The Athletic has gotten so lazy they just shit out article with zero critical thinking involved. We really need to stop giving air to any article with Dom on the byline
>**Present Outlook (Rating: 0.5):** Is it bad if a team’s best player is Vince Dunn? That sounds pretty bad to us. Seattle’s depth approach has floundered in consecutive seasons with last year’s 27th-place finish feeling like confirmation for what should be the obvious: this team is not good enough. While the Kraken do have some strong players who might’ve made the 151-200 list (Joey Daccord, Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, Brandon Montour), the problem is they don’t have anyone close to the top 100. Having just a single player in 5C — a courtesy, frankly — is as rough as it gets. With how rough the top end looks, the Kraken are a sneaky contender for Gavin McKenna, something that might finally force Seattle onto the right path.
>**Future Outlook (Rating: 1.9):** Kraken fans were probably expecting to see a higher Future Rating. And while there’s no denying they have a very strong group of four young centers to build around (with at least one likely to move to the wing), their future suffers from having one of the league’s most lackluster cores. They’ve got some talented potential complementary wingers coming in guys like Jani Nyman and Carson Rehkopf, who just missed out on inclusion in Prospect Tiers, too. But they’ve yet to use a premium draft pick on a D and Niklas Kokko doesn’t guarantee their future in net. (He was one of the final goalies cut from the Prospect Tiers by scouts, though, and is a solid prospect). A top-end young D would move the needle, so that should be a real focus.
>**Path to Contention:** The best outcome for the Kraken in the next year would be that their season bottoms out, the ping-pong balls bounce their way, and they get lucky and get Gavin McKenna or one of the high-end D in the 2026 class. Without that, it’s hard to see a path forward that ends in actual contention, even if all of their current prospects break just right. No team is more desparate for high-end talent — both now and in the future.
I was waiting for this garbage to make it here. Fading Tampa at a higher present ranking than back to back finalist Edmonton? Woefully mismanaged Detroit a bubble team for the playoffs? Leafs, who have never made it out of the second round this century and just lost their keystone player, 20% higher in current roster construction than Carolina?
This publication’s hate boner for Seattle is the most laughable of all. Seattle put below present parity with San Jose when we finished 24 points ahead of them five months ago? Rangers, Vegas, and Vancouver with better prospect pipelines than the Kraken? Even those teams’ most delusional fans don’t believe that.
When a model doesn’t pass the eye test, that’s a good clue to reevaluate some of the assumptions that went into it and try to explain where it might be getting something wrong. But the Athletic is too ignorant and addicted to clickbait to do that.
Is he wrong tho?
We probably hold our prospects in higher regard since we know them better?
I don’t think they’re far off in their estimation. I am a pessimist by nature tbf.
As awful the athletic has been lately I can’t say they’re wrong about us… that said they miss entirely on the future. This team has Catton, JOB, Wright, Beniers, and Evans. That’s makings for a SCARY team by 2030. (Plus on some copium/jopium we land McKenna too)
Let’s be real, the team isn’t close. We had some early picks and have enough cap flexibility, but we have no real ability to score at the moment.
At risk of being called a troll… maybe Ron Francis was the safe but ultimately very bad pick for GM?
![[The Athletic] 2025 NHL Contention Cycle model, combining Player Tiers and Prospect Tiers to model where teams are and where they’re going.](https://www.rawchili.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hzgz6hexdrpf1-1658x1024.png)
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*Based on Doms shit model
The Athletic has gotten so lazy they just shit out article with zero critical thinking involved. We really need to stop giving air to any article with Dom on the byline
https://preview.redd.it/8tvsaox4frpf1.png?width=936&format=png&auto=webp&s=880962b6c5ccfc1dadd4519e07048c652a35dab9
This is the Kraken section
edit: more readable version
>**Present Outlook (Rating: 0.5):** Is it bad if a team’s best player is Vince Dunn? That sounds pretty bad to us. Seattle’s depth approach has floundered in consecutive seasons with last year’s 27th-place finish feeling like confirmation for what should be the obvious: this team is not good enough. While the Kraken do have some strong players who might’ve made the 151-200 list (Joey Daccord, Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, Brandon Montour), the problem is they don’t have anyone close to the top 100. Having just a single player in 5C — a courtesy, frankly — is as rough as it gets. With how rough the top end looks, the Kraken are a sneaky contender for Gavin McKenna, something that might finally force Seattle onto the right path.
>**Future Outlook (Rating: 1.9):** Kraken fans were probably expecting to see a higher Future Rating. And while there’s no denying they have a very strong group of four young centers to build around (with at least one likely to move to the wing), their future suffers from having one of the league’s most lackluster cores. They’ve got some talented potential complementary wingers coming in guys like Jani Nyman and Carson Rehkopf, who just missed out on inclusion in Prospect Tiers, too. But they’ve yet to use a premium draft pick on a D and Niklas Kokko doesn’t guarantee their future in net. (He was one of the final goalies cut from the Prospect Tiers by scouts, though, and is a solid prospect). A top-end young D would move the needle, so that should be a real focus.
>**Path to Contention:** The best outcome for the Kraken in the next year would be that their season bottoms out, the ping-pong balls bounce their way, and they get lucky and get Gavin McKenna or one of the high-end D in the 2026 class. Without that, it’s hard to see a path forward that ends in actual contention, even if all of their current prospects break just right. No team is more desparate for high-end talent — both now and in the future.
I was waiting for this garbage to make it here. Fading Tampa at a higher present ranking than back to back finalist Edmonton? Woefully mismanaged Detroit a bubble team for the playoffs? Leafs, who have never made it out of the second round this century and just lost their keystone player, 20% higher in current roster construction than Carolina?
This publication’s hate boner for Seattle is the most laughable of all. Seattle put below present parity with San Jose when we finished 24 points ahead of them five months ago? Rangers, Vegas, and Vancouver with better prospect pipelines than the Kraken? Even those teams’ most delusional fans don’t believe that.
When a model doesn’t pass the eye test, that’s a good clue to reevaluate some of the assumptions that went into it and try to explain where it might be getting something wrong. But the Athletic is too ignorant and addicted to clickbait to do that.
Is he wrong tho?
We probably hold our prospects in higher regard since we know them better?
I don’t think they’re far off in their estimation. I am a pessimist by nature tbf.
As awful the athletic has been lately I can’t say they’re wrong about us… that said they miss entirely on the future. This team has Catton, JOB, Wright, Beniers, and Evans. That’s makings for a SCARY team by 2030. (Plus on some copium/jopium we land McKenna too)
Let’s be real, the team isn’t close. We had some early picks and have enough cap flexibility, but we have no real ability to score at the moment.
At risk of being called a troll… maybe Ron Francis was the safe but ultimately very bad pick for GM?