And Your 2025-26 Seattle Kraken Roster Is… – The Deep Dive Ep. 210

And Your 2025-26 Seattle Kraken Roster Is… – The Deep Dive Ep. 210

Welcome to the deep dive Emerald City Hockeyy’s Seattle Kraken podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the deep dive Emerald City Hockey Seattle Kraken podcast. And R.J. the regular season is finally here. We have our finalized roster. can talk about what that means, what the potential lineup for opening night this upcoming Thursday is going to look like for the Seattle Kraken, as well as, you know, maybe who might not be playing in that game and why that’s notable. Uh, so we we’ll get into all that kind of stuff ahead of the regular season here, as well as the latest on the injury updates for everybody through training camp and whether or not it seems like maybe they might be available or not on opening night. So, we’ll we’ll talk about all of that good stuff here on this episode, but of course, first R.J., we got to talk about our wonderful sponsor, the loftes of Rico Tessor. Yes. And great connection here, Dylan. I was thinking about Rico quite a bit yesterday because Dylan, I know it’s been a rough fantasy football season for you. Your one and three fantasy team was really hurting. I’d say even, you know, an injury to your personal pride this year. You don’t usually perform so poorly, but when you were in trouble, what did you do, Dylan? You called Rico. You called a Rico. Yes. Late Saturday night, you picked up Rico Dowel off of waiverss. You started him over 200 rushing yards and now your otherwise pathetic fantasy football team is now kind of back in the mix this season. So, congrats to you, Dylan. And in so many different ways, the answer’s always call Rico. I love how you’re gonna make it like uh my pathetic team and injury to my pride without mentioning I’ve been without CD Lamb, Ricky Pierol, and Bucky Irving. They’re kind of Well, those are some personal injuries as well. Those are fairly significant personal injuries. Uh but yes, no, a Rico really came through for me yesterday. So, it did seem kind of appropriate to work that into the Rico sponsorship here. Uh because it just goes to show Rico’s have your back, right? Right. And whether it’s uh Rico Tessor and you’ve been involved in an accident or workplace injury here in the greater Seattle area, or if you need somebody to spot start against a terrible Miami rushing defense, find one of them, do that, too. Exactly. So, I I just I thought about it, texted you, and you’re like, “Oh, yes. We we need to work that in somehow.” Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So, what we need to do is hear if if uh if that move is is Rico Tessor approved or not. So, we’ll have to reach out to our Rico to find out about that Rico. Um, but while we hope none of you ever need his services, the odds say that at some point someone out there will be involved in an accident, whether on the road, at work, or anywhere in between. And when you are, we hope you call Rico at 425-778-9800, or visit his website, ricottessondor.com, to schedule a free consultation. He’s won millions of dollars for his clients and helped thousands of people in the greater Seattle area. And as a fellow member of the ECH community, we know he’ll help you, too. All right. So, um, before we get into everything with the Kraken RJ and, you know, potential lineup, injuries, all of that kind of stuff, uh, we do have an update for our Patreon schedule for the month of October. We don’t have the whole schedule set, but we do have our live game commentary set. Yes, we do. So, live game commentary for the regular season is back. We did a preseason game last month, and now we have a chance for October. We’re doing a regular season game. So, on Thursday, October 16th, uh, for that game at Ottawa against the Senators, 400 p.m. start time on that one. A lot of East Coast games this month. Uh, so that is our live game commentary for the month of October. I hope everyone joins us there uh on Patreon at patreon.com/emerald City Hockey. We can watch the game together. I mean, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for long enough, I mean, you know the drill. It’s always a really fun time watching the games together. And I mean it’ll it’ll be the fourth game of the season, so a lot of early takeaways uh for us all to digest as well. So, I’m really looking forward to it. Yeah, I definitely am. I think whenever we get to do that like first one of the season, especially this year, being able to do it so early on, I think it should be a lot of fun. Lots of interesting things to discuss, especially some of the potential questions we still have about what this team is going to look like that we’ll get to in just a minute here. Uh being able to do all that should be fun. that and if I’m you know remembering correctly the last few years the games in Ottawa always turn into something you know worth watching like we’ve had some insane I think one of them was 86 a couple years ago um last year’s was definitely entertaining whenever the Kraken go on that kind of swing the games in Montreal the games in Ottawa they always deliver on the entertainment value so I can can’t wait to see that with everybody and what they have in store for us this year quick question for you Dylan Will Tim Stutzla have a notable dive in that game? I mean, that that seems like a pretty heavy betting favorite. Yeah. Okay. So, we’ll go with yes. I’ll go with yes. We’ll see if you’re right. We’ll see what it looks like. I was going to say that’s like uh what you know would what would the Vegas put the odds on that? Like minus 105. Yeah, maybe even a little better than that. Something like that. Um so yeah, we’ll we’ll definitely see uh what what Tim Stutzel has involved for us because again it’ll be entertaining. Well, the real question is, uh, do the refs call it or not? Yeah. Do they do they call it both ways? Do they call the penalty and the dive? What what happens? So, we can at the start of the, uh, of the live game commentary, we can kind of take bets on that from everybody, see what everyone thinks. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, really looking forward to that with everybody. Um, but let’s go ahead and and dive into the Kraken here. R.J., What is the latest on the injuries that the Kraken have had that we’ve unfortunately had to start off the last couple podcasts talking about and today is no different. Right. So, it was a very concerning injury situation for the Kraken when we talked last week. A lot of guys banged up in some capacity and so we were wondering, man, how many players short are they going to be for the start of the regular season? And so, since then, we’ve gotten some good news, some bad news. I think pro mostly good, I would say. Yeah. But we’ll start with the bad and then end with the good, I think. Uh, and so the bad is Riker Evans is expected to miss eight six to eight weeks with an upper body injury. Couldn’t really tell when or how this happened exactly because he did play till the very end of the final preseason game before this was announced. Played the last shift in overtime and everything. And then the next day, team comes out, says he’s out pretty long term here. So he’ll be out into November cracking down a blue liner for an extended stretch. I mean, we’ll talk about the results on the lineup here, but you know, it means Josh Mahur is probably going to be thrust into the lineup. Kale Flory makes the roster as a result. Uh, so hopefully Evans is back on the sooner end of that timeline, but tough to lose him there. Uh, better news, Chandler Stevenson, Jared McCann, and Vince Dunn. Make sure I get all three of those names because they were all out for a stretch. They’re all back. All look to be good to go for the season opener. So that’s really good news. Um Vince Dunn was the I guess most mysterious of those after leaving following an altercation with Martin Pospasil. Uh was quite incensed after that took place and then then left the ice during a preseason game. Didn’t come back. Missed a couple days of practice, but he’s back along with Stevenson McCann. So that’s all good news. And I guess we’ll close out on the iffy news, the questionable part still what we’re still wondering, and that is Brandon Montour. He’s the one player who’s been injured that we know might come back for the opener that hasn’t quite come back to practicing yet. And so, uh, latest update we have on that is from a couple days ago, uh, where Lane Lambert said that Montour is still dayto-day but wouldn’t clear him for opening night. He said too soon to comment on that. We’ll have to see what happens here in the next couple days. So, as of yesterday, Montour was still not at practice. So, we’ll see where that goes. Early in camp, the team when he had that surgery to remove the bersa on his ankle, team seemed very confident that he was going to be back for the home opener. He was going to be fine, but maybe a little less confident now. So, we’ll we’ll see where that ends up going. Yeah, it it always seems like an aggressive timeline to have him back for for opening up. It was a surgery. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an ankle surgery. It’s not an insignificant part of your body when you’re talking about skating. Uh so, you know, there’s there’s that. Um, I I think that yeah, if if he missed the first like maybe two games, would that shock me? No, it probably wouldn’t shock me. I do think that I mean, as much as I I want to say he doesn’t need to practice before he’d be good for a game, my guess is the team would like him to at least practice once before the game. So I think as you know in terms of opening night if we don’t see him either Tuesday or Wednesday because today’s a team day off I I think at that point certainly if by Wednesday we don’t see him out there on the ice that seems like a pretty clear indicator that we’re probably not going to see him against Anaheim. Yeah I think at that point you can have the alarm bells go off a little bit that maybe there was some kind of a setback from the original timeline. So we’ll keep an eye on Brandon Montour. Still a couple not even a setback just that it’s you know well from the original timeline of him not problem. So, yeah. Um, but yeah, that one that one we’ll we’ll see kind of where they’re at, but otherwise, you know, good news that for the most part on the injury front, guys are coming back and they’re getting ready to go for the regular season and not the other way. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, the the big ones, you know, KO and Evans, that’s going to be tough. They’re going to be out extended time, but everybody else should be back if they’re not back already in short order. So, uh it could have been a lot worse. I think we we’ll say that as far as the injuries in the preseason. They crack and get out of it, you know, not terribly. So now we went over the injuries, but we have a final roster. So the injuries actually really impacted the final roster. That’s kind of two extra spots. So with Riker Evans and with Copako going to miss extended time. They will start the season on injured reserve. According to the league site, they’re already on IR. So that opens up a couple extra roster spots and that means a couple surprise names on the roster that we wouldn’t have thought to start the season. So how should we break this final roster down to Should we do it by position group? Should we do it um just talking about kind of the guys on the fringes? How do you want to do it? Yeah, I mean I think for the most part, you know, the guys we knew were going to make the roster made the roster, right? Like you’re Matty Veneers, you’re Shane Wright, they’re on the roster. Um, I think there was lots of kind of depth pieces that were going to be question marks and we were kind of waiting to see what was going to end up happening there. So, we could probably start off by talking about those. Um, because I think that that’s, you know, just to cut to the point of it. Um, I think one of the things that we had discussed last week and then, you know, this is probably the the least consequential moving forward for the podcast so we could probably get it out of the way first is the fact that they kept three goalies. Yeah, they kept three goalies. Joey Decord, Philip Grubower, and Matt Murray making the final roster. It’s a little easier with the injury situation opening up those extra couple spots. You don’t have to wave as many guys that were on the bubble. So, I’m not surprised to see them do this, certainly given how heavily Jason Botel hinted at it from the very start, even from the offseason that they might do this. So, it’s not like we weren’t warned about this. Uh, so that’s what they’re going to do at least to start the season. We’ll see if they stick with it. I do wonder if they were worried about Matt Murray potentially being claimed off of waiverss in these last couple days just because there are a lot of goalies on the waiver wire every year it feels like there’s demand uh for waiver goalies at the start of the season so they keep three you know DOR’s the clear starter as we talked about last week not sure really how it’s going to work as far as making sure Grubau and Murray get enough reps but we’ll see how it goes yeah I mean the one benefit is maybe it means Joey doesn’t have to take as many practice reps if if he doesn’t feel like he needs them. Um, so we’ll kind of see how that goes. But otherwise, it’s just going to be interesting to see like on a nightly basis who the backup to Joey is, right? Like opening night, who’s going to be sitting on the bench? I do wonder about that. Do they rotate? Do they, you know, do they just have the same person as backup and the third goalie just around? I don’t know. I mean, we we’ll find out. One one thing I’m also curious about on nights where Joey is not supposed to start, do you just have Gubau and Murray as your two dress backups? Like you just fully take Joey out of the equation or do you still have Joey dress as a backup? Like that’s another interesting wrinkle to this. Well, that’s something that this would allow them to do that otherwise you couldn’t. And I would support that actually. I think if you’re going to give Joey the night off, give him the night off. Yeah. No, I I would definitely I think that’s benefit for sure. Yeah. if you’re worried about load management. Don’t even put him in a situation where that could become an issue. So, um I I think that there there are some benefits like that to having the three goalies on the roster, but otherwise, you know, it’s it’s kind of just as much a mystery to you and I as it is to everybody else. So, there’s not too much for us to really dive into with it. Uh other than just they made the decision to actually go ahead and go through with something most teams don’t do. Yeah, I didn’t look around the league yet to see how many teams are carrying three goalies, but it’s not many. The Gracken are one of less than a handful. Yeah, exactly. So, we’ll see how things kind of shake out with that and and how long that timeline goes on. Like, do they do this as long as, you know, Capo Kako and or Riker Evans are on IR? Do we see a goalie set down mid November to Coachella Valley? Like kind of what what the situation develops there? Because I if if it’s still basically because there’s a battle between Philip Grubau and Matt Murray, I don’t know how in the regular season when Joey’s going to be starting twothirds of your games, you’re realistically going to be able to figure out that battle without it going on for several weeks. Yeah. I mean, looking at the schedule too, how many games is your backup really starting through mid November? Three, four? Like it’s just not much of a sample size. So, we’ll see. I wonder if like real quick if we can go like Saturday, November 8th, Sunday, November 9th, back tobacks at St. Louis, at Dallas. Like that’s just a two-game road trip in itself. I wonder if you might even consider just not even taking Joey on the trip. Yeah, I think give one to Grubau, one to Murray, and that could even be your like final audition kind of thing. I I look, I think that that’s like an interesting thing that I would definitely consider conventional NHL logic. And the people that are making this decision, will they do that? I don’t know. Probably not. Probably not. I think I think Lane Lambert is going to lean toward whoever’s going to give him the best chance to win a game as we’ve seen from the rest of this lineup. We’ll talk about that later. That that certainly does you know feel like what’s going to happen here. Uh I do have one quick question. So if you have three goalies uh you know on the roster and let’s say like when they go to you know on this can Canadian swing RJ the team presumably the three of them will travel for that. Can your third goalie who is there count as your traveling Ebug? I wonder for that. Huh? I Well the thing is you won’t Yeah. I don’t know. I I don’t know if you have Do you have to have one or is it just an option? Wasn’t it like part of like what you have to have now? Like you have to have your own traveling goalie now. Maybe. But I would have to think there must be something in the rules. If it’s not there, it really should be. I I imagine it wouldn’t be that if you do have three goalies on the roster and and both goalies go down and you need an ebug that that third goalie who is in the building and is is an NHL player on your roster should be able to come in for you. Uh if that’s not in the rules, it better be. Yeah, that’s what I would think too. So maybe they’re just maybe this is all just insurance in case of the extremely unlikely definitely not going to happen scenario comes to comes to pass. Yeah. I I think the Kraken would be so screwed at that point anyway. I don’t know. It wouldn’t really matter that they have brain in this one. Yeah. Yeah. Ensuring they pick up uh all the points whenever things devolve into Ebug territory. Yep. That’s where they find their edge. Hey, Ebugs have historically done pretty well points-wise. They do. They do. Um, yeah, this this might be uh might be worse, actually. Um, all right. So, that’s the situation there with the with the goalies. Uh, because of the Riker Evans injury, you know, blue line forever has been fairly set as far as what the seven defenseman were going to be. The Riker Evans injury does mean that a spot opens up there. there. It means Josh Maher will slide into the starting lineup, kind of take over for Reker Evans, and then Kale Flurry is going to be your seventh defenseman. Yep. And that is if Brandon Monour is healthy to start the season. So far, through all line rushes and everything, they’ve had Flurry with Lingren just taking that spot as a placeholder. But yeah, as soon as Mour is healthy, Flurry slides to be the seventh D in the press box as as we’re used to. As we’re used to. Yep. That’s it’s Jen tends to be where he is. Um but yeah, long long term opening night, maybe he’s in the lineup because Monty’s not ready to go. But you know, the idea of the roster cuts uh was that Kale Flurry will be that seventh defenseman while Reker Evans is out. Yeah, the hierarchy is clear. But what’s more interesting is the forwards. Yes, definitely. Because that’s where some real decisions had to be made and we saw the first big one made yesterday when the Kraken put John Hayden on waiverss to send him down to the Firebirds. Uh, so we both thought that Hayden had a pretty good chance of making the roster at the start, but I think this speaks more to the younger players earning spots or one one in particular that really I think earned the spot. Uh, and that’s Ryan Winterton. We’ll talk about him in a bit. But as for John Hayden, uh, I guess we’ll find out. Actually, the waiverss would have been announced 13 minutes ago, but I don’t think we would have checked. So, let’s find out if he cleared. Uh, yes, he did. Yeah, he cleared waiverss. Has been reassigned to the Firebirds. Uh, and so I think he’s going to be a really valuable veteran presence there. Yeah. Because it’s going to be a young roster and there is, I think, nobody better in the Kraken or to have down there, especially to start the season and kind of get everyone on the same page from a player perspective and help the young guys. Oh, definitely. And and just everything that he brings down there, whether it’s helping the young players or helping out other people in the organization. I mean, every time I go down to CV and you talk with arena staff, you know, security people, all those kinds of people around the building, the number one player they always bring up is John Hayden and and their interactions with him and how much he does for the team and for the people around the team and everything like that. And so, um, I I know lots of people in Coachella Valley are probably pretty excited to hear that he’ll be coming back down there and and and at least starting off the season there. Um, I thought that he had kind of maybe an inside track going into camp to maybe beating out Tai Cartier for a spot on this roster and kind of be like a maybe an everyday player for the Kraken through the preseason, through training camp. I I don’t know that like either one of them really separated themselves from the other. I mean, Ryan Winterton kind of did from both of them. And so it makes sense that he made the roster. And we’ll get to him in a second, but um I I guess I could kind of see them being like, look, if if things are kind of equal between Cartier and and John Hayden, you know, John Hayden probably does us more good being in CV and helping, you know, usher along the the young players graduating to that American Hockey League level than he does being, you know, a scratch up here for us. Yeah, I could see that, too. And I mean, yeah, it’s I think going to be pretty darn close between Kier and Hayden just on that fourth line spot. They’re going to bring fairly similar things. Hayden brings a little more of the the fighting. Carte with a little more of the agitating sandpaper. But yeah, Hayden I think much better for that CV role for right now. And I’m sure we have not seen the last of him up in Seattle this year. But of course, the reason that they had to do that is because Ryan Winterton surprise makes the roster. is not something we would have seen coming going into training camp, but maybe it’s something that doesn’t surprise us so much based on how he played because we’ve mentioned his name plenty, way more than we expected to during this preseason. And so, uh, Lane Lambert, and this is really the the biggest hint, I think, that he was going to make the roster, is that after the final preseason game, he was asked a question about, you know, why there was a change at wing and why some guys moved over and he’s like, well, you know, we were looking for, you know, kind of somebody to step up and and Winterton did and he was mentioned by name, not asked about by name. And when your coach calls you out like that in a positive way, I think that says something. Yeah. I I mean, how many times did we notice him and talk about him watching these preseason games, going through everything, right? Like, he has just played so well throughout training camp, through the preeason. I think, yeah, we’ve noticed it, coaches noticed it. I think that it’s a huge indicator when a coach talks about a player like that. And you know it he’s kind of graduated from the level of like when coaches talk about that and you’re 18 19 20 it’s like oh I’m I’m giving them some flowers and then they’re going to go back to junior or go back to wherever but they can feel good about what they did here in camp. Once you’ve turned that corner you’re 21 22 you’re getting to the age that Ryan Winterton is it means like oh no you’re just showing up and we think you could actually be valuable to this team right and I think that Ryan Winterton has kind of finally hit that that place. Um, we talked about him a lot last week and kind of why we think he he’s, you know, performing so well. I think that there’s a really good system fit for him within this Lane Lambert system and and what they’re doing there. Um, I think he he understands how to operate creatively with the freedoms afforded to him while still being in the spots he needs to be in, helping out the cycle, particularly down low in the corners, uh, along the halfboards or then below the goal line kind of behind the net. He just really seems to understand what he can what he’s where he’s supposed to be, but also what he can get away with as far as kind of changing it up and and taking advantage of what defenses are showing him. Um, you’ve talked about how much faster he looks. He he looks stronger, too. Um, but his body has just kind of finally matured and gotten him to the place where I think with his play style and being in a system that, you know, kind of calls upon that play style, he can finally like make something happen. And that’s what we’re kind of seeing from him here. I’m not expecting like a ton. I don’t think we’re going to see a ton of point production from him, but for being a solid fourthline player who can come on and then maybe dip his toe into special teams at times when needed, maybe even the PK, uh I I think Ryan Richardson’s definitely going to be able to do that for this team. Yeah. And I think that’s what was missing in previous years. Whenever he’d come up to the Kraken and he’d play in a fourth line role, there was just no dynamic element to his game. He’d kind of blend into the background. And we’ve seen basically the opposite throughout the preseason and through training camp and even when given a top six opportunity in a preseason game, you know, when midame Lane Lambert decides to change the lineup, bring Ryan Wintherton up to a spot playing with some of the team’s best players and he’s performed well. I mean, a willingness to go to the net, willingness to shoot the puck along with that speed that just shows up to us. Uh, so he’s been really impressive and I think this sends a good message too to players that hey, if you play well enough, if you show up, you can earn a spot, these spots are up for grabs. And I like that uh competition element there that Ryan Winterton’s being rewarded. And beyond that, too, if you look at the line rushes they’ve gone with the last couple practices, he’s in a top six spot. He’s playing with Chandler Stevenson and Mason Marchman. not just rewarded by making the team, but if this holds, he could be in the top six to start the season. Yeah, I I think that, you know, again, he’s played well enough to like earn that. Like, if if if all spots are available through training camp and it’s really just about who plays the best, Ryan Winston does deserve that spot. He has earned that spot with how he’s performed. I’m I’m a little dubious that he’s going to hang out in the top six long term. Like, I I No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that that’s going to happen. But I I do think that yeah, if if for right now or even going into opening night and we’ll get to the lineup and whether or not we think that’s going to be the opening night lineup, you know, he he has earned that opportunity by outperforming just about everybody in camp. Yeah. And so from that perspective, I I don’t mind it at all. have concerns about other guys who are maybe not in top six roles that we can talk about now, but uh for for now I don’t mind it because Winterton, he has absolutely earned that spot. He’s earned the spot on the roster and he’s earned that spot in the lineup for the time being. Yeah, definitely. Uh and then to your point about other guys that that made the roster and we’ll get to where they are in the lineup. Um you know, the two big names that everybody was was kind of waiting on uh from the young kid standpoint was of course Berkeley Kat and Yanni Newman. They both make the roster. Um Oscar Fisker Mulgard and and Bill Divinan kind of the last young guys that were hanging around. They were sent back down to CV yesterday. So it is Berkeley Kat and it is Yanni Newman on the roster to start the season. We will see though if they are in the starting lineup to start the season and if they are in what capacity they are because based on line rushes that we’re seeing these last couple days, one of them’s not in the lineup and the other one’s hanging out on the fourth line. And that’s I not I I just don’t think that’s what any Kraken fans wanted to see. No, it’s certainly not what I wanted to see. And I think this is the biggest headline out of this past week’s news for the Kraken is these line rushes that they’ve gone with the last two practice days. So this is not something we just saw one day because then I’d still take it with a grain of salt. We’ve seen this two days and then if we see it again tomorrow, I I’d have to think this is what they’re thinking for the start of the season. So I’ll just read them out for the forward lines. Uh you got Macan, Ben Beneers, Eberly, Marchment, Stevenson, and Winterton that I just talked about, Schwarz, Wright, Tolvin, and then the fourth line of Newman, Gdro, and Cartier. Now, of course, where’s Berkeley Ken, you might ask? He is the lone forward scratch. He’s the lone extra on these line rushes. And so, Newman on the fourth line, Ken is an extra. This is very different than what we saw during the preseason when guys were injured, when people were rotating in and out. And this is a very veteranheavy lineup, especially at the top. What does that mean for Berkeley Ken and Yanni Newman? Because I think it’s it’s fair to start asking these questions. Yeah. And I think we should start with Yanni Newman because the Berkeley Ken conversation gets very big very fast, right? Um so let’s let’s start with Yanni Yanni Newman. I think one, it’s great that he played his way onto the roster, right? Like he again, you know, I I mentioned that Ryan Winterton was outperforming just about everybody in camp. I think you can make the argument that one of the the one forward that really even looked better than Ryan Winterton throughout camp was Yanni Newman. And so he of course plays his way onto the roster. That’s something that became clear like within days of training camp starting. Um so I’m I’m happy that that happened. It’s kind of crazy to me that when you had a player who was, you know, made it on um what was it the the game score like lineup of best preseason performers and he was on the second line, Yanni Newman in the entirety of the NHL, right? Somebody who for a while was leading the preseason in goals that you’re going to stick him on the fourth line and potentially only give him like 10 minutes a night. And I think the other thing that’s key about that is it doesn’t look like he has a spot secured on the power play because that would have been the one thing is if he’s going to be on the fourth line, okay, I can get that. His back checking’s maybe not up to snuff. We we could talk about that, right? He’s still just an average skater. He’s got a lots of things to learn, very young player. All of those things. I could understand wanting to limit his potential role with your team at that, you know, in at five on five. What I do not understand is not including him on a power play and and a power play that has not looked good through the preseason, right? With him or without him. The the power play, a lot of the issues that the power play has had for several years now under many different coaches seems to be sticking around. That being lack of player and and real puck movement uh out there. Everybody just kind of sticking to their own zones and being afraid to encroach on anybody else’s territory out there. Uh, so I think at some point we we can have the conversation this year about that just seems to be a personnel issue, not a coaching issue maybe, uh, given that we’re on our third power play coach in as many years. But I I think that not having Yanni Newman out there for special teams. It’s one thing to give him like 10 minutes a night, five on five. It’s another thing to not have him out there on special teams when he has the best shot on your roster. Like I like I think it’s even better than Jared McCann’s. If not, it’s close to Jared McCann’s. There’s no reason not to have those two guys be the focal points of your power play. There just isn’t. Yeah. And I think that’s the concerning part about this. I at the end of the last practice, we were there. You had to take off just a little bit early to go to go handle something, but we saw the line rushes together and we saw Yanni Newman on the fourth line. I know you were trying to talk me off the ledge a little bit like, well, no, this is okay. You know, he’s going to get the bottom six roll here, but he’ll get heavy power play time and you really lean into the strengths and everything. Then you leave and I see the power play setups and Yanni Newman is not playing as part of either power play unit and I text you that you’re like, “Oh no.” Yeah. So, I think that is concerning because Yanni Newman I you’re right. He proved it in the preseason. He’s an NHL level player. He can play. He can score. Might not have the most well-rounded game, but he can score at the NHL level. And I think that’s something the Kraken are really going to need this season because if the preseason games are any indication, too, this team might have some struggles scoring goals this year. It could be a problem, especially if they fix the defense and really prioritize that way. And you have a top six spot right now that’s going to Winterton. I think could just as easily go to Yanni Newman. But there’s no excuse in my mind for not putting him on the power play. He is absolutely one of your top 10 power play players on this team or top eight power play forwards, however you want to look at it. That one-time is a weapon that nobody else on this team has. And so that’s particularly concerning for me because I think it’s going beyond just, you know, okay, going with a veteran heavy lineup, trying to be well-rounded in the in the five-on-ive game, making sure you’re covered defensively, and now I think in this case, you’re prioritizing veterans for spots where a younger player would actually just be all around better, right? Yeah. And that’s and and seeing the theme of that elsewhere as well just concerns me. Yes. Yeah. That’s that I think is an issue. It’s one thing to, you know, when we’re talking about Yanni Newman, Berkeley Catton, it’s one thing for the team to lean veteran heavy and to prioritize starting off the season strong, trying to build good momentum and feeling like the veteran heavy roster gives you that opportunity. Like I I there is an argument to be made for that. As much as you know, many Kraken fans probably don’t want to hear it right now. Um I I think that there is something to that, right? That you know, when the when seasons start strong, they tend to carry over. or Joe Decord talked about this last year when seasons start bad that tends to carry over throughout the rest of that year. And so if they want to try to attack the season aggressively with a veteran heavy mindset early on, try to really, you know, win as many games in the first two months as possible and then you can start looking at other things. I’ll give them that. But yeah, when you start talking about Yanni Newman not being on the power play, not even just like not featured on the power play, right? Like oh, they’re not putting him in the one-timer spot. just a total absence of Yanni Newman. I it doesn’t that doesn’t check out then, right? Because then if he’s in your lineup, but he’s not out there on your power play, I just genuinely don’t think you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to go out there and and score on the power play and thus win games. And that that is a big concern to me that uh that that doesn’t seem to be something that’s seen. I do like that Jared McCann is maybe over there in the one-time spot finally. Like Jared McCann needed to move off of his spot on the power play years ago in my mind. It was too predictable. It was way too predictable. But the idea that like, you know, Ellie Tolvin’s one-time is going to be better than Yanni Newman’s, it’s just it’s just wrong. It’s just that’s just not true. The way they’ve been lining up, they actually have Mason Marchmond in that Mason Marchman there. Like his one-time is going to be better than Yanni Newman’s. Are you kidding me? It’s not. I He wasn’t even getting power play time last year. I know Dallas’s roster is a lot more talented, but like if he’s netfront, I understand it, but yes. Yeah, it it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. And and backing up too. I mean, you were talking about how you understand the team wanting to try and win as much as they can early on because of course they’re doing assuming that’s what they’re doing, right? Well, I mean, look at this lineup. I I think any NHL coach is going to try and do that sort of thing unless otherwise directed by the GM or it’s part of a larger plan or whatever. So, I I get that, but if you’re gonna because I understand there’s arguments to be made, as you said, that fans might not want to hear, but there’s arguments to be made that that in the long run could be more important, just making sure the team gets some wins, everyone starts feeling better, you have a better view of the organization. I understand that and that’s why I went to the offseason saying it’s okay if you want to kind of go for it this year. Like, if that’s the direction you want to pick, my whole thing was just pick a direction. I don’t care which one it is. Pick a direction. I was okay with that direction. But if you’re going to pick that direction, now is not the time. This past off season was the time to make more additions and actually have a team that on paper is not bottom five in the NHL because all of the models, everything says that this is a bottom five team in the NHL on paper. Doesn’t mean they can’t be better. I’m not saying they won’t be better than that. But if you’re gonna try and go in that direction of like, okay, it’s important that we get wins here, you have to be a have a better team going into your training camp. You just have to. And so if you’re going to show up to training camp into the start of the regular season with a team that is bottom five on paper, you have to treat it like a development season. You just have to in the long term, you have like pick a direction. It’s the same thing. So that’s where I’m not even okay at this point. If you’ve shown up with this team, no, there’s no excuse to to try and go out and, you know, win things early. I understand you don’t want it to be, you know, bad. You don’t want it to get ugly, but don’t try and if you’re trying to get wins early, don’t do it at the expense of the young players. You just can’t. You have to give the young players that opportunity. I mean, I’m with you on that, right? Like, that is something that needs to happen because the bottom line is players like Yanni Newman, players certainly like Berkeley Kat and Shane Wright, right? These are the guys that are going to help your organization win long term and potentially take that next step from trying to compete for playoff spots to trying to compete for a Stanley Cup. You need them to develop and turn into, you know, whatever the maximum of their potential is. That that’s just how organizations do this. And that’s certainly kind of what I think most Kraken fans want at this point, too, right? Like they want to get excited about these young guys. They want to see them in the lineup. They want to see them grow and develop and turn into the superstars that this franchise has needed since day one. This plan does not do that right. And I think that there’s elements of wanting to start off the season with the positive momentum, get things in the locker room set, have those good vibes, and have that carry through the rest of the season because you can’t afford to have what’s happened the last two seasons kind of happen again where it all just falls apart. And by certainly by February, March, but even by January, everybody’s checking out, right? And I don’t and I mean like everybody, right? Like the team is starting to check out, fans are checking out, right? And I think that that’s the other element of this is that the team what what this really kind of makes clear to me is that the team is prioritizing winning because not just, you know, for that reason in the locker room, but also because they recognize that over these last two seasons, as much as they’re taking strides to to try to to stop it and make things better, you know, a lot of people stopped watching last year, right? A lot of people stopped showing up to games. As much as they were all sellouts on paper, they were definitely not sellouts in practice, right? There was a lot of people missing from the seats of Climate Pledge Arena last year during games, we know from the day of ticket prices, right? How many how low those kind of dropped and bottomed out. And again, I think the team is is working on ways of fixing that, right? The the big step was taken last year. You leave Root Sports. You you know, you go on and you have your streaming on Amazon Prime. you you get on King Five. All of those things were great. You you definitely were able to grow your television audience because you just had games accessible. That was a huge step. This year, they’ve really revamped the season ticket holder uh perks and everything. And they’re getting great reviews. Every season ticket holder I’ve talked to loves the changes, right? They love the experience menu and the packages that they get to choose as season ticket holders. Obviously, lots of them had their tickets reduced in price to some extent. Some of them it went up, but for the most part, everybody’s happy about the pricing. They feel like they’re getting more for that pricing now. That I think was huge. The the the one thing though is, you know, how do you bring back casual fans? You had casual fans year one, you had casual fans year two when things were good. You kind of lost them year three, and then you’ve lost them early last year. And you need casual sports fans to care about this team if you want it to, you know, make money, look prestigious, all of those things that the business side of the organization is going to care about. And unfortunately, at the end of the day, business side of the organization will trump everything else. That’s just the realities of this, right? And I think the only way that you can do that, the only way casual sports fans engage with team with specific individual teams and franchises because they are casual, it’s in the name, is if they’re winning, right? Casual sports fan doesn’t show up to watch a prospect in games. They just don’t. Not unless that prospect is like elite tier. We’ve been hearing about them since they’re 16. And you know, Berkeley Caden is not that. Shane Wright’s not that. And so I think the organization is concerned about getting those casual fans back about fixing the business side of the oper of the the organization. And the way to do that is to win games. And I think that they’re prioritizing that right now for for two reasons. Again, in the locker room because it’ll be better for the team and hopefully carry over throughout the season and they can be competitive. But also because business-wise it is just strictly better for business to win more games. And if the only way to do that is going to be to throw out the veterans early on in the season, then they’re going to do that. And I think that that’s what this whole situation is kind of signaling here. I I see what you’re saying. And and I think there are again reasons to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. I just I don’t know how the thing is with this team, looking at this team on paper, I just I don’t know how much of a difference that’s really gonna make, you know, if they’re if they’re say 10th in the in the West as opposed to 13th in the West by by the new year. Yeah. No, that move the casual fan. I mean, I think they’re probably thinking in their minds, hopefully we can capitalize off of some of the Mariners fever, right? If they’re in a spot where they’re like semicompetitive and they are 10th in the Western Conference by the time the Mariners run’s over, yeah, I think they’re thinking like we can we can bring over a lot of those casual sports fans. are going to want to keep that rolling, right? Who doesn’t want to keep that excitement and fun rolling with a sports team and they could potentially do that? I would argue the Seahawks will steal all I was going to say the Seahawks are really going to be where everyone goes next. Yeah, but you know what I mean? Like you’re going to still you will still have fans that are going to leave, you know, from the Mariners and they’re going to want more sports and and you are going to be one of the sports playing still. Yeah. And you’re not going to want to show up for a team that’s bottom five. Oh yeah, for sure. No, I I get that. So, you know, I think I think we can this this is a good job we’ve explained why they’re doing it, even though I think we both disagree with the decision to do it, but we’ll see. I I just wonder when the mindset is going to shift or if it’s going to shift, and especially when it comes to a player like Berkeley Ken. Yeah. Who we’ve waited a while before talking about, but he he is an extra on this lineup right now. He is not on one of the four lines. And, you know, maybe you send Ryan Winterton down if he doesn’t impress right away. And like I I don’t think he’s got that staying power in the top six. Like you can always switch this up, but I think for a player like Berkeley Ken, it’s so important because he can’t just go down to the AHL. He has to be either in Seattle or Spokane. And so when you decide that he’s going to make the opening roster, I think you need a development plan with him because look, you’ve got four top 10 picks in your organization. that that’s all you have in terms of like future potential high-end players. We know Matty Beneers isn’t gonna be that star level player. Does a lot of things well he’s not going to be that star. Shane Wright, you know, tracking to be a a level less, but I think he’s one of those crucial three. And then you’ve got Berkeley Katon. Jake O’Brien’s still a few years away, but now you’ve got Berkeley Kat. He’s one of the really three options that you have to have a homegrown star. And so his development is crucial for the long-term health of this franchise. You need a plan with him and what happens this year for his development is going to be so important as far as whether he can reach that potential or not. And so I want to know what the plan is because I would have assumed going into camp that the plan is at least for the first nine games. You can make that call on the ELC later. he’ll be playing in the top six or maybe he’ll even be playing in some of the games and you kind of see what he can do at the NHL level. But when he’s in, you give him real opportunity because that’s how players develop. They need to play in order to develop. And when I see that he’s outside the lineup here, it makes me wonder, okay, when is he getting this opportunity and will he get this opportunity? Because I know you’ve said, and I’ll let you talk about this. You’ve said that maybe the Kraken want to just kind of play him, you know, every other game or select games. We’ve seen teams do this before and kind of make that transition in the NHL a little bit easier by only playing him certain games. What he does play, give him say 14 minutes a night. Mhm. But when I see him I I would think one of the games that you would really want to do that is the is the home opener, the season opener against Anaheim, who’s not a very strong opponent, I would think, okay, that’s one of the games you want to give him. And if you’re not giving him that game, are you giving him the game against Vegas on Saturday? That’s a lot tougher. I think if you’re not giving him Anaheim, but you’re giving him Vegas, what are you doing? And if you’re not giving him Anaheim and not giving him Vegas, okay, what are you doing? Is he going to play? And so I just have more questions than answers right now. Yeah, it I’m right there with you. Right. Um there’s Yeah, there’s so many potential avenues that this can kind of take. I’m with you, though. Like it’s it’s crazy because you know the the seemingly one bright side of the Capokaku injury was that it meant the top six role was on the board right like a winger role was was open and available on the quote unquote top line. The fact that Yanni Newman or Berkeley Cat is not in that spot I think is a little concerning. Right. If Ryan Winterton holds on to that spot, like again, good on WZ, but like Ryan Winterton’s not going to turn into a franchise like changing player for you the way I I mean, I would argue Yanni Newman’s not either. He’s just going to be a goalcorer for you. But certainly Berkeley Ken has that potential. And the idea to not give it to one of those two guys is is is just it’s beyond questionable. Like it’s it’s so it’s so mind-boggling. Um so again, we’ll see. But the way things are tracking, that’s what they’re showing us right now. Um, I I do think that what this signals, if if this is in fact what they’re doing, then I think what the plan is is that Berkeley Kentton will they’re going to nurse along the nine games that they have. They’re going to be selective about it. maybe too selective like again you know I don’t know unless they’re worried that like Radco and Jacob Trouba are going to you know take his head off in that opening night game which I don’t think is likely uh there’s no reason not to start him against Anaheim and then sit him during Vegas but I do think like that we’re we’re going to be looking at the Shane Wright experience again right Shane Wright’s D+1 season right after he was drafted when he was 18 the one difference is and this is what I think makes a big difference is what you’re talking about, right, which is I would rather you sit the player every other game, but then on the games that he’s playing, he’s getting 14 minutes a night rather than what Shane Wright was kind of getting, which was at times starting every game, but only getting nine minutes of ice time. And and those nine minutes were just the most inconsequential minutes possible where just nothing is happening. He’s not learning anything other than just the overall speed of the game. But I would argue he’s not even learning that because he’s just out there against the other team’s fourth line in offensive zone draw opportunities. So it wasn’t even like that that beneficial to Shane. But I think what we’re going to see from from the team right now, or at least this is this is my best guess. And to be honest, I don’t totally hate this based on Kton’s preseason performance is that we’re going to see him start roughly every other game. Again, they’ll they’ll they’ll select these games. Some might be backtoback. He might go a couple games without starting, but we’re going to see him get into nine NHL games spread out over the course of, you know, roughly a month and a half. Then they will send him down to CV for the fiveame conditioning stint that he can play in the AHL. And then mid December, he goes off to Team Canada camp for the World Juniors. And then he will go and he’ll probably captain and lead that Team Canada team at the World Juniors. And then after that, you make the call on whether or not you want to burn that year of the ELC. And you bring him back to the Kraken. And at that point, the Kraken should know if they’re in any sort of contention or not because you’re talking about early January. You’ll know if you have a shot or not. And if you don’t have a shot, stick him on that roster. Give him top six minutes. If you if for some reason you do have a shot, then yeah, maybe you send him back to Spokane. But I I think that that’s extremely unlikely. The other thing is by January, if you don’t have a shot, we should start seeing the team at some point sell off a forward or two. Certainly by March, that’s going to happen. And so I think it will create then more opportunities as those months go on in early 2026 for him to get into, you know, more significant spots within the lineup just because a Jaden Schwarz or a Jordan Ely just won’t be on the team anymore. Yeah. And I don’t mind that plan. like the way that you spelled all that out, that sounds okay, especially if they keep him on the roster later after selling a couple forwards. Like that would be close to ideal for me. That’s okay. Uh but I think the one thing I want to say on this is just that if that is the plan or whatever the plan is, I think it’s really important that the team communicates it in a way that they didn’t with Shane Wright because I think that was part of the problem with Shane Wright where you can make the argument that that process worked out okay for him in the end. I I wouldn’t, but you could. But I think the real problem was that there was no communication of what the plan was. And so everybody is left wondering, okay, what’s going on with Shane Wright? Is he is he playing poorly? Is he is he a problem with the the coaches? What’s going on? Are do they just not want to play him? Uh is he going to do the AHL stint? Is he going to go to World Juniors? What’s the plan? And it just created this whole storm around it that I think was a very bad environment for the player, for the team, for everybody. And I think you just can’t have that around Berkeley Katton. And there’s an easy way to avoid that. You just are clear in communicating what the plan is with him. And so that’s really all that I ask is whatever the plan is, communicate it with us clearly. And it’s the kind of thing that if he doesn’t play in the first game, you know, if they switch up this lineup and he’s in the top six for game one and you know, it’s all different, whatever. But if he doesn’t play in the first game of the season, I’m gonna ask Lane Lambert, what’s what’s the plan with Berkeley Katton? And I don’t think he’s necessarily gonna give me a full answer, but I I think that at least the the broad strokes of the plan should be communicated. I don’t think that gives you any kind of necessarily competitive disadvantage. Um, I think you can be clear about what you’re planning to do with a top player in a general sense and it doesn’t lock you into anything, but I just think that communication is going to be key. Also, playing him whereas I look at I pulled up the Shane Wright game logs from that first season. Six minutes, six minutes, six minutes, eight minutes, five minutes. Don’t do that. Yeah. What is that accomplishing? Like, it just doesn’t make any sense. Um, it’s Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting one, right? like to to see kind of how it shakes out. Again, I don’t think that these that like that plan I laid out is the worst idea. I think that that that could be very beneficial for him. It it it kind of help it matches the team’s timeline for this season. It allows you to do two things at once, right? It allows Berkeley Ken to dip his toe in the NHL and for you to kind of control that environment and and only put him in spots you think are going to lead him to be successful and help the team genuinely win games. And then the rest of the time, you’re putting forward the lineup you think genuinely gives you the best chance to win games. And you hopefully develop positive culture and and good early momentum. And you win over some casual fans and you get more people watching and going to games and it could turn into like one giant win-winwin. But you know, communication helps on that too, right? Like as much as the team is doing all of these things to win back fans, you know what would be great for fans to know what’s happening with the player that they’re probably the most interested in right now, right? The kid who played junior in state who has, you know, the highest upside of potentially any player that has dawned your sweater so far. And they’re really excited to see him make this team, right? So many Kraken fans became huge Berkeley Katton fans last year, watching a team in state and watching him go on that run to the WHL finals and watching him put up absurd points and looking then back at the Kraken and saying, “Boy, if he could carry over a fourth of that point production, he’d be a top three player on this NHL team, right? Like it would be crazy.” And so I I think what you don’t want to do is kill excitement that all of those fans have, right? that your more diehard fans have by then just randomly not playing him and not communicating to them as to why that’s happening. And I get that, you know, you don’t want to give away competitive advantages to opponents or whatever. Telling us that this is the plan does not give the Anaheim Ducks the inside edge on you, right? like like there is nobody that can possibly benefit from this knowledge realistically as long as they don’t know until the morning of if Berkeley Catton’s playing that night or not, right? Like in which case they were going to know that anyway, right? That’s the thing. teams know that the morning like they have that time to prepare and and so all you have to say if you’re Lane Lampbert is just well the plan with him we’re we’re going to play him for select games that we feel give us you know the him the best opportunity to develop and put him in some really good spots and that that’s the plan. Yeah. And at that point okay we know that we don’t know what the games are going to be. You don’t need to tell us which games it’s going to be. But now we know okay if he’s out of the lineup tonight well that’s okay. They felt like that game wasn’t one of the ones that they wanted to put him in. They’re trying to control the spots they put them in to give them the best opportunity. And that’s something I think we all can accept and be fine with. And I think Kraken fans especially are would be super accepting of that. Like I think they they have a Kraken fans have a willingness to kind of, you know, defer to that uh authority and and trust that people know what they’re doing and know that they’re doing their jobs. And so I like it’s not a tough fan or media market there. Like it’s not going to it’s not like you’re in Toronto and everyone’s going to be secondguessing your decision to do that. Like I think people if you communicate what the plan is will be on board. Yeah. The only the only way you really open yourselves up to criticism and and ill will is by not communicating to the fans why something is happening, right? And and unfortunately this team tends to do that a lot, right? They value the secrecy over they they value the uh the the positive vibes and and goodwill. And so, you know, I’m I’m not expecting much. I’m not expecting the Kraken to tell us what the plan is with with Berkeley Cat. And again, this could all this whole conversation might be meaningless in two days when he’s back and he’s in the lineup and it doesn’t matter. But it does feel like this is kind of this is at least my best guess as to what we’re heading towards with Berkeley Ken. I don’t think it’s a terrible choice to handle, you know, as a way to handle Berkeley Katton, but uh it would just be nice to, you know, know and be able to talk talk about it as though it’s, you know, an official capacity rather than just speculation from two guys on the internet. Exactly. I mean, that’s unfortunately what we’re left to at the moment until we, you know, see what goes on and and next week we’ll have a lot more concrete to say about this whole thing. But um it’s just one of those things that I think raised a few potential alarm bells with us when we saw the lineup and how it all looked and yeah, we’re still kind of hoping for the best. Yeah. Now, one quick question for you on Berkeley Ken and I kind of dropped it earlier and this this is a conversation I’ve seen happening across social media channels and stuff and that is I mean do you think Berkeley Ken played well enough in the regular season to earn a full-time roster spot? And I think that that is part of a conversation that can be had. And I I think for me personally, if we’re talking about playing center, no, he didn’t play well enough to earn a roster spot. If we’re talking playing on the wing, I I think he maybe did. I I think there’s certainly elements of his game that you could look at and say like, okay, that’s going to be weaker than like say Tai Cartier on the fourth line can give you or something like that. or certainly when you’re talking about top six, you know, there’s going to be defensive things or or play through the neutral zone that yeah, a veteran player is just going to handle those situations better than Berkeley did. Um, but I feel like overall Berkeley showed enough of an ability to pick up on those things that I feel like he would learn quick enough that it’s worth maybe giving him those opportunities earlier on in the season rather than not. Right. I I mean I trust he’s such a smart player and I trust that he has the ability to learn things very quickly, but I mean if you were looking at it, no, I don’t think he’s one of the team’s four best centers. I I just don’t right now. And so if you look at the wingers, you know, that’s eight winger spots that are available in the lineup. Realistically, I I think he’s probably the team’s seventh best I would say seventh best healthy winger. You know, you throw Capokako in there, I think he’s the team’s eighth best winger. I would say he is um the the the ones that are on the roster that I’d say he’s better than are Carte and Winterton. That’s kind of where I’d put him. And so of you know seventh of the healthy wingers still that’s that’s a roster spot if you’re just going based on best players. But no, I don’t think he’s you know one of the because there’s six top nine you know winger spots and no I don’t think he’s better than any of those guys. So there’s that. Yeah. And so, you know, that’s where it kind of feels like this is as as much as it feels like a shock after everything and certainly after the huge minutes they were giving him all throughout the preseason does kind of feel like appropriate, right? If they if they do a plan like this where he’s in and out of the lineup and you spot start him and you understand that on those nights he’s going to be on the third line and look, he’s maybe not going to do as much as say Ryan Winterton could do in that spot, but he needs to play x amount of games to learn and then surpass Ryan Winterton, you know, like that. Like that’s basically where they’re at. And that’s the decisions that you know Lane Lambert and the front office have to make together is you know finding those opportunities for him where that trade-off is worth it right Berkeley Kton getting better and learning lessons is better than having somebody who is 10% better because he does you know neutral zone backing in transition better than Berkeley. Well that’s what gets me. just just once I want to see this team, this franchise make a decision that Yeah. may make you 10% worse in the short run, but should make you a whole lot better in the long run. Feels like that’s just kind of a mental block. Yeah. Yeah. And and that’s the thing. It just it seems like this mental kind of roadblock that this that this organization has had and and I just once would want to see him make that that decision because Yeah. I’ll I’ll acknowledge again, Ken, he’s not one of the the six best wingers on this team. Certainly not. But what take a look at the big picture and just see what the whole thing is about and what you’re actually trying to accomplish this year. That’s that’s all I’m asking. Yeah. Oh, I know. We’re on the same page there. We’re on the same page there for sure. Um All right. So, yeah, I mean, we’ll we’ll kind of see what the lineup ends up looking like tomorrow in practice. I think if if we get that that same lineup tomorrow in practice, that that speaks volumes, um particularly it carrying over from a team day off today. Uh so we’ll we’ll kind of see and and that’ll give us an idea of what we see on Thursday against Anaheim, I think. Yeah, I think so. I’m I’m I am excited. I know I don’t want to like seem like this episode where, you know, all the concerns are are bubbling to the top, but like I am so excited for the season to start to see what this team can do and and I really do think they can be, you know, better than than what all the models are saying because I really believe in Lambert like whipping the group into shape. And I mean, you we were both at the last practice where we heard him speaking pretty strongly to the guys about, you know, I won’t say the words that he said, but setting a standard. I think that was the the key takeaway from us hearing what he said, you know, about just the certain a level of play that’s going to be necessary if they’re going to be a somewhat competitive team. And so, you know, I think that is going to have early impacts on the Kraken. Uh, you know, we’ll see how long that message can last, but right now Lambert is doing and saying everything he can. Yeah. And I think the preseason gave us an idea as well that, you know, this is a team that is definitely going to play more structured than what we’ve seen the last two seasons. That’s something that they’ve definitely needed. Um I think that the structure is set up to, you know, look, get the most out of this group of guys, right? Like it’s the most it’s it’s built around getting the most out of what you can do if you’re prioritizing winning games. And that is you’re going to keep things close. You’re going to defend well. you’re going to rely on your good goalender being a good goalender. Um, and then you’re going to try to, you know, grind things out and keep the puck in the offensive zone as much as possible. And I think that they’re doing a really good job of that through the preseason. Again, we’ll see when they’re against full NHL rosters that that we haven’t seen it yet, but I think that they’re doing a good job there. The one thing that needs to still develop is manufacturing chances in the offensive zone because they’re doing a great job of cycling the puck and and having possession good positive possession huge offensive zone possession numbers compared to what we’ve seen for sure. We’re not seeing shots on goal and that’s something that is you know at some point needs to happen if you want to score. And so I think that, you know, again, it’s similar to the conversations that Dan was having with us last year. It takes time and it’s going to take into the regular season for that system to fully get, you know, integrated and and for everything to become habitual for these guys and all of that. But I do think that at some point the team is going to have to address the fact that and this is where Berkeley Cat potentially comes in. Uh you can have a lot of guys that are capable of cycling the puck, you know, and and battling for it and winning puck battles, protecting the puck with their body along the boards, all of that great stuff. You’re going to have so much possession time. If you don’t have anybody who can get creative with it and recognize when a defense gives you a gap and then makes a play off of that, it doesn’t ultimately mean anything, right? You’ve limited chances the other way, which is huge. It means games are close. And I think that that’s definitely what’s on board for the Kraken this year is they’re going to be in a lot lot of close games, but if you’re not able to to take advantage of those opportunities that that having that much offensive zone time gives you, you’re not going to score and you’re not going to at the end of the day win games. And that’s the one thing that I feel like is that kind of next step for the Kraken. And you know, as much as you’d love that next step to happen during training camp, I understand why for time reasons it can’t. And so I think that’s going to be like the big early season thing for me to watch is just how long does it take for the Kraken to start converting this great offensive zone possession time into actual chances on net. Yeah, that’s going to be key because I think we’re going to see a lot of 2-1 type of games and you need to take advantage of those spots and I think later in the year that’s where the young guys come in because we know the vets can’t really bring that. I’m sorry. We just know they’re not creative in the office. They haven’t. Yeah, exactly. History tells us that they have not. So, I think that’s where the younger players are really going to come in. And I think at a certain point you’re going to realize you need those guys to provide the creativity. So yeah, I I’m I’m looking forward to to seeing I think the Kraken are I think they’re they’re due for an opening game win. Haven’t had one for before. I think they’re due for it in Anaheim. So I I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to it. I’m really looking forward to the season starting being able to watch meaningful games again. Oh my gosh. Going to that last preseason. Preseason’s too long, man. Thank Thankfully it’ll get cut shorter next year, but it was it was tough sleding through this preseason, but thankfully we’ve got real NHL games to look forward to. Can’t wait for them. Uh really excited for it. Hope I I mean I know everybody else is as well and can’t wait to watch them alongside everybody including that live game commentary on the 16th, you know, fourth game of the season against Ottawa. So really looking forward to that. Um anything else from you R.J. before we sign off. No, I I think it’s all good. Like bring on the regular season. Let’s go. I know. I want to see Maddie. I want to see Shane. Like I want you know we didn’t really talk about those guys today and so many other guys on the team. you know, Jiren McCann and and Everly back together with Maddie. Like, I think that could be really fun, right? We’re going back to the OG, all that good stuff. Uh there’s there’s a lot of fun stuff to look forward to with this team for sure. Uh before we go, of course, want to thank our wonderful sponsor, the losses of Rico Tessendor. And while we hope none of you ever need his services, the odds say that at some point someone out there will be involved in an accident, whether on the road, at work, or anywhere in between. And when you are, we hope you call Rico at 425778-98000 or visit his website ricoesendor.com to schedule a free consultation. He’s won millions of dollars for his clients and helped thousands of people in the greater Seattle area. And as a fellow member of the EC community, we know he’ll help you too. 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