Injuries in hockey are inevitable. It’s a high-speed, high-intensity, chaotic game in which a player can be doing everything right, and yet, in the blink of an eye, their whole season can be derailed.

For the Seattle Kraken, they may have enough talent to make the playoffs for just the second time in their short history—and the first time since the 2022-23 season. But there’s no doubt that for Seattle to even have a sniff of contention, the roster has to stay relatively healthy throughout the regular season.

During training camp and preseason—before the puck even officially drops—the last thing you want to hear about is key veteran players dealing with injuries.

And yet, here we are.

Chandler Stephenson leaves Tuesday’s game

Seattle’s lineup looked very different Tuesday in an uninspiring 4-1 loss at Calgary compared to the group that played Sunday in a 5-3 home win against Vancouver. In fact, the only two Kraken players to appear in both games were Berkly Catton and Ryker Evans.

One of the veterans making his preseason debut Tuesday was Chandler Stephenson, who Seattle hopes can emerge as a top distributor for newcomers like Mason Marchment, who also played his first game against the Flames.

Stephenson came up lame after this play in the closing moments of the second period and did not return for the third.

Uh oh. Chandler Stephenson went down the tunnel after this play… pic.twitter.com/vfGcMUO3b2

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) September 24, 2025

The Kraken only announced that Stephenson was being “evaluated” by the medical staff, and coach Lane Lambert echoed that message in his post-game availability on Tuesday. “I have not heard anything,” Lambert said. “What I’ve heard is that he’s going to be evaluated [Wednesday].”

Unsurprisingly, Stephenson was not on the ice for practice Wednesday.

Jared McCann not at 100 percent

The Kraken desperately need Jared McCann to return to goal-scoring prominence this season after producing at a relatively low clip by his standards (though he still led the team in scoring with 61 points and buried 22 goals) in 2024-25.

One thing that likely hindered McCann’s production last season was an injury he played through for much of the campaign. He confirmed at the end of the year that he would undergo a procedure, and earlier this week he told us that recovery from that procedure kept him off the ice for most of the summer.

“I’m just taking it one day at a time right now. I wasn’t able to skate, really, that much in the summer, unfortunately. But I’m feeling pretty good, and hopefully it keeps going well.”

That comment came Saturday. On Sunday, the team announced McCann was day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Asked about McCann’s status following the game against the Canucks, Lambert said, “He didn’t get a lot of chance to skate this summer. If you ask any one of those players in that room how training camp has been and how the first four days have been, they’re going to say, ‘Extremely difficult.’ And so, there’s a maintenance portion for him. It’s been a tough camp so far.”

That doesn’t sound like Lambert and the team expect McCann to miss significant time, but it is concerning that Seattle’s best scorer is trying to ramp up for the season, and his body isn’t responding the way he had hoped.

The good news is that when McCann has been on the ice, he’s looked mostly like his old self—aside from a few moments where he’s flexed his leg. He looks fast, and his shot is as wicked as ever.

Here’s hoping this issue doesn’t linger into the season. But like Stephenson, McCann was also absent from practice Wednesday.

Ryan Lindgren working his way back

We didn’t see it happen, but we heard that offseason acquisition Ryan Lindgren took a puck to the face during Sunday morning’s practice, forcing him to leave the ice. He has yet to appear in a preseason game.

There’s some good news, though. Lambert didn’t express much concern, indicating the team expects Lindgren to be fine. He skated on his own in a red non-contact jersey Tuesday and returned to skate with the non-game group Wednesday.

Ryan Lindgren is on the ice with the non-game group in a regular blue jersey at #SeaKraken camp. His left eye is still noticeably black. pic.twitter.com/TAEDGvXNAo

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) September 24, 2025

Brandon Montour yet to skate in camp

Through all of this, top defenseman Brandon Montour still hasn’t skated with the team in training camp. Montour had a bursa removed from his ankle on the eve of camp and has been seen around Kraken Community Iceplex on crutches, chatting and laughing with team staff.

He did participate in pre-camp captains’ practices, and we’ve heard he had been dealing with the issue for a while this offseason before deciding to have the procedure so it wouldn’t bother him all season.

The team initially announced he’d be out for two weeks, which would put his projected return around next Wednesday. We’ll see…

Kraken need good health

The injury bug bites every team, every season; it’s just a matter of when—and how hard—it bites. For the Kraken, though, they simply can’t afford for key players to miss significant time if they want to be playing meaningful games late in the season.

On the plus side, there are still two full weeks before the games start to count, giving these banged-up players some runway to recover. The question is: Will they all be ready in time for Seattle’s Opening Night matchup against the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 9? Or will Seattle already be testing its depth from the drop of the puck?

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UPDATE: Add Kaapo Kakko to the injured list. He left Seattle’s 4-1 win in Edmonton in the first period after taking a wicked two-handed slash on the left hand from Oilers defenseman Beau Akey.

Here’s where Kaapo Kakko got hurt. Nasty two-hander by Beau Akey. #SeaKraken https://t.co/gyRFR3tNMx pic.twitter.com/vNZa6YJT4E

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) September 25, 2025