you go back to the forward ranks, Pierce Mbuyi is a junior scorer who should stack up well both based on the data and the tape at that point in the draft. (Plus, his last name is pronounced like “Buoy,” so…) Ryan Roobroeck could be a worthy second-pick, high-risk flier. Nikita Klepov is an easy player to like if he were still on the board. (More on him below.)
In reality, all I can say with conviction given Seattle’s track record is that we should keep tabs on goalies playing junior hockey in Finland, including Frantisek Poletin (No. 99 on the Big Board) and Juuso Ainasto (No. 81). After taking a year off from the goalie market in 2025, they’re “due” to return to the Finnish well in 2026.
Notes on four Kraken prospects
Alexis Bernier | D | Chicoutimi Saguenéens (QMJHL)
Alexis Bernier has been taking part in on-ice activities with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, his new QMJHL team, for a couple of weeks now, and it appears his return to play is imminent following offseason ACL reconstruction surgery. Local reports indicate he should be in the lineup Friday, Jan. 23, when the Saguenéens drop the puck at 4:00 pm PT against the Val-d’Or Foreurs. Coming into the season, I was uncertain Bernier would see significant time, but now he has a couple dozen regular-season games, as well as a probable playoff run, to make an impact before the 2025-26 season concludes.
Jake O’Brien | F | Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
In other good injury news, top prospect Jake O’Brien returned to the ice last Sunday. He missed almost a month following a lower-body injury that was initially deemed minor. O’Brien got back to his point-producing ways in a hurry, scoring three goals and adding an assist in two games last week. It put him in the running for Prospect of the Week, but he came up just a bit short compared with the next two players we’ll mention.
Carson Rehkopf | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Carson Rehkopf has spent the majority of this season on the Firebirds’ fourth line, seeing relatively little ice time. The lesson—that Rehkopf needs to round out his game and grind his way up from the bottom—is a valuable one, but there have been long stretches of negligible impact for the skilled forward. Personally, I reached a nadir in my view of his development while watching last Sunday’s game against Abbotsford. He was scoreless and did not accomplish much at all that night.
Then came Wednesday’s game against San Jose, and he flipped the script. Rehkopf scored on all three of his shots on goal, registering his first professional hat trick. The skill is there, and hopefully a performance like this allows him to unlock it with a bit more frequency moving forward.
🧢 CARSON REHKOPF WITH HIS FIRST PRO HAT TRICK!!!!! 🧢 4-2 FIIIIREEEEBIRDDSSSSS! pic.twitter.com/pIktElzQdC
Victor Ostman | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
With top goalie prospect Nikke Kokko out week to week, there was concern that the Firebirds could be in for a rough stretch. The opposite has happened. The Firebirds have rattled off six straight wins, and that is due in large part to the strong play of goalie Victor Ostman, who has stepped into the “starter” role with Kokko out. In Ostman’s two starts this past week, he posted a .950 save percentage and earned two wins, one via shutout. That effort earned him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week status.
Kraken prospects data update
Logan Morrison’s season has flown under the radar a bit, but he has quietly led the offensive attack for the Firebirds. He reached the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his professional career last week. Morrison, 23, is currently on pace to amass 38 goals and 30 assists in 72 AHL games this year.
AHL All-Star Tyson Jugnauth, 21, is third among all AHL defensemen in scoring.
Kim Saarinen, 19, continues to post strong numbers back in Finland’s top professional league after the WJC break. As of Friday, his .917 save percentage is tied for the best mark in Liiga.
Though not included in these updates typically because he is on an AHL deal, goalie Jack LaFontaine’s performance to date warrants some mention. He’s (an almost ludicrous) 17-2-1 in the ECHL this season, with a .921 save percentage and a 2.21 goals-against average. In his two AHL starts since Nikke Kokko’s injury, he has two wins, a .945 save percentage, and a shutout. Terrific stuff.
Bernier’s projected return to the ice is our Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week. The matchup with the Val-d’Or Foreurs is available to stream for those with a FloHockey subscription.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Nikita Klepov
Nikita Klepov is a high-pace, physically engaged, and defensive-minded winger. He has offensive skill to dream on too, even if it’s a rung below the truly elite players in the draft. The 6-foot forward has 59 points in 43 OHL games, which is third in the OHL and most among undrafted players. He is also a relatively young draft-eligible player. There’s a lot to like in this profile.
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.
Welcome to Year 4 of the Sound Of Hockey Big Board. As we did last year, we’re kicking off our NHL Draft coverage midway through the hockey season with a “mid-season” version of the Big Board.
What is the Big Board? It’s a composite ranking of 2026 NHL Draft–eligible prospects based on reputable draft analyst and public scouting service lists—in this case, lists published midway through the season to account for draft-year performance. Put differently, it’s a list designed to provide the current, mid-season “public consensus” on the top players in the draft.
The Big Board does not contain any prospect-specific subjective assessments from us here at Sound Of Hockey. If you’d like a little more information on our methodology, check out our 2024 NHL Draft Big Board post.
We used the following nine sources to build the mid-season Big Board:
NHL Central Scouting just published its landmark midseason list last week, on Monday, Jan. 12. Some of the other sources referenced above are even more recent, while others date back about a month to December, 2025. It goes without saying that those earlier lists do not have the benefit of more recent gameplay or injury information. Accordingly, this list should be taken as only a rough approximation of a prospect’s current standing. Season-end lists are far more definitive.
As we progress through the remainder of the draft season, you can expect the same coverage you’ve come to know from us here at Sound Of Hockey in the past. Want our watchlist of prospects based on our “Data Score” method? We published a preseason version here, and we’ll have a final 2026 version for you soon after prospect regular seasons end.
We’ll then culminate our coverage with the final 2026 NHL Draft Big Board in June, as always.
The 2026 Sound Of Hockey Big Board – mid-season edition
All 411 players ranked by the nine sources above make up our mid-season Big Board. As you scroll across, you will see the rankings from the various sources we compiled. If a source ranking is behind a paywall, such as Scott Wheeler’s ranking for The Athletic, we have omitted it from the chart. We used those paywalled rankings to develop the composite list, but will not be sharing subscriber-only individual rankings.
Trends and takeaways
Overall, this draft appears to have more balance and depth than last year’s class, which skewed heavily toward Canadian junior forwards. The Big Board has nine Europeans within the top 32 overall prospects, whereas last year only three (including one surprise Russian goalie) were drafted in Round 1.
Six of the top 12 players on this Board are defensemen, whereas only two blueliners were drafted with the top 13 picks in 2025. Overall, there are 10 defensemen in the top 32 here. Only eight were drafted in the first round last year.
The talking point coming into the year was that this would be “The Gavin McKenna Draft.” Yet, a few months into a college hockey season that many have found uninspiring, McKenna has fallen behind fellow undersized winger Ivar Stenberg for the top spot in this mid-season snapshot.
McKenna is a perimeter player with some similar traits to his cousin Connor Bedard, and I think he is simply working through a higher level of competition earlier than Bedard did. As we have seen with Bedard at the NHL level, it can take time to rewire a junior-oriented skill game. Still, I haven’t seen enough to dislodge McKenna from the top spot personally, even if the gap has narrowed somewhat.
Ryan Roobroeck has piled up points in the OHL for three years now and has size to go with it, but analysts have soured on the prospect’s competitiveness and drive—to the extent that he barely factors into the first-round mix at this point. While McKenna’s fall from No. 1 is the most notable development, Roobroeck’s diving stock is likely the most disappointing storyline so far this season. (That said, it is very easy to imagine a team getting a steal with him or J.P. Hurlbert, another prolific junior scorer, late in the first round.)
A top goalie has not yet emerged in this class. Tobias Trejbal of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms is the highest-ranked netminder on the Big Board at No. 61 overall. Brady Knowling from the U.S. National Team Development Program, and Dmitri Borchev of the Russian junior league, appear to be in a similar tier. It will be interesting to track how the goalie market evolves over the next few months leading into the draft.
This year’s draft doesn’t have quite as much local flair as the last few drafts did. That said, there are several current and former players on Washington State’s WHL teams that project to be drafted, including Mathis Preston (who would be a steal at No. 18 in the draft), Jakub Vanecek (No. 48, Tri-City Americans), Chase Harrington (No. 68, Spokane Chiefs), Brek Liske (No. 82, Everett Silvertips), and Noah Kosick (No. 120, Seattle Thunderbirds).
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If you have draft- or coverage-related questions, drop us a note below or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on Bluesky @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com.
Header photo: Chase Harrington of the Spokane Chiefs plays in a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Photo/Brian Liesse, courtesy of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Curtis Isacke
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.
The Kraken didn’t make it easy on themselves, taking seven penalties in the game and giving up a goal in the first six minutes for the eighth consecutive contest. But they rode an impressive night from their penalty kill and another strong performance by Philipp Grubauer to a desperately needed 4-1 win over the Islanders.
Vince Dunn and Jared McCann were especially impressive on the offensive end of the ice, and the fourth line chipped in yet again to help coach Lane Lambert defeat the team that fired him almost exactly two years ago to the day.
“It’s been two years. So, I mean, I have a lot of good memories from being in the New York Islanders organization,” Lambert said. “We had a lot of success in that organization when I was there. There’s not that many players left, I guess, that were there; there’s eight or nine, I guess. But certainly, those guys, we went through a lot of battles together. It was nice to see some of them pregame a little bit, just to say ‘hi,’ but when the game starts… it did feel good to beat them, there’s no question about it, but it felt better just to get a win. We need to get on track.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Islanders.
Takeaway 1: A BIG night for the penalty kill
Penalties were the name of this game, with Seattle finding itself shorthanded for six of the first eight minutes of the contest and then four more times over the course of the night. After conceding an Anthony Duclair marker on the first penalty just 2:38 into the game, Seattle’s penalty killers recovered and put together a remarkable showing the rest of the way.
Despite the early goal against, Seattle padded its PK stats in this one, finishing at an 86 percent success rate and nudging the season-long number up slightly to 72.6 percent—still good for just 30th in the NHL.
“I thought our structure was good,” Lambert said. “And so for them, they were looking for some passing lanes, some seams and things like that, and we were taking those situations away, which stopped them from shooting at times. The other thing is that I thought we had some great commitment. We did block some shots in that situation, so you have to have that if you’re going to have success on the penalty kill.”
What was especially important, though, was that after Seattle gave up the Duclair goal, it killed off two more penalties in quick succession to avoid going into a deeper hole. Then the power play capitalized on a 5-on-3 opportunity at the other end to tie the game 1-1.
Early in that 5-on-3 advantage, the Islanders got a clear and sent the puck the length of the ice. What I loved was that McCann sprinted all the way down to retrieve it but—recognizing the situation and the numerical advantage the Kraken had—didn’t wait for his teammates to regroup for a controlled breakout. Instead, he flew straight through the neutral zone and re-gained the offensive zone, and then it felt like just a matter of time before Seattle scored.
Sure enough, a McCann shot was blocked but skipped to Dunn at the top of the circle, who fired it back toward Ilya Sorokin. Dunn’s shot hit Matty Beniers in front and found its way in at 10:40 of the first period.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
On a 5-on-3, McCann's shot got blocked, but it caromed right to Vince Dunn, who got a deflection off Beniers and in.
“I thought even just in zone, we were just attacking and being a threat when we could,” Dunn said. “Jared was shooting a lot of pucks, and sometimes you get guys out of position when you’re shooting pucks, maybe they go down to block it, and it bounces somewhere a little funny, and then you get a better look from there.”
Added Lambert: “We clearly have to stay out of the box. We can’t take that many penalties. I don’t necessarily know if they were all penalties, but they were called, and having given up the first goal early on, I thought our power play did a great job of capitalizing on that 5-on-3 when we really needed them to, so it was a great job by them. And then for the rest of the night, after that first power play that they had, I think we did an outstanding job. And I thought our goaltender was great.”
Takeaway 2: Another strong Grubi night
It’s becoming a broken record, but stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Philipp Grubauer had a great game, stopping 24 of 25 shots and improving to a .919 save percentage in 19 appearances, with a 10-4-3 record and a 2.37 goals-against average.
“I think just the way we play, all together,” Grubauer said of what’s been helping him find success. “It’s not like one guy. Obviously it helps when guys get in the lane and box guys out, make it easy for us back there. So, yeah, it’s just one save at a time, one TV timeout at a time, and that’s it.”
The first of my two favorite stops of the night came midway through the second period, when a floating wrister through traffic by Tony DeAngelo created a rebound for Emil Heineman, who took two whacks at it right at the top of the crease. Grubauer extended his right pad and kicked both away. The second came in the third period on Casey Cizikas off a partial breakaway. Cizikas deked to his backhand and tried to slip it through the five-hole, but Grubauer clamped it down and then batted the puck out of the air to clear it from harm’s way.
Grubauer picked up his first point of the season with the second assist on McCann’s empty-net goal.
“What I thought of his play is what I think of his play here for the whole year,” Lambert said. “He’s played well, he looks dialed in, he’s focused, he’s tight. He’s not getting out of position, sliding out of position. He seems in a good place. And yeah, it’s nice to see him get a point, for sure.”
When I jokingly asked Grubauer if he was trying to create some offense at the end of the game, he said, “No, I’m not going for [the empty net], if that’s what you’re asking. No, I’d rather have one of our guys make the play up the boards or shoot it. So, yeah, got the apple, but most importantly, we got the goal, and I don’t really care about the point there. It’s more about the win.”
Takeaway 3: Ben Meyers appreciation
Just a quick note to say that Ben Meyers deserves all the praise in the world for the way he has performed for the Kraken this season. He has taken the fourth-line center role and run with it, helping to make that Seattle’s most consistent line, regardless of who his linemates have been on any given night.
In this one, he came up with a massive (and painful) shot block in the second period, was a key piece of the penalty kill that was so critical, and teamed up with Ryan Winterton to create this beauty of a Vince Dunn goal:
This win stopped the bleeding for the Kraken, who had spiraled to 1-4-2 in their previous seven games. It also got them back into the final wild card spot by the hair on their chinny chin chins. The race remains incredibly tight.
The pendulum has swung back the other way for the Seattle Kraken, who have seen some concerning trends creep into their game. On this brief “.5” episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, the guys share and discuss what those trends are.
We’ll be back for a full episode later in the week.
Another game, another early deficit for the Seattle Kraken, who—despite starting the first couple minutes on their toes—quickly gave up two goals in the early stages against the Pittsburgh Penguins and found themselves chasing throughout the game.
The Kraken did rally back, as they often have during this stretch of losses, but after Seattle tied it in the second period, Brett Kulak scored 50 seconds later to regain the lead, and Pittsburgh pulled away in the end.
That’s Seattle’s fourth straight loss (0-3-1) and sixth loss in seven games (1-4-2) after winning eight of their previous nine (8-0-1).
“What’s happening right now is we’re making mistakes that are going in the back of our net,” coach Lane Lambert said. “And we’ve got to correct those mistakes.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a frustrating 6-3 Kraken loss to the Penguins.
Takeaway 1: What is with these early goals against?
Just when you thought they’d bucked the trend of giving up an early goal—after getting an impressive penalty kill from 3:29 to 5:29 of the first—the Kraken surrendered a benign-looking shot to defenseman Parker Wotherspoon at the point. His attempt found its way through traffic and in. There were no terrible, glaring mistakes on the play, but Joey Daccord couldn’t see it, and the puck got through.
Death, taxes, #SeaKraken giving up an early goal against.
“I think it’s everyone just playing better,” Ryan Lindgren said when asked how to nip the early goals against. “I think we’re just too loose right now in the D-zone. We’re giving up too many chances, we’re hanging our goalies out to dry a little bit. When we’re playing our best hockey, we’re a hard defending team.”
Seattle had a chance to quickly level the game with a power play of its own, but instead of evening things up, the Kraken put themselves in a deeper hole. Chandler Stephenson tried to make a little chip pass at the blue line, but Connor Dewar read it and stepped up, springing himself for a breakaway. He scored his first of two goals on the night, and once again the Kraken were hiking up a mountain, as they have been on several occasions lately.
Wow. And now another short-handed goal against, and the #SeaKraken trail 2-0 early.
Loose play at the offensive blue line, and Connor Dewar picks it off and scores on the breakaway. pic.twitter.com/rjnCoshrEJ
The shorthanded goals against are also an alarming trend. This marked the Kraken’s third straight game in which they’ve given up a shorty.
“It’s always correctable,” Lambert said. “We have a face-off battle in Utah the other day, and they end up coming out of that with a 3-on-2, we play that very poorly. Tonight, we knew that they were locking the bench side with their forward, and their forward was going to step, and that was pre-scouted for our players. That was indicated to them. They saw a video on it, and they stepped, got a breakaway. So we’ve got to be better.”
Takeaway 2: Goals through traffic
Three goals against in this game floated through traffic and eluded Daccord. Wotherspoon’s icebreaker just missed Jordan Eberle, then flew between Brandon Montour and Anthony Mantha as they battled at the top of the crease.
Brett Kulak’s goal—which killed Seattle’s momentum and put Pittsburgh back in the driver’s seat—followed a face-off in Seattle’s end. Sidney Crosby won it back, Kulak walked the line, and sent a soft wrister that fluttered past Adam Larsson and into the top corner.
Penguins answer right back and regain a 3-2 lead. Gaudreau loses the face-off, and then Brett Kulak just sends a wrist shot through traffic. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/VrU8uCfXHy
Then, just 2:21 into the third period, Justin Brazeau scored what proved to be the eventual dagger, using Jamie Oleksiak as a screen and firing through his legs to make it 4-2.
Justin Brazeau makes it 4-2. Joey's had a hard time with shots through screens today. This time, it goes through Oleksiak's legs. pic.twitter.com/jm19hxbnBK
It’s hard to decide where the blame falls on goals like these. Defenders are trying to block shots and/or box players out, but when the block is missed, the goalie is left in a brutal spot.
Meanwhile, Daccord certainly didn’t have his best night, allowing five goals on 31 shots. But when pucks come from distance and you can’t see—or even hear—a wrist shot leave the stick, all you can do is read the body language of the players in front of you. You hope the puck finds you, but it’s a bit of a crapshoot. Daccord got no puck luck in this one.
“I have to go back and take a little bit of a look at some of the goals,” Lambert said, when asked about Daccord’s performance. “But, I’ve got to think that there’s maybe a couple we’d like to have him back there and put us in a better chance to have an opportunity to win the game.”
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz on the fourth line
I wrote a Kraken Notebook on Sunday that touched on the challenges of having veteran players return to the lineup and potentially disrupt the team’s chemistry. Lambert had implied at practice that some line shuffling could be coming as he searched for the right mix again.
I knew he experimented last game with Schwartz on the fourth line alongside Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton, but it was still a bit surprising to see Schwartz start this game on that bottom trio while Freddy Gaudreau moved back up to reunite with Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen.
For Schwartz, it might be a tough pill to swallow, but if he was bothered by the demotion—even if it was purely a numbers thing—it didn’t show in his performance. The fourth line was the only truly effective line for the Kraken in this one, creating both of the team’s 5-on-5 goals.
The first came off a textbook forecheck by Ryan Winterton as the F2 and Schwartz as the F1, with Winterton prying the puck loose to Schwartz, who then found Ben Meyers—the F3—trailing in the right circle. Meyers sniped it over Stuart Skinner’s right shoulder.
The second goal was pretty as well. Ryker Evans set Meyers up for a Grade A chance, but Skinner slid across and robbed him. Winterton jumped on the rebound and—instead of shoveling it back into Skinner—found Ryan Lindgren in the slot, giving the defenseman an open net for his second goal as a Kraken.
THE LINDY HOP! 🕺🚨
The newly assembled fourth line does it again. Meyers with the shot, huge save by Skinner, but Ryan Lindgren cleans up the rebound.
I don’t know how I feel about Schwartz on the fourth line. There’s still something off about the makeup of this team with a fully healthy roster and Jacob Melanson back in the AHL.
But Schwartz did seem to jell pretty nicely with Meyers and Winterton.
“I liked the fourth line,” Lambert said. “I’ve liked the fourth line for a while. We need the other lines to be better.”
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
This week’s Monday Musings is a bit abbreviated thanks to the holiday weekend and an early Monday matinee. Keep an eye out for another edition of 10 for 10 later this week, and expect a full strength Monday Musings to return next week.
The Kraken’s week started in a good place and slowly unraveled, ending with a pretty ugly loss to the Utah Mammoth. Last week, I said they needed at least four of the possible eight points, including an overtime point against Utah, to keep pace in the standings. That didn’t happen. They came away with only three points and lost to the Mammoth in regulation. Seattle is still sitting third in the division, but they’re tied with three other teams and only holding their spot because of tiebreakers. They’re still in the playoff picture, but a flat week like this tightens the margin for error.
Things actually opened on a positive note with a 4–2 win over the Rangers, though even that game came with a red flag: the Kraken fell behind 2–0 in the first period before rattling off four straight. It worked that night, but spotting teams early leads is not a sustainable strategy.
Ironically, their best performance of the week came in a game they also trailed 2–0, in the matchup in Boston. Seattle generated 62 shot attempts to Boston’s 48 and pushed the pace for long stretches, even though they ultimately lost in regulation. It felt like a promising setup heading into the final and most important game of the road trip against Utah… which makes the way that one ended all the more frustrating.
Rebound goals
One of Lane Lambert’s early-season messages was that the Kraken needed to shoot more. He always paired it with the reminder that a huge chunk of NHL goals come off rebounds, which stuck with me. I’ve been watching for those second chance opportunities all year and even flagged it in one of my early Kraken 10-for-10 posts and lately, the Kraken have been cashing in.
They’ve been scoring rebound goals in bunches, and this road trip has been the clearest example yet. By my definition, any goal scored within three seconds of a shot attempt. Seattle has four of them on this trip alone.
Exhibit 1:
The Kraken are still one of the top teams in rebound goals (off attempts):
Power play
One of the biggest surprises of the season has been the Kraken’s suddenly potent power play. They’re sitting ninth in the NHL at 23.1%, a massive jump from last year’s 23rd ranked unit that converted at just 18.9%. The difference has been obvious, too. Their puck movement with the extra skater looked sharp throughout the last homestand and should, in theory, only improve with the return of Brandon Montour and Jaden Schwartz from injured reserve.
Seattle is humming along at 34.8% in January and ranks second in the league over its last 20 games. The only real drawback is that they don’t get many chances to show it off, but when they do, they’ve been making them count.
It is worth pointing out that the Kraken allowed two shorthanded goals against on this road trip, but I would like to think that is just a fluky coincidence.
Other musings
With Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour back, the Kraken are finally healthy. I’m really curious to see how the group settles in once those two get a few games under their belts. Both will slot onto the power‑play units, which means Berkly Catton and Ryker Evans are the likely players to lose some PP time.
Catton, for his part, is playing with real confidence. He’s developed a shoot‑first mentality, putting up six shot attempts in each of his last two games, both season highs.
Down in the desert, the Coachella Valley Firebirds have won five straight.
With Nikke Kokko out week‑to‑week with a lower‑body injury, it was encouraging to see the new tandem of Jack LaFontaine and Victor Ostman deliver back‑to‑back shutouts over the weekend.
Big congrats to Firebirds standouts Jagger Firkus and Tyson Jugnauth on being named to the AHL All‑Star Game. There are plenty of variables in play, but it’ll be interesting to see if either gets a look with the Kraken at some point.
Goal of the week
Freddy’s touch here is so nice that I had to include it in here somehow.
Player Performances
Jani Nyman (CVF/SEA) – Lil’ Jani is on a heater. He scored six goals in four games and was named AHL Player of the Week.
In other action, Jani Nyman continues to score for the @Firebirds. This is Nyman’s fifth goal in his last three games and this game still has two periods remaining. pic.twitter.com/N108bD8HkW
Jared McCann (SEA) – It’s great having McCann back in the lineup. The Kraken’s all‑time leading scorer chipped in two goals and two assists this week, immediately reminding everyone what this team looks like with him healthy.
Nela Lopusanova (SLO) – The 17‑year‑old Slovakian phenom first made waves at age 14 when she pulled off a Michigan goal at the U18 Women’s Worlds. Three years later, she just wrapped up her fourth U18 tournament and tied Kendall Coyne Schofield for the most career points in event history. Lopusanova now sits at 22 goals and 11 assists in just 14 games.
This is the famed Michigan goal:
14-year old Nela Lopušanová pulled off the Michigan at the #U18WomensWorlds 🤯😱🔥
The Kraken open the week with a Monday afternoon matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I’m not usually one to throw around the term “must win,” but it sure would be nice to start this six game homestand on the right foot and put an end to the current two-game skid. From there, it’s an every other day rhythm: the Islanders on Wednesday, a big Pacific Division test against the Ducks on Friday, and an early one against the Devils on Sunday. None of these teams are world beaters, but all of them have something to play for, so there won’t be any freebies.
Seattle is still in a playoff spot, and at this stage the goal is simply to hang around and give themselves a real shot down the stretch. The minimum target this week is four of eight points, with at least one coming in that Ducks game. The ideal version? Six points and a regulation win at Anaheim’s expense.
At long last, the Seattle Kraken returned to Kraken Community Iceplex on Sunday for the first time in what felt like forever. With an intense cadence of home games to start the calendar year, followed by a nine-day, cross-country road trip, it really has been quite a while since the Kraken have had a regular practice at their Northgate facility.
It was still somewhat surprising that they practiced Sunday, the first day back after that long journey that ended 1-3-1, but Seattle will go right back to work against the Pittsburgh Penguins at home on Monday. The early 2 p.m. start time means the Kraken will not hold a morning skate, so getting on the ice Sunday was the team’s only chance to iron out some of the missteps that have sunk the team recently. As a slight reprieve, coach Lane Lambert made the practice optional, though only a few select players took that option with most in attendance.
Lambert is looking for stability from his team, which has seen a pendulum of results swing from very bad (1-9-1 in 11 games between Nov. 23 and Dec. 18) to very good (8-0-2 in the next 10 games from Dec. 20 to Jan. 8), and now appears to be swinging back toward the bad category.
“Take it one game at a time and be ready to play tomorrow,” Lambert said, when asked how to avoid having this recent cool stretch spiral into another four-alarm emergency.
To their credit, the players seemed upbeat after the trip and know they were close to having significantly better results.
“They’ve been higher highs and higher lows than generally you want. But at the end of the day, I think on every team, you go through that,” captain Jordan Eberle said. “It’s just the reality of an 82-game schedule is there’s adversity at some point.
“We’ve overcome some pretty big lows, which is impressive, and we fought our way back and got ourselves in a position… where we’re fighting to get to the top of the division, so that’s what it comes down to. For me, it doesn’t matter how you get there. If anything, this way, I’ve seen that we’ve been able to streak and put together wins, and that’s a sign of a really good hockey team.”
Veteran winger Jaden Schwartz, who rejoined the team at the start of the road trip after a 19-game injury absence, echoed what Eberle said.
“That’s a season for every team, right?” Schwartz said. “You’re gonna have ups and downs throughout the year, but it’s important to keep the belief. There’s games where you feel like you should have won because you played good, and then maybe there’s games that you win that the other team maybe thought they won. So, I think we did a good job of just being consistent. You know, when we come to practice or come to the rink, we’re always prepared and ready. And the games we lost on the trip, they were kind of right there.”
Kraken looking for chemistry again
With Schwartz and defenseman Brandon Montour both back from injury, Seattle now has its entire roster healthy—except for Matt Murray, who remains on injured reserve but has been practicing in full for several weeks.
On paper, that’s obviously the best-case scenario: having all your regulars available and playing. But it’s been interesting that things haven’t gone quite as swimmingly as one might have hoped with the vastly improved health of what was once an injury-ravaged roster.
It’s easy to assume that getting everybody back at once would immediately lead to positive results, but so far, it hasn’t worked out that way.
“It’s always sort of a great question. You’re going along really good, and then a couple guys come back, and it just puts everybody a little bit on a different seat kind of thing, when the rhythm is going,” Lambert said. “But at the same time, we need those players, and we need the depth, so we have to find a way to gain that chemistry back.
“I thought we played some really good hockey, let’s not lose sight of that. I thought we played some really good hockey on the road as well, but we just have to find a way to finish games off. We’ve had too many times where we’ve been tied or even leading with 10 minutes left to go in the game, and we’ve either gotten one point out of it or no points out of it.”
Lambert again mentioned how much he liked the Kraken’s outing against the Boston Bruins, in which they fell behind 2-0 early but pushed back and took control of long stretches before ultimately losing 4-2.
With the returns of Schwartz and Montour came a logjam that has forced a shakeup of the lines and squeezed gritty winger Jacob Melanson all the way back down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. I personally think that’s been a killer to the team’s momentum, which—for a stretch—had an extremely effective fourth line going out and putting teams on their heels for about 10 minutes a night whenever Ryan Winterton, Ben Meyers, and Melanson skated together.
Now, with everyone back, Freddy Gaudreau has been moved to fourth-line wing alongside Winterton and Meyers. I’m not convinced that trio works as well as the Winterton/Meyers/Melanson line did, simply because Gaudreau is such a different type of player than Melanson. That’s not a knock on Gaudreau—I just liked him more on the line with Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen. But I also don’t know where to put Schwartz if you elevate Gaudreau again, so it’s a pickle for Lambert, who did imply we could see some shuffling this week.
Of course, all of this is moot if Seattle had won a couple more games on the road trip. But the slight discombobulation could be related to multiple players returning at once who are working to reintegrate themselves into the lineup and get back to peak performance levels after long absences.
“Every situation is a little bit different,” Schwartz said. “Certainly, when you’re out a while, it’s gonna take a little bit to get the timing and just know where guys are and feeling 100 percent. Sometimes things click right away, and then later on, there’s a little bit of a lull. Usually, you want to try to get back up to speed as quick as you can, but it’s not always going to be perfect.”
When asked if he feels like he’s back to full speed with five games under his belt since returning, Schwartz said: “I don’t know about that. I mean, I was out for quite a while. It’s good to be back and get the game lights back, but timing [can be a little bit better], and just little things, I feel like I could be a little bit better. But overall, I think outside of maybe one game, I felt like my game’s been pretty good. I’ve just got to find a way to bury some chances and create a little bit more.”
Montour, the other recent returnee, has had a very start-and-stop kind of season. He missed most of training camp due to surgery to remove a bursa from his ankle, then took a leave of absence following the tragic passing of his brother, and most recently missed another 14 games because of a hand injury that required surgery.
“Injuries suck,” Montour said. “I’ve had a tough start to over half the season now, with two surgeries and things off the ice. [For me, it’s not] necessarily the confidence. I know how I play, and I know what I bring, and so it’s not necessarily hard to get back into it [from that perspective because] I’ve experienced quite a bit. It’s about me just feeling good and getting my touches and getting my reps in. It’s tough missing training camp and missing games early on. And when you miss a good chunk of the month, you just kind of [need to] get the feeling back. But I think for me, it’s whatever it takes to stay in the mix and be a part of close games and being in the playoffs. That’s what it’s it’s all about.”
Catton gaining confidence, getting more comfortable at “home”
You can tell the weight of the world is off Berkly Catton’s shoulders now that he’s scored a few goals in the NHL. He’s oozing confidence on the ice, and when you talk to him about scoring, there’s a noticeable tone of relief in his voice after posting four goals and one assist in his last seven games following a 27-game scoreless start to his NHL career.
“It was a while there. I didn’t know if I was ever going to score,” Catton said with a laugh. “It’s crazy how it can go like that. But I’m just so happy that first one went in, and then same game, another one, crazy how that works. And within three periods, or two periods, you’ve scored two goals, and then the rest of season you don’t score one, so it’s like… again… it’s the way hockey goes. Lots of learning within that experience of not scoring and stuff, but hopefully I can score a couple more.”
Catton has looked good for a while now, even as the schedule has compressed over the last month. One might assume a 19-year-old jumping straight from the WHL to the NHL would wear down as the rigors of an 82-game season really set in, but Catton said his junior experience prepared him well for those challenges.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Catton said when asked if his junior days set him up for success at the top level. “I think those three in threes [three games in three days] you have on the weekends or long days on a bus, then playing, they kind of suck, but they do prepare you in lots of ways. So I think the long season and that stuff, having kind of gone through it a little bit—maybe not like this, this month’s insane—but it’s good to have gone through it a little bit already.”
And while he’s enjoyed some individual on-ice success recently, Catton also appears to be getting more comfortable on the “home” front as he continues to live with Stephenson and his growing family.
“It’s pretty funny, I was living by myself at the start of the year, so that part was a big change for me,” Catton said. “I wasn’t very good at it, so it’s nice to live with Chandler, and it’s basically like a billet family in junior, except you play with your billet; he’s on your team. So it’s pretty cool. They’ve been nothing but great to me, and they have a hectic household right now, obviously, with the newborn and stuff. And still, they’re just amazing. I can’t be more grateful and thankful for what they’ve done.”
What was it that Catton didn’t like about living alone?
“Obviously, the cooking and stuff, but it just sucks kind of being by yourself all the time, trying to kill time and stuff. So, I just like being in the house, hanging out with the kids, and having people to talk to all the time. It’s kind of just my personality, so I think that’s been great.”
Odds and ends
The players we noticed absent from the optional skate Sunday were Matty Beniers, Kaapo Kakko, Chandler Stephenson, and Eeli Tolvanen. There’s nothing to read into here, since—again—it was optional, and even Lambert stayed off the ice. Instead, it’s notable just how many players did hit the ice after a long road trip.
Monday’s game is Kids Day at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken Hockey Network’s Scott Malone asked some great questions about what Eberle and Lambert remember from their respective childhoods playing hockey, and both shared some great memories. I won’t spoil them here, because I’m sure they’ll come up in the arena and on the broadcast.
The Kraken’s game next Sunday, Jan. 25, against the New Jersey Devils has been moved up by an hour to 12 p.m. (previously 1 p.m.) to make a little more room for the start of the Seahawks’ NFC Championship game.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll dig in on Jacob Melanson’s development and NHL performance following his reassignment to the AHL on Thursday, Jan. 15. Beyond that, we have news on a couple of notable all-star elections, weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and a preview of the week ahead, as always.
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 at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Jacob Melanson has improved drastically in one specific way
Following a spate of injuries at the NHL level, the Seattle Kraken recalled 2021 fifth-round pick Jacob Melanson and deployed him for regular shifts on the team’s fourth line. Over a 15-game stretch from Dec. 14, 2025, through Jan. 12, 2026, with Melanson, 22, in the lineup for an average of 9:25 TOI per night, the Kraken went 9-4-2.
As Kraken GM Jason Botterill told the KHN Pregame Show on Wednesday, Nov. 14, the first word that comes to mind when you think of Jacob Melanson is “physicality.”
Among all players with at least 50 minutes of time on ice in the NHL this season, Melanson’s 28 hits per 60 minutes ranked second in the entire league—behind only Garnet Hathaway’s 30 hits per 60. This certainly brought a unique element to the Kraken lineup, which otherwise skews smaller and lighter. After Melanson, only Tye Kartye (18 hits per 60 minutes) ranked within the top 100 in this physicality rate metric.
The eye test told us that Melanson’s hard-nosed play style also seemed to inspire and catalyze the team to positive results.
That said, we should be cautious about confusing correlation and causation. Melanson was on the team during a hot streak, but he averaged fewer minutes on the ice than any of his teammates during that stretch and contributed just two points (one goal and one assist).
We also know hits alone do not necessarily correlate with team success. More hits often means you’re chasing an opponent in possession. And, to make matters worse, a player can leave his team vulnerable when he plays out of structure solely for the sake of being physical. Defense is more difficult four on four than it is five on five.
At least one scout criticized Melanson’s past play at the AHL level for precisely this reason. J.D. Burke of Elite Prospects wrote this about Melanson during the 2023-24 season: “I’m not a big fan of his game though. I suspect he’ll be so undisciplined that he’ll hurt your team more than he helps it at the NHL level. I’m not even just talking about the senseless penalties. He’s basically always out of position, and his linemates may as well be shorthanded in the offensive zone.” I admit that there were times when watching Melanson’s AHL games over the last couple of years that I had similar thoughts.
This year has been different, though. Melanson has done a much better job of controlling his aggression and deploying it within the framework of the play to win advantages rather than conceding them. This is underlined by the fact that he took zero penalties in 141 NHL minutes despite playing with emotion and “on the edge.” He also showed playable offensive instincts, often working to the front of the net after winning possession on the forecheck.
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.
Indeed, Botterill told KHN that he thinks Melanson has “improved drastically, even [since] training camp.” Discipline in channeling his physicality has been one area of improvement.
That said, from my vantage point, Melanson’s biggest developmental strides over the last year-plus have come in his skating.
A few months after Melanson was drafted, Elite Prospects gave him a significantly below-average skating grade. Cam Robinson wrote that “this is a player who lacks the foot speed to really contend for a future offensive role in the NHL.” Melanson is “[b]lessed with good size and tenacity to use it on the forecheck,” Robinson wrote, but “[f]ifth-round picks are long shots to make the NHL, [and] ones that have challenges moving around are even less likely. Melanson falls into the latter category.”
That does not compute with the player I saw this past month, who was capable of outracing opponents to retrieve pucks for offensive-zone possession or scoring chances. So, I sought out Melanson’s player-tracking data to see if the numbers lined up with my eye test. The results were really interesting.
The NHL does not make analyzing NHL Edge data at scale very easy. It tends to present the data in counterintuitive ways. And it only provides results on an individual player basis, which makes scraping the data at scale quite difficult. That said, a couple of invaluable web resources, like Pucklytics, have done that yeoman’s work, and my insights are indebted to their efforts. (Pucklytics is missing a handful of players due to data retrieval errors here or there, but the numbers below should be in the right ballpark.)
According to NHL Edge, among all players with at least 10 games played, Jacob Melanson ranked ninth in the NHL in average skating speed at even strength. His average speed was second on the Kraken, behind only teammate Ben Meyers. This result was encouraging, but it also makes sense given that you want your fourth line to come out and play aggressively.
I also wanted to determine whether Melanson’s top-end speed was competitive. His top speed (22.19 miles per hour) ranked fourth on the Kraken, behind only Chandler Stephenson, Berkly Catton, and Ryan Winterton.
That said, what he may lack in true top-end speed, he more than made up for in his ability to hit speeds above 20 miles per hour with regularity. NHL Edge categorizes a skating speed over 20 miles per hour as a “speed burst.” Melanson has 19 speed bursts per 60 minutes on ice. This figure ranks third in the entire league, behind only Connor McDavid (23) and Vinnie Hinostroza (20).
This is an enormous developmental leap for a player who had “challenges moving around” as a junior player.
Everything about Melanson’s 15 games in the lineup points to a prototypical fourth-line profile moving forward. He’s not only an identity player, but also a positive play driver from the bottom of the lineup.
Notwithstanding all of this, Melanson’s run with the NHL team came to an abrupt end—for now—on Thursday, when the team reassigned him to the AHL. The move was necessary to open a roster spot for Brandon Montour in the defenseman’s return from injured reserve.
Why did this happen? As Sound Of Hockey‘s Darren Brown detailed before Montour’s activation, there was a necessary bit of “asset management” going on here. Only Melanson and Winterton could be reassigned to Coachella Valley without risking waivers. It’s understandable that the team opted to keep the longer-tenured Winterton for now.
That said, I think it’s fairly clear that Melanson has a real NHL career ahead of him as an 11th or 12th forward. I would be surprised if he was not in an NHL lineup “permanently” within the next 12 months.
As for the Kraken, they are winless in two games since removing Melanson from the lineup. After the team’s Jan. 14 game against the New Jersey Devils, coach Lane Lambert said: “I thought we played slow hockey tonight. Prior to the game, we said we were going to have to play fast and I didn’t think we were sharp. And part of being sharp is you play with some speed.” If that sharpness and speed isn’t there in the days ahead, the solution may be in Coachella Valley.
Notes on four more Kraken prospects
Nikke Kokko | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Top goalie prospect Nikke Kokko had to leave last Saturday’s game with an apparent (significant) lower-body injury. The team announced later in the week that Kokko is out week-to-week. While we hope for the best, this seems like an injury that could be on the longer side of the week-to-week timeline. I wonder if the Firebirds may benefit from a conditioning stint for Matt Murray to help bridge the gap until Kokko returns.
Jagger Firkus | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
In his second professional year, Firkus has emerged as a point-per-game producer at the AHL level. He paces the Firebirds with 35 points (14 goals and 21 assists). That production has made him an AHL All-Star, as announced by the team on Jan. 15.
Tyson Jugnauth | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
AHL rookie blueliner Tyson Jugnauth will join Firkus at the All-Star Game. This is an especially impressive feat for the rookie professional, and the achievement has its roots in hard work in Seattle this past summer. From my vantage point, Jugnauth still has a lot of work to do defensively, but this honor provides meaningful validation. The arrow is pointed in the right direction.
Jani Nyman | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
After a bit of a slow start back in the AHL following his reassignment, forward Jani Nyman caught fire over Coachella Valley’s last two games, compiling four goals in that stretch. Overall, he has five goals and an assist in seven AHL games this season. He seems to have gotten his legs back under him in an offensive role. The plan for the time being is likely for Nyman to keep that production rolling with the Firebirds until an injury (or other transaction) creates space for his recall in a top-nine role.
Jakub Fibigr debuted for the Windsor Spitfires this week, registering an assist in two games.
Jake O’Brien has yet to return to Brantford’s lineup due to a multi-week injury. Most recently, he missed a matchup with Fibigr and Nathan Villeneuve’s Spitfires last Sunday.
Fresh off a disappointing World Junior Championship, in which he didn’t play a single minute, Kim Saarinen started twice in Liiga this past week. He won both games, one by shutout. This effort was enough to edge fellow Finn Jani Nyman for Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
Semyon Vyazovoi continues to stack success in the KHL. His three-win week warranted Prospect of the Week consideration too.
We have an active week ahead of us. We’ll give our Deep Sea Hockey Games of the Week to Friday and Saturday matchups between Clarke Caswell’s Univ. of Denver Pioneers against Ollie Josephson’s Univ. of North Dakota Fighting Hawks. The NCHC matchups features two top-10 teams and should be great competition.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Adam Valentini
After projected top-10 picks Gavin McKenna, Tynan Lawrence, and Keaton Verhoeff, Adam Valentini may be the next most notable draft-eligible college hockey player this season—him or Illia Morzov. Valentini’s 18 points trail only McKenna among all first-eligible NCAA players. Many draft prognosticators have the 5-foot-11, left-shot forward going within the top 50 picks in the draft.
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.
