We’re a quarter of the way into the NHL season, which makes this a perfect moment to check in on attendance trends around the league. Some teams are up, some are down, and some are just… being themselves. Let’s take a look.
As always, a couple of quick disclaimers. Just because the NHL has crossed the quarter mark doesn’t mean every team has played a quarter of its home schedule. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs have already played 15 home games compared to just six on the road. When comparing attendance year over year, I always use the same number of games for each team. So in Toronto’s case, I’m looking at their first 15 home games this season versus their first 15 from last season, regardless of when those games fell on the calendar.
Attendance numbers are team-reported and represent tickets distributed, not necessarily the number of people who actually walked through the doors. And none of this is about dunking on teams or fan bases; there are a ton of factors that impact attendance, like team performance, pricing, schedule quirks, weather, and even local sports overlap.
Average NHL attendance
Leaguewide average attendance is up a modest 0.5 percent. In a league where many buildings are already at or near capacity, even small gains are a good sign. Keep in mind, the uneven number of home games played so far can nudge the leaguewide average in different directions. For example, Toronto’s 15 home dates at roughly 18,500 fans per game weigh more heavily than Utah’s eight home games at around 12,500. The effect is small, but it’s worth mentioning, especially this early in the season.
Here’s a look at team-by-team change based on the same number of games last season:
Utah’s attendance bump is tied to arena upgrades that added roughly 1,350 seats. They still play in the league’s smallest building, but there is ongoing chatter about future facilities for both the Jazz and Mammoth, suggesting this arena’s small capacity is only temporary. Meanwhile, Carolina, Montreal, and Washington are slightly down due to seat reconfigurations and building renovations.
Looking at sellouts
The NHL remains very much a “sellout league.” More than half the games end up as virtual or actual sellouts, and several teams are at full capacity pretty much every night. That’s great for business, but it also limits how much average attendance can grow. Because of that, sellouts are a helpful metric for understanding movement.
So far, the league is slightly down: 58 percent of games have been sellouts, which trails last year but lines up with the last decade of non-COVID-impacted seasons.
Here’s the team-level breakdown:
Minnesota is the most surprising storyline here. They’re typically around a 90 percent sellout rate but sit at just 15 percent so far, with eight fewer sellouts in their first 13 home games compared to last season. Toronto also stands out, but several of their early home dates went head-to-head with the Blue Jays’ postseason run.
NHL attendance by team and game
Here’s a look at how each team is trending game-to-game:
Some quick thoughts
San Jose’s game-to-game swings are wild, but despite the volatility, they’re still better off than last season. I expect them to stabilize a bit as the year goes on.
Chicago should also see a bump if the on-ice product continues to be as entertaining as it’s been.
Pittsburgh has been a pleasant surprise. Despite preseason predictions that they were headed for a tank, they’ve been in the playoff mix the entire way—something that usually nudges attendance upward over time.
Once again, NHL attendance looks pretty steady overall, with a few interesting wrinkles once you dig into the details. Performance does matter, but the effects typically lag by months—sometimes even full seasons.
Wrapping up
Big picture, attendance across the NHL looks pretty steady so far, with a handful of teams bucking expectations in both directions. As the season rolls on and schedules and performances even out, we should get an even clearer picture of how these trends shake out.
That was a big-time win by the Seattle Kraken, clawing back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to steal a 3-2 result from the Blackhawks in the Windy City on Thursday.
Seattle didn’t have its best for two periods, but Joey Daccord was sharp and held his mates in the game long enough for them to finally find a late offensive spark.
“We didn’t have enough shot attempts in the first two periods,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our D did a way better job in the third period.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a big 3-2 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.
Takeaway #1: The Ryan Lindgren game
We always knew Ryan Lindgren would be a guy who flies mostly under the radar, quietly going about his business as a responsible, stay-at-home defenseman. On this night, Lindgren made a couple of massive plays that directly impacted the outcome of the game.
“He’s just all heart, all the time,” Lambert said. “Huge block at the end, that’s what he does for us. He defends hard, and he gives us everything he has.”
First—and this one was unfortunate to see—he made his presence known late in the first period when former Kraken Andre Burakovsky barreled over the blue line and was off balance as he fought for the puck with Jaden Schwartz and Adam Larsson. Lindgren stepped up and lowered his shoulder, and Burakovsky went face-first into Lindgren’s shoulder pad.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Burakovsky left the game after the hit and did not return. The NHL will surely take a look at this hit, because the main point of contact is Burakovsky’s head. I’m guessing Lindgren avoids any kind of discipline, though, because of the way Burakovsky was leaning forward into the hit, but we shall see.
The next memorable Lindgren play in the game ended up being a game-changer. Although he was the one who created the Chicago opportunity by flubbing a shot at the blue line and handing it to Connor Bedard for a breakaway, his recovery indirectly led to Seattle getting the win in the game.
After turning it over, Lindgren chased down the young superstar, and just as Bedard was about to pull the trigger, Lindgren hit him with a perfect love tap of a slash on the shaft of his stick.
Andre Burakovsky got lit up by Ryan Lindgren just before the end of the 1st period and went down the tunnel.
Now, there are folks out there who thought both of the aforementioned plays should have resulted in penalties, and they may have had a case.
I recognize I may have a slight bias, but watching Lindgren’s defensive play on the Bedard breakaway in slow motion shows it should not have resulted in a penalty or penalty shot. It wasn’t an egregious chop, he got him on the shaft of the stick (not the glove), and it was just enough to disrupt the shot. That said, when a shooter is in alone like that and the stick play comes from a chasing defender, those do get called most of the time. So had it been called, I also would have understood.
Ryan Lindgren thwarts a Connor Bedard breakaway and avoids taking a penalty.
You know who did think it should have been a penalty? Connor Bedard. And he was so sure of this, he screamed at the ref until he earned himself an abuse of officials penalty that ultimately cost the Blackhawks the game (more on that in Takeaway #3).
Lindgren also helped Seattle seal the deal after it had taken a 3-2 lead by blocking a wide-open Bedard look with a minute left in the game. He did so in painful fashion, catching Bedard’s rocket one-timer in the open palm of his glove.
Bedard will be seeing Lindgren in his nightmares for a while.
Takeaway #2: Kraken woke up in the third
Give some credit to the Blackhawks for how the first two periods went; they came into the game red hot, posting a 5-0-1 record over their previous six games. Ironically, the last time they had lost in regulation was a 3-1 loss to the Kraken on Nov. 3, so that streak got bookended by Seattle wins.
All that said, the Kraken didn’t have it for the first 40 minutes of this game, especially in the second period. They stayed relatively close, but like the game Tuesday in Detroit, things went sideways in the middle frame.
Two poor plays by Jordan Eberle (a weak dump-in that led to a 3-on-1 the other way) and Jamie Oleksiak (a lackadaisical race for a loose puck in the corner) led to the goals against and meant Seattle would be chasing in the third period.
And chase they did.
“[It was] compete and shooting pucks,” Lambert said. “In the first 40 minutes, I thought that we were slow to do things. Give our players credit. They got the message and took charge and got the job done.”
The second Montour’s one-timer pinballed in off Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and then Tye Kartye, you could sense the floodgates had opened. Lo and behold, Shane Wright tipped a Ryker Evans shot just over two minutes later to tie it 2-2 and set up Jaden Schwartz’s late-game heroics.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! 🚨
Tie game, 2-2. Ryker Evans with the shot, Shane Wright with the tip. Evans currently has credit, but that's Shane's goal. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/DpuOZIKF4y
While Bedard was sitting in the penalty box for whining, Chicago’s PKers were doing their damndest to bail him out. But as the power play was ticking down, Brandon Montour saw a lane down the left half wall.
As Montour walked down the boards, Schwartz pivoted from the top of the crease and backed himself right onto the far post. Montour threaded a perfectly placed shot-pass through Wyatt Kaiser’s legs and onto the tape of Schwartz, who redirected it through Spencer Knight’s five hole.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨
With Bedard serving his unsportsmanlike penalty, Brandon Montour finds Jaden Schwartz at the net mouth.
“[Schwartz] shows [younger players] how the game is played, how the game is supposed to be played,” Lambert said. “The importance of the little details and winning battles in hard areas. Great goal by him to cap off the comeback.”
It was a heck of a play by both Montour—who earned his second assist of the night—and Schwartz, and it was an outstanding and unlikely comeback victory for the Kraken.
Bonus Takeaway: Oscar Fisker Mølgaard’s NHL debut
Huge shoutout to friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, on making his NHL debut and recording a point on Tye Kartye’s goal that got Seattle on the board at 5:09 of the third period.
“It was pretty surreal,” Mølgaard said. “It’s a childhood dream coming true, so yeah, I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life, and it’s good to get the first one out of the way.”
We are huge Mølgaard fans for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he’s just an incredibly likable young man.
His family made the trek from Denmark to see his first game in the show.
“It’s unreal. It’s a proud moment for all of us. They’ve been there my whole life, and they were just as big a part of it as I was out there. So I’m really proud to have them here, and I’m glad they came.”
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
It has officially been one week since the Seattle Torrent took to the ice for the first time at Kraken Community Iceplex. Here’s what we’ve learned and what we’re looking forward to.
Training camp
Torrent training camp was intense. It was three days of high-energy, non-stop drills and hard conditioning. The team spent a lot of time practicing being physical in the corners and transitioning with speed. Coach Steve O’Rourke stood out with his active coaching style and constant encouragement of the players to skate harder and dig deeper.
I have to say, for top-level pro training camp, three days seems like way too short a time for a brand new team to come together. It showed a bit in missed passes and confused looks, but the team seemed to settle in as the week went on. The skaters were never lacking in effort, though. Even players who have a secure spot on the roster looked like they were fighting with all they had, despite many of them having just come off Rivalry Series games.
The players seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the grueling pace. Defender Cayla Barnes said the team was eager to finally take to the ice after what felt like a long and exciting buildup, and that despite the high level of conditioning, “everyone survived.”
Hilary Knight called the intensity level “high,” and she “really liked the way our group hustled out there.” Forward Alex Carpenter was surprised but excited by the level of play on Day 1, saying that “people were throwing bodies around and giving it their all.”
Carpenter also said that learning the new systems is always tough, but after the first practice, she could see that O’Rourke “is an intense guy, but loves to teach, and loves the game… and you can feel that vibe… and it makes you want to skate faster, want to play harder.”
Goalie Corinne Schroeder called bringing women’s hockey to Seattle “huge” and was excited to inspire “not just little girls, but little boys too… they have other role models to root for, not just NHL players.”
Pre-season scrimmages
Photo courtesy of the PWHL.
Unfortunately, the pre-season scrimmages were not available to watch, so we can only pick apart the lines and stats for clues and crumbs.
In the first scrimmage, the Torrent were shut out, but they came out the next day swinging and bested Vancouver 4-2. A couple speculative takeaways from the scrimmage stats:
The team has depth scoring, with the only goals coming from the third and fourth lines, including a goal and an assist from Seattle local Marah Wagner.
All three goaltenders got playing time and put up good numbers, with rookie Hannah Murphy’s lone goal against coming from a penalty shot.
The Torrent looks to be a physical team (and maybe a touch undisciplined in the early going), racking up eight penalties to the Goldeneyes’ two.
The PWHL also reported on the lines that were utilized by each team, and although we haven’t been able to see them skate together, let’s speculate a little, just for fun.
Although scoreless in the one scrimmage they played, a Hannah Bilka – Alex Carpenter – Hilary Knight line is absolutely bonkers. This could be the first line for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics. They aren’t starting from zero with chemistry either. Knight and Bilka played together in Boston, while Carpenter and Knight are close friends, and all three have played together for Team USA.
The Julia Gosling – Danielle Serdachny – Jessie Eldridge line is another interesting group, although they are less familiar with each other. All three players are 5-foot-9 or taller and are known for their physicality.
The defensive pair of Aneta Tejralová and Cayla Barnes is another one to keep your eye on. Those are two high-level defenders who will likely be called upon to shut down the other teams’ stars. They also only played in the first scrimmage but were not on the ice for any of the Vancouver goals.
Roster decisions
Surprising nobody, the Torrent announced Hilary Knight as the team’s first captain. The news came on Friday after the conclusion of training camp and prior to the team’s pre-season scrimmages. Knight is a proven leader, current Team USA captain, and previous Boston Fleet captain.
The Torrent have made two cuts from the training camp roster. They must cut at least three from the training camp roster before final rosters are due on Wednesday. PWHL rules allow for 23 active players on each team. The skaters below are vying for the four roster spots left.
Forwards:
Brooke Bryant – veteran player who won two Walter Cups with Minnesota
Jada Habisch – Fourth-round 2025 draft pick, UConn
Sydney Langseth – Camp invitee, undrafted from Minnesota State – Mankato
Marah Wagner – Camp invite, played last year in Sweden, born in Seattle!
Defenders:
Lyndie Lobdell – Fifth-round round 2025 draft pick, Penn State
Emily Zumwinkle – Camp invite, undrafted from Ohio State, younger sister of Grace Zumwinkle who plays for the Frost
What’s next?
The Torrent will practice Wednesday and Thursday, then head back up to Vancouver to take on the Goldeneyes for their first ever game on Friday, Nov. 21, 7pm at Pacific Coliseum.
If you aren’t catching a bus or train or carpool up to Vancouver for the first game, the PWHL just announced that all Seattle games will be broadcast over the air on Kong and FOX 13. Piper Shaw announced she will be a part of the Torrent broadcast, as will best friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Alison Lukan. That is an exciting thought for us Kraken crossover fans. All games will continue to be free in the US on YouTube, as well.
If you are catching the bus from KCI to Vancouver, come say hi!
After racking up five points in the last three games of their homestand, the Seattle Kraken brought a spirited effort to Detroit on Tuesday but ultimately came up short and started their four-game road trip on the losing side.
Jordan Eberle and Ryker Evans scored for the Kraken, but Detroit did all of its damage in an eventful second period, and it was just enough to slide past Seattle on this night.
“I don’t think we had everyone going,” coach Lane Lambert said. “And we can’t afford to have anybody not going. So, we were ok in the game, but not good enough to win the hockey game. There’s certain things and certain reasons for that, but I thought we could have been better.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Red Wings.
Takeaway #1: Joey Daccord returns, wants one back
Joey Daccord returned to action on Tuesday and stopped 23 of 26 Red Wings shots. His activation from injured reserve—after about a two-week hiatus due to a somewhat mysterious upper-body injury—came at a perfect time. One of Seattle’s goalie trio, Matt Murray, went on the shelf at the end of the first period Saturday and is now expected to miss six weeks with a lower-body injury. So, he goes on IR just as Daccord comes off.
Daccord made some great saves in this game, but he also gave up an uncharacteristic stinker at 1:19 of the second period that erased Seattle’s 1-0 lead. On an innocuous-looking 3-on-2 rush, Lucas Raymond took a pass at the blue line and cruised into the right circle. He took a simple, unscreened wrist shot that squeezed under Daccord’s right arm and trickled over the line.
You could see right away that Daccord was disappointed with himself, swatting the puck out of the net in disgust.
He gave up two more in the period (those were of the “not his fault” variety), which we’ll talk about in the next Takeaway, but he did give his teammates a chance in this game.
Still, that first one stings…
Takeaway #2: Second period was all Detroit needed
The Kraken followed up the aforementioned stinker by allowing two Red Wings players into the middle, with a double-deflection working its way around Daccord and in off rookie Nate Danielson for his first NHL goal. That second goal came 45 seconds after the first.
Soon after that, it looked like Detroit had taken a 3-1 lead again with a nifty dangle by Danielson after a loose defensive play by Adam Larsson. But Tim Ohashi struck for a brilliant offside challenge and what felt like a massive break for the Kraken.
Indeed, Seattle scored the next goal and tied the game 2-2, with a Ryker Evans shot from the point pinballing in off a Red Wings defender.
But a cheesy goalie interference call on Jani Nyman—after he was bumped into Talbot by Simon Edvinsson, then jumped by the entire Red Wings team (none of whom were penalized)—proved costly. We’ll talk more about the Lucas Raymond goal that came on the ensuing power play in Takeaway #3, but Lambert summed up the second period nicely.
“We knew going in, they had like a plus-62 shot differential in the second period before the game. And I think Joey probably wants the first one back, so that’s one. We don’t box out on the second one, which goes into our net. We get a great call from our video coach to overturn the third one and get a goal to tie the game, and then we make a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make.”
Takeaway #3: A costly PK mistake
On the play that Lambert called “a mistake on the penalty kill that we can’t make,” Seattle’s PK really did momentarily lose the plot.
“That’s the bottom line,” Lambert continued. “It’s a mistake you can’t make. We’re not asking anything else other than proper positioning.”
Here’s the full sequence that led to the goal.
I believe what happened is that when Emmitt Finnie rimmed the puck around to Andrew Copp, Jamie Oleksiak got a piece of the pass. I think that triggered Oleksiak and Jaden Schwartz to pressure Copp on the halfwall, thinking they had him under duress and could win the puck away with a numerical advantage. Copp maintained control, though, and successfully made a pass to Danielson, which suddenly put Seattle in chase mode.
What I’m really not sure about, though, is why Chandler Stephenson shaded so far left—beyond the left face-off dot—when Oleksiak and Schwartz were already over against the boards. By drifting that far to the left, Evans was left alone in the slot as the last defender, with Finnie now fully unmarked and in a dangerous position.
The only thing Seattle’s PKers could have done to thwart a scoring chance at that point was get a stick on Danielson’s pass through the slot, but neither Stephenson nor Oleksiak could reach it.
Instead, Danielson put it right on the money for Finnie, and Daccord was hung out to dry.
That goal made it 3-2, and then—as Lambert pointed out after the game—Seattle just didn’t get enough pucks toward Talbot in the third period to level the game.
In the end, I liked Seattle’s effort in this game, but there were some costly mistakes from up and down the lineup and a not enough of an offensive push in the third to equalize.
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 guys are back in studio, and the vibes are very high after an impressive week for the Seattle Kraken, in which they took 5 out of a possible 6 points.
It’s been a while since they recorded, so they rip through the six recent games and give themes and observations from them.
Segbits this week are plentiful: Kraken Player of the Week, Down on the Farm, Weekly One-Timers and What’s Good?
Plus a brief interview with Berkly Catton and a Seattle Torrent update.
The Seattle Kraken just had their best week of the season, grabbing five out of a possible six points without their starting goalie and best goal scorer in the lineup.
The imperfect game
Coming into Thursday night’s game against Winnipeg with Connor Hellebuyck in net, it felt like the Kraken needed to play a perfect game to beat the Jets. Winnipeg got on the board first with a rush chance that looked a little too easy and not characteristic of the type of play we have seen from this team this season. The Kraken answered that mistake with a nice Kaapo Kakko deflection that floated over Hellebuyck’s shoulder.
KAAPO! 🚨
Great play by Vince Dunn, who takes… er… THROWS a hit to make the play to Jaden Schwartz. Schwartz shoots for Kakko’s stick, and Kakko gets off the schneid.
Winnipeg took the lead back when Neal Pionk found Mark Scheifele behind a Kraken line change in the second period for a breakaway goal. It was another consequential mistake by the Kraken that we haven’t seen often this season. The Jets had just a one-goal lead going into the third, but it felt like a big hill to climb against a formidable opponent, especially with Hellebuyck in net.
Seattle scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the third and then added an empty-netter in the dying minutes to seal the win. It was a signature victory where they found a way to win without being perfect.
Shot attempt volume
The Kraken are 26th in the league in shot attempts per game. There’s been a lot of fan chatter about the lack of shots and attempts lately, but those numbers can be misleading. Dallas is dead last in shot attempts per game, yet the Stars have the third-best record in the league.
Because the Kraken have been playing from ahead rather than tied or trailing, they’ve naturally taken fewer attempts. They average almost six fewer shot attempts in regulation in wins than they do in regulation losses.
Penalty kill
The penalty kill remains a sore spot. San Jose’s power-play tally marked the sixth straight game in which Seattle allowed a goal while shorthanded. The unit has struggled all season, but discipline had been a saving grace, until this week.
Seattle was shorthanded 13 times over three games, their highest such stretch of the season. Early-season issues stemmed from extended defensive-zone time, whether from failed clears or uncontested entries. I chalk this up more to rough execution than systemic failure, and improvement should come as the season progresses.
Freddy Gaudreau returns to the lineup
Usually the return of a fourth-line center isn’t something that gets fans buzzing, but Freddy Gaudreau’s return should give this team a real boost. Gaudreau does a lot of little things that don’t always show up. He’s a bit of a Swiss Army knife: kills penalties, provides a right-shot center option, is very good in the shootout, and has enough sneaky skill to move up and down the lineup when needed.
On Saturday, he took 40 percent of the defensive-zone draws, was on the ice for 35 percent of the penalty-kill time, and even generated a high-quality shorthanded chance. His return should ease some of the burden the team has placed on Chandler Stephenson while Freddy was out. He’s a sneaky addition who strengthens the lineup in subtle ways that not everyone may notice.
Other musings
The 5–3 win over Winnipeg was the first time the Kraken scored five or more goals this season. They had already done it four times in the first 18 games last season.
The Kraken are now 6-1-3 at home. One regulation loss. That’s incredible.
Jaden Schwartz’s empty-netter on Saturday was Seattle’s first shorthanded goal of the season.
I know I’m not the only one disappointed with Mason Marchment’s production, but I think his last four games have been his best stretch as a Kraken. He feels due for a breakout.
We are not talking nearly enough about how much Ryker Evans adds to this lineup. I really like Josh Mahura, but Ryker’s skating and puck-moving are such luxuries on a third pair.
We got an “interruption goal” on Saturday when Eeli Tolvanen scored 38 seconds after Adam Larsson. I’m sticking with that name, since when we talked to PA announcer Chet Buchanan on the SOH Pod two years ago, he said he doesn’t mind being interrupted—as long as it’s for another Kraken goal.
The Kraken are fourth in the league in blocked shots. Another byproduct of playing with a lead.
The Pacific Division is absolute chaos right now—five points separate the first-place Kings and the seventh-place Sharks.
The Seattle Torrent split their preseason games with the Vancouver Goldeneyes over the weekend. The regular season kicks off Friday when they meet again for real. I have not seen anything official, but I assume the games will be broadcast in the US on YouTube.
Goal of the week
The interruption goal…
EELI GOALVANEN! 🚨
Another great pass off a 2-on-1 from Stephenson, and Tolvanen scores his second in as many games.
Philipp Grubauer – Two wins in two games, including a shutout in relief for two periods against San Jose. He saved 2.39 goals above expected, per evolving-hockey.com.
Grubauer under fire early in the 2nd, after being forced into action at the end of the 1st. He’s standing tall in the first couple minutes… #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/7ORRa9FssY
Jacob Melanson – The 22-year-old notched his first AHL hat trick Sunday for Coachella Valley, giving him six goals in 14 games (he had just eight all last season). Jagger Firkus – Another Firebird hat trick over the weekend, but Jagger’s came Saturday. He leads the AHL in points and has a six-game point streak.
The week ahead
If you had looked at this stretch before the season started, you probably would’ve circled it as a chance to bank some points, with four games against teams that missed the playoffs last year. However… as of Monday morning, all four of those teams are in playoff spots and look a lot tougher than previously expected.
It’s a four-game road trip starting Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. I still wake up in cold sweats thinking about that game in Detroit last year. On Thursday, the Kraken face the Chicago Blackhawks for the second time this season. Seattle won the first meeting 3–1, but they saw backup Arvid Söderblom in that one, so the boys might see Spencer Knight this time.
Then it’s another shot at fixing the back-to-back demons with the Penguins on Saturday, followed by the Islanders on Sunday to wrap things up.
Given the quality of opponents, four out of eight points would be fine, five would be good, and six would be great.
And finally
It usually takes 20 games to really assess a team, and the Kraken just crossed the 18-game mark. I’m calling it now: the Seattle Kraken are going to be in the mix for a playoff spot. Their success isn’t driven by luck or a soft schedule—in fact, it’s pretty much the opposite. Considering the injuries that have chipped away at the roster and the absolutely brutal October schedule, this start is nothing short of incredible.
I was one of the few people who expected the Kraken to be much better this season, but even I’m impressed. With Freddy Gaudreau back and Jared McCann and Joey Daccord seemingly close, this team might have another level to hit. How are we feeling out there?
You just never know what’s going to happen when you go to the rink. The Seattle Kraken won 4-1 over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, and they did so in a way that I certainly did not expect at the start of the game: by riding a dazzling Philipp Grubauer relief performance through a challenging second period and taking advantage of the few opportunities they got in the frame to ultimately cruise past a team that beat them up 10 days ago.
“Clearly, at that point, we rode off our goalie’s coattails to a certain degree, and then we were able to capitalize timely on a couple of our opportunities,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “We spent a little bit too much time in our zone, we all know that, at the start. But our goaltender played fantastic, and sometimes you need that.”
On Hockey Fights Cancer night, Jaden Schwartz—whose sister Mandi died of acute myeloid leukemia at age 23 in 2011—scored twice, Adam Larsson and Eeli Tolvanen each scored once, and Chandler Stephenson sent out a couple tasty dishes.
Here are Three Takeaways from a remarkable 4-1 Kraken win over the Sharks.
Takeaway #1: One of Grubi’s best games as a Kraken
There are nights as a goaltender when you start to sense that, for whatever reason, the puck is going to stay out of your net. You make a few big saves, the other team hits a post or flubs an open opportunity, and suddenly you get this clarity that you have better stuff in that particular game than the opposing shooters. The hockey gods are on your side, and even if you find yourself down and out, the puck will find a way to stay out of your goal.
Grubauer surely felt that on this night, although when I asked him about it after the game, he said he thinks about it a little differently. He pointed to a break early in the game, when Will Smith’s goal was waived off for a distinct kicking motion that easily could have been ruled a goal.
NO GOAL!
Grubauer robs Will Smith, but Smith's foot drags it into the net.
Refs review and determine no goal due to kicking motion.
“I personally take it situation by situation,” Grubauer said. “Obviously, sometimes you get a little bit more lucky than other nights. I mean, that breakaway where they reviewed it, right? It could have gone one way or another. If there’s a slight push from the D, it’s a different story, and they score on the breakaway.
“They had a couple situations where they sling the puck right across, it hits a guy in the shim pads, or something like that, right? So, yeah, sometimes you’ve got to get lucky, and there’s not a moment, like, ‘Oh, wow!’ and now I feel it. It’s make the save, give the puck back, next shot is coming up.”
What made Grubauer’s showing even more impressive is that it came in relief of an injured Matt Murray, who played well in the first period but exited immediately after former Kraken Alex Wennberg tied the game 1-1 on a power-play goal with 18 seconds left. Grubauer came in to close the period and was then tested early and often to start the second.
Here's the bad news: Alex Wennberg ties it on the power play for San Jose.
Here's the worse news: Matt Murray also got hurt on the play and immediately went down the tunnel. Grubauer in. #SeaKraken tied through 20 minutes. pic.twitter.com/1bmnOyCPgY
“I think going into the second period there, right away, the way the first two minutes went were not ideal from a team perspective, but it got me into the game with a lot of shots early on,” Grubauer said. “And it’s always tough, right? If you’re not starting, it’s another situation where you don’t get too many shots in warm up, so it was helpful to get into the game right away.”
It really was just the second period where Grubauer had to be stellar, but he made massive saves on plays that looked like they should absolutely be goals. He held Seattle in long enough for Larsson and Tolvanen to score 38 seconds apart at 16:05 and 16:43, respectively. From there, the Kraken—despite taking three penalties in the third period—kept things mostly locked down.
Takeaway #2: Great game for Chandler Stephenson
I know Chandler Stephenson has been polarizing among the Kraken fanbase, but I personally love what he brings. It’s interesting that in a game in which Alex Wennberg scored for the Sharks, Stephenson really stood out. I mention Wennberg because I view Stephenson as an upgraded version of what the Kraken used to get from Wennberg. He can play in all situations, he’s a great skater, and he has a pass-first approach—but he does all of it at a higher level.
In this game, Stephenson’s speed and passing created two of Seattle’s goals.
On the first, Jamie Oleksiak’s pass through the neutral zone missed the mark, but Stephenson caught up to it and made John Klingberg look foolish in creating a 2-on-1 with Schwartz. Then he threaded a pass between Macklin Celebrini’s stick and skate to Schwartz, who redirected it into a yawning cage.
THE POWER OF THE SCHWARTZ! 🚨
Heckuva play by Chandler Stephenson to burn John Klingberg and find Schwartz crashing to the backdoor.
The second goal also came off a 2-on-1, this one with Tolvanen, who scored for the second game in a row.
“[Stephenson] is an awesome passer,” Tolvanen said. “Power play, 2-on-1’s, every time he has the puck, you have to be ready because you know it’s coming. He can make those passes that a lot of guys can’t.”
EELI GOALVANEN! 🚨
Another great pass off a 2-on-1 from Stephenson, and Tolvanen scores his second in as many games.
The Kraken don’t win this game without Grubauer, but they also probably don’t win it without Stephenson, who finished the night plus-three with three assists.
Takeaway #3: Another game, another injury
It’s strange how things have been playing out lately for the Kraken and their injury situation. Last game, Kaapo Kakko went down with a lower-body injury that Lambert said will keep him out week to week—never a great designation. But his placement on injured reserve meant Seattle could activate Freddy Gaudreau for this game without sending somebody to Coachella Valley.
Now we wait to see what happens with the Kraken goalies. Lambert said after the game that Murray was still being evaluated. Joey Daccord is on IR but appears to be getting closer to a return based on recent practices. If Murray hadn’t gotten hurt Saturday, then Daccord returning would force a roster move. But if Murray also ends up on IR, no move would be required.
The plan may have been for Daccord to return next game anyway, but if I had to guess, I would surmise he could be ready to at least back up Grubauer when Seattle visits Detroit on Tuesday.
Also worth noting: Jared McCann was a full participant at Saturday’s morning skate, so we’re wondering how close he could be to game action. If he returns in the next couple games, that would most likely mean somebody is bound for CV, and I wouldn’t be shocked if that somebody is Jani Nyman, whose time on ice was limited to just 6:34 in his first game since the last time Seattle faced the Sharks on Nov. 5.
One last note on Murray: he’s had some serious injury woes in his career and told us during our Sound Of Hockey Podcast interview at training camp that he was feeling fully recovered from the double hip surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2023-24 season. Here’s hoping that whatever he injured on Saturday is both unrelated to that previous issue and minor.
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.
“Down on the Farm” is your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week we’ll highlight Jagger Firkus’s significance to the Firebirds offense in the early going and check in on his development. After that we’ll have news, notes, and video from around the Kraken system, a prospect data update, and a preview of the schedule ahead, as always.
If you have a 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. Let’s dive in.
Second-year forward Firkus leads scoring attack for Firebirds
As we have talked about, the task facing the Coachella Valley Firebirds this season is significant. The roster is the youngest in the AHL. And, in reality, the team is even younger than it looks on paper. The team’s only player older than 30 years old, Max McCormick, is out for the season.
Beyond youth, there was also the question of where the scoring would come from. Five of last season’s top-six scorers are not currently on the roster, and the Firebirds didn’t add any marquee AHL veterans to replace that production. Last year’s No. 3 scorer, Logan Morrison, leads this year’s squad in goals. But who else would elevate?
In this context, Jagger Firkus has stepped forward. The winger was the Firebirds’ No. 7 scorer last year as an AHL rookie. This season he leads the team with 14 total points (four goals, 10 assists). As of this writing, that total is tied for the fifth most in the AHL and tops all U22 players.
When we highlighted Firkus last season, we noted that he was building a base of skills necessary to succeed as a professional winger. Those skills are still there, but his usage has evolved this season, in part due to the needs of the team. Last year he was a complementary scorer from the middle-six who needed to perform two-way hockey to contribute. This year, he has taken on a featured scoring and power-play role.
By design, he is often the top player in the defensive zone looking for disruptions along the blue line or for an outlet pass to transition through the neutral zone into a rush chance. In my viewings, this has lessened his overall defensive-zone involvement, particularly the frequency of—and exposure to—low board battles. This has highlighted his stronger off-puck attributes: his instincts and hands. It has also created a lot more space for his offense.
A year and change into his professional career, I’m more confident in his ability to transport the puck through the neutral zone. He has always had the passing skill to find open teammates. But I had some questions about his ability to get through opposing forechecks with the puck on his stick because he lacked a dynamic skating gear. After 80 games of professional experience, he has found a way with short-area agility, stickhandling, and savvy. Put differently, he’s closer to Matty Beniers on the rush than Berkly Catton. While he’s not at Beniers’ level, this is a strong indicator of his ability to drive play moving forward.
In the offensive zone, his vision is his calling card. He has the potential to be a plus passer. It seems like he’s creating multiple high-danger chances for his teammates every game, sometimes in creative and unexpected ways. Add in a shot that can be deceptive and precise, and there is a real package of skills there. (He showed off most of those offensive skills in the Oct. 24 game excerpted above, scoring two goals and adding an assist.)
He’ll need to keep pushing those offensive skills to another level if he’s going to earn a top-six featured scoring role in the NHL. It’s still more likely he’ll need to carve out a complementary role, which will, again, put his two-way skills in focus. Can he make that work? I’m more confident than ever, but there’s still development road left there.
Notes on four more Kraken prospects
Maxim Agafonov | D | Toros Neftekamsk (VHL)
Defenseman Maxim Agafonov returned to the lineup for Toros Neftekamsk on Friday, Nov. 14, after being absent for multiple weeks. I suspect an injury was involved, but we’ll be monitoring his playing time moving forward. Before missing this stretch, he had been a stalwart on the blue line in the lower-level professional league in Russia (the VHL) and even earned a game in the top professional league (the KHL). It was an impressive early-season run for the 18-year-old 2025 fifth-round pick.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Brampton Steelheads (OHL)
Jakub Fibigr, a 2024 seventh-round pick, has turned up the dial offensively this year. With five goals and 10 assists through 16 games, Fibigr ranks within the top 10 in total points and goals among OHL defensemen. Beyond the scoring, Fibigr is delivering as a true No. 1 in minutes for an underpowered Brampton Steelheads team. Despite a minus-18 overall goal differential, Brampton is plus-eight in Fibigr’s even-strength minutes. Fibigr’s plus-minus is by far the best on the team. The next closest skater is plus-three.
Ville Ottavainen | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Ottavainen tallied two points in two games for the Firebirds last week but missed the team’s most recent game with a lower-body injury. The team has deemed him day-to-day. The Firebirds recalled Zach Uens from the Kansas City Mavericks in a countermove.
Kim Saarinen | G | HPK (Liiga)
Saarinen has not drawn any league starts over the last couple of weeks because he has been away with the Finland U20 team at a World Junior Championship precursor event. He started two of Finland’s four games, stopping 43 of 50 shots faced. Less encouragingly, Finland dropped both contests, one to Czechia and the other to Switzerland. And while Saarinen started Games 2 and 4, Saarinen’s primary competitor for the WJC crease, Petteri (“Mr. Showtime”) Rimpinen, started Games 1 and 3 and won both. The WJC job is likely Rimpinen’s to lose at this point, particularly given that Saarinen’s Liiga play cooled considerably over the last month.
Bonus: Reese Hamilton | D | Regina Pats (WHL)
Over the summer, the Kraken invited undrafted, but once highly regarded, defenseman Reese Hamilton to development camp. He impressed in that setting, reminding all in attendance of his strong résumé before a disappointing draft season that saw him log 14 points in 59 games. Well, Hamilton has already topped last year’s point total (with 15), and in only 20 games. Despite being undrafted, Hamilton is not a free agent. He will be eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft. If the numbers are any indication, he’s looking like a pick again, whether in Seattle or elsewhere.
With six points in three games, Firkus is your Sound Of Hockey Player of the Week. Morrison and J.R. Avon had highly productive weeks for the Firebirds, piling up five points each across three games.
Julius Miettinen leads the WHL in plus-minus with a plus-22 mark. His 28 points are eighth in the league. He is the only player in the top 10 in both scoring and plus-minus in the WHL.
Nikke Kokko started two games in his return to the lineup and won both. He posted a .923 save percentage in the process.
Semyon Vyazovoi continues to prove himself as one of the KHL’s best U25 players, not just goaltenders.
The Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is a 1:00 pm PT Saturday matchup between Fibigr’s Steelheads and O’Brien’s Bulldogs.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Chase Harrington
Last week we highlighted Spokane Chief Mathis Preston as perhaps the best draft-eligible WHL U.S. Division player. His strongest competition for that distinction may be Chase Harrington, who also plays for the Chiefs. Harrington, a 6-foot power forward, has seven goals and six assists in 18 WHL games this season.
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.
When the announcement comes from Kraken PR that a practice or morning skate has been made optional, it’s easy for those of us in the local media corps to also “take the option,” so to speak. But every now and then, an optional skate yields some juicy little nuggets of knowledge about what’s happening with the team. There’s something about the nature of those types of practices—with lower attendance from both players and media—that seems to bring out unique opportunities for learning and observation.
After Seattle rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Thursday, Kraken head coach Lane Lambert did, indeed, make practice optional on Friday. Yet something told me it would be beneficial to be there, so instead of pulling a U-turn and heading back home to “take the option,” I pressed on through the torrential rains and found a group of 11 skaters and all three goalies on the ice.
Participants included Freddy Gaudreau, who was skating full speed and appeared to be a practice or two away from returning (I’m predicting he’ll be back in the lineup Saturday against the San Jose Sharks), and Joey Daccord, who remains on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
All that was positive to see, but what was most encouraging was Jared McCann appearing on the ice partway through the skate, going through drills at close to full tilt.
Since McCann disappeared from the lineup and was deemed “day-to-day” with a lower-body injury following Seattle’s 4-3 overtime win at the Toronto Maple Leafs way back on on Oct. 18, I personally had only seen him on the ice one time. In that instance, he was skating separate from the team with assistant coach Jessica Campbell and was clearly testing out his injured leg, flexing it and grimacing regularly. Soon after that, I heard through the grapevine that McCann had been seen walking around Climate Pledge Arena very gingerly, and I haven’t seen him on the ice since.
So, this was a very positive sign and the first real indication of progress for McCann. Although the Kraken managed five goals against the Jets, there’s no doubt they desperately need their top offensive player back in the lineup.
Also worth noting, Kaapo Kakko—who left the game Thursday with a lower-body injury on the next shift after scoring his first goal of the season—was spotted at Kraken Community Iceplex in street clothes. There wasn’t much to learn about his status just from seeing him, and Lambert didn’t address the media Friday, but Kaapo was at least around the team. So, perhaps that’s a positive sign, but we’ll learn more on Saturday.
Berkly Catton remains a full-time NHLer… for now
When Berkly Catton suited up for his 10th game of the season in Dallas on Sunday, he crossed an important threshold. That 10th game means he now burns the first year of his entry-level contract. For a 19-year-old CHL-eligible player, hitting that number is massive, because nine games is typically the cutoff for when NHL clubs send youngsters (who are not eligible for the AHL because of the NHL/CHL transfer agreement) back to junior hockey.
It is still possible that Catton ends up back in the WHL at some point this season, although using up a year of his ELC makes that scenario far less likely.
I chatted with Catton on Friday about what clearing that threshold means to him.
“Out of camp, the conversation was kind of like, ‘We don’t really know what’s going to happen, but at some point, you’ll get your chance,’” Catton recalled. “‘If we think you’ll develop better here, you’ll stick around. If not, we’ll send you back.’ So, I’m obviously doing something right in that sense. I’m just going to try to keep building on that. But it was pretty stressful. That 10th game was nice, and I think just kind of sticking in the lineup’s been good.”
Lambert does seem to be developing more and more trust in Catton, to the point that he recently moved him to third-line center between Shane Wright and Eeli Tolvanen. Catton said it doesn’t matter to him whether he skates at center or wing, but he did find value in playing wing because he learned what’s difficult for a winger to execute at the NHL level. So if he plays his more natural center position moving forward, that wing experience should still be beneficial.
“I don’t really care [whether I’m wing or center], to be honest,” Catton said. “I just want to be out on the ice, and I think a lot of it is just understanding the systems themselves, and I’ve really tried my best to do that and learn that way. And then when you get the puck on your stick, just make a play. That’s kind of my mindset.”
Lambert also had some nice commentary about Catton before the game on Saturday when he was asked by Piper Shaw about his comfort in moving the rookie into his current role.
“This player is a player who is dialed in,” Lambert said. “He’s a sponge, he’s absorbing everything, from what his responsibilities are off face-offs to what his defensive-zone responsibilities are to how he can create more in the offensive zone. We’ll just continue to watch him progress, I think. There’s been a lot of progression from him from that standpoint, and we’ll see where we go.”
By the way, now that Catton has burned through the first year of his ELC, he’s now moving in with Chandler Stephenson and his family for the foreseeable future. That’s a good indication that the Kraken expect him to stick for (at least most of) the rest of the season.
Checking in with Ryker Evans
Since I was away for a while, I wasn’t around when Ryker Evans returned from injury, so I chatted with him about the vibes of the team after the win over Winnipeg and how things feel different this season compared to last.
“Yeah, I mean, big comeback [last night],” Evans said. “I thought we did a good job of keeping our composure when we were down. The vibes were good on the bench. We believe we can come back, and we did. Around the room, it’s great, very positive.”
The defenseman also mentioned that winning breeds positivity in the room, and with an 8-4-5 record through 17 games, there have been a lot more good feelings floating around this season, compared to last.
“Obviously, it’s different when you’re winning, guys are a lot more happy. So I think, just in years past, we just weren’t winning as much, we weren’t finding success. So, around the room, it’s a bit tougher [in that scenario]. But I mean, since we’re winning, it’s happy, and everyone’s really clicking.”
Evans has had an interesting ride over the last couple seasons. He split 2023-24 between Coachella Valley and Seattle, playing under Dave Hakstol in the NHL and Dan Bylsma in the AHL. Then Hakstol was fired and replaced by Bylsma, who Evans, of course, knew well. Now, as a still-developing, 23-year-old defenseman, he missed the first 13 games of the season with an upper-body injury, while the rest of the team was getting to know the ways of the more structure- and detail-oriented Lambert.
Still, Evans said it hasn’t been that drastic of an adjustment.
“Last year’s coaching staff, I had them in Coachella for two years, so it’s a bit different. I knew them and what they expected,” Evans said. “This year, it’s kind of the same messages, just play how I play. And then, I mean, from a team standpoint, as you guys can see, we’re just playing hard, we’re playing fast. I think we’re just very structurally [sound] in the D-zone. They’re a very detailed coaching staff.”
