It’s been a rough week… er… month… er… season for the Seattle Kraken, who dropped to 10 points out of the playoff picture with a devastating and controversial 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday, as they continued their march toward a Trade Deadline fire sale.
As things have gone sideways for the team, though, there have been some bright spots, and by George, we could use a little positivity right now. One of those bright spots has been the emergence of a reliable top line for the Kraken, which has consistently produced since being assembled soon after Seattle’s acquisition of Finnish forward Kaapo Kakko.
In that fateful contest on Sunday, Kakko scored for his fifth goal as a Kraken off a 2-on-1 rush with linemate Jaden Schwartz, and Schwartz appeared to have a power-play goal, finding a rebound from other linemate Matty Beniers. We all know what ultimately happened on that one.
The performance of the Jaden Schwartz / Matty Beniers / Kaapo Kakko line on Sunday was another example of the light this trio has provided in an otherwise dreary season.
Kakko’s arrival and instant impact
Since Seattle traded defenseman Will Borgen, plus a third- and a sixth-round draft pick, for Kakko on Dec. 18, the 6-foot-2 right winger has been attached at the hip to center Beniers. The two didn’t show instant chemistry, but once Schwartz joined their line a few games later, things took off for all three players.
“It’s hard to put into words. It’s not like when they made the line, we knew that we were going to have a good start or anything, it’s just, sometimes things click,” Schwartz said. “And I’ve talked about them a lot, but they’re both working really hard.”
Kaapo’s 16 points (5-11—16) in 21 games with Seattle have already surpassed his production with the Rangers this season, where he posted 14 points (4-10—14) in 30 games before being shipped to the Pacific Northwest as part of New York general manager Chris Drury’s in-season roster shakeup.
It’s no coincidence that Kaapo’s presence has helped spark Beniers, who got off to a dreadful start to his season, at least in terms of scoring. Prior to Kakko’s arrival, Beniers had just four goals on the campaign. In the 21 games since Kakko arrived, he has almost doubled that number with seven goals (11 total for the season).
Matty Beniers skates in a game against the Anaheim Ducks. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Alongside the veteran Schwartz—who is quietly having one of the best seasons of his career with 18 goals and 18 assists through 54 games—both youngsters, Kakko and Beniers, are exuding confidence.
Confidence growing among the trio
In those earlier stages of the season, it was plain to see that Beniers was struggling with his confidence, although he would never admit that. That happens when a young player who rose through the amateur ranks consistently posting massive offensive numbers hits a wall at the NHL level. Beniers looks like a different player now that he has found consistent linemates that seem to compliment his game well.
“That’s something I’ve been working on is having confidence when it’s going in or it’s not,” Beniers said. “I say it all the time that there’s going to be times when it’s going in, and it’s great. And there’s going to be times when it’s not. You have to have the same level of confidence, same ability of playing that you do in both those situations.”
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) for Matty, he’s under a microscope as a former Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2022-23 and the beneficiary of a seven-year, $50 million contract extension that went into effect this season. The organization is banking on him being a central character for most of his career, so the drop in production last season, which carried into the beginning of this season, was a concern. Beniers finding his game next to Kakko and Schwartz has allayed some concerns about the 22-year-old’s future.
While Beniers struggled to start the season in Seattle, Kakko found himself in the crosshairs of his old GM in New York. Though there was some scuttlebutt that Kakko may have wanted a change of scenery, the former No. 2 overall draft pick had every right to let his confidence get shaken when he was shipped off by his old team at 23 years old. But after a few games of getting his feet under him in Seattle, he took off and has also played with swagger in his new surroundings.
Kaapo Kakko has made an impact since joining the Kraken. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
“I think we’re playing a lot, we’re playing against top lines,” Kakko said. “[The confidence] is getting higher all the time. If you’re playing a lot— I mean, also, there’s going to be some bad shifts, like maybe [the other team is] going to score. It happens. But then you get out there again, and then you’re going to get more chances because you’re out there more.
“I think we’ve still been playing more in the O-zone, doing the things we like to do out there. I think it’s been pretty good, and confidence is getting higher and higher because of that.”
Said Schwartz of his young linemates: “They’re going to the dirty areas. They’re playing a give-and-go game where they’re not really holding onto pucks too long, or we’re moving it and then moving our feet to get open, and we’re just reading off each other.”
Why this line works
Schwartz indicated it isn’t an accident that Kakko and Beniers are producing now and gushed about the effort that they have employed with the Kraken.
“We need them to be good. They’re big, big pieces of this team, and they’re going to be big pieces for a long time,” Schwartz said. “So, I think they’re working hard throughout games, but even in practice, you can tell how dedicated they are, and I just love their work ethic, I love how they play the game.
Jaden Schwartz stickhandles in a game at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
“They don’t really cheat the game, they work hard defensively, they’re in the right spots, and they just see the ice. They’re making small little plays and protecting the puck, and they’re fun to play with.”
In talking with Beniers, you can tell that he feels a certain comfort with Kakko and Schwartz that has perhaps been missing since Jordan Eberle went down with a pelvis injury on Nov. 15.
“Kaapo, obviously, is really, really good at playmaking, holding onto pucks, and so is Schwartzy,” Beniers said. “So, it keeps possession time down there [in the offensive zone], and I think everyone’s just working hard and being in the right spots, doing the right things.”
So why does this trio fit together so well?
“I think early on in the year, Matty was with [Jared McCann] and Ebs and having some success with that line,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “And putting Kakko there with Schwartzy, you’ve got a guy who’s got some speed, who’s got some dartiness in Schwartzy. For stature-wise, he’s really good in and around the net, both in screening and making plays and scoring goals.
“Kakko helps in adding a big-bodied winger who can hold onto the puck in the offensive zone and create space, not only for himself, but for his linemates, and that has given us more pictures of [Matty] giving-and-going and getting space.”
Matty himself had a different theory for why the line has clicked in the way that it has. “I just think you’ve got similar but different players on the same line,” Beniers said. “I think it works well because we’re all pretty smart players.”
With Schwartz now 32 years old and his contract expiring after next season, his days with Seattle could be numbered. But in the meantime, he’s helping lift two young players that the Kraken hope have bright and long futures with the organization.
Here’s hoping this trio can continue growing together in an otherwise difficult season.
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 wasn’t the greatest week in Kraken land, with just one win and three losses over the last seven games. That lone victory came against the struggling San Jose Sharks, who currently sit dead last in the NHL with a record of 15-33-6. The coup de grâce came in the form of a 3-2 regulation loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday, a game in which the Kraken spotted the Flames three goals in the first period. As rough as the results were, the team continues to compete, making them enjoyable to root for and watch.
The week began with a 3-2 loss to Edmonton, a game that felt like a real opportunity to steal a win against one of the NHL’s best teams. The second game, a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, felt like the final nail in the coffin for any realistic playoff hopes.
Sunday’s loss to the Flames was particularly frustrating. The first period featured two goalie interference challenges—both going against Seattle—and five Kraken penalties. I don’t usually critique the referees too much, but they had a rough night, missing a blatant trip on Kaapo Kakko, a hold on Oliver Bjorkstrand, and a too-many-men penalty on Calgary with 10:45 left in the third that went unnoticed. I’m sure there were other missed calls, likely some that Flames fans weren’t happy about either.
If there’s one thing this team has been consistent with all season, though, it’s their refusal to quit. No matter the score, they continue to fight their way back into games. It may not earn them points in the standings, but it certainly makes them easy to root for.
Salary cap updates
In case you missed it, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association announced new salary cap guidance for the next three seasons. According to Friday’s announcement, the cap will increase by 9 percent annually over the next three years. That compounding increase will raise the upper limit by 35 percent by the 2027-28 season compared to the current year.
I foreshadowed this massive salary cap increase back in July when the Kraken signed Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour to long-term contracts—six and seven years, respectively. At the time, armchair GM’s argued that these deals would age poorly, but few considered the substantial cap growth once the league recouped losses from the COVID-impacted seasons.
This isn’t exactly “found money” for any specific team, as all clubs will benefit from the added cap space over the next three years. As of now, the only restricted free agents due for new contracts are Kaapo Kakko, Ryker Evans, and Tye Kartye. Kakko is the most intriguing of the group, as he could opt for a one-year deal and test unrestricted free agency next summer. Given the expected salary cap increases, plenty of teams will have money to spend. The Kraken are surely aware of that, and if Kakko is happy with his brief tenure in Seattle, they may offer him a long-term deal that could initially look like an overpay but might make sense in the long run.
Yanni Gourde undergoes surgery
Late Friday afternoon, the Kraken announced that Yanni Gourde underwent successful surgery to repair a sports hernia. Gourde has not played since Jan. 2. It appears the team and Gourde hoped to avoid surgery; he had been skating multiple times over the previous week to test it out, but ultimately, the procedure was necessary.
His expected recovery timeline is five to seven weeks—right around the trade deadline. The injury certainly doesn’t help his trade value, but injured players do get moved at the deadline by teams looking for playoff reinforcements. Before the injury, Gourde was a frequent name on trade target lists, and several teams are in the market for centers. We’ll have to see how this plays out, but there’s a chance we’ve already seen the last of Gourde in a Kraken jersey. If he is traded, there will be plenty more to discuss, but for whatever reason, I keep thinking about how Kraken PA announcer Chet Buchanan enthusiastically calls out “Yanni Gourde!” in the starting lineup introductions.
Quick thoughts on Philipp Grubauer
In other major news, Philipp Grubauer was placed on waivers and assigned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. There’s no question that his performance with the Kraken has been disappointing. Sending him to Coachella seemed like the only viable option. If he’s going to reclaim an NHL role, he needs to play his way out of this slump, and the Kraken simply can’t afford to take that risk at the NHL level.
The timing works well with the 4 Nations Face-Off break, giving Grubauer a chance to play without missing NHL action. He played his first AHL game on Saturday night, and Coachella has five more games before the NHL resumes on Feb. 22. He likely won’t start all of them, but he should get at least two or three starts.
All signs point to Grubauer being a buyout candidate this offseason. However, as they did with Chris Driedger last year, the Kraken could opt to bring in another backup and ride out his cap hit for two years instead of stretching it over four via a buyout. Either way, it’s hard to imagine him in a Kraken uniform next season, even in a backup role. Here are the buyout details per capwages.com
Off the ice, Grubauer has been a fantastic presence in the community. He’s one of the few Kraken players who lives in Seattle year-round and has been actively involved in local appearances and events. But at the end of the day, this is a performance-driven business, and the Kraken had to make the best decision for the team.
The race for the final wild card spot
Last week, I mentioned that the Kraken’s only realistic path to keeping their playoff hopes alive was winning three of four games, including a regulation win against Calgary on Sunday. That didn’t happen.
The Kraken now sit 10 points out of the final wild card spot, with four teams standing between them and a playoff berth. Mathematically, they’re still alive, but if the projected “get-in” target is 95 points, they would need to play .821 hockey the rest of the season. And if things weren’t already bleak enough, here’s a look at the strength of their remaining schedule…
Sunday’s win over the Kraken was a crucial victory for Calgary, especially on a night when Vancouver lost, giving the Flames a narrow two-point lead for the final wild card spot. Calgary and Vancouver are beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the pack, making it look like a two-horse race after all. I really like Utah’s team, but they just haven’t been able to put it together when it matters most.
Other musings
I know it was a rough week, but all three losses were essentially one-goal games, with empty-net goals sealing the defeats against both the Oilers and Ducks. The Kraken are still competing, and while one-goal losses can be frustrating, I still enjoy watching them play.
On Sunday night, the Kraken appeared to score first when Jaden Schwartz knocked home a rebound in the opening seconds of a Kraken power play. However, the Flames challenged the goal, and it was overturned. Calgary went on to score the first goal later in the period. It’s hard not to wonder how the game might have played out if the goal had stood. The Kraken are 13-6-3 when scoring first, while the Flames are just 6-13-4 when trailing first. I understand why the goal was reversed, but I’ve seen far more egregious goalie interference go uncalled in similar situations.
I’ve heard the explanation coach Dan Bylsma was given for the non-reversal of Calgary’s second goal, but I find it hard to believe that Yegor Sharangovich was actually trying to play the puck when he struck Joey Daccord’s stick. Regardless, I do appreciate that we at least got an explanation of the reasoning behind the decision.
The Kraken have been one of the more disciplined teams in the league this season, averaging the fourth-fewest penalties at 2.85 per game. However, Sunday night tied their season high with seven penalties, and the Flames capitalized on two of them.
Since Yanni Gourde’s injury, the Kraken’s penalty kill has dipped. Before his absence, they were killing penalties at a 78.9 percent rate, but since Jan. 3, that number has dropped to 74.1 percent.
Jordan Eberle has been back on the ice for a while, and Mike Benton captured some of his work on Friday. It’s unclear when he will return, but at the very latest, I’d expect him back after the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
The Seattle Thunderbirds played a thrilling game on Saturday night, knocking off the Eastern Conference-leading Medicine Hat Tigers in a shootout. The Tigers were 5-0-0 against the U.S. Division before falling to the Thunderbirds. It’s always a great time to check out some WHL hockey, but if you have been putting it off because of the Kraken schedule, the 4 Nations Face-Off break might be a good time to attend a game.
Scott Wheeler of The Athletic has been releasing his NHL prospect rankings over the past few weeks, and this week, he ranked the Kraken’s prospect pool 10th in the league. These rankings are subjective, so I don’t get too high or low on them, but ideally, Seattle remains a consistent top-10 team.
Wheeler ranks Berkly Catton as the top Kraken prospect. Catton is currently on a nine-game point streak, recording 24 points over that span, and helped Spokane defeat the first-place Silvergips 10-3 Saturday in Everett.
Goal of the week
I love Monty wrist shots when he is barreling down the slot.
3-1 #SeaKrakenHockey gods smile on Shane Wright. After an unfortunately bounce off his skate earlier, now he's Wright where he needs to be for the steal and feed to Montour in the slot. #ResponseGoal
Ben Meyers (CVF/SEA) – Meyers has recorded three goals and three assists over his last five games for the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Nikke Kokko (CVF/SEA) – The 20-year-old goaltender is 4-1-0 with a .931 save percentage over his last five starts for Coachella Valley. Kraken fans should be excited about Kokko’s development so far, but he likely won’t be in Seattle for a couple more years, while he continues to refine his game in the AHL.
Shane Wright (SEA) – Wright is currently on a five-game point streak.
Power play goal for Seattle!Scored by Shane Wright with 13:45 remaining in the 3rd period.Assisted by Jared McCann and Brandon Montour.Seattle: 4Anaheim: 5#ANAvsSEA #SeaKraken #FlyTogether
This will be the final week of games before the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, with the Kraken hosting the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, and wrapping up with a final game Saturday night in Calgary. The outlook isn’t promising. The Red Wings dominated the Kraken 6-2 in Detroit back in early December, a game in which Philipp Grubauer allowed three goals on four shots in the first seven minutes. Detroit will also come into Seattle with a six-game win streak. Meanwhile, the Kraken have only beaten the Leafs once in franchise history and have never defeated them at Climate Pledge Arena.
It’s shaping up to be a tough week, but the Kraken have risen to the occasion before, earning wins against Vegas, Carolina, and Minnesota this season, so regardless of the opponent, a loss is never a foregone conclusion. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—this team never gives up.
In a season that has rendered feelings of indifference at times for fans, the Seattle Kraken’s 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday invoked some big emotions. Anger, confusion, excitement, hope, and disappointment—they were all there, wrapped up in a loss that, had it gone the other way, could have reinvigorated the last semblance of belief that the team could re-enter the playoff conversation.
Instead, Seattle went the other direction, dropping to a whopping 10 points behind the Flames for the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Here are Three Takeaways from a crushing 3-2 Kraken loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: Everything went against Seattle in the first period
After digesting that chaotic and lengthy first period, I’m left with one lingering feeling: disdain toward the non-goalie-interference ruling on Yegor Sharangovich’s goal that made it 2-0. But that decision also put Seattle down 5-on-3 for two full minutes, leading to Jonathan Huberdeau’s goal—the eventual game-winner.
So, now that I’m thinking about it again as I’m writing this, I’m getting mad about all of it all over again, as I imagine a lot of Kraken fans are still feeling on Monday morning.
Let’s walk through the sequence of events. Jaden Schwartz scored a power-play goal at 11:03 of the first period that should have made it 1-0, but Calgary challenged for goalie interference. On the review, Schwartz’s skates were in the blue paint when the contact occurred between him and Dan Vladar’s stick, and Vladar did seem to be impeded on the play. So, I understood the no-goal decision, although Schwartz sounded perplexed by it after the game.
“You never know with these calls, right?” Schwartz said. “I don’t know if it’s people from Toronto, or… Both of the refs told me that it was probably a goal, but it was out of their hands, and people from Toronto called it, so not sure what they’re watching. I think it was a bad call. He put his stick in my skates, and I was then— I went out of the crease. Just a tough break.”
Jaden Schwartz appeared to score a power-play goal, but the #Flames successfully challenged for goalie interference.
Schwartz’s skate got tangled with Vladar’s stick in the blue paint.
So that was perceived major injustice No. 1 in the game.
Morgan Frost scored his first goal as a Flame three minutes later at 14:03. I had no major complaints about that one, other than poor defending, as Frost dangled between Oliver Bjorkstrand, Vince Dunn, and Adam Larsson, and rifled it over Joey Daccord’s shoulder. It was basically a 1-on-4 rush, as Sharangovich drifted out to the side on the play, so a tighter gap by Dunn and Larsson should have quashed that opportunity.
Now Morgan Frost DOES score his first with the #Flames, and it’s a beauty.
Injustice No. 2 is where the proverbial s*** hit the fan.
Mikael Backlund sprung Sharangovich for a mini breakaway, which caused Jamie Oleksiak to slash Sharangovich and jar the puck off his stick. At first glance, it appeared that Sharangovich losing the puck simply fooled Joey Daccord, and the off-speed pitch trickled through him to make it 2-0 at 16:43. But Dan Bylsma submitted a goalie interference challenge of his own, and replay showed that Sharangovich did make contact with Daccord, causing his stick to pop up off the ice and allow the puck to slide under him.
Uh oh.
2-0, as Sharangovich loses the puck because of a slash by Oleksiak.
For some reason, the penalty is also standing up, which makes no sense, because it happened before the goal. Bizarre call. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/mZLNmsCCJj
But, because we can’t have nice things, the officials announced no goalie interference, good goal. Since Oleksiak had slashed Sharangovich, and Jared McCann was already in the penalty box for jumping Brayden Pachal (who flattened Andre Burakovsky and then turtled in a very Martin Pospisil fashion), McCann’s penalty ended with the goal, but Oleksiak’s started. PLUS, the Kraken got penalized for a failed challenge, which I still say is a ridiculous rule, but that’s a conversation for another day.
The official ruling indicated that it was incidental contact between Sharangovich and Daccord, and that they were both lunging for a loose puck. Maybe you could say it’s incidental, but if you do, then you also have to say that Schwartz’s contact with Vladar on his negated goal was incidental.
“I think from going up 1-0 to down 3-0 with goalie interference calls, the power play, the 5-on-3 that ensued… I think a lot of events in that period were not how we wanted them to go,” Bylsma said.
The coach also said the refs explained that Sharangovich’s goal stood because it was a “continuation play,” whatever that means.
As the game wore on, you could tell the Kraken were getting more and more agitated with the officials. Oliver Bjorkstrand got his stick ripped out of his hands but didn’t get a call and barked at the refs on his way to the bench. Brandon Montour got hauled down and went out of his way to scream at them two separate times during one shift. Even Kaapo Kakko remarked that he was upset he hadn’t gotten a penalty call on Jake Bean, who blatantly tripped him at center ice seconds before Kakko ended up scoring to get the Kraken on the board.
It was a tough night for the officials, and it cost Seattle dearly.
Takeaway #2: Kraken tried to recover
The Kraken had an impressive push in the second period and got robbed on several occasions by Vladar, who always looks like Dominik Hasek when he faces Seattle (which probably says more about the Kraken than it does about Dan Vladar, but I digress).
They made a real game out of it, though, with Kakko breaking through at 14:31 of the second period to put them back within arm’s reach heading to the third. And they did finally get a break from the officials that led to Brandon Tanev’s goal at 5:41 of the third period.
After being screamed at all night, the linesman had an itchy trigger finger and whistled a bizarre icing call on which the puck barely crossed the goal line when McCann touched it. Shane Wright won the ensuing face-off, McCann shot from the top of the circle, and the puck deflected off Tanev and in.
TURBO TIME! 🚨 #SeaKraken finally get some good fortune with a heinous icing call in their favor. Then off a face-off win by Shane Wright, Tanev gets a good bounce.
Seattle battled all the way to the final horn, and on a feverish rush with time ticking down, forced Vladar to make one more big stop on McCann to close out the game.
Had that gone in, it likely would have been ruled no goal for a kicking motion. The fans would have loved that.
Takeaway #3: Another crushing loss
There have been a lot of stinging losses for the Kraken this season, and that one may just take the cake. If there was still a path toward getting back into the conversation, it revolved around winning the two matchups with Calgary this week and snagging one of the two tougher matchups against Detroit and Toronto. With Step 1 of that plan a failure, this Kraken loss to the Flames confirmed what we already knew—that Seattle will be selling at the NHL Trade Deadline and playing months of meaningless hockey down the stretch.
Into February and down the stretch of the WHL season we go!
A sellout crowd of 8,249 packed Angel of the Winds Arena on Saturday night to watch two top teams in the Western Conference square off, with interested Kraken fans also getting the chance to see first-round draft pick Berkly Catton in action in the area once again.
But once the puck dropped, much to the dismay of the home crowd, it was all Chiefs all night. Spokane continued its rough-and-tumble play against Everett on Saturday, as the Chiefs dominated for a 10-3 rout, showcasing their offensive firepower all night long and showing they will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.
Game recap
Spokane (32-16-0-0) entered the game fresh off a 5-1 win over the B.C. Division-leading Victoria Royals, while Everett (35-8-4-3) had routed the lowly Kelowna Rockets 7-3 on Friday. Spokane had previously beaten Everett 3-2 on ‘Wednesday Night in the Dub’ the week before.
The Chiefs got off to a fast start with three unanswered goals to start the first and finished with six by the end of the first period. Spokane got two from league-leading goal scorer and recent Penn State commit Shea Van Olm, who extended his total to 37 goals for the season.
From the opening puck drop, it looked as though the Chiefs were the dominant team. Despite both teams missing key forwards in Mathis Preston, Smyth Rebman, and Sam Oremba, Spokane still appeared to be the more cohesive and offensively sound team throughout the game.
Spokane ended the game with 10 goals on 28 shots. Catton added a goal and an assist in the win, but it was his newest line-mate in Andrew Cristall who truly stole the show.
Cristall finished with one goal and five assists, contributing to Spokane’s strong performance. Since his acquisition, the Chiefs have gone 6-3-0-0, impressing against some tough competition. Coach Brad Lauer believes his arrival was just what the team needed.
“When we picked up an elite player like that, it definitely put a big spark in our group,” Lauer said. Cristall has a remarkable 25 points in nine games since joining Spokane. The Washington Capitals prospect is in the top five in all three major statistical categories in the league with 32 goals, 53 assists, and 85 points.
Before Cristall’s trade in January, the Chiefs had scored 10 or more goals in a game just three times since 2015. However, since the trade, Spokane has already matched that number, with three games of 10 or more goals on the road over the past month.
Despite being high atop the WHL standings, Everett has shown signs of vulnerability recently, playing four games in five days twice in the last two weeks. With multiple injuries and a heavy schedule, Spokane capitalized on a tired Silvertips team.
“They’re a tired club,” Lauer added. “We’re all playing lots of hockey this time of year, but we did a lot of good things early on, which gave us opportunities to score, and we took advantage.”
One Chief who made the most of his opportunity was 15-year-old Ossie McIntyre. In just his fifth career WHL game, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WHL Bantam Draft scored his first goal in the league.
“The young guys are finding their way and doing some good things, and the team is playing good hockey right now,” Lauer said. “That’s what you want heading into the stretch, making sure you’re doing the right things.”
The Chiefs currently sit in third place in the Western Conference behind Victoria, but it’s important they get as many points as they can; after the first round of the playoffs, the WHL re-seeds the teams based on record, meaning if Spokane and Victoria were to advance to the second round, Spokane would currently have home-ice advantage.
Although the Chiefs are 13 points behind Everett, and it might be a little too late to catch up in the standings, the recent losses could signal trouble for the Silvertips come playoff time. The aforementioned Van Olm knows the Chiefs have had Everett’s number of late.
“The last three or four years, Everett’s kind of beat on Spokane,” Van Olm said. “I wasn’t around for all of that, but I know there’s guys that are on this team that were, and it means a lot to those guys. I think coming into their barn and having a night like tonight feels great.”
Before Wednesday’s game against the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Silvertips hadn’t allowed more than four goals at home all season. But now, they’ve allowed seven-plus goals in consecutive games against teams chasing them for the top overall spot.
As previously mentioned, Everett has been dealing with a plethora of injuries to forwards Austin Roest, Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen, and most recently Dominik Rymon.
Once those key players return to the lineup, Everett will be a stronger team, but the recent games at Angel of the Winds have highlighted areas for improvement on both sides of the puck.
“It was one of those nights where we didn’t have a lot,” said Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton. “We just couldn’t get it going, and it combined for a bit of an ugly night.”
Both teams will wrap up three games in three days on Sunday. Everett hosts Kamloops, while Spokane travels to Langley to face Vancouver.
Header photo courtesy of Evan Morud and the Everett Silvertips
Over the past month, I’ve written two pieces examining NHL standings—one on NHL standings point models and alternatives, and another as an NHL half-season roundup. While working on these articles, I noticed a trend: most NHL teams perform better at home than on the road. That observation led me to dig deeper. I compiled data from the NHL API since the start of the 2021-22 season to see if the numbers back up the notion of a “home-ice advantage.”
As of Jan. 31, 28 of the 32 NHL teams have boasted better home records compared with their road records over the last three and a half seasons. The four teams that just missed the mark were within five points of their home records: the Vancouver Canucks (even record), the New Jersey Devils (even record), the Buffalo Sabres (three points under) and the Anaheim Ducks (five points under).
It’s good to be home
During the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 seasons, home teams enjoyed an average boost of 5.5 percent in standings points earned compared with their road performance. Overall, home teams posted a points percentage of .585, while road teams registered .524. That .585 mark is notable because it surpasses the 95-point pace when extrapolated out—a good measuring stick for playoff contenders.
The home-ice advantage extends to all types of wins—regulation, overtime, and shootout. Regulation wins were 6.8 percent higher for home teams, while overtime and shootout wins were 6.5 percent higher.
The data above covers the last three full seasons, and this season is showing similar trends. As of Jan. 31, home teams have benefited from a 6.8 percent increase in overtime and shootout wins compared to road teams, and a 9.9 percent boost in regulation wins. It should be noted that the current season’s data is partial and may be skewed, as the teams have not yet played an equal number of home and away games against every opponent.
Clearly, there is a consistent boost to the home team’s winning percentage. Now the question is: why?
NHL rules that benefit the home team
A handful of rules benefit the home team, and while most may not directly affect the game’s outcome, one in particular allows coaches to shine.
Last change
When playing at home, the visiting team must put its players on the ice first prior to a face-off. This rule gives the home team’s coaching staff a chance to assess who is on the ice and adjust their lines accordingly—allowing them to dictate matchups. For example, if the away team deploys its top scoring line, the home team can counter with its shutdown line. The only exception is icing; if the home team ices the puck, it is not allowed to change, letting the away team dictate the matchup.
Hockey is a fast-paced sport where line changes happen on the fly, and teams can switch lines in any order during play. The last change rule only applies during stoppages when a face-off is about to occur. During such stoppages, you’ll notice a referee near the team benches: the visiting team has five seconds to make a change before the referee raises their hand and signals that no further changes are allowed by the visitors, and then the home team has eight seconds to adjust before the referee lowers their hand. This rule is outlined in rule 82.2 of the NHL rule book.
Face-offs
In the NHL, players taking a face-off must put the blade of their stick on the ice, making contact with the white part of the face-off dot. Once both players’ sticks are on the ice, the puck is dropped. A common misconception is that the away team must place its stick first. However, according to NHL rule 76.4:
“The sticks of both players facing off shall have the blade on the ice, within the designated white area. At the eight face-off spots (excluding the center-ice face-off spot), the defending player shall place his stick within the designated white area first, followed immediately by the attacking player. When the face-off is conducted at the center-ice face-off spot, the visiting player shall place his stick on the ice first.”
For the home team, the only “benefit” comes at center-ice face-offs, as others are determined based on which zone the face-off is occurring. In theory, if the proper procedure is followed, neither team should have an advantage. In practice, however, the second player sometimes never places his stick on the ice, which can provide an edge. Outside of center-ice, the defending team’s center places his stick first, meaning any home-ice advantage is limited to the center-ice draw.
Looking at face-off data from the 2023-24 season, there were 8,383 center-ice face-offs. The home team won 50.4 percent of these draws, so a benefit, but minor one. This figure may be slightly skewed by the last change rule, as coaches sometimes counter the visiting team’s matchups with lines that are not necessarily their best at winning face-offs. For instance, the Seattle Kraken have typically started either Yanni Gourde’s or Matty Beniers’ line at home. However, Chandler Stephenson leads as the top face-off man, winning 51.7 percent of his draws, while Beniers won 47.8 percent and Gourde 49.9 percent as of Jan. 31.
Regular-season overtime
The last-change rule also applies during 3-on-3 overtime, where controlling matchups is crucial for scoring a timely goal and ending the game. Overall, overtime has favored the home team, which has won 9.6 percent more games in OT than when playing on the road.
Shootout
If a regular-season game remains tied after regulation and 3-on-3 overtime, it goes to a shootout. The home team gets to choose whether to shoot first or second. Over the last few seasons, home teams have opted to shoot first 85.2 percent of the time.
Over the last three and a half seasons, there have been 317 shootouts. In those contests, the home team won 162 times, and the road team won 155 times—a slim 2.2 percent advantage for the home team. If you only consider the teams that shot first, the advantage grows to 5.34 percent. In recent years, the trend has been that more and more NHL teams have have been choosing to shoot first.
One might think that the home team would prefer to shoot last, allowing it to mount a comeback or finish the game on a goal. However, goaltenders hold the edge in shootouts. It appears that home teams are not so much choosing to shoot first as they are opting to “save last.” League-wide, NHL goaltenders have posted a combined stoppage percentage of .679 in these 317 shootouts—meaning that 68 percent of the time, the goalie is more likely to stop the shot than the shooter is to score. I call this a “stoppage percentage” because it includes missed shots, which are not part of a goaltender’s save percentage but still result in a failed shootout attempt.
Penalties
The trend continues when comparing penalties called on teams at home versus on the road. For this analysis, I looked at the raw count of individual penalties—not penalty minutes. A minor, double minor, major, or game misconduct each counts as one penalty. Overall, home teams enjoy a 3.2 percent reduction in penalties called against them.
Over the last three seasons, 26 of 32 NHL teams have accrued fewer penalty minutes at home than on the road. When broken down by division, the benefits vary significantly. Atlantic Division teams saw only a 1.1 percent benefit, Metropolitan teams 2.9 percent, Pacific teams 4.4 percent, and Central Division teams 4.5 percent.
The Calgary Flames have enjoyed the largest home-ice advantage in penalty minutes at 9.2 percent, while Canadian teams overall fared well, with 4.5 percent fewer penalties at home, matching the Central Division. It might be a good time to rethink the hockey tradition of booing the referees as they come onto the ice and haven’t actually done anything yet. Statistically, they tend to side with the home team, especially in the Western Conference. I propose Kraken fans start cheering them on before the game.
The home crowd!
Enough with the numbers—the biggest X-factor in home-ice advantage is the hometown crowd. Nothing fires up a team more than thousands of fans erupting after a big goal, a crushing hit, or some good, old-fashioned fisticuffs at center ice. That energy feeds into the players, creating a momentum shift that can tilt a game. It’s a dopamine hit for the skaters, and the crowd knows it—fans do everything they can to will their team to victory.
This isn’t just superstition; players and coaches often talk about how a raucous home crowd provides an extra edge. It can be the difference between sluggish legs and an adrenaline-fueled surge late in a tight game. That’s why road teams have a strategy—either silence the crowd with an early goal or grind through the first 10 minutes without allowing one. Survive the opening wave, and the crowd might settle. But if the home team scores first? Expect an onslaught of momentum.
Of course, the flip side is also true—when a home team is trailing, and the crowd starts to quiet, that energy can fade. The best teams learn to ride the wave of home-ice advantage but also generate their own spark when things aren’t going their way.
Teams do have an advantage at home
Overall, the last change and shootout options come down to the coaching staff’s ability to capitalize on the slight advantages presented to their team. The Kraken have seen a 2.1 percent boost in their performance at home, making use of the home-ice advantage. In the penalty department, Seattle has 2.3 percent fewer penalties called on them at home than on the road. Both numbers are positive for playing at Climate Pledge Arena, but they fall short of the league averages of 5.5 percent for standings points and 3.2 percent for penalties.
While these boosts might seem modest, they do add up over the course of a season. There’s one more key factor that could tilt the scales for the Kraken, though: us—the fans.
What are your thoughts on home-ice advantage? Put them in the comments below.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
“Down on the Farm” is your weekly update on all things Seattle Kraken prospects. This week we have an injury update on forward Julius Miettinen. Then we’ll analyze how Seattle’s pool of skater prospects measures up against “the field” by getting you a mid-season top-168 list of all NHL-affiliated players in our Data Score metric.
After that, we’ll check in on Ryan Winterton and Victor Ostman, get you scouting video on Justin Janicke, update you with data from the last week, and preview the week ahead. As always, if you have a prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey. Let’s dig in.
[Jan. 31, 2025, 3:30 p.m. PT edit: The AHL announced on Friday afternoon that Jani Nyman was named to the AHL All-Star Game as a replacement for Cale Fleury, who has been recalled to the NHL. The All-Star festivities are Sunday and Monday in Coachella Valley. More information on that below.]
Julius Miettinen injury update
Miettinen has not returned to the lineup for the Everett Silvertips since the World Junior Championship. Suspecting he may have suffered an injury, I watched back the gold-medal game between Finland and the United States before last week’s prospect update to see if I could identify anything. Nothing immediately stood out; to the contrary, he was taking shifts late in the third period and into overtime.
Yet, it seems Miettinen was toughing it out because, according to reporting from our WHL reporter Cameron Riggers, Miettinen did suffer a lower-body injury. Miettinen is in a boot currently, and, while it seems he will avoid surgery, the timeline for recovery is still a couple months out. Miettinen is targeting a return for the WHL playoffs.
It’s a tough development for an ascendant prospect (The Athletic/paywall). With luck, Everett will have a long playoff run that allows Miettinen to recoup some of that lost playing time. We’ll keep an eye out for his return to the lineup.
Stacking Seattle Kraken among NHL-affiliated prospects
I have been asked to put the performance of Seattle’s prospect pool in context a bit more, and also update my explanation of the “Data Score” metric I’ve been providing with these prospects each week. So, I thought I’d address both questions by taking a mid-season look at the scoring production of all NHL-affiliated skaters and stacking them by Data Score. This will give us an insight on how Seattle’s prospects are producing relative to their peers.
“Data Score” is a crude metric I developed to compare prospects across ages, leagues, and positions. It starts by applying an NHL equivalency (“NHLe”) to each player’s per-game scoring results. NHLe is a method to compare the scoring proficiency of players in the various professional and junior leagues across the globe. I used Thibaud Chatel’s model, which is the most up-to-date public research in the area. Check out Chatel’s Substack for an in-depth discussion of NHLe. For this project, I used Chatel’s newest model, which has been updated to account for 2023-24 season data.
For this list, I used data for all NHL-affiliated players who have played at least 10 games outside the NHL during the 2024-25 season. I eliminated players if they had played more than 30 games in the NHL this season, viewing those players as outside the scope of the “prospects” we’d benefit from analyzing.
After applying the NHLe multiplier to each player’s per-game scoring, I then made modest adjustments for height (shorter players penalized), age (older players penalized), and position (forwards penalized relative to defensemen). These factors relate to the likelihood of translating the production to the NHL. A 6-foot-2 defenseman producing .5 points per game in the AHL at 19 years old is more likely to translate to the NHL than a 5-foot-10 forward with the same production at 25 years old.
From looking at these numbers over the last couple years, I’ve generally found that I view a prospect as having a noteworthy season if they clear the 40-point threshold in Data Score. As of Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, 168 NHL-affiliated prospects meeting our criteria had a Data Score of 40 or greater. Here is the list:
With 168 players listed, an “average” number of prospects per organization would be five. The Seattle Kraken are tied with the Calgary Flames for the most in the league with 11 players listed. The Flames have the slight edge in total value of the listed players as indicated by aggregate Data Score.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (SHL/HV71) continues to pace the Kraken in Data Score. It is clear this method prefers the relative certainty associated with players playing in professional leagues like the AHL, KHL, or SHL. This pushes some notable junior prospects farther down the list than one might expect. But I’m not sure Data Score is “wrong” in doing that if the goal is to project who is likely to play NHL games.
Finally, a word of caution. While it is fair to be encouraged by Seattle’s standing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the potential for confirmation bias in a scoring-data oriented study like this one. It is well-documented that the Kraken emphasize scoring data in the pre-draft process. It is unsurprising, then, that high-scoring junior players drafted by Seattle would continue to score in the junior ranks after they are drafted. Yet, some of these players “fall” in the draft relative to their scoring production for scouting reasons that led other teams to believe that scoring won’t translate at higher levels.
Consider the case of Clarke Caswell, for example. He fell to the fifth round last year despite posting more than a point per game in the WHL. This season Caswell has improved his scoring production even further, earning him a spot on the 168-prospect watchlist above. Will his scoring ultimately translate to the NHL? I tend to favor the view that scoring is the most reliable indicator we have, but that’s only relative to the alternative tools available; it’s far from infallible. Only time will tell.
Notes on three Kraken prospects
Justin Janicke | F | Univ. of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (NCAA)
The Kraken face a deadline of Aug. 15, 2025, to sign 2021 seventh-round pick Justin Janicke before losing his exclusive rights. The 6-foot forward has worked his way up the depth chart during four years at the University of Notre Dame, reaching the top line in this his senior season. His 24 points in 26 games rank second on the team. Check out his shifts from Notre Dame’s Jan. 10, 2025, game against the University of Michigan below.
Victor Östman | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
As part of the roster shuffling associated with Philipp Grubauer’s waiver, Seattle reassigned goalie Victor Östman from the ECHL to the AHL. With Grubauer and Nikke Kokko also in Coachella Valley it’s not yet clear that Östman will get time in net for the Firebirds. He may be insurance in the short run to allow Grubauer time to get his feet under him and acclimate. Still, it’s an “earned” promotion for Östman who posted two wins and a .958 save percentage this past week for the Mavericks and has been solid overall.
Ryan Winterton | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Ryan Winterton is yourSound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, with one goal and three assists across three games for Coachella Valley.
For a player so close to an NHL role, Winterton feels underestimated. At 6-foot-2 with strong skating skills and excellent athleticism, the physical tools are there. What’s more, his commitment to forechecking and backchecking will earn him the trust of any coaching staff, as will his ability to kill penalties and seize open ice in transition for counterattack goals.
Yet, there are two reasons Winterton isn’t discussed among a higher tier of prospects. The first is his injury history. He missed significant time during his junior career to injury (not to mention the COVID-related suspension of play). This delayed his development and likely raised some red flags for scouts. Yet, he has avoided injury setbacks since turning pro, racking up 85 total games between the NHL and AHL last season and 42 so far this year.
The second factor that has held him back is the perception that Winterton has limited upside, particularly offensively. He certainly doesn’t have the offensive ceiling of players like Shane Wright or Berkly Catton or even teammates Jani Nyman and Jagger Firkus; but, to my eyes, Winterton has proven adept at scoring off the rush and providing a support role in-zone that should drive results.
This is starting to show in the numbers. Winterton’s .765 point-per-game pace is only slightly behind Shane Wright’s .797 pace in the AHL last season. Of course, Winterton is older; he’s about 16 months older than Wright, to be exact. But when you account for the development time Winterton lost at the junior level, it’s not surprising he needed longer to get there offensively. I don’t envision Winterton as a stand-out offensive piece like Wright, but I do think we’re seeing a balanced, auxiliary-type player package with enough offense that should fit up and down an NHL lineup. That’s a very good prospect.
Kraken prospects data update
If Zeb Forsfjäll was dealing with an injury after the World Juniors, it appears it was not quite as severe as Miettinen’s injury. Forsfjäll returned to the lineup for his SHL club team Skellefteå on Thursday, playing 11 minutes.
“The show” goes on for Tyson Jugnauth, who had four points in two games last week. In contrast, Caden Price continues to struggle to find his offensive game since moving to Lethbridge in a trade. After scoring 1.2 points per game for the Kelowna Rockets, Price has only two assists in nine games so far with the Hurricanes.
Kim Saarinen continues to perform at the highest level of professional hockey in Finland. He posted a .938 save percentage in two starts this week. Saarinen is now tied for first in save percentage (.915) among all Liiga goaltenders. He’s 18 years old.
With Ales Stezka up in the NHL in the near term, I’m curious to see how the Firebirds split up time in goal given the many different agendas in play there.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Clarke Caswell: 2
Berkly Catton: 2
Tyson Jugnauth: 2
Alexis Bernier: 1
Andrei Loshko: 1
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1
Victor Östman: 1
Caden Price: 1
Kim Saarinen: 1
Nathan Villeneuve: 1
Ryan Winterton: 1
Semyon Vyazovoy: 1
Previewing the week ahead
If you have a FloHockey subscription to watch the Firebirds, you’ll also be able to watch Mølgaard this weekend, when his SHL team HV71 takes on Leksands IF at 9:00 a.m. PST on Saturday. Elsewhere, the Everett Silvertips and Kaden Hammell host the Spokane Chiefs and Berkly Catton on Saturday night. The Beanpot, an annual college hockey tournament among Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, and Northeastern University, kicks off on Monday. Harvard forward and Kraken prospect Ben MacDonald will take on Boston University that day.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds and Accrisure Arena will host the AHL All-Star Classic this weekend. The Skills Competition is Sunday, beginning at 6:00 pm PST. The All-Star Challenge (a four-team, 3-on-3, round-robin tournament) is Monday, beginning at 6:00 pm PST. Those events will be on FloHockey as well.
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.
And just like that, all is right again in the world.
Sure, the opponent was the worst team in the league and came into the contest having lost nine of its last 11. Plus, that same opponent was completely decimated by injuries to its already feeble roster. But we’ve also seen this Seattle Kraken team lower its effort against fellow bottom-dwelling teams this season (including twice against this same Sharks team).
Thankfully, the Kraken responded well after an emotional 48 hours, piled on four goals in the second period, and cruised to a stress-free 6-2 result, finally giving their fans something to cheer about.
Here are Three Takeaways from a Kraken Sharks brouhaha.
Takeaway #1: A strong response
The mood in the Kraken dressing room after morning skate on Thursday was downtrodden and serious, a departure from the usual tone of the gameday routine. Adam Larsson spoke extensively about how disappointed he was for his friend, Philipp Grubauer, who was placed on waivers Wednesday and sent to the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds.
There’s no doubt the players feel some responsibility for Grubauer’s struggles. On a more personal level, they also felt the absence of a key teammate who had been there just 24 hours earlier.
“If you look past the hockey side of things, it’s a friend that’s not here with us now,” Larsson said. “I mean, it’s tough for him, it’s tough for us, it’s tough for everyone.”
Added Bylsma: “Seeing a teammate and a friend and seeing a guy who was an original part of the Kraken, and seeing a guy you’ve had success with and seen him play good hockey, it’s a difficult thing for obviously Grubi, but the rest of the guys as well. This is ultimately a team game, and we all bear responsibility of the results of the team.”
So, with all that somber sentiment floating around the rink in the morning, I couldn’t help wondering if that would be representative of the way Seattle played in the evening.
But they channeled that emotion into a strong effort that showed they are not in the same echelon as San Jose, despite relative proximity in the standings and two past losses this season. Once they took control in the second period, momentum snowballed, and the Kraken ran away from the Sharks.
“It’s a great response,” Bylsma said after the game. “I thought we stepped over the boards tonight with a purpose, and it showed. It was a really good start and carried over for the whole 60. And just even how the game was played, it was played with emotion in it, and we played it with some passion.”
Takeaway #2: A monster second period
We’ve seen the Kraken get pushed around at times in the second period over the last month, but in this game, they were the ones doing the pushing during that frame. Oliver Bjorkstrand got the scoring train started, making it 2-1 at 2:03 of the second by capitalizing on a fortunate bounce off Chandler Stephenson’s leg and batting the puck into an open net.
Then, 51 seconds later, Brandon Montour broke his slump with his first of two goals on the night, breaking a 20-game goalless drought that dated back to Dec. 14.
BJORK-JAM AND BOMBTOUR! 💣 🎯 🚨 🚨
Two goals in 51 seconds for the #SeaKraken, one by Oliver Bjorkstrand and one by Brandon Montour.
“Any time you can score some goals and see them going in, it’s nice,” Montour said. “It’s been a little cold the last… I don’t even know, 15, 20 games. But you keep creating. You get in cold spells, you try to find other ways to help the team. I like where my game’s at, but it’s nice to get a couple.”
Jaden Schwartz also continued his scoring ways, finishing a breakaway chance through Yaroslav Askarov’s wickets after Jamie Oleksiak found him with a stretch pass when he came out of the penalty box, ending Askarov’s night. And, heck, the power play even came through on a 5-on-3 with a nice tic-tac-toe passing play between Jared McCann and Stephenson that ended with a big Montour blast.
BRANDON BOMB-TWO-ER! 🚨
Great setup on the 5-on-3 by Stephenson and McCann, and Brandon Montour blasts home his second of the night.
“It starts with a face-off win, making plays, getting shooters in the right spots,” Montour said. “And then, obviously, it’s 5-on-3, so spread them out, and good plays by everyone.”
Eeli Tolvanen capped off the scoring in the game by cutting to the slot and rifling a snapper past Alexandar Georgiev at 12:18 of the third, extending his goal-scoring streak to four games.
Takeaway #3: Fisticuffs
This game had more feistiness than I would have expected between two of the worst teams in the Pacific Division (although it is worth noting the Kraken jumped back ahead of the Ducks for sixth place after temporarily falling behind them).
It started in the first period when Luke Kunin blindsided Oleksiak in front of the Sharks bench, and Tye Kartye immediately responded with a questionable hit from behind on Kunin. San Jose didn’t like that hit, but with the game still close, everyone eventually went their separate ways.
Luke Kunin lays a crushing hit on Jamie Oleksiak. Tye Kartye retaliates, and some behind-the-play silliness ensues.
But in the second period, when the game had fully tilted Seattle’s way, there was no longer a need for maintaining the peace. Kunin was in the middle of it again, poking at Joey Daccord after he had covered the puck. Montour gave Kunin a jab, Kunin shoved back, and all hell broke loose, with the Sharks forward temporarily facing a 1-on-5 battle.
It ended with Vince Dunn giving Henry Thrun a thorough whoopin’.
FISTICUFFS! 🥊
One of the bigger brouhahas we’ve seen in a #SeaKraken game.
Starts with Kunin and Montour, ends with Vince Dunn feeding Henry Thrun his lunch. pic.twitter.com/CZPTJIrm3V
“I think, obviously, our home record just overall has never been good enough, and we want to make this place a hard place to play,” Dunn said. “So that comes with attitude, and sometimes things happen like that. So I think everyone just came out, battled hard. We know, obviously, the tough situation with [Grubauer], and they kind of come after our goalie a little bit there, so we’ve got to stand up for him.”
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.
That wasn’t the game we expected. In one of the most hyped games of the WHL season, a letdown ensued for the Everett Silvertips.
Plenty of future NHL talent was on display at Angel of the Winds Arena, but it was the Eastern Conference-leading Medicine Hat Tigers who came into Everett and blew the doors off the league-leading Silvertips, 7-3.
What could have been a preview of the WHL Finals saw both teams enter the game atop their respective conference standings. Everett, with 75 points, holds a 15-point lead over the next closest team and a nine-point lead over the Tigers despite the loss.
The main matchup of the evening, however, was that of Tigers winger Gavin McKenna, and Tips defenseman Landon DuPont, who are both pegged to be selected high atop their respective drafts, McKenna in 2026 and DuPont in 2027. McKenna is the league’s leader in assists with 58 and points with 83, while DuPont leads all WHL rookies with 35 assists and 46 points. This was their first-ever matchup, and DuPont was eager for the challenge.
“Knowing how skilled and fast he is, you just have to watch out,” DuPont said. “He’s a great player. He’s very skilled and makes some nice plays, so you’ve always just got to watch where he is. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
It would be McKenna, with a hat trick, an assist, and a goal where he took the puck away from DuPont, who would have the last laugh, however.
#WHL/#NHLDraft Gavin McKenna strips Landon DuPont of the puck and buries his 2nd of the night.
The first period took a while to get going. Neither team dominated shots or opportunities until Carter Bear scored 10 minutes in, extending his team lead to 33 goals on the season.
The Tigers turned up the pressure late in the period, though, flipping the game to 2-1 after the first with a pair of goals. Shots ended 11-9 in favor of the Tips.
In the second, McKenna added another goal, making it 3-1 with a cross-crease feed from Oasiz Wiesblatt. That goal extended his point streak to 24 games, and the Tigers’ physicality made it hard for the Tips to keep up.
89 DAYS – AND COUNTING.
The last time Gavin McKenna went pointless with the @tigershockey came nearly THREE months ago.
Dominik Rymon made it 3-2 early in the third, but former Seattle Thunderbird Bryce Pickford scored what would be the game-winner. The Tigers would add four unanswered goals, two of which came from McKenna, before the Tips got a garbage-time goal to finish 7-3.
Shots ended 30-22 in favor of the Tips, but many were low-percentage shots, which has been a recurring issue despite their top record. Everett couldn’t get much past Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin, who would wind up stopping 27 of 30 shots on the evening.
“We got a little bit steamrolled,” head coach Steve Hamilton said. “There were a couple stretches where things just got escalated and [the Tigers] capitalized. They had 22 shots and seven goals. That’s probably not very good [for us].”
Despite their lead over the Tigers in the standings, the Tips looked as though they may not be as battle-tested as other top teams. The Tigers were the better team in terms of physical play and quality offensive chances.
Hamilton acknowledged the strain down the middle, especially as Everett will continue to miss centers Austin Roest and Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen for an extended period.
“We’re on some lean times right now up the middle with our center situation,” Hamilton said. “Rust has come along for some guys, and it’s taxing.”
Hamilton isn’t concerned with the idea of facing the Tigers again in the finals if it comes to it. He’s focused on the short term and filling holes for now.
“We’re so far away from [possibly playing them again],” Hamilton said. “It’s one game. I’m not blowing it out of proportion. Collectively, though, it was not a very good effort. It was loose, and they capitalized.”
If you’re in the region and want to see McKenna before he likely turns pro two seasons from now, this Saturday, Feb. 1 in Kent might be your last chance, when the Tigers take on the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Header photo courtesy of Evan Morud, Everett Silvertips
The Seattle Kraken have finally pulled the plug on a difficult situation, placing their $5.9 million goalie, Philipp Grubauer, on waivers with the intention of assigning him to the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League.
The drastic move from Seattle’s front office comes the morning after Grubauer allowed five goals on 22 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which Jackson Lacombe’s squeaker from distance torpedoed Seattle’s hopes of winning a game it absolutely had to have.
What led to this?
It’s been a rough road for Grubauer with the Kraken ever since he signed a six-year contract as a free agent before Seattle’s inaugural 2021-22 season. Coming off a year in Colorado that resulted in him being named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, hopes were high that the now-33-year-old German netminder could backstop the fledgling franchise into relevance quickly.
But aside from some positive flashes here and there, the consistency was never there for Grubauer after his move to the Pacific Northwest, and he seemed to allow a stinker in almost every game he played.
When we asked coach Dan Bylsma after the loss to Anaheim on Tuesday if defensive breakdowns happen more frequently with Joey Daccord in net than with Grubauer, Bylsma gave a definitive, “No,” a damning reply on how he viewed his two netminders.
While we were hopeful there would be a bounce back from Grubauer this season, it has instead been the worst campaign of his career. At 5-15-1 with a 3.83 goals-against average and an .866 save percentage, Grubauer has statistically fallen into “worst goalie in the NHL” territory.
Shocking, yet predictable
I have witnesses who can confirm I asked the question aloud on Tuesday, “Is this the last time we’ll see Philipp Grubauer play at Climate Pledge Arena?” So, I’m not altogether surprised that this happened. The situation had become untenable, given that the highly paid netminder could not even be relied upon to help the Kraken manage the occasional back-to-back. And something felt different after the game Tuesday. It took Bylsma longer than usual to come out to address media, which may or may not have been related to this move, and for some reason, the defeat seemed to take on a greater significance than others.
Although winning is no longer all that important, since Seattle is in contention for a lottery pick in the next NHL Draft, the team still has to play the remaining 35 games on the schedule and be semi-competitive. Bylsma clearly didn’t feel comfortable using Grubauer anymore, as signified by Daccord appearing in 10 consecutive games before he finally got a full night off on Tuesday. So, I did accurately predict that the loss to Anaheim would be the final straw before this move was made.
Even so, thinking of the big picture, it is difficult to grasp that it came to this. When Grubauer was signed, I thought it was such a brilliant move by general manager Ron Francis. But for whatever reason, Grubauer just never found his game on a consistent enough basis with the Kraken, and the entire organization and its fanbase felt the impact of his continuous struggles.
Disappointing from a human perspective
I’m really bummed the Grubauer Era has played out this way. Aside from what happened on the ice, he is a good human who went far above and beyond the call of duty of a professional athlete to connect with the fanbase. Think about all the different types of outreach and marketing activations you’ve seen Grubauer participating in over the past four years. He didn’t have to do all that, but he did it to further ingrain himself in the local community and help the organization establish its roots.
He also quickly attached himself to the Pacific Northwest and made the area his true home. I remember interviewing him for an episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and asking him about that. He told me Seattle didn’t feel like his home; rather, it is his home.
Plus, I know he’s a better goalie than what he’s shown during much of his time here. I don’t know what went wrong on the ice, but some of the glimpses we saw were reminders of just how talented he is, including the dazzling glove save he made on Trevor Zegras on Tuesday.
And let’s not forget, his mother traveled all the way from Germany to see him play that game against the Ducks as part of the Kraken moms trip, and it could very well end up being the last game he plays in the NHL; I really hope that’s not the case.
Worth noting, Bylsma was on 93.3 KJR Wednesday and indicated this isn’t the end of the road for Grubauer with the Kraken, and that he can play his way back to the NHL club.
Financial implications and what’s next
One of the reasons Grubauer lasted this long on the NHL roster is because he is on a massive contract that runs for two more seasons after the current one. Assuming he clears waivers (he will), he will be expected to report to Coachella Valley. This does not mean that his full $5.9 million cap hit comes off Seattle’s books, though.
A team can only “bury” up to $1.15 million in the AHL, so the Kraken will likely still carry $4.75 million of Grubauer’s cap hit, and they will need to add in the dollars of Ales Stezka, who is on his way to Seattle to back up Daccord.
Bylsma said there wasn't going to be playing time available with schedule ahead and 4 Nations Face-Off break. Move of Grubauer to Coachella Valley gives him a chance to play to try and get his game back on track.
Also, barring some unforeseen circumstance like a trade or the team and Grubauer mutually agreeing to part ways (both unlikely), Seattle could end up buying out Grubauer’s contract after this season.
By buying him out, he will no longer be on the roster and will become a free agent after this season. However, Seattle will still carry a discounted cap hit of $1.983 million next season, then $3.083 million in 2026-27. The Kraken also get further penalized for the early buyout, as they will continue to have a cap hit for two more seasons after that (even though his contract ends after 2026-27) of $1.683 million in 2027-28 and 2028-29. (Buyout numbers come from Puckpedia.)
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 last 48 hours have been brutal for the Seattle Kraken and the few shreds of hope they had left for making the playoffs. The coach and the players had talked coming into this stretch—nine of their final 10 games at home before the 4 Nations Face-Off break—about how crucial it would be to get consistent results.
Things got off to a pretty good start, too, with wins against the Kings and the Sabres. But Seattle has lost three of its last four and was passed in the standings by the Anaheim Ducks with an embarrassing 6-4 defeat by that same feathered foe on Tuesday.
When you think about how this stretch has gone, you can realistically imagine the Kraken being back in the playoff conversation had things gone differently in the last two days. If they had capitalized on their strong start and golden opportunity to beat the superior Edmonton Oilers on Monday, and had gotten even a semblance of defense and goaltending against a weak Ducks team on Tuesday, they would be just four points behind the Calgary Flames for the last wild-card spot—with two games against those Flames coming in the next week.
Alas, the Kraken were dreadful in their own end against Anaheim and didn’t get bailed out by their netminder, and now they have gone the wrong direction, dropping to seventh place in the Pacific Division.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-4 Kraken loss to the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Bad defense
The Kraken had every opportunity to win this game. Even after things unraveled in the second period, with the Ducks torching Philipp Grubauer for three goals on six shots, it felt like Seattle still could come back from two goals down in the third with how equally bad Anaheim was in its zone. And the Kraken did come out hot in the third, cutting the deficit to 5-4 with a nice power-play goal by Shane Wright at 6:15.
But Lukas Dostal was just good enough, and Seattle was just docile enough to fall short of an equalizer.
Let’s talk about how the Kraken got themselves into that position, though, down two goals heading into the final frame. Three of the first four goals conceded came off wide-open one-timers, with the first—a Troy Terry banger—coming just 1:23 into the contest.
I personally thought the most egregious defensive lapse came on Robby Fabbri’s goal at 5:39 of the second. Vince Dunn, who has played a starring role on too many goals against lately, tried to make an ill-advised breakout pass through the slot to Wright. In doing so, he put it right onto the tape of the red-hot Mason McTavish, who also scored in the contest for his fifth goal in his last three games. In the blink of an eye, the play turned the other way, and Fabbri had made it 4-3.
…Aaaaaand 4-3 Ducks. Fabbri. Bad turnover by Vince Dunn.
Brandon Montour said, “Every time we make a mistake, it seems like it’s in the back of the net, or our goalies have to make a big-time save. Any time you let up five, six goals, it’s tough to win those games.”
Takeaway #2: Bad goaltending
Hey, at least Philipp Grubauer got all the way through this game without getting pulled (although he may have been yanked yet again if the circumstances were different). The last time Grubauer had finished a game before Tuesday was in a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 6. Since then, he started twice—once in Columbus and once in Detroit—getting an early hook from both after allowing four goals in the second period against the Blue Jackets and three goals on four shots against the Red Wings.
There was a lot of discussion about Grubauer with Seattle coach Dan Bylsma both before and after this Ducks matchup. In his pregame availability, Bylsma defended the netminder’s most recent outings, saying that the Detroit game was not on him and that his getting pulled was more of a statement to the team than to Grubauer.
After this Kraken loss to the Ducks, Bylsma said, “We hung him out to dry. The first three goals are all seams, one-timers. It was great to see him get the [sprawling glove] save in the first period on the penalty kill [against Trevor Zegras]. It’s a huge, huge sequence for us, huge sequence for him. He made an outstanding save for us, and that one should have snapped us into the game.”
BUT… but… For as good as that stop was, Jackson Lacombe’s goal to make it 5-3 at 7:58 of the second was equally bad, and that one proved to be the eventual game-winner.
At the end of the night, Grubauer had 17 saves on 22 shots, but Lacombe’s fateful innocuous-looking wrister from just inside the blue line that beat the goalie clean (I know, there was a partial screen from Josh Mahura) was Anaheim’s 12th shot of the game. So his final save percentage of .772 was actually a significant improvement from the .583 he had put up through the first half of this game.
It’s worth noting, I followed up on Bylsma’s “We hung him out to dry” statement by asking if the coach thinks those defensive breakdowns happen disproportionately more when Grubauer is in the game compared to Daccord.
Bylsma responded to that question with one word: “No.”
Without saying much, that response says a lot about how Bylsma views his team’s goaltending.
Takeaway #3: Kraken loss to Ducks felt oddly significant
There’s something about losing to fellow bottom-dwelling teams like the Sharks and Ducks that feels even more significant than the many losses this season to middling and good teams.
Postgame moods in the dressing room vary; sometimes the players and coach remain level-headed about defeats, perhaps recognizing that hockey is a chaotic game and that putting forth a strong effort can still end in a loss.
After this one, Montour, Eeli Tolvanen (who scored for the third game in a row, by the way), and Bylsma all seemed downright pissed to not get a result. The usually affable Montour repeated himself several times, reverting back to words and phrases like “awareness” and “clean some stuff up.” When I asked Tolvanen what led to the defensive breakdowns, he responded with a terse, “I really don’t know.”
Hear from Eeli Tolvanen on the sting of these two straight losses and what led to the defensive breakdowns tonight. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/2ffYpumEi7
Finally, when Bylsma was asked about the pain of this particular loss, he said, “Well, it’s the one in the moment, so it hurts a lot… The whole duration of the game, I think, we knew we needed to make it a hard game. We knew we needed to grind one out, back-to-back, and we just played too loose with our execution, too loose with the puck, and created a rush game, a high-event game. That was one we knew we’d have a tough time winning, and so that is the biggest disappointment.”
This was a bad 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.
