The Seattle Kraken are truly on their last tentacle. The other seven tentacles have been sliced off at this point, and while the rest of the Pacific Division has done everything in its power to keep the Kraken afloat by mostly matching Seattle’s losing pace, the Nashville Predators—sadly—did not get the memo. After selling a couple of fringe pieces at the deadline, Nashville has surprisingly caught fire with five straight wins and a 7-2-1 record in its last 10, including two victories over Seattle.
Meanwhile, the Kraken finally turned on the desperation we’ve been hoping to see Tuesday at the Florida Panthers, but they didn’t do it until they were down 4-1 with six minutes left to play. They rallied back to salvage a point but came up short in a shootout.
It appears the hole the Kraken have dug themselves since the Olympic break—going 4-9-1 in 14 games to fall five points out of a playoff spot—will be too deep to escape, but coach Lane Lambert isn’t ready to write off the season just yet. He indicated he hopes the comeback in the third period against Florida can be the spark that finally gets his team back on track.
“There was a lot of positives to that game, and obviously, the comeback was huge,” Lambert said at an optional practice at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa on Wednesday. “The point was huge. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get two, but to be down like that, mount the comeback like that, hopefully that catapults us here. We kind of always say there has to be some sort of event that happens. Maybe that was our event.”
There are technically three games left on this six-game road trip, but the Kraken will face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, then head home for a day to change their clothes before going back out to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Tuesday. The Lightning are 4-0-1 in their last five games and just embarrassed the Kraken 6-2 at Climate Pledge Arena on St. Patrick’s Day, and the Sabres have lost in regulation just once since Feb. 5. Hold onto your butts.
Top-line Berkly Catton
Being on the road with the team has its benefits, like the occasional opportunity to be the only reporter in a press scrum with the team’s head coach. That’s what happened Wednesday, so I took full advantage and held Lane Lambert “hostage” with a wide range of questions that led to a surprisingly long 1-on-1 presser.
One thing I wanted to dig into a little more with Lambert was his decision to elevate Berkly Catton to the top line in Seattle’s 5-4 shootout loss in Sunrise on Tuesday. Of course, part of that is just looking for a spark, and it worked in a way, as Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle (Catton’s linemates) both scored, and Bobby McMann—who vacated the line and was replaced by Catton—also potted the game-tying goal to complete the third-period comeback.
“If you watch Berkly play, obviously, on the production side of it, we’d love to have more,” Lambert said. “But at the same time, he’s making plays. He made a couple of extremely elite plays last night. And for me, from an offensive standpoint, we need him, certainly with [Jared] McCann being out and [Jaden] Schwartz being out. I think he’s got some elite vision, elite talent in order to make some plays. And so I thought he played a very good game last night.”
That’s some high praise of the 19-year-old rookie.
Meanwhile, although I didn’t explicitly state it in Three Takeaways on Tuesday, I thought Beniers—who is also the guest on this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast, publishing relatively soon—was Seattle’s best player against Florida. His play to drive to the net, deke, and tuck the puck into an open net while falling to the ice was an outstanding individual effort and was representative of the type of desperation this team has needed for several weeks now.
Matty Magic! 🚨
Impressive individual effort from Beniers, but still down by two, likely too little, too late. #SeaKraken
“I do [agree that he’s putting forth an outstanding effort], actually,” Lambert said. “I think that his leadership qualities… they’re coming through, as well, coming through on the bench. There’s different things that he’s doing that maybe people don’t see from that standpoint, and he’s bringing his ‘A’ game, he’s bringing his desperation.”
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard in, Jani Nyman out
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard has been recalled from AHL Coachella Valley, and Jani Nyman has been reassigned. Lambert hasn’t plainly stated that Nyman is a bad fit for his roster right now, but his actions have certainly indicated that.
After Nyman took a minus-four rating in just 8:15 of ice time on the fourth line at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Lambert was so disinterested in putting him back in the lineup on Tuesday that he opted to dress Cale Fleury as a seventh defenseman and play one forward short. All that to say, it was unsurprising when the Fisker Mølgaard swap was officially made Wednesday.
“We’ve been running with four penalty killers here, a little bit,” Lambert said. “Oscar’s a pretty smart player, obviously, a penalty killer, he’s playing well down there. I think, as it stands right now, his game is a little more suited for this time of the year, from that standpoint. So we’ll see where we go.”
How I read this is that Lambert simply doesn’t trust Nyman defensively but does feel more comfortable putting Fisker Mølgaard in, if needed.
Wishing the Winterton family the best
Ryan Winterton has been absent from the Kraken roster for several days, and it was revealed Wednesday that his older brother, Jacob, passed away after a battle with cancer.
The #OHL is saddened to learn of the passing of Jacob Winterton following a courageous battle with cancer at the age of 25.
“Obviously, it’s an extremely difficult time for Ryan and his family,” Lambert said. “We’re obviously always very, very supportive of him. I can’t imagine… And certainly, we just want everyone from [the Winterton] family to be as good as they could possibly be. In terms of his game, when he comes back… We miss him, and we can use him.”
Devastating news. Ryan is such a genuinely nice young man and doesn’t deserve to experience this kind of loss. Wishing peace and love to the entire Winterton family and all those who were close to Jacob.
Other odds and ends
Jaden Schwartz, out indefinitely with an upper-body injury after getting inadvertently kicked in the face in a 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on March 7, has been on the road trip—a good sign that he remains on the road to recovery after that scary incident.
Matty Beniers told me during his SOH Podcast interview that he thinks Seattle tends to get a “bad rap” around the league. I asked why this is, and he said he thought it was mostly related to the weather. He refuted the claim nicely. Give that interview a listen when it comes out; it’s a fun one.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Sept. 22, 2018. That was the last time the Everett Silvertips hoisted a green-colored banner, their 2017-18 Western Conference championship banner to be specific, to the rafters at then-Xfinity (now Angel of the Winds) Arena in downtown Everett.
Despite three (technically four, counting the shortened 2021 season) U.S. Division titles, two Scotty Munro Trophies for best regular-season record, and never missing the playoffs, the ultimate prize of WHL champion has eluded the Silvertips’ grasp.
The Silvertips will host Games 1 and 2 of their first-round playoff series on Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28, against *gulp* their arch-rival Portland Winterhawks, the team that has knocked them out each of the last two seasons.
It sounds like a broken record at this point, but the Silvertips have been fixtures in the playoffs every season, qualifying all the way back to the franchise’s first year. In fact, to put into detail how impressive the team’s longevity of regular-season success is, all but one team in the WHL has missed the playoffs at least three times since the team entered the league in 2003-04. The lone team with only one miss is Medicine Hat. Insane.
Winning the Scotty Munro Trophy and having regular-season success is fun, but it’s not the ultimate goal.
“It signifies, obviously, we’ve had a good run here in the regular season,” head coach Steve Hamilton said. “It’s not the trophy we’re here to play for.”
The playoffs are “a whole different animal” for the Silvertips, especially of late. This year’s team just feels different, though.
Setting franchise records for wins (57), points (117) and goals (304) in a single season, many factors play into the Silvertips’ favor. They play at a pace much faster than everyone else, and it’s tough for opponents to match their energy. The team finished the season with four of the top five leaders in plus/minus in the WHL.
Led up front by Seattle Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen, his fellow Finn Matias Vanhanen, and Rylan Gould, alongside a cast of players such as Detroit Red Wings prospect Carter Bear and Zackary Shantz, the Silvertips boast a lineup of speed, versatility, and power. These are players who can will their team to victory night after night.
Landon DuPont leading the way on blue line
While the forward corps has been good, Everett’s bread and butter is on the blue line, particularly star defenseman Landon DuPont. Ahead of what is sure to be a hectic, attention-filled draft year for DuPont, the Calgary, Alberta, native has proven repeatedly this season why he is projected to be chosen first overall in 2027.
In 63 games this season, he scored 18 goals and added 55 assists. The intangibles and details that make up his game are worth the price of admission alone, and it will be fascinating to see his second go-around in the WHL playoffs. As a reminder, he’s still just 16 years old.
Having a player like him on the back end has been a key element to the team’s sustained success over the last two seasons. Anaheim Ducks third-rounder and Silvertips captain Tarin Smith attested to this.
“That kid does some ridiculous things with the puck,” Smith said. “I feel like no matter what he’s doing with it or where I am, like he can always find me,” Smith said. “It’s like, he’s got seven pairs of eyes all around his head.”
Along with the pairing of DuPont and Smith, the defensive corps is rounded out by reliable players such as Brek Liske and Kayd Ruedig.
And in goal, following in the long lineage of great Silvertips netminders, Anders Miller and Raiden LeGall have been steady all year. A 2.54 team save percentage ranks second in the league. There isn’t really a flash-of-the-leather type who can steal a game this year, but sometimes steadiness is all you need, and in the case of this team, that will be important if it expects to achieve its goal.
This year’s Memorial Cup is in Kelowna, British Columbia, about a five-hour drive from Everett. While it may be a bit premature to count eggs before they hatch and guarantee victory for the green and silver, let just say it’s a very convenient year for the tournament to be relatively close.
“We’re a confident group,” Smith said. “A lot of times, no matter what the scoreboard says or stuff like that, we know that no matter what, we have it in us.”
Seattle gets in
This season has been a rocky one for the Seattle Thunderbirds. What was expected to be a step-forward year turned into a process of finding the right pieces and putting everything together.
Trading Braeden Cootes midseason to Prince Albert put a dent in expectations, but acquiring Cameron Schmidt from Vancouver helped get the team back on track.
Finishing seventh in the Western Conference, the Thunderbirds will take on the Penticton Vees in their first playoff appearance since ascending from the BCHL. The Thunderbirds are always feisty in playoff series and aren’t an easy out by any means, so it will be interesting to see how they navigate this one against a good Vees team.
Header courtesy of Evan Morud and the Everett Silvertips.
Just when you think they’re 100 percent dead—season’s over, nothing left to see here—the Seattle Kraken rally back from a three-goal deficit in the third period… and still lose in a shootout to the Florida Panthers.
The single point in the standings means Seattle is now five points out of the last playoff spot with just 12 games remaining, two teams to jump, and they’re chasing the Nashville Predators, who are on a five-game win streak and a 7-2-1 heater over their last 10.
Seattle once again did not play with the urgency of a desperate team fighting for its playoff life until it fell behind 4-1 and recognized its season hung in the balance against a very beatable team.
Coach Lane Lambert threw his lines in a blender for this one, moving Berkly Catton to the top line with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers and dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Jani Nyman as a healthy scratch.
“I just felt like from a defenseman standpoint, I felt like Fleury needed to come in, and this gave us an opportunity to move our forwards around a little bit and double up on Catton and a couple other guys,” Lambert said. “So I thought worked out pretty well.”
I guess that tells you what Lambert thinks of Nyman’s performance in Columbus on Saturday.
Anyway, in a weird night for Joey Daccord, in which pucks were finding ways to skip through him, off him, and around him, he came up big in overtime. But his mates couldn’t find the game-winner and ultimately came up empty in the shootout.
Here are Three Takeaways from a wild 5-4 Kraken shootout loss to the Florida Panthers.
Takeaway 1: A furious comeback
This was a miserable game to watch for 54:17 of game time. But an outstanding individual effort by Matty Beniers and two quick strikes from Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann rallied the Kraken back from the dead and erased a 4-1 deficit in a span of just 2:23.
The comeback started with Beniers catching a high-to-low pass from Brandon Montour and driving hard to the net, then taking advantage of an overly aggressive Sergei Bobrovsky and pulling it around the netminder and into an open net as he was falling to the ice.
Matty Magic! 🚨
Impressive individual effort from Beniers, but still down by two, likely too little, too late. #SeaKraken
“Bobrovsky plays pretty aggressive,” Beniers said. “Earlier, I think in the first, [Berkly Catton], made a nice play to me coming down, and [Bobrovsky] was way out. So, I kind of knew if I could get to the weak side of the ice, I might be able to just tuck it in there.”
That goal, which came less than two minutes after a Shane Wright own goal that made it 4-1, seemed to give the team belief that it could get back in. Sure enough, Eberle stole a puck at the blue line and scored on a breakaway, then McMann did the exact same thing to tie the game just 12 seconds later.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨 TIE GAME! #SeaKraken have erased a three-goal deficit in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
“I think the guys were doing a good job tracking that one,” McMann said of what led to his goal. “And then I just had to stay on the puck and was able to pull it free, tried to separate with some speed, and was able to move laterally on him and get it in there.”
Now THAT is the urgency this team needs to show from the hop. They just never seem to find it until they’re way behind the eight ball.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re playing with that urgency all the time,” McMann said. “So it’s really good that we found it. But we’ve got to play with that from the drop of the puck, consistent throughout entire games to put those efforts forward.”
Takeaway 2: Kraken pick up Shane Wright
This was a tough night for Shane Wright. Immediately after two separate goals, he could be seen looking skyward and questioning his choices. The first came when he tried to sling a quick pass to Brandon Montour to start a breakout, but he missed his teammate’s stick by a solid two feet and instead put it on Carter Verhaeghe’s tape in the slot. Verhaeghe lost control of it, but scored with a bank shot off Joey Daccord from the corner. That goal made it 3-0 at 7:37 of the third period.
After Ryker Evans got a good bounce of his own—off the end wall, off Bobrovsky, and in—to finally get the Kraken on the board 33 seconds later at 8:10, another Wright miscue ended up in the Kraken net. This one was just a bad bounce that went off his stick and into an open goal, but Wright was once again left looking dejected as the score ticked up to 4-1.
Shane Wright did everything right on this play, except… where he redirected the puck.
“We turned the puck over on their fourth goal at their blue line. We can’t do that,” Lambert said, indicating that Brandon Montour shouldered more of the blame for that goal than Wright. “We pass it right to them in the slot on their third goal. We can’t do that. So, if we can eliminate those mistakes, there’s more positive days ahead than not. But again, this is what’s happening, and we’ve got to cut out those catastrophic errors.”
The Kraken didn’t quit after that, though. Instead, they picked up their young teammate and fought back into the game.
“Things like that happen,” Beniers said. “I can think of five or six off the top of my head that I remember pretty clearly on my mistakes. So everyone makes mistakes; it’s a game of mistakes. He did a good job of brushing it off and going back out to the next shift and playing his game. And that’s a really hard thing to do, especially when it goes off your stick and finds the back to the net. It sucks. He knows we’ve got him.”
Takeaway 3: A night of milestones
It was a big milestone night, with Aaron Ekblad playing his 800th NHL game, all with the Panthers; Paul Maurice becoming just the second coach in history behind Scotty Bowman to coach his 2,000th NHL game; and Adam Larsson skating in his 1,000th NHL game.
That brought lots of good vibes to an optional morning skate on Tuesday, where Kraken players, coaches, and staff donned special Adam Larsson t-shirts commemorating the accomplishment, and he waxed poetic about his time in the league and in Seattle.
“It’s kind of hard to reflect on the whole journey to get here, but it’s been awesome,” Larsson said. “My last five years in Seattle has probably been the most fun I’ve had going to the rink on a daily basis. Obviously, we’ve had some tough seasons, but it’s still been very fun to come to the rink and kind of be around the guys and all that kind of stuff. So to look back all the way to my first year is pretty crazy.”
Considering there’s been some conversation around our Sound Of Hockey community recently about top players not wanting to come to Seattle, Larsson saying these have been some of his best times in hockey is somewhat reassuring.
Larsson has had a lot of support along his way to 1,000 and has endured some difficult times—especially during his Edmonton years, when he lost his father unexpectedly. Robert Larsson, a former pro hockey player himself, died in 2018 at age 50, when Adam was just 25 years old.
But Seattle has given Larsson the change of scenery he needed.
“I was looking for a fresh start. I got that, and I’ve had some just amazing teammates, coaches, support staff, and all that kind of stuff.”
Seeking the opposition’s perspective, I asked the always thoughtful and eloquent Paul Maurice about Larsson’s game and how he’d describe him “as a competitor.”
“That’s the word that you would fire out when you describe him,” Maurice said. “The change of defensemen over the last 30 years is that style of defense would have been a really big, bruising, fighting defenseman 30 years ago. They play just as tough now, but it’s a different style of game. So, he’s hard on pucks, he’s hard in corners, he’s hard net front, he can move the puck, he can get up ice, but his calling is that 1-on-1 battle area. So to be good at that, you have to do it every night. That’s where the strength of his career has been for me is that he’s been very consistent in his compete level.”
Maurice, by the way, got a nice ovation from the relatively light home crowd at Amerant Bank Arena and gave a heartfelt wave when he was recognized for his truly exceptional milestone Tuesday night.
Larsson said the best advice he ever received was, “Believe in yourself. I’ve never doubted myself by any means, but I’ve gone through some tough stretches, tough years, and stuck with it. I’ve had some tremendous leaders, coaches and kind of brings you back again, and that’s been a huge part.”
The Kraken did believe in themselves this night, at least in the third period. But it wasn’t quite enough to make Larsson’s 1,000th game unforgettable.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
From the friendly skies, hello and welcome to a WRITTEN version of the Sound Of Hockey Patreon Mailbag. I’m en route to South Florida, where I’ll catch up with the embattled Seattle Kraken for the next two contests against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, games from which they desperately need to pick up some standings points.
Last week, we recorded our monthly Patreon Mailbag podcast episode, delivered as one of the benefits of being a Sound Of Hockey Patreon subscriber. We answered the below questions and many more, but those verbal answers are typically off the cuff and intentionally lead to debate between myself and my co-hosts, John Barr and Curtis Isacke.
We always get great questions from our Patreon subscribers, but after spending some time thinking about some of these questions, I wanted to put more thoughtful responses down on paper. I’m offering this written version up to all Sound Of Hockey readers in the hopes that a few more of you may be inclined to join our Patreon community by clicking here.
Either way, enjoy!
John O. – “If you could lock up Bobby McMann before July 1, how much money and term do you think would do the trick, and how much would be too much?”
The Bobby McMann contract situation is such a fascinating one. Despite being 29 years old, he’s really only been a full-time NHLer for the last two seasons, and he’s scored 43 goals in that time, plus 15 more as a part-timer in 2023-24.
With that lack of experience comes a current contract that pays him just $1.35 million AAV. Also bearing in mind that this could be the only time McMann can really cash in on the open market, his salary is set to skyrocket on his next deal.
Will that next deal come in Seattle or elsewhere? How much will it take for the Kraken to keep him around and forgo his one chance in his prime years to hit unrestricted free agency? Is he viewed as a player who will consistently rack up 25-ish goals, now that he’s completed his long and winding journey to the NHL?
My guess is that if he continues producing, even sporadically, the rest of the season, the Kraken will want him back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they feel the need to go north of $5 million per year over, say, five years. But even then, the opportunity to choose his next playing home could prove too enticing to keep him in the Pacific Northwest. I would be hesitant to offer a player with this short of a track record anything more than the $4-5 million range, and that already feels quite rich.
One other thing to consider: McMann burst onto the scene with four goals and two assists in his first three games with the Kraken. In the two games since—at Nashville and at Columbus—he’s been held off the scoresheet. This aligns with the “streaky scorer” scouting report that we received upon his acquisition from Toronto, so it may behoove the Kraken to wait a little longer and see if he keeps piling up numbers or if his early output was just a “new team” bump.
Anna R. – “It seems like we will either barely make it or barely not make it to the playoffs. I don’t see any of our players in development as a generational talent. How can the Kraken get better if they don’t tank? Right now it seems like we will be perpetually in the middle.”
I don’t blame you for feeling this way, Anna, and I’ve also been struggling to understand the big-picture plan from the organization (you likely heard me complaining about the state of the franchise on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast or in this Three Takeaways).
One thing that is encouraging to me is that Seattle has successfully developed several of its players into full-time NHLers. We all would have hoped to see Shane Wright take another step this year—and I do worry that if they end up cutting bait and trading him, he’ll immediately flourish in a different system with more offensive talent around him.
But aside from Wright, Seattle also has Jacob Melanson, Jani Nyman, Ryan Winterton, and Ryker Evans on the current roster after drafting those players and bringing them up through Coachella Valley. Plus, there’s Matty Beniers and Berkly Catton, who made the jump straight to the NHL, and Joey Daccord, who one could argue was “developed” by the Kraken organization after they plucked him from Ottawa in the 2021 Expansion Draft.
So that’s roughly a third of the roster made up of young players who were either drafted and went straight to the NHL or spent time with the Firebirds before ascending. And of course, there are other young players knocking on the door, and it likely won’t be long before we see Jake O’Brien in deep sea blue.
The draft-and-develop plan takes an exceedingly long time, though, as we’re seeing. Now that those young players are starting to arrive, it’s not like they can jump in and dominate the league. We still have to wait for them to mature into veteran players, and even then, there’s no guarantee they will become core contributors.
So how does the front office speed up that process? I see just one possible route: cashing in some of the extensive draft capital the Kraken have built up from being sellers three out of their first four years and finding creative ways to land a couple of star players via trade. General manager Jason Botterill and president of hockey ops Ron Francis have implied at times that they want to make these kinds of moves and that they don’t intend to use all the draft picks they’ve obtained, but aside from a few moves for middle-of-the-pack players, they’ve never made a big swing.
If they’re serious about improving faster than just waiting on the kids to become the core of the team, this is the route they’ll need to take.
Kendall A. – “Should I get a Melanson jersey?”
That’s a fantastic question about a topic I generally enjoy and one I’ve oddly put a lot of thought into over the years: maximizing your jersey selection return on investment.
First, let me say that you can’t really go wrong with any player name/number. (I’m not a big fan of personalized ones with the fan’s name or some random saying or nickname on the back, but I know these are also popular choices, and I don’t dump on people who go this route; it’s just not my personal jam.)
As for narrowing it down and deciding which player’s jersey to buy, there are two factors that make for a “good” selection. The first is landing on a player with staying power. You can maximize your return by choosing a relatively young player you expect to stick with the team for a long time.
But I also find value in some level of obscurity—choosing a jersey that won’t show up on 1,000 of your closest friends when you attend a game. For example, we all expect Matty Beniers to stick with the team for many years, and he’s a big fan favorite. So although No. 10 is probably a safe purchase in terms of long-term relevance, you’ll be but a mere foot soldier in an army of Beniers jersey-wearers. It’s just a bit too “mainstream” for my liking.
Having said all that, although I have strong opinions about what makes a good jersey selection, I’m not a big purchaser of jerseys. I’ve only bought two players’ jerseys over my many years of hockey fandom. One was a massive hit in terms of value, and the other was Chris Driedger, purchased in advance of the Kraken’s inaugural season when I thought he’d be the “1B” goalie to Philipp Grubauer for several years (he played 29 total games for Seattle across three seasons).
The “massive hit” was a Jonas Brodin Minnesota Wild jersey that I bought during his second season in the NHL, when he was just 20 years old. In retrospect, it was a risky bet, because Brodin was so young that there was no telling at the time if he’d stick around long-term. But 12 years later, he still flies under the radar—meaning his jersey isn’t all that mainstream—and he’s still logging 20-plus minutes per night for the Wild.
Now, back to Kendall’s actual question: “Should I buy a Melanson jersey?” There’s some risk there. Melanson has mostly stuck with the NHL team this season and has been a big part of its success when Seattle has strung together wins. But he’s also been a healthy scratch at times and never plays big minutes.
If he sticks as a Kraken for at least five years, you’ve knocked it out of the park by purchasing his jersey. If he doesn’t, you’ll end up with a relic. Relics are also cool (my favorite Kraken jersey I’ve seen in the wild is a Dennis Cholowski jersey), but you have to recognize that this is a real possibility with Melanson.
If you’re comfortable accepting that risk, I say buy the jersey.
Paul W. – “Would you rather play Colorado in the first round or secure the fifth-best lottery odds in this year’s draft?”
That’s a tough call, but I’d rather play Colorado. A fifth-overall pick is great, but realistically, whoever that player ends up being is at least three or four years away from making a real impact. I’d like the Kraken to start accomplishing their stated goal of making the playoffs every year.
Plus, the Avalanche have faced such little adversity this season that you just never know what can happen.
Adam R. – “It seems like Seattle is not a desirable location for a lot of players in the league. Why? Is it just the lack of proven success? We’re a no-tax location (for now), with a state-of-the-art practice facility and a brand-new barn. Winters are pretty mild, though not sunny. What gives?”
I do think it’s a lack of success. Players are treated very well and have first-class facilities, plus an ownership group committed to spending whatever it takes to be considered a top-flight organization. But if a player has a say in where he lands and can choose between the warm, sunny weather of Dallas, Vegas, Florida, Tampa Bay, or even Carolina—five organizations that have either won recently or appear ready to win—versus a team that has so far demonstrated that it is simply waiting for its kids to become the core, why would he choose rainy Seattle?
While fans need a clear vision and direction to get on board and fill the arena, I think this is also true of players. Before they sign a five-year contract to uproot their families and move to a dreary (in the winter) and expensive city, they want to know they’ll be able to win and put up their own personal stats so they can still make good money on their next contract. The Kraken are built to be a defense-first team, and the coaches that have been hired (and fired, in Dan Bylsma’s case) reinforce this line of thinking. Big offensive numbers are hard to come by for Kraken players, aside from Year 2 when everything seemed to click under Dave Hakstol.
The Kraken don’t have a great track record of winning or allowing players to flourish offensively at this point, and that is creating a vicious cycle for them.
Connor D. – “If you had to play a round of golf using only one club, which one would you pick?”
When I read this question on the Patreon Mailbag podcast, I was wavering between a six iron and a seven iron. Now that I’ve thought about it for a few days (and I have thought about it), I’ve landed on a seven iron. I’m obviously sacrificing distance off the tee by choosing a mid-iron, but I want something with enough loft that I can still chip around the green, because I know I won’t be hitting many greens without a full complement of clubs. The seven is the longest club I’m comfortable using for chipping. Plus, I can still hit my seven about 170 yards with decent accuracy, so even on a 500-yard par five, if I hit my first two shots 170 and 170, I’m within range of the green in regulation on my third shot. A long par four will be bad news, but such is life.
So, seven iron is the play. Putting will be hard, but that would be true of any club in the bag other than the putter, and I’m not using the putter as my one club.
(From the SOH Discord) – FMammal: “I think Darren’s too depressed to make a Three Takeaways for the CBJ game.” LoveMonkey: “Do we need a wellness check for Darren?”
I do appreciate the concern. I’m fine, I just couldn’t bring myself to waste another hour or two of my beautiful Saturday writing about that miserable game after I had already invested three hours of agony into watching it.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
It was a devastating week for the Kraken, yet remarkably, they remain in the playoff hunt, albeit hanging on the outside right now. This is uncharted territory for the franchise, which has never truly been in a nip‑and‑tuck race to get into the playoffs. In three of their four seasons, the Kraken were obvious sellers at the deadline and well out of the picture by March. The only exception was Season 2, when they maintained an eight‑point cushion and never really flirted with falling out.
That’s what makes this stretch so frustrating. The opportunity has been sitting right there, practically begging to be taken, because every other wild‑card hopeful has been stumbling too. Seattle, San Jose, and Los Angeles went a combined 1‑7‑2 last week. And the Pacific ineptitude doesn’t stop there: the teams holding the conference playoff spots went 4‑5‑1. It’s been a mess across the board, which only makes the Kraken’s skid feel that much worse. If Seattle had simply split their four games against Nashville and St. Louis, they’d be in a wild-card spot, two points behind Edmonton for third place in the division, and three points behind Vegas for second place with two games in hand on both those teams.
The Kraken aren’t playing poorly, but they’re also not elevating their game at a time when most of the league finds a way to do exactly that. Yes, two of their last three losses came against high‑caliber teams in Tampa Bay and the red‑hot Columbus Blue Jackets, but with a 4‑9‑0 record in 13 games since the Olympic break, that explanation doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
Ice‑cold scoring
The Kraken have averaged just 2.6 goals per game since the break, and even that number feels a bit inflated thanks to three games where they scored five or more goals. That’s good enough for 25th in the league since the break. They’ve scored more than two goals in only four of 13 games since returning. Their shooting percentage sits in the lower half of the league, and their shots on goal per game rank 26th. Shot quality hasn’t been terrible, their high‑danger and medium‑danger chances are only slightly below average, but the finishing simply isn’t there.
The OG: Adam Larsson
The Big Cat is set to play in his 1,000th NHL game on Tuesday as the Kraken take on the Florida Panthers. I’ll always have a soft spot for the players who chose to be here in that inaugural season. Larsson was technically an expansion pick from Edmonton, but he signed with Seattle during the exclusive expansion‑draft signing window, a subtle but meaningful distinction.
He’s been a perfect fit from Day 1: steady, reliable, and quietly one of the emotional anchors of the room. He’s not the guy in front of the camera, but he’s often the one facing the media after some of the toughest losses in franchise history. He also chose to sign an extension after the disappointing 2023–24 season, when it would’ve been easy to look elsewhere.
Larsson holds the franchise records for time on ice and games played, and he’s missed only one game in Kraken history — to be there for the birth of his first child. Stick taps for the Big Cat.
The fourth line had a rough night in Columbus. One of the primary jobs of a fourth line is simply not to get scored on, and they were on the ice for all three of Columbus’s first‑period goals. Plus/minus isn’t everything, but Jani Nyman is a minus‑five in just over 14 minutes of NHL ice time since being called up.
One bright spot since the Olympic break: the penalty kill. The Kraken have killed 86 percent of their penalties, third‑best in the league over that span.
It’s not saying much, but the Kraken are the best team in the Pacific when playing other Pacific teams. They have five divisional games left.
I know it won’t be feasible for everyone, but seeing the Kraken play in Finland sounds like an incredible experience. Based on all the texts I’ve received since the announcement, I am not the only one who thinks so.
Injuries are part of the game, but it really stings not having some of Seattle’s top forwards available. With so many close games, it’s not hard to imagine guys like Jaden Schwartz and (more recently) Jared McCann could have made a difference.
Congratulations to the Wisconsin Badgers on winning the Women’s National Championship. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on women’s hockey, but I’ve casually watched for over a decade, and the skill level this weekend was unlike anything I’ve seen from the college game. The talent pool is deep and trending upward.
On the NCAA men’s side, the Kraken will have three prospects in the 16‑team NCAA tournament: Clarke Caswell (Denver), Zaccharya Wisdom (Western Michigan), and Ollie Josephson (North Dakota). The tournament kicks off Thursday.
I mentioned this on the most recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast, but the Seattle Torrent now average the highest attendance across the league. If you haven’t been to a game yet, check them out. Those games are a ton of fun.
Player performances
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (CVF/SEA) – OFM posted two goals and three assists over two games for Coachella Valley, including the overtime winner.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) March 22, 2026
Jake O’Brien (BFD/SEA) – O’Brien had eight points over the Brantford Bulldogs’ final two regular‑season games. He finished the year leading the OHL in assists and placed third in points. The Bulldogs open their playoffs Friday against the Sudbury Wolves.
Semyon Vyazovoi (SLA/SEA) – The Russian goaltending prospect closed out his KHL season with a 39‑save shutout. He finished fifth in the league in save percentage. The KHL playoffs begin this week.
The week ahead
I don’t say this lightly: this could be the nail‑in‑the‑coffin week for the Seattle Kraken. They have one of the toughest stretches on their schedule at the worst possible time. After having already lost at Nashville and Columbus, they’ll face Florida on Tuesday, Tampa Bay on Thursday, and then a Saturday matinee against world-beating Buffalo Sabres. Even Florida, who will be looking for payback after their embarrassing loss in Seattle last week, will be a tough out. There’s a chance Tampa Bay and Buffalo ease off the gas as they prepare for the playoffs, but I wouldn’t count on it.
The Kraken put themselves in this position by squandering opportunities over the last few weeks. Anything less than three points, which is a big ask, will likely push them out of realistic playoff contention.
The NHL is sending the Seattle Kraken overseas next fall for a two‑game set in Helsinki as part of the 2026 NHL Global Series.
Seattle will face the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 12 and 14 at Veikkaus Arena, home of Jokerit and a building that has seen plenty of Finnish hockey history. These will be the first regular‑season games the Kraken have ever played outside North America.
The Kraken currently boast three Finnish players on the roster: Kaapo Kakko, Eeli Tolvanen, and Jani Nyman, though it is worth pointing out that Tolvanen is set to be a free agent this summer if the Kraken don’t sign him to an extension before the July 1 free agency period. In addition to the current rostered players, the Kraken have several Finnish prospects in the pipeline: Ville Ottavainen, Nikke Kokko, Julius Miettinen, Kim Saarinen, and Visa Vedenpää.
Why Finland? Why now?
The NHL has been taking regular‑season games to Europe for more than a decade, to help expand the fanbases that follow the league from afar. Finland, in particular, has become a staple stop, a hockey‑mad country with a deep connection to the NHL and a long list of stars who grew up dreaming of playing in the league.
Carolina, meanwhile, will be making its second trip to Finland for regular‑season play. They bring their own Finnish firepower in Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, so expect the locals to have plenty of rooting interests on both sides.
For fans in Seattle, this trip offers a rare and unique chance to see the Kraken play abroad while experiencing a foreign country. If you’ve ever wanted to combine a Kraken road trip with a European vacation, this is your moment.
Game times
Nov. 12: 7:00 p.m. EET / 9:00 a.m. PT
Nov. 14: 8:00 p.m. EET / 10:00 a.m. PT
Fans traveling to Helsinki should also expect a slate of events celebrating the NHL’s presence in Finland. More information is located here, and there’s also a sign-up page for fans looking for information on travel packages.
And really, that’s what makes this whole thing interesting. For a team that’s still figuring out who it is in the grand scheme of the NHL, a trip like this isn’t just a novelty stamped into the schedule, it’s a unique moment to reach fans abroad while creating a fun experience for fans making the trip. A little weird, a little cool, and very on‑brand for a franchise that somehow ended up with a ton of Finns in its prospect pool.
For the Finnish guys on the team, it’s a homecoming. For everyone else, it’s a chance to play in a country where hockey is basically a civic duty. And for fans, whether you’re actually making the trek or just rolling out of bed for a 9 a.m. puck drop, it’s something different, the good kind of different.
This is “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. Believe it or not, we’re nearing the end of prospect seasons around the globe. Several prospects are already done with their seasons entirely, and others are entering their league’s playoffs this week. Where did the time go?
Today, we’ll offer some perspective on goalie Kim Saarinen’s sterling season in the Finnish professional league, and we’ll offer a few data points to consider when evaluating the Kraken’s development track record.
After that, we’ll have additional Kraken prospect news, video, and data updates, 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 or mailbag, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Kim Saarinen’s Liiga season puts him in rare company
Liiga finished its regular season this past week, and Kim Saarinen ended up atop the save percentage leaderboard with a .916 mark. According to shot quality metrics published by NHL.com, Saarinen saved approximately 21 goals above expected in his 38 appearances. (For reference, according to Natural Stat Trick, Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer have both saved approximately 15 goals above expected in 41 and 27 game appearances, respectively.)
It’s worth noting again that Saarinen is only 19 years old. The last teenager to lead Liiga in save percentage was Kari Lehtonen in the 2001–02 season.
The last Liiga goalie under 20 years old to finish the season with a .916 or better save percentage was fellow Kraken prospect Nikke Kokko, who finished the 2023–24 season with a .917 save percentage just days before turning 20.
The Kraken’s development track record and the 2021 draft
From my limited vantage point, it appears there has been a narrative making the rounds on the internet that the Kraken have struggled to develop players.
There are many reasons one might legitimately criticize the organization. Their NHL success has not lived up to anyone’s expectations. One can second-guess the transactions they have made or not made, or the players they have drafted or not drafted.
I’m just not sure “development of young players in the organization” belongs on a list of categorical indictments. Developing an NHL player is very difficult, and I’d submit that there is ample evidence indicating the Kraken have succeeded as a development team when measured against fair benchmarks. At the very least, I think we have a more mixed, nuanced question than some would like to admit.
Four-plus seasons on, we are now in the range where we can start to evaluate the Kraken’s first draft class from the 2021 NHL Draft. The development results from that draft are excellent.
Five of the team’s seven picks from that draft have made their NHL debut: Matty Beniers, Ryker Evans, Ryan Winterton, Ville Ottavainen, and Jacob Melanson. This 71 percent pick-to-NHL-player rate is by far the highest in the league. The only other team to have five players from the 2021 draft make their NHL debut is Carolina, and the Hurricanes picked 13 times. No other team has had more than half of its 2021 draft picks reach the NHL. The average rate is 30 percent—about two out of seven.
Overall, the team’s 595 total NHL games played from the 2021 draft class ranks third in the league. Its 99 goals scored ranks fourth. And, despite being an expansion team, this wasn’t an NHL roster brimming with opportunity. The Kraken’s NHL roster has been stuffed with mid-level veterans throughout its existence.
One might be critical that high-end production has been missing from this group. Its .44 points per NHL game played ranks ninth in the league. That said, I think it’s important to consider the draft environment. Only Wyatt Johnston, Dylan Guenther, and Mason McTavish have offered similar or superior goal-scoring production to the players Seattle ended up with. Johnston and Guenther were not considered top-five talents at the time, and McTavish has been benched by the Ducks of late.
For his part, Beniers won the Calder Trophy with a stellar rookie season and has settled in as the player I always envisioned: a 50-to-60 point, defense-first, cornerstone center. Goal scoring was never going to be his calling card, so I don’t view it as a development failure that Guenther and Johnston are putting up higher totals now.
When talking about this era, we should also consider that the team’s sixth-rounder, Semyon Vyazovoi, might be the Kraken’s best goalie not currently in the NHL. It’s also fair to add in the undrafted signing of Tye Kartye on the ensuing free agency day.
One might fairly contend that Kartye’s play stalled out at the NHL level over the last year, leading to his waiver. In the big picture, though, I’d argue Kartye’s case must be viewed as a development success. The Kraken identified and developed an unheralded player and got 180 regular-season and 10 postseason NHL games from him.
Kartye’s case brings us to the key example most would cite for the initial premise: 2022 first-round pick Shane Wright. He is worthy of a separate offseason deep dive, but for today’s purposes, I will say only that it is probably unwise to draw sweeping conclusions from a sample size of one player. He has not taken the step forward many of us had hoped for this season, and it’s certainly fair to ask where to put the “blame” for that. Personally, I don’t have a confident answer to that question yet.
What I am confident in saying is that the Kraken have produced NHL-capable players from the 2021 draft at a strong clip. The team’s more recent drafts are harder to evaluate, but there certainly seem to be some “hits” (and “misses”) in there. The Kraken are still looking for a star performer, but it’s early yet for that and probably not a fair expectation given the “modest” quality of the 2021 and 2022 NHL Drafts.
Notes on six other Kraken prospects
Nathan Villeneuve | F | Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
Nathan Villeneuve was injured on a hit by Kitchener’s Matthew Andonovski on Mar. 8, which resulted in supplemental league discipline for Andonovski. Villeneuve has not appeared in Windsor’s four games since that time. He remains out of the lineup as of Friday, Mar. 20.
Check out his shifts from Windsor’s Jan. 21 game against Kitchener below.
Lukas Dragicevic | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
The Coachella Valley Firebirds announced that Lukas Dragicevic is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Dragicevic has one goal and 10 assists in 43 AHL games this season.
An AHL blue line that once looked overstuffed with playable young prospects has been ravaged by injuries this season. Gustav Olofsson, Ville Ottavainen, and Caden Price have all missed long stretches of the season, though Olofsson has returned to the lineup recently.
Ville Ottavainen | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
There is also good news on Ottavainen. He skated with the team in warmups before Coachella Valley’s Wednesday, Mar. 18 game in San Jose. According to Firebirds announcer Evan Pivnick, Ottavainen is on the verge of returning to the lineup. His presence is desperately needed.
Jake O’Brien | F | Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
According to a survey of OHL scouts conducted by The Athletic, Jake O’Brien has been the best player in the OHL Eastern Conference this season in terms of on-ice intelligence and playmaking ability.
By scoring two goals and adding six assists in three games this week, O’Brien also earned another accolade: Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
Logan Morrison | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
With an assist against San Jose on Wednesday, Logan Morrison reached 81 career AHL regular-season assists. This mark is the most in Coachella Valley Firebirds history, passing Kole Lind. His 54 total points are the most on the team this season.
Jani Nyman | F | Seattle Kraken (NHL)
With Ryan Winterton out of the lineup due to sickness, the Kraken were down to 11 healthy forwards. This prompted the team to recall Jani Nyman on an emergency basis. He was in the NHL lineup right away again, but only played six minutes against Nashville on Thursday. Nyman, who has 18 goals and 27 total points in 29 AHL games, figures to return to Coachella Valley once the NHL team gets a bit healthier.
Kraken prospects data update
J.R. Avon stepped into Nyman’s spot on a line with Morrison and Jagger Firkus on Wednesday. While the line is not quite the same without Nyman, Avon had a goal on three shots, and the team was plus-one with him out there. With the goal, Avon matched his previous AHL career high in goals (7) and surpassed his previous AHL total points high-water mark—and he has done it in only 31 games. He’s played well for the Firebirds when healthy. He’s a pending restricted free agent.
We’ll return with full-season recaps, likely next week, but in the meantime, it’s worth noting that the NCHC seasons for Zaccharya Wisdom and Ollie Josephson, as well as the ECAC season for Ben MacDonald, all came to an end last week with conference tournament losses. Clarke Caswell and Denver remain alive in the NCHC tournament.
Semyon Vyazovoi had a strong week, posting a .948 save percentage in three starts. Had his team played better around him, he may very well have been the Prospect of the Week. As it was, he won only once—and it was via a shutout.
As the KHL moves toward the playoffs this coming week, Vyazovoi stands fourth in the league in regular-season save percentage.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3 wins: Jagger Firkus, Jake O’Brien, Kim Saarinen, Julius Miettinen
1 win: Alexis Bernier, Barrett Hall, Ollie Josephson, Tyson Jugnauth, Nikke Kokko, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, Victor Ostman, Zaccharya Wisdom
Previewing the week ahead
This week’s Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week is the Saturday afternoon NCHC final pitting Denver against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 5:07 pm PDT.
Video from the vault
I’m soft-launching a new section here, one that I’m calling “video from the vault.” Each season, I make dozens of prospect videos that I don’t end up sharing publicly. (The goal is that they will have a home and purpose eventually. More on that this offseason. Maybe?) For now, I’m going to start sharing them here. They may be—and likely will be—older videos. So this is for the real film nerds and prospect enthusiasts like me out there.
This week it’s Berkly Catton at the 2024 CHL Top Prospects Game. Enjoy.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Jack Hextall
Jack Hextall is a 6-foot, right-shot center for the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL. He started his draft season off very well with an impressive showing for Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He plays a high-energy but sound, smart, pro-projectable game. His scoring has not always lit up the boards (53 points in 55 USHL games), but he does many little things right. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic had Hextall No. 33 in his most recent prospect rankings. Hextall was No. 32 on our mid-season Big Board. Hextall is committed to play at Michigan State University next 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.
Surely, the Seattle Kraken would find a way to defeat the Nashville Predators this time, right? Considering the situation entering the game—with the Kraken barely grasping the last wild-card spot and holding a two-point lead over these same Preds, who overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat Seattle just nine days prior—there was just no way the Kraken could lose this one.
But lose it they did.
It wasn’t because they didn’t try hard. They tried. Coach Lane Lambert was complimentary of the effort, in fact. It wasn’t because they didn’t stick to their structure. They defended well in a lot of ways. The Kraken lost, and have continued to lose this month, because they simply don’t have a talented enough group to elevate their game when it matters most. They can’t score when they need a goal, and with their lack of offensive prowess comes close losses to teams they can beat and drubbings by the league’s upper echelon.
Instead, the Predators again rose to the occasion more than the Kraken, drew level in the standings, and knocked Seattle back out of the playoff picture.
Ryan Ufko—who now has two career NHL goals, both against the Kraken—scored first. Freddy Gaudreau tied it, but then a power-play goal by Ryan O’Reilly in the second and an empty-netter from Filip Forsberg were all Nashville needed against Seattle’s paltry offense.
Here are Three Takeaways from an infuriating 3-1 Kraken loss to the Predators in a critical, must-win game.
Takeaway 1: Not good enough
With this latest loss to the Predators, the Kraken—who entered the Olympic break in third place in the Pacific Division and seemed to be riding high toward their second playoff berth in franchise history—have sunk to 4-8-0 in 12 games since returning to action on Feb. 25. Of those four wins, two have come against the last-place-in-the-entire-NHL Vancouver Canucks.
So what’s the problem? Why can’t they start rattling off wins and taking advantage of the fact that they “control their own destiny,” as Lambert has said?
Plain and simple, this team just doesn’t have the players. Sure, there are guys who can put the puck in the net here and there, and Bobby McMann has been a nice addition so far in that area. And when they’re at their best and staying within Lambert’s system, they’re a staunch defensive unit that can steal wins. But if they aren’t at their best, they seem to have no chance—and this team has not been at its best since January.
The lack of top-end players who can generate goals when the Kraken desperately need them—even against what figures to be a non-playoff team like the Predators (well, they were a non-playoff team until they had the good fortune of facing the Kraken twice in nine days)—has plagued this franchise since Day 1.
They must play borderline perfect hockey to win, and now that teams are playing with more emotion and desperation, Seattle’s imperfections are being magnified even more.
By the way, Nashville had its starting goalie get injured in morning skate and was forced to turn to Justus Annunen at the last second. So with their season effectively on the line, what did the Kraken do? They scored one goal against the Nashville backup with a .894 save percentage.
Takeaway 2: Freddy gets off the schneid
This game brought one (1) moment of joy, when Chandler Stephenson set up Freddy Gaudreau for a beautiful goal. It was Gaudreau’s first since Jan. 5, snapping a 25-game goalless drought.
It was a slick play, too. Gaudreau fought his way into the offensive zone and dropped the puck off at the blue line to Kaapo Kakko, then drove to the net. Kakko passed to Stephenson in the left circle. Stephenson delayed, drew two defenders toward him, then threaded the needle back to Gaudreau, who had an open net.
It was a rare glimpse of creativity that tied the game 1-1 at 18:40 of the first period and gave Seattle fans hope that the Kraken could come up with a desperately needed win. That hope was dashed when the Kraken took two penalties in quick succession in the second.
The Gaudreau goal was a nice moment for good guy Freddy, but one goal is not enough to win in the NHL.
Takeaway 3: Rest of division also stinks
What continues to be maddening about this slide is that if the Kraken had just taken a couple more of these winnable games, they’d be in a prime playoff position. But they keep losing and making fans tear their hair out.
Maybe there is something in the universe keeping this team alive, though, because the Pacific Division continues to stink and keep Seattle on life support.
On a night when the Kraken lost their “must-win” game in Nashville, the Vegas Golden Knights lost 4-0 to Utah, the San Jose Sharks lost 5-0 to Buffalo, and the Edmonton Oilers lost 4-0 to the Florida Panthers.
THE KRAKEN PRODUCED MORE OFFENSE THAN THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS, SHARKS, AND OILERS COMBINED?!
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers, so Seattle fell one point out of the playoff bubble.
It is still possible that the Kraken could get hot and win the division. That’s insane. How are they even in the playoff conversation at this point?
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 effort wasn’t bad, but the execution was horrendous for the Kraken in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning that took yet another little nibble out of Seattle’s continuously declining playoff chances.
After handing the Lightning a three spot in the first 21 minutes, the Kraken came alive in the second period and made a game of it heading into the third after goals by Bobby McMann (his fourth goal and sixth point in three games as a Kraken) and Jared McCann.
But the class of the Lightning was too much for a Seattle roster that has to play a borderline perfect game to beat top teams in the NHL, and the Kraken were far from that on this night. Tampa Bay ultimately pulled away, riding massive nights from Nikita Kucherov (three goals, two assists), Brandon Hagel (one goal, three assists), and Anthony Cirelli (one goal, two assists) to what proved to be an easy win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-2 Kraken drubbing by the Lightning.
Takeaway 1: “Catastrophic” mistakes
I’m going to first give the Lightning credit, because there’s a reason that Jon Cooper has lasted as long as he has and had the success he’s had as Tampa Bay’s coach. Sure, there’s a ton of talent on the Lightning roster, but in the five years I’ve watched this team beat up on the Kraken, they have consistently swarmed to pucks as well as any team in the league.
In the first period especially, it felt like every time Seattle got control of the puck in its zone, there would be two or three Bolts on the puck carrier, either forcing a turnover or pressuring the Kraken player into making a loose play and handing it to Tampa Bay.
Case in point: the first goal against, which was ultimately scored by former Everett Silvertip Gage Goncalves. On this one, Seattle won the puck away, and it landed on McCann’s stick at the top of the defensive zone. He initially made a good play to cut to his right and gain some space, but then he should have chipped it off the glass and simply gotten it out of harm’s way.
Instead, McCann tried to do too much and painted himself into a corner. He looked to gain ground up the boards but ran right into Darren Raddysh, so he instead tried to go backward and ran into Goncalves. The puck came right back down the Kraken’s throats and ended up in their net to put them into chase mode at 5:45 of the first period.
#SeaKraken having a hard time getting out of their zone when they've gotten the puck.
Here, McCann tried escaping a few different directions instead of chipping it off the glass. Ran out of space and turned it over in a dangerous spot.
“It started with me. Obviously, the first goal [against] there, I turned the puck over at the blue line, and they scored. So, that’s on me,” McCann said.
The second goal against—Kucherov’s first of three on the night—came when Ryan Lindgren tried to push the play up ice quickly but misconnected with Ben Meyers, and Meyers ended up handing it to Kucherov. He and Hagel came back on a quick-developing 2-on-1, and Philipp Grubauer was hung completely out to dry after a nifty give-and-go play, a theme throughout the evening.
While the #SeaKraken failed to generate much of anything in that 1st period, they were also extremely inefficient at getting the puck out of their zone.
“For the most part, it was a fairly even game,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our mistakes were really catastrophic, obviously some really, really poor decisions… The turnovers, going backwards in our own zone, the second goal, we can just… we’re changing. We should just stay behind the net, get organized. So we’re making some mistakes here that you can’t make. I’m not even going to say they’re uncharacteristic, because apparently they are at the moment, but you can’t make these mistakes.”
Those plays in the first period, a bad change early in the second that created a 3-on-1, and another turnover by Matty Beniers early in the third were enough to do in Seattle in this game. The Lightning tacked on a couple more just for good measure and pulled away for a lopsided result.
Takeaway 2: Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand make their returns
Former Kraken forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand made their returns to Climate Pledge Arena for the first time since being traded away at last season’s trade deadline.
Both players got brief welcome-back videos and gave cordial waves to the home crowd.
While Bjorkstrand had a quiet night, Gourde showed a couple of flashes of what endeared him to fans during the course of his four seasons in the Pacific Northwest.
In the first minute of the third period, Jacob Melanson—who has, in a way, replaced Gourde as Seattle’s resident pest—laid a heavy hit on Gourde along the half wall. Gourde popped back up, and from the way he was looking around, you could tell he was incensed and out for a pound of flesh.
He got his revenge within seconds, catching Meyers with a high hit and sending him flying. Meyers then chased down Gourde and challenged him to a fight, which Gourde definitely won.
“Just a hit, just kind of heat of the moment,” Meyers said. “I didn’t really see him coming, so it just happened quick.”
Did that sequence reignite Tampa Bay after they lost momentum in the second? It’s hard to say, but plays like that by Gourde certainly made him a fun player to watch at times with the Kraken.
Takeaway 3: Pillow fight to the finish?
It’s wild that the Kraken are still in the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference, despite having won just four games out of 11 since the Olympic break. But that’s the conference they’re in, and while they continue making it harder and harder on themselves, they’re somehow still alive and well, holding on by the hair on their chinny-chin-chins.
They now head out on a two-week road trip through Nashville, Columbus, Florida, Tampa Bay (to face these same Lightning… yikes!), and Buffalo. Then they’ll come home for an off day and go back on the road for one more game in Edmonton.
With the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings continuing to do their part, the Kraken just need to string a run of wins together, and they can still (somehow) set themselves right back up as a surefire playoff team.
Losses like the one on Tuesday don’t help their cause, though.
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.
Some weeks in the NHL feel like they hinge entirely on the final game, and this was absolutely one of them. The tone of everything that happened over the last seven days: the frustration, the missed chances, the brief flashes of competence, all came down to what the Kraken did on Sunday. A win would salvage what had otherwise been a brutal stretch in the middle of a playoff race. A loss would have cemented the week as another squandered opportunity at a time when the margin for error is shrinking by the day.
The week started with a maddening 4–2 regulation loss to a desperate Nashville Predators team. The most frustrating part from that game was that the Kraken came out flying, something we hadn’t seen since they returned from the Olympic break. They outshot Nashville 19–7 in the first period and 16–11 in the second, controlling play and dictating pace. But uncharacteristic breakdowns in the second period gifted the Predators three goals, and that was essentially that. Steven Stamkos added an empty‑netter with five seconds left to twist the knife.
That one stung more than a typical regulation loss because of what was at stake. A Kraken win would have pushed Nashville to the brink of irrelevance in the wild‑card race. Instead, for a brief moment, the Predators climbed within two points behind Seattle and three points out of the final playoff spot. In a season defined by razor‑thin margins, that’s the kind of swing you could have felt for weeks.
From there, the Kraken had to rebound against the best team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. Expectations were low, as they should be when facing a juggernaut, but you still hope for a gutsy effort that maybe steals a point. That didn’t happen. The Kraken fell behind 3–0 in the first period, and coming back from that against Colorado is pretty much impossible. The Avalanche are 37–0 when leading by two or more goals this season. Seattle did manage their first non‑empty‑net shorthanded goal of the year to pull within two, but outside of that moment, there wasn’t much to cheer for. I wasn’t expecting a win, but I expected more compete from a team that’s been spiraling.
That set the stage for a critical Saturday matchup against the lowly Canucks in a game that carried some uncomfortable déjà vu. Leading up to that game, I couldn’t help but think back to last season, when the Canucks were the ones fighting for their playoff lives, and the Kraken marched into Vancouver with a hammer and nails to finish the job. This time, the roles were reversed. Would the Canucks return the favor and drive a dagger into Seattle’s season?
Thankfully, the Kraken showed up. They played on their toes for most of the night and never looked back after Bobby McMann scored his first goal as a Kraken on a soft one given up by Nikita Tolopilo late in the first that give Seattle a 2–1 lead after one.
It was our first real look at McMann since the trade, and he came exactly as advertised, and then some. Two goals, an assist, and a handful of plays where his speed was noticeable either chasing down a puck or catching a rush on the backcheck. I’m not saying he’s going to be a season‑saving difference‑maker, but he clearly makes this team better at a time when they desperately need players to step up.
And that brought us to Sunday, with an even bigger game against the Florida Panthers. With a win, the Kraken could salvage the week and walk away with four of eight possible points. With a loss, the slide would continue, and the playoff picture would get even murkier.
The Sunday game couldn’t have played out much better. The Kraken cruised to a 6–2 win over the Panthers with contributions up and down the lineup, a perfect four‑for‑four night on the penalty kill, and a rock‑solid performance from Joey Daccord. Florida briefly pushed back with an immediate response goal after Seattle went up 2–0 in the first, but the Kraken restored the two‑goal lead before the period ended and coasted from there. It was one of the more stress‑free games this team has played in a long while. Earlier in the evening, the San Jose Sharks lost in regulation to Ottawa, allowing the Kraken to slide back into the second wild‑card spot.
One thing to monitor from this game, Eeli Tolvanen cut his last shift short and went down the tunnel. We’ll see if he’s available on Tuesday when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit.
Overall, the week wasn’t bad, but it came on the heels of the St. Louis and Ottawa losses from the week prior, which made the first two losses feel that much heavier. Four out of eight points, capped by back‑to‑back games where the Kraken scored five or more goals, looks pretty fine on paper, but they need to keep stacking results. The runway is getting shorter, and “fine” won’t be enough for much longer.
How the Pacific fared
As far as the rest of the Pacific went over the last week, the Kraken only lost a tiny bit of ground to the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.
One of these teams is going to put together a run eventually, and with so many Pacific matchups down the stretch, the race is only going to get more chaotic.
The goaltending rotation
One thing that has been perplexing since the Olympic break is the goaltending rotation. Head coaches tend to get a little cagey or prickly when asked about it, but Joey Daccord has been getting most of the starts since the team returned.
I’m not second‑guessing the decision to lean on Daccord more, but I do wonder about the logic behind the recent over‑reliance on him. It could be Lane Lambert wanting to establish a clearer No. 1 goalie, or it might simply be a matter of giving Philipp Grubauer some rest after he played four games during the Olympic break.
Other musings
Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay will be the first time Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand return to Seattle after being traded at the deadline last season. They were both fan favorites, and I might shed a tear during the tribute video(s).
The Kraken have the best record among Pacific and wild‑card teams since the Mason Marchment trade on Dec. 19.
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Kraken’s expected goals in the Florida game were 2.92, while expected goals against were 3.87. Conversely, their expected goals in the Nashville game were 5.0 compared to 3.07 expected goals against. So, they “deserved” to win the Nashville game and “deserved” to lose the Florida game. I just find that funny.
For most of the season, the Kraken had one of the worst penalty kills in the league. Since the Olympic break, they have the best, killing 90 percent of their penalties.
Considering how valuable he has been, it’s wild to think Ben Meyers started the season in Coachella Valley. His 41 NHL games this year are already a career high. He’s one of the team’s top penalty killers and has contributed offensively on that solid fourth line.
It was an ugly goal, but I just love how Meyers celebrated this one.
#SeaKraken strike first. Great work by Evans to take the puck away at the blue line and then the fourth line gets to work – Meyers taps in the Winterton tip of Gaudreau's shot pic.twitter.com/x3EWyqm5jS
One of the few blemishes in the 6–2 win over Florida was the response goal allowed after Seattle took a 2–0 lead. It was the seventh time this season the Kraken have allowed a goal within 60 seconds of scoring. They allowed only six such goals all of last season. I don’t think it’s a major issue, but it’s something to monitor.
The Kraken continue to be nasty on the second night of back‑to‑backs. They have two more back‑to‑back sets remaining this season.
If you haven’t checked out a Seattle Torrent game, you should. Wednesday’s win over the first‑place Boston Fleet was unreal, with an atmosphere to match.
The very next night, Alex Carpenter of the Seattle Torrent saw Matty’s goal and said, “…but can you do it backhand?”
The two goals were pretty much scored from the exact same spot, 24 hours apart.
Player performances
Tye Kartye (NYR) – Remember this guy? The former Kraken had two goals and four assists over his last four games, the exact same point line as Artemi Panarin over his last four. I think the Rangers found their replacement for Panarin [wink!].
Bobby McMann (SEA) – Since the team finally got his immigration paperwork sorted, McMann has three goals and two assists in his two games over the weekend.
MCMANN CAN! 🚨
Three goals in two games for the new #SeaKraken. Kaapo Kakko picks up his third point of the night on the power play.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Two goals and two assists over his last four games despite playing under 10 minutes in the 5–2 win against Vancouver. It would be nice to see the Kakko–Wright–Catton line get going now.
The week ahead
As of Monday morning, it feels like every Pacific playoff position is up for grabs, as none of the teams are making a run to separate themselves from the pack. Despite playing the Tampa Bay Lightning at home on Tuesday, this might be the easiest week remaining on the Kraken’s schedule. It’s not an easy week by any means, but compared to what’s coming, it’s one of their better opportunities to bank points.
After the home game against Tampa Bay, they hit the road for a big one Thursday in Nashville, then face Columbus on Saturday. Grabbing four of six points would be huge, especially with a particularly daunting week looming right after.
Eventually, one of these Pacific teams is going to get hot, and the Kraken will need to keep pace — or set the pace.
