Mathematically, there have been worse weeks in the Kraken’s brief franchise history, but when the schedule was released, this week stood out as a prime opportunity to pick up points, with four games against teams expected to be bottom feeders. Last week, I cautioned everyone not to underestimate the Sharks or the Ducks. Earning four out of a possible eight points would have been acceptable, though not ideal. Instead, the Seattle Kraken managed just two points from those four games, with a come-from-behind win against the Ducks on Monday as their only victory.
There were signs all along
One issue I highlighted early in the season is the Kraken’s tendency to allow the first goal. They lead the league in this category, trailing first in 68 percent of their games. They’ve won just five of the 17 games in which they’ve fallen behind early. Over the past week, they allowed the first goal in all three of their losses. It’s not just the goals; from the start of each game this week, the team seemed in trouble, struggling to find its rhythm.
As rough as that performance was, we might excuse giving up the first goal in the game against San Jose on Friday, which started at 12:30pm. However, even before the Sharks scored first again on Saturday night, the Kraken looked disorganized and unprepared. We’ve seen similar sluggish starts in wins against Columbus, Chicago, and Nashville. Both the coach and players are aware of this issue, yet they continue to struggle with starting on time. Hopefully, these somewhat embarrassing losses will serve as a wake-up call for the team to play with the urgency we’ve seen when they’re trailing.
They are (supposed to be) better than this
We know the Kraken made significant upgrades from last season with the signings of Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour, yet so far, the team is on the same pace as last year. The injuries to Vince Dunn and Jordan Eberle have contributed to this underwhelming start, but they faced their share of injuries last season, too. I’ve struggled to pinpoint the root cause this season. Adjustments to a new coach and new players take time, but we’re now more than a quarter of the way through the season, and the Kraken look worse than ever.
Even the best teams go through rough patches, but having already endured two so early in the season is concerning. Although they’re only five points out of a playoff spot, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to believe this team has a realistic chance.
Other musings
Friday’s game against the Sharks was Philipp Grubauer’s worst performance as a Kraken. However, playing in a 12:30 PM game after a 10-day break didn’t help his cause. Like it or not, the team needs him to play more frequently; otherwise, Joey Daccord will become worn out, which has already started to show in recent games.
One positive from the past week was the effectiveness of the line combination featuring Shane Wright, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Eeli Tolvanen. Dan Bylsma broke up this line on Saturday due to Chandler Stephenson’s illness, but hopefully they reconnect for more success on this road trip.
With his two power-play goals on Wednesday night, Shane Wright now has as many goals this season as Matty Beniers.
The Kraken scored three “response goals” over the two games: two on Friday in San Jose and one on Saturday night, which came just 32 seconds after the Sharks extended their lead to 4-0. While response goals are encouraging to see, they ideally shouldn’t come after giving the opposition a four-goal lead.
The goalie interference call with seven seconds left in Saturday’s game was incredibly frustrating. I generally avoid complaining about interference reviews, but this season has been wildly inconsistent.
The review of that goal took three and a half minutes. While it likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, it killed any excitement the fans were feeling. More importantly, it negated a Filson Final Minute goal just in time for holiday shopping. Thanks for nothing, NHL.
On a related note, if the league truly wants to eliminate head shots from the game, they should also issue suspensions for players who punch an unengaged opponent in the head. I’ve believed this for a long time, even before Ross Johnston’s punches on Tye Kartye in Wednesday’s game against Anaheim.
One thing that stood out during the games against the Ducks and Sharks was the youth of those teams compared to the Kraken. Anaheim has 12 players on its roster who were drafted since 2017, while the Sharks have 11. In contrast, the Kraken have just five, which is understandable given they’ve only been drafting since 2021. However, it’s a stark reminder that the Kraken won’t have a fully developed young core for a few more seasons.
One encouraging sign for the Kraken is their recent increase in shot attempts. Over the last four games, they have averaged 75 shot attempts per game, compared to just 58 in their first 21 games. They even recorded a season-high 84 shot attempts during their home losses to the Sharks and Ducks.
Kraken prospects Berkly Catton, Carson Rehkopf, and Caden Price have all been named to the World Junior camp roster for Team Canada. Barring any injury, Catton and Rehkopf are locks to make the final team with Price having an outside shot of landing on the roster.
In case you missed it, the Kelowna Rockets have been named the host for the 2026 Memorial Cup, beating out several other candidates, including Spokane. It would be great to see the Memorial Cup return to a U.S. host city someday.
Goal of the week
Seattle Kraken prospect Berkly Catton scored a nasty goal from a tough angle in the Spokane Chiefs’ win on Sunday.
The Spokane Chiefs have quietly won six games in a row and eight of their last 10. During that span, Berkly Catton has recorded 21 points.
Player performances
Jakub Fibigr (SEA/BRA): The Kraken’s seventh-round selection from the 2024 NHL Entry Draft recorded four assists in a single game for the Brampton Steelheads of the OHL. He is a dark horse to make the Czechia World Junior team this year but will likely have a stronger chance next year.
Oliver Bjorkstrand (SEA): Bjorkstrand enters Tuesday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes on a five-game point streak.
Shane Wright (SEA): Since being a healthy scratch for three games, Wright has tallied three goals and two assists in his last four outings. It would be great to see him maintain this momentum for an extended period.
WRIGHT AS RAIN AGAIN! 🚨
TWO power-play goals, both by Shane Wright, and this one comes off a beautiful pass by Stephenson.
On paper, this upcoming road trip looks like the most challenging of the season. The Kraken begin with a Tuesday game against the Hurricanes, followed by back-to-back matchups against the Islanders on Thursday and the Devils on Friday. They will close out the trip with a game against the New York Rangers on Sunday.
If there’s any consolation, none of these four teams are currently playing their best hockey. This could be an opportune time for the Kraken to face them, as these teams have a collective record of 18-18-4 over their last 10 games.
Normally, earning 50 percent of the available points during a stretch like this would be acceptable. However, if the Kraken want to avoid settling into the mushy middle of the standings, they need to steal some games they aren’t projected to win. Wouldn’t it be something if they struggled against the Sharks and Ducks, but then managed to beat teams like the Hurricanes and Devils?
Whoa. That was two very bad days of no-good, rotten hockey from the Seattle Kraken. For months, we viewed this latest four-game stretch of the schedule as a chance for them to make hay against two bad teams and perhaps snag a playoff position—just in time for a gauntlet of tough opponents that runs through most of December.
At Sound Of Hockey, we figured that with the Kraken playing two of the NHL’s worst teams for four consecutive games, they needed to rack up at least six standings points to feel like they had taken care of business. Realistically, they should have earned all eight. Seattle managed just two points out of the four games.
Two. Lousy. Points.
The Kraken capped it off by getting swept by the Sharks, who hung 12 goals on Seattle—the most San Jose has scored in any two-game stretch since 2021.
I’m an optimist to a fault, but even I am struggling to find optimism about this team right now. The vibes are bad.
Here are Three Takeaways from a miserable weekend of hockey, in which the Kraken lost 8-5 at San Jose on Friday and 4-2 at home to those same Sharks on Saturday.
Takeaway #1: The goaltending has taken a nosedive
One bright spot for much of this season has been Seattle’s goaltending, led by Joey Daccord, who has been stellar most nights. Kudos to John Barr, who sounded the alarm on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast, saying he was worried the Kraken were leaning on Daccord too heavily and that overuse could lead to cracks in his play.
Indeed, Joey’s last two outings—against Anaheim on Wednesday and San Jose on Saturday—were statistically his two worst of the season, with save percentages of .848 and .826, respectively.
But what choice does coach Dan Bylsma have other than to keep leaning on Daccord? He tried giving Daccord a rest during the first game of the back-to-backs, and Philipp Grubauer had perhaps his worst outing ever as a Kraken, allowing seven goals on 26 shots for a dismal .731 save percentage.
My regular readers and listeners know I empathize with goaltenders because I am one. I’ve probably felt something similar to what Grubi felt on Friday: one of those dreaded nights where it seems like you can’t stop anything. This was evident in Ethan Cardwell’s first career goal—San Jose’s seventh of the game—where Grubauer flat-out whiffed on an easy glove save.
I recognize that the “full-time backup” role is new to Grubauer, but if he’s not going to demand the starter role, he needs to learn how to be reliable as the second-stringer. At this point, the only way he ever gets back to being a full-time starter is by playing outstanding hockey as the backup. If the Kraken can’t even rely on him to take one game of a back-to-back against arguably the worst team in the league… Well, I just don’t know.
After that performance, Grubauer is now 1-7-0 on the season, with a .862 save percentage and a 3.62 goals-against average—both the worst of his 13-year NHL career.
I don’t want to make it seem like Seattle’s issues revolve solely around goaltending, because that’s definitely not the case. While the Kraken generated plenty of shots on Saturday, they were outplayed by a confident Sharks team for the first half of the game. By the time they woke up, they were staring at an insurmountable 4-0 deficit.
Still, there’s something to be said for how confident a team looks when its goalies are playing well. When the goalies are sharp, the skaters play looser and freer than they did this week. As Jared McCann said after Saturday’s game, “We turn the puck over, and it just always seems to go in the back of our net.”
Takeaway #2: Vince Dunn in, Chandler Stephenson out
When it became clear on Saturday that Vince Dunn—who had missed 19 games with a “mid-body” injury—was set to return, I regained a smidgeon of hope that this team might begin to find its form soon. After all, as Blaiz Grubic pointed out on this very website last week, Seattle has historically been a much better team with Dunn in the lineup than without him.
I’m still somewhat hopeful (more on that in Takeaway #3) that this will prove true and that the ship can be righted soon. After all, we’ve only seen Dunn and Brandon Montour together in the lineup for five total games, including Saturday.
Dunn looked solid in his first game since Oct. 17, logging a whopping 26:15 of ice time—the most he’s played in a game this season. He also spent time on the power play with Montour, an intriguing look with two defensemen, although that really didn’t seem to work. Dunn and Montour also shared a few shifts at 5-on-5 when Seattle was trying to rally.
“I thought I felt pretty good,” Dunn said. “Honestly, my legs were good, my execution was pretty good. I think, obviously, missing six weeks is a long time. It goes by pretty slowly, but I thought it was ok for the most part.”
Dunn’s return is a positive step, but it feels like just a drop in the bucket for a team that has looked broken in its last three games.
While one key player returned to the lineup, another exited Saturday, as Chandler Stephenson missed the contest due to illness. He was replaced by Mitchell Stephens, who looked solid in his Kraken debut and helped create some energy with the fourth line.
The Stephenson illness concerns me slightly, given last season’s experience when a bug swept through the team during an East Coast road trip and largely derailed the season. The team heads out on a similar East Coast road trip Sunday, so hopefully the guys are getting plenty of Vitamin C.
Takeaway #3: Vibes are bad
As I mentioned earlier, I’m usually an optimist. But this is a rough, rough moment for the Kraken. They needed points this last week because now they’re headed on a historically tough road trip. And when they return from facing Carolina and the three New York/New Jersey teams, they’ll face the Panthers, Bruins, and Lightning at home. If the Kraken don’t find themselves quickly, they could effectively put themselves out of the playoff race in a few weeks.
I asked Bylsma how he plans to rebuild his team’s confidence during this difficult stretch. He said:
“I think you look at the schedule a lot of different ways. But when you look at the schedule, and you say, ‘This is a team we may believe we can have, or should have success against,’ it changes your mindset a little bit. I think I welcome the difficult opponents because that will help us change our mindset a little bit and understand how we need to play to have success in the game.”
So, there’s that.
Thankfully, the Kraken have a full practice scheduled for Monday in Carolina before kicking off their four-game swing against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.
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.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” a weekly update on Seattle Kraken prospects. This holiday week we’ll have just a quick look at the week that was for the Kraken prospect pool, before returning to our full column next week. I hope everyone had a happy and restful Thanksgiving.
Notes on three Kraken prospects
Ryan Winterton
Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL) | F | 21 years old | 16 games played | 7 goals | 8 assists | 0.94 PPG
With Shane Wright re-entering the Kraken lineup this week, Seattle’s need for an extra center diminished, and the team returned Ben Meyers to Coachella Valley. In his place, the team recalled Winterton on Thursday, who has earned another NHL look after a strong week (two goals and two assists in three Firebirds contests). Winterton is currently third in the system in “Data Score,” my age-, position-, size-, and league-adjusted scoring performance metric, behind only Eduard Sale and Oscar Fisker Mølgaard. Winterton is replacing Daniel Sprong in Seattle’s lineup Friday afternoon against San Jose. We will see how long Winterton sticks around.
Jani Nyman
Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL) | F | 20 years old | 16 games played | 5 goals | 3 assists | 0.5 PPG
Nyman’s transition to North American hockey remains a work in progress. I believe we are starting to see modest gains in his skating and North American hockey instincts, but there is still developmental road left. Encouragingly, though, Nyman is starting to find ways to deploy his heavy shot. After a couple greasy goals got him on the scoresheet to start the year, the 20-year-old Finn connected on both a one-timer and a heavy wrister over the last seven days. We saw a lot of this from him in Liiga last year and hopefully it’s a harbinger of more to come for Nyman.
St. Cloud State Univ. (NCAA) | F | 20 years old | 13 games played | 2 goals | 10 assists | 0.92 PPG
Barrett Hall’s two goals and 10 assists across 13 games has him tied for the St. Cloud State team lead in scoring. Hall, 20, has obvious skill with the puck on his stick, but to date, he has not been able to put it all together in the higher amateur ranks to lead a team. If he is finally turning a corner, he’s a sleeper to watch moving forward.
Kraken prospect data update
Berkly Catton scored or assisted on eight of 15 Spokane Chiefs goals over the last seven days. His two goals and six assists led Spokane to a 3-0 record since our last check-in and earns him Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
Two important veterans found their footing for the Firebirds this week. Mitchell Stephens, 27, had been a productive AHL forward in recent years and even earned 23 NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens during the 2023-24 season. Even so, he was held scoreless in his first nine Firebirds games and missed a few more due to injury. Finally, the dam broke for Stephens this week. He scored three goals and added an assist in Coachella Valley’s last two games.
Similarly, defenseman Nikolas Brouillard, 29, struggled to find the scoresheet to begin the year. Brouillard had amassed at least 36 points in each of his three previous AHL campaigns, but had only one point (an assist) through 12 Firebirds games to begin this year. Like Stephens, though, Brouillard broke out this week with one goal and four assists in his last two games.
Nikke Kokko drew two of three starts for the Firebirds over the last seven days. Coachella Valley has still earned at least a point in each of his starts, though Kokko did finally pick up his first loss (in overtime) this week.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Clarke Caswell: 2
Berkly Catton: 2
Alexis Bernier: 1
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1
Caden Price: 1
Previewing the week ahead
Catton and the Chiefs welcome Tyson Jugnauth and the Portland Winterhawks to Spokane for a two-game set this weekend. In the AHL, the Firebirds are in a playoff spot right now. The Firebirds could continue to improve their standings position as their home slate picks up with three games in Palm Desert over the next seven days.
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.
That game didn’t have to end up being gross… but it was gross for the Seattle Kraken, who fell behind early, rallied back, and then collapsed into Thanksgiving with a 5-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on home ice.
In a stretch of hockey where the Kraken should really be winning every game and taking every available point, Seattle split its home-and-home series with the Ducks, leaving a sour taste for the boisterous pre-holiday crowd at Climate Pledge Arena.
While Seattle remains very much in the playoff hunt, Thanksgiving is traditionally a benchmark for predicting which teams will make the postseason. The Kraken are barely on the outside looking in. It’s worth noting that they were barely inside the playoff bubble at this time last season—and ended up missing the postseason by a wide margin.
Here are Three Takeaways from an uninspiring 5-2 Kraken loss to the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: We want leftovers, not turnovers
By my count, three of Anaheim’s five goals came directly off Kraken turnovers in their own zone.
Frank Vatrano’s ice-breaking goal at 8:23 of the first period happened after Chandler Stephenson picked up a loose puck along the wall and tried to shovel a backhand breakout pass to Jamie Oleksiak, who was unusually high in the zone. But the pass went behind Oleksiak and right onto the stick of Troy Terry. Terry’s initial shot got broken up by Brandon Montour but rolled to Vatrano, who scored with a spin-o-rama.
Ducks score first. Frank Vatrano with his second in as many games against the #SeaKraken, spinning and sliding it past Daccord’s skate. Started with a Stephenson pizza. 🍕
The next hot pizza pie delivery was a team effort between Brandon Tanev and Adam Larsson and came at a brutal time—just one minute after the Kraken had battled back to erase a 2-0 deficit.
Tanev tried a no-look breakout pass to Yanni Gourde but found Pavel Mintyukov instead. Larsson had a chance to bail out Tanev but took too long to make a decision with the puck and handed it to Trevor Zegras below the goal line. In a flash, Zegras found Alex Killorn, and the puck was in Seattle’s net at 10:02 of the second period.
D’oh! Alex Killorn responds. Sloppy shift by the #SeaKraken. Zegras gets the steal, Killorn gets the goal.
That goal made it 3-2 and became the eventual game winner.
The real backbreaker came when Jared McCann grabbed a rebound on the penalty kill and blindly tried to throw it out of the zone. Mintyukov knocked it down, found Cutter Gauthier, and Gauthier restored the two-goal lead with 37 seconds left in the second period, an absolutely devastating time to concede a goal.
Oof. #SeaKraken give up a power-play goal at an inopportune moment in the game, with 38 seconds left in the 2nd.
Jared McCann had a chance to clear but didn’t get it out. Cutter Gauthier got the goal.
McCann was trying to clear the puck quickly and was under duress deep in Seattle’s end, but if he had just gotten his head up first, that puck would have been out of harm’s way.
Heck, even Zegras’ goal, which made it 5-2, stemmed from a Matty Beniers turnover although that one at least happened in the offensive zone, so Seattle should have had time to recover.
Regardless, it is safe to say that turnovers cost the Kraken this game.
“Yeah, I think that says it all,” Oliver Bjorkstrand said when I asked him about the three goals coming off D-zone blunders. “We’ve just got to bear down, make the right plays, get it out. I can’t go through the plays and what the mistakes were, but if we turn it over, just find a way to get over the blue or make a better play depending on the situation.”
When I asked Bylsma why he thought Seattle was turning the puck over like that, he said, “[Anaheim] certainly played a little harder [than last game]. I thought they—especially early on in the game—they had their D being more aggressive down the wall. But the execution points that you’re talking about were solely on us.”
Takeaway #2: Not Joey’s night
One luxury Kraken fans have enjoyed this season is watching Joey Daccord win the goaltending battle in nearly every game he’s played. In this one, however, John Gibson outshone Daccord, stopping 42 Kraken shots and posting 2.67 goals saved above expected. Gibson was stellar and remains undefeated in regulation this season, 4-0-1 through five starts.
For Daccord, his .848 save percentage in this game was his lowest of the season, and the five goals against marked the first time he allowed more than four.
I’ve long maintained that five players need to make a mistake before the puck even gets to the goalie, and as noted in Takeaway #1, the mistakes were plentiful. But Daccord has had a knack for bailing out his teammates after their most egregious errors this season, and he didn’t do that as often in this game.
Four of Anaheim’s five goals came off uncomfortable situations for Daccord, from Vatrano’s screened spin-around shot to Killorn’s quick-strike one-timer to Gauthier’s power-play screen to Zegras’ midair swipe.
The lone questionable goal was Brett Leason’s, which came on a 1-on-1 rush against Josh Mahura at 12:43 of the first. It seemed like a nothing play, but the puck launched off Leason’s stick and squeezed under Daccord’s arm. There was something weird about the shot, though. From above, it looked like Leason was going glove side, but the puck somehow went the other way. Either Leason has an extremely deceptive shot, or it ramped off Mahura’s stick.
Regardless, this is a game Daccord—who has been so dominant this season—will want to put behind him.
Seattle has been pushing Joey really hard, so it’s time to give him a game off, which he will surely get in one of the upcoming two against San Jose.
Takeaway #3: The Tolvanen / Wright / Bjorkstrand line was good
I was tempted to write about Seattle’s power play for Takeaway #3—it went 0-for-5 in this game and is now 0 for its last 20—but I can’t send you into arguably the best holiday of the year on all negative Takeaways. Instead, let’s highlight the strong performance of the Eeli Tolvanen/Shane Wright/Oliver Bjorkstrand line.
Remember, two of those three players have been publicly in Bylsma’s doghouse this season, with both Wright and Bjorkstrand receiving healthy scratches. But this game was one of the trio’s better outings.
Tolvanen’s goal came during a line change, so it was actually assisted by Gourde and Tanev, but he also helped create Bjorkstrand’s goal with hard forechecking on Olen Zellweger. Zellweger coughed up the puck to Wright, who found Bjorkstrand in the slot on a textbook example of how to pressure a defender into a mistake.
When I asked Tolvanen about the challenges this line has faced this season, he said, “It’s tough to say. I feel like [we’ve had] sloppy play. The confidence probably hasn’t been the highest, and if you don’t have confidence, it’s hard to play the game. I think we just have to build the confidence on the little things, and take pride in the forecheck and be the line that we can be.”
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.
At the end of the second period in a 3-2 Seattle Kraken win over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, forwards Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev stood at center ice and barked at the Ducks’ bench. Tensions had boiled over after winger Tye Kartye laid a heavy-but-clean hit (he did get penalized two minutes for interference, but that was a bogus call) on budding star forward Leo Carlsson.
Carlsson, 19, went flying and slammed into the goalpost, appearing to hit his head on the ice as he fell. I’m not convinced the official even saw the hit, but with Carlsson down on the ice and the home crowd reacting in outrage, a striped arm was lifted in the air. As Carlsson was attended to by Anaheim’s medical staff, a brouhaha occurred, with Ducks captain Radko Gudas going after Kartye and challenging him to fight.
Tye Kartye with a 100% clean hit on Leo Carlsson, but he goes into the post and hits his head on the ice. Good to see him skate off on his own power after that.
Radko Gudas goes after Kartye in a big-time mismatch, and shenanigans ensue.
“Obviously, it was unfortunate he got hurt,” Kartye said. “And I think that’s kind of what drew the crowd, but obviously, I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I was just trying to finish my check, and it’s just unfortunate that he ran into the post there.”
Kartye did well to keep Gudas in close and not allow him to land any major blows. That incident didn’t seem to satiate the Ducks’ thirst for revenge, though, and in the third period, they came out and took several runs at Kartye while Seattle quickly turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead and eventual victory.
“I think when one of your best players goes down, I think any team is going to react like that,” Kartye said. “I fully expected that when he got hurt, and I mean, that’s just kind of how the game goes.”
Coach Dan Bylsma thought the reaction from Anaheim played into Seattle’s favor in the game, with Andre Burakovsky and Brandon Montour scoring at 46 seconds and 1:10 of the third period, respectively, to turn the game.
“I think their mindset changed a little bit, and I think that was a good thing for us. Just use it against…” Bylsma cut himself off before finishing that last sentence. “That’s all I’ll say.”
Emotions could run high Wednesday
In an interesting scheduling twist, the Kraken and Ducks are now set to face each other again on Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena, and the Ducks will not have Carlsson in their lineup. Bylsma said he would not be surprised if tensions remain elevated for the rematch.
“I think the game should be played with emotion,” Bylsma said. “I think the sequence at the end of the second period drew us into the game a little bit, and that’s a good thing.”
Seattle maintained composure and skated away from shenanigans in the third on Monday and may be tested to do so again on Wednesday.
“We need to play with [the emotion], I’ll say, play on the edge and respect the edges at the same time, not cross the line and get involved in the extracurricular activities,” Bylsma said. “But playing on that edge is where we need to play.”
On whether he expects carryover Wednesday, Kartye said, “I hope not. We’ve got a game to worry about, but obviously, anything can happen.”
Vince Dunn getting closer
Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn is nearing a return from long-term injured reserve. In fact, for a fleeting moment on Wednesday, I wondered if Seattle would be slotting him in against the Ducks. But Ryker Evans continued to man the second power play, and Dunn stayed out late after his teammates left the ice, indicating he will not be playing Wednesday.
Still, being a full participant and rotating in for line rushes is an undeniable sign that—assuming no setbacks—Dunn will be back within the next few games.
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.
Seattle Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn has been on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) since Oct. 17. During a Kraken Hockey Network broadcast on Nov. 8, general manager Ron Francis joined the pregame show and provided an update on Dunn’s recovery timeline.
GM Ron Francis just joined us on KHN pregame and told us that the hope is Vince Dunn can begin basic skating around Sunday but he’s likely three weeks away from returning. #SeaKraken
Three weeks is a long time in the NHL. If Dunn’s recovery stays on schedule, he could return around Nov. 29, when the Kraken travel to San Jose to face the Sharks or perhaps a few days later when the Kraken head out on their East Coast road trip. Encouragingly, Dunn has joined the team on its current Southern California road trip to participate in practices.
Dan Bylsma says there’s news coming later today on Jordan Eberle.
While it’s not 100 percent clear when Dunn will return to game action, he seems to be inching closer—some time in the next week is a real possibility. The Kraken have upcoming games on Nov. 27, 29, and 30, then have a couple days off before heading to Carolina on Dec. 3.
Kraken without Vince Dunn
Dunn is in his fourth season with the Kraken, and as of Nov. 26 has missed 51 games and counting. The Kraken’s record during these 51 games is 16-31-4 for a .353 points percentage. Not good.
In the Kraken’s first three seasons, Dunn missed 33 games, and the Kraken had a record of 8-22-3 for a dismal points percentage of .288 in his absence. Looking at the last-place teams in the NHL standings over the last 10 years, only two teams had a lower points percentage during the course of a full season than what the Kraken have had with Dunn out of the lineup. The 2023-24 San Jose Sharks had a .287 points percentage, and the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings managed a measly .275.
Data disclaimer
Most data below includes seasons where Dunn missed multiple games, specifically 2021-22, 2023-24, and the current 2024-25 season. Data from the 2022-23 season is excluded because Dunn played 81 games, missing only one. Interestingly, the Kraken won that game 4-1 against the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes. Coincidence or not, that season marked their best performance and only playoff appearance to date. Any references to 2022-23 data will be specifically noted.
Impact on goal scoring
Let’s examine how the Kraken’s goal production has fared with and without Dunn in the lineup.
The key takeaway from the chart is clear: the Kraken score more goals per game when Dunn is on the ice. As a puck-moving defenseman and a power play quarterback, Dunn significantly boosts offensive production. His ability to transition the puck and create scoring opportunities is difficult to replicate, so the drop in goal scoring during his absence is hardly surprising. It should be noted that Dunn has only played in four games during the 2024-25, so the five goals per game is not sustainable.
A defenseman of Dunn’s caliber isn’t easily replaced, and although Seattle added another puck mover in Brandon Montour in the offseason, these numbers underline just how valuable Dunn is to the Kraken’s success.
Boost to points percentage
What surprised me most was how consistently Dunn has elevated the Kraken’s points percentage—and how this impact has grown during his tenure in Seattle.
The Kraken take the ice
In their inaugural season, the difference in points percentage was .140. During that year, Dunn rotated through several defensive pairings, partnering with former Kraken defensemen Jeremy Lauzon, Carson Soucy, and Mark Giordano. However, he eventually found his ideal linemate: Adam Larsson. By season’s end, Dunn and Larsson had solidified a pairing that remains the Kraken’s defensive backbone.
The playoff year
Although not included in the chart above, the 2022-23 season offers compelling context. That year, the Kraken had their best season yet, finishing with a .610 points percentage and 100 points—good enough to make the playoffs. Two key factors underscore Dunn’s value during this standout season:
Durability and Performance: Dunn played a career-high 81 games, logging career bests in average ice time (23:40) and points (64).
Dominant Pairing: Dunn and Larsson spent an NHL-leading 1,369 minutes and 22 seconds together at 5-on-5 (per Natural Stat Trick). Their chemistry and consistency provided the foundation for the Kraken’s success.
A step back
In the 2023-24 season, the Kraken took a step back from their impressive 2022-23 campaign but still showed improvement over their inaugural year. Dunn missed 23 games—his highest total as a Kraken. The difference in points percentage between games with and without Dunn was a striking .264.
If you apply this delta to the games Dunn missed, the Kraken could have earned an additional 12 points, bringing their season total to 93 points. While that wouldn’t have been enough for a playoff spot last season, over the past 10 full NHL seasons, 93 points would have secured a postseason berth 60 percent of the time.
The current season
This season, Dunn has only played four games, so the data is limited. Still, the trend remains consistent: the points percentage delta with and without Dunn is .278.
Notably, the Kraken’s points percentage without Dunn sits at .472—while not playoff-caliber, it’s their best performance without him to date (excluding the one-game absence in 2022-23). This suggests the rest of the team is improving as well.
New defensemen in Seattle
The 2024-25 season brought changes to the Kraken’s defensive corps, with Montour joining the team and making an immediate impact. As of Nov. 26, Montour ranks second in the NHL for goals scored by defensemen with seven—trailing only the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar (Booooo!). Montour has also tallied 15 points, putting him on pace for 58 this season, which would be the second-best mark of his career.
Injuries are always tough, but they create opportunities. Ryker Evans has stepped into Dunn’s spot alongside Adam Larsson and performed admirably. As of Nov. 26, the young blueliner has 13 points, ranking 22nd among NHL defensemen. 11 of those points have come at even strength, a promising sign, although he has just two points on the power play. While Evans is gaining valuable experience with the man advantage, expect Dunn and Montour to assume primary power play duties once Dunn returns.
Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans
Josh Mahura
Josh Mahura rounds out the new defensive additions. It took a few games for him and Will Borgen to build chemistry, but they’ve settled into a solid third-pairing duo. While plus/minus isn’t always a reliable stat, Mahura’s +1 rating reflects steady performance. The coaching staff has managed Mahura’s matchups carefully, deploying him on-the-fly for a team-high 69.1 percent of his shifts and minimizing his defensive-zone starts with just 4.2 percent—the lowest on the team (per MoneyPuck).
Once Dunn returns, the Kraken will boast three defensive pairings capable of contributing offensively. Mahura will likely be the odd man out with Evans moving back to the third pairing with Borgen. However, having two elite puck-moving defensemen in Dunn and Montour will pose a formidable challenge for opponents. This could be the key to unlocking the Kraken’s offensive potential.
Dunn’s return
As Dunn inches closer to returning, the Kraken eagerly await his impact. Currently sitting just one point out of a wild card spot, his presence could be the boost they need. On average, during Dunn’s tenure in Seattle, the Kraken have seen a .172 increase in points percentage and an additional 0.82 goals scored per game when he’s in the lineup. These numbers, based on 51 missed games, accent his critical role.
Of course, other factors influence these outcomes—trade deadlines, opponent quality, and other player injuries all play a part. While it’s unrealistic to expect the Kraken to fully realize that .172 points percentage increase, Dunn’s return could still tip the scales. If he stays healthy, a playoff berth is well within reach.
Have questions, thoughts, or suggestions? Drop them in the comments below—I’d love to hear from you!
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.
The Kraken didn’t make it easy on themselves, facing a 2-1 deficit entering the third period Monday. But they mustered just enough offensive output to skate away with a 3-2 win over the Ducks in Anaheim.
Seattle got goals from a couple of forwards who have been struggling to find the back of the net, and defenseman Brandon Montour came through with a missile for the game-winner at 1:10 of the third, scoring in his third straight game for the first time in his career. Two quick goals to start that final frame were all the Kraken needed.
“We had some opportunities to score some goals,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “We out-chanced them, outshot them, but it wasn’t going in. You find yourself down in the game, 2-1, going into the third, you’ve got to respond.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken win over the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Monkey(s) off the back(s)
Andre Burakovsky has taken his fair share of heat from Kraken fans this season, largely because he hasn’t done what he’s known for—scoring goals. He’s a historically streaky scorer but entered Monday’s game in the longest goal-scoring drought of his career. Despite being tried in every role Bylsma could think of and getting plenty of power-play time, he hadn’t yet gotten one over the line this season.
Of course, when he did finally break through against the Ducks, the goal was ugly as sin—bouncing off his leg and into the net. But that’s how hockey works sometimes. The phenomenon of “squeezing the stick” is real. When you’re a player who’s supposed to score and you’re not, the pressure mounts, and everyone notices.
“The smile on Andre’s face said it all, as he was coming off the ice after that goal,” Bylsma said.
Burakovsky has been playing better over the past few weeks and has been an effective replacement for Jordan Eberle on the top line. But without scoring goals, criticism was inevitable. Now that he’s broken the ice, perhaps this goal will open the floodgates for him.
Another player under scrutiny recently has been Shane Wright. The 20-year-old center looked sharp during training camp and early in the season but seemed to lose confidence as the games progressed. This is part of the growing pains of becoming a full-time NHLer, but it was clear Wright was struggling.
In response, Bylsma made a bold decision to scratch Wright for three games. Wright handled the situation maturely, maintaining a positive attitude and saying all the right things. On Monday, he returned to the lineup and played like he never wants to see the press box—or Coachella Valley—again.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! 🚨
Guess who scores in his first game back from Healthy Scratch Land!
Wright scored the first goal of the game at 7:12 of the first period, about 30 seconds after an outstanding hustle play to hold the puck in the offensive zone. He then planted himself in front of goalie Lukas Dostal and tipped an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot for his second goal of the season.
Like Burakovsky, Wright showed visible emotion as he returned to the bench.
Wright also earned an assist on Montour’s game-winner, cleanly pulling the offensive-zone face-off back to the defenseman. Eeli Tolvanen created a perfect flying screen to allow Montour to blast it over Dostal’s shoulder.
BRANDON BOMBTOUR! 💣 🚨
Clean face-off win by Shane Wright for his second point of the game, perfect jumping screen by Tolvanen, and a blast by Montour.
As Sound Of Hockey’s John Barr noted in his latest Monday Musings, goals haven’t come easy for the Kraken. On Saturday against the Kings, Montour rang a shot off the post in the third period, narrowly missing what could’ve been a game-changing goal.
The goalposts were outstanding again on Monday, stopping at least four Kraken shots. The most demoralizing moment came when Jared McCann missed a prime opportunity in the first period. Tye Kartye’s point shot trickled through Dostal after McCann set a perfect screen and was then first to the puck in the blue paint. But the angle was awkward, and McCann could only shovel it into the base of the post.
This time, the Kraken overcame the staunch defense of the iron, and got those two clutch goals early in the third, 24 seconds apart, to secure the victory.
Takeaway #3: Kartye in the middle of it
Kartye found himself in the Ducks’ crosshairs during this game. At 15:23 of the second period, stud 19-year-old center Leo Carlsson was regrouping deep in the Anaheim zone. A fraction of a second after he passed it, Kartye lowered the boom and sent Carlsson flying.
Carlsson crashed into the goalpost and hit his head on the ice, leaving the game injured. Thankfully, he skated off under his own power, but it was a scary moment. You never want to see a player get hurt, especially a youngster with such a bright future ahead. We’re hoping for his sake that the injury is minor.
As for the controversy surrounding the hit, the officials got this one wrong. After Carlsson stayed down hit the goalpost and stayed down, the nearest referee finally raised his arm and assessed Kartye a five-minute major, which was reduced to two minutes for interference upon review. Even the minor penalty was bogus, though. Kartye is allowed to finish his check, and Carlsson had just released the puck when contact was made.
Tye Kartye with a 100% clean hit on Leo Carlsson, but he goes into the post and hits his head on the ice. Good to see him skate off on his own power after that.
Radko Gudas goes after Kartye in a big-time mismatch, and shenanigans ensue.
The Ducks, however, saw it differently. Captain and noted tough guy, Radko Gudas, went after Kartye, sparking shenanigans. Kartye—who handles himself well in these scenarios—recognized the mismatch with the man known as “the Butcher,” and was smart to avoid any direct blows from Gudas.
Whether the hit from Kartye was clean or not, tensions remained high throughout the game. The Ducks took several runs at Kartye, and Seattle as a whole did well to not get goaded into stupid penalties.
Emotions are sure to carry over to Wednesday’s rematch in Seattle, where the Kraken and Ducks will meet again.
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 Kraken split a pair of games over the last week: a solid but not dominant 3-0 win against Nashville and a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday afternoon. If you had asked me last week whether I would be happy with a split in those two games, I would have said yes. However, there’s something about that Kings game that leaves me disappointed. It was an excellent benchmark to assess how good this Kraken team really is, especially after appearing to turn the corner with a 5-1-0 homestand.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Kraken played poorly, but they might not be good enough to compete with teams like the Kings in the standings for the entirety of the season. I say this knowing full well that they beat the top team in the division, the Vegas Golden Knights, just two weeks ago. Maybe it’s a bit of recency bias, but the lackluster performance on Saturday leaves me questioning where this team is headed. With four games against weaker opponents this week, we might not have a clearer answer until the Kraken roll through their New York swing, with a Carolina appetizer.
Do the Seattle Kraken have a scoring problem?
As the Kraken struggled to generate any legitimate scoring chances against the Kings on Saturday, I started to realize there might be a serious goal-scoring issue that feels eerily similar to last season’s team. The Kraken are averaging 2.8 goals per game, which is lower than at this point last season. Over the last 10 games, they are averaging just 2.3 goals per game—the fourth lowest in the league. The absence of Vince Dunn and now Jordan Eberle certainly doesn’t help, but that can’t be the only factor dragging down the team’s scoring. Let’s take a closer look.
Shots and shooting percentage
To better understand the scoring challenges this team faces, let’s examine their shot volume per game and shooting percentage to determine whether it’s a volume issue, a quality issue, or both.
It turns out it’s a bit of both. The Kraken have one of the lowest shooting percentages in the league and rank in the bottom third in shots on goal. Of course, not all shots are created equal, so to assess this further, we need to consider shot quality.
Shot quality
To evaluate shot quality, I analyzed the NaturalStatTrick.com team game logs, focusing on the average number of high-, medium-, and low-danger shots per game.
The Kraken rank sixth lowest in high-danger shots per game and second lowest in medium-danger shots. This mix of lower-quality shot attempts likely contributes to their poor shooting percentage. Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific suggestions or solutions for generating more high-danger chances, but hopefully, the team figures something out soon.
Other musings
Expect to hear a lot about the milestone of U.S. Thanksgiving in the NHL. Historically, around 80 percent of the teams in a playoff spot at U.S. Thanksgiving end up making the playoffs. Unfortunately, that didn’t help the Kraken last season, as they were in a playoff spot at that time but didn’t make it to the postseason.
I love the Thanksgiving week schedule, especially with two home-and-home sets against division rivals.
Speaking of U.S. Thanksgiving—without cheating—five Americans have played for the Seattle Kraken this season. Can you name them?
The Kraken’s power play has been the worst in the league over their last 10 games.
Like many of the keyboard coaches on the internet, I think it’s time for Shane Wright to return to the lineup.
Daniel Sprong’s 18 minutes and 36 seconds against the Kings marked the most ice time he has played in a single game during his 86 appearances for the Kraken.
The penalty kill has also been struggling lately, operating at 75 percent compared to the league average of 80 percent.
Following college hockey out west is a challenge, but did you catch Arizona State’s men’s hockey team sweeping top-ranked Denver in Denver this weekend? Denver had a 21-game winning streak coming into the series. I’ve always believed ASU could become a college hockey powerhouse someday.
The World Junior Championship camp rosters should be announced in the first week of December for the tournament starting later that month. The Kraken could have up to seven players invited to various camp rosters.
As many of you know, Joe Thornton’s number was retired by the San Jose Sharks over the weekend. I’ve always been a huge “Jumbo” fan. The weekend was filled with great Thornton stories, but none better than the one shared by his former teammate, Doug Murray. I’ve always believed the best way to evaluate an athlete’s character is by their actions when no one is looking. Thanks to Doug for sharing that story.
Player performances
Alexander Wennberg – The former Seattle Kraken center has tallied two goals and three assists over his last four games with the San Jose Sharks. This Saturday will mark Wennberg’s first game back at Climate Pledge Arena. Joey Daccord – Joey is having an outstanding season, posting a 4-1-0 record with a .945 save percentage over his last five starts. Carson Rehkopf – The 2023 second-round Kraken draft pick recorded a hat trick over the weekend. Expect to see him on the Canadian World Junior team.
We circled this week on the schedule as soon as it was released, with four division games against two of the weaker teams. It’s an excellent opportunity to gain ground in the standings, but neither the Anaheim Ducks nor the San Jose Sharks should be taken lightly. Both teams have been playing better recently, and in the NHL, any team can beat any team on any given night.
Anything less than four points out of a possible eight would be a major disappointment, but the target should be six. It’s crucial to bank as many points as possible now because December features the toughest stretch of games the Kraken will face this season.
Bummer. In the midst of a string of games that the Seattle Kraken should win, Saturday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Kings was the one we’ve had circled. It was always going to be the toughest test in this stretch against a divisional opponent that could be battling with Seattle for one of the final playoff spots in a few months.
It was a predictably tight-checking contest, with two second-period goals by Los Angeles being all the offense needed for the Kings to slide by the Kraken.
“They’re a really good, structured defensive team, and they can force you into playing a slower type of game,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “We got lulled into the game that way.”
The Kraken had a big push late in the third, and Joey Daccord came up big on several occasions, but the Kraken couldn’t muster enough offense to level the score.
Here are Three Takeaways from a disappointing 2-1 Kraken loss to the Kings.
Takeaway #1: Tough sledding
The Kings changed coaches in February, firing Todd McLellan and elevating Jim Hiller initially on an interim basis, but then naming him full-time head coach in the offseason. Under McLellan, the Kings became notorious for their suffocating and boring 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap. With Hiller at the helm, the Kings have changed tactics, but they are still very much a defense-first club.
The first period Saturday was one of the lowest-event periods we can recall in a Kraken game this season, with a 0-0 score and just a 5-4 shots-on-goal count through 20 minutes.
The Kings connected on a couple of passes over a two-minute span in the second period, and—with the help of a bogus goalie interference call on Yanni Gourde—found themselves in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 lead.
The Kings’ first goal came despite relatively sound defensive-zone coverage by Seattle. Alex Turcotte made a perfect pass behind the skates of Daniel Sprong and weighted it perfectly to catch Adrian Kempe as he got to the slot. Kempe then flung a perfect shot off the post and in, making it 1-0 at 4:19 of the second.
Gourde drove to the net and got the lame goalie interference call at 5:03, and on the ensuing power play, a little give-and-go passing play between Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala also ended up in the back of Seattle’s net.
In the below clip, when Byfield sends the puck to Fiala at the top of the slot, and then Fiala sends it back to Byfield, you can see that Daccord’s first movement is not to slide with the pass. Instead, he leans left to look around the screen, indicating he lost sight of the puck at the exact wrong moment when Fiala was sliding it over. That caused him to delay slightly in moving back to his left, and by the time he got over, Byfield had already found the short side.
The pushback in the third period was pretty good by Seattle, especially late when Bylsma pulled Daccord for an extra attacker. Brandon Montour did get a slap shot by David Rittich with 1:34 left in the third, but the Kraken needed one earlier in the frame to really give themselves a chance.
THE FULL MONTY! 🚨 #SeaKraken finally get one by Rittich.
The best looks of the game all came in the third when the Kraken were trying to claw their way back. Adam Larsson, Daniel Sprong, and Montour all had good opportunities, with Montour’s rebound, which he rang off the post, causing Kraken fans everywhere to slap their foreheads in disbelief.
On the Larsson shot, JT Brown was saying on the broadcast that he would have liked Sprong to stay in front to create a screen for Rittich. Instead, he drifted off to the side of the Kings netminder, hoping for a shot-pass to redirect into a yawning cage. That might have worked if Larsson had gotten the puck away quickly, but it seemed like he and Sprong weren’t quite on the same page. An immediate shot-pass to Sprong had a lane, but when Larsson wound up, the Kings closed off that lane, so he tried to blast it through Rittich without the help of a screen. That did not work.
“I think both on our power play and at 5-on-5, we passed up opportunities to shoot the puck to the net,” Bylsma said. “There weren’t a ton, but you have to take them when you can get them.”
Takeaway #3: Not much support for Daccord
It’s normally games when Philipp Grubauer is in net that the Kraken struggle to create offense at the other end. Other than the two minutes in the middle of the game, Daccord stood tall in this one and shut down some Grade-A chances when he was completely hung out to dry, including a baffling 2-on-0 rush allowed by Seattle during a power play in the second period.
“Especially in the third period, when we were pressing… he had to come up with three or four awesome saves,” Bylsma said. “And you can’t not talk about the 2-on-0 penalty kill/power play chance that we gave up where they got two behind. With the knob of the stick, it was a great save and kept us in the match.”
It certainly wasn’t the highest volume Daccord will face this season, but when Seattle started to sell out to create offense, that meant he was facing some prime rush opportunities, and he turned them all aside. The result was a loss, but another strong night for him with a .905 save percentage and .41 goals saved above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Kraken came up short in this one against the Kings. A win would have been nice, but assuming they continue to play tight defensively, they should be able to rack up a bunch of points over the next week.
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.
