Did Mariners mania make it hard to focus on much else? Recovered and ready to check back in with the local teams, or looking for a new one to fill the void? Here’s what the Kraken are up to nearly a month into the season.
They were tied for seventh-most standings points in the 32-team NHL going into Tuesday’s slate, which included a game against the Montreal Canadiens at Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle sported a 5-2-2 record, its best start to date, with several notable wins already. The Kraken sat second in the Pacific Division behind the Vegas Golden Knights, whom they’ve already beaten this season.
Five of nine games were decided by a single goal and another, a 3-0 win over formidable Winnipeg, was essentially a 1-0 game until the Kraken scored two empty-netters.
What has this new coach done to the struggling Kraken?
The early Lane Lambert era has been as advertised: toned-down, hardworking, defensive-minded hockey that frustrates opponents used to scoring easily. It doesn’t require the star power that the Kraken have always lacked. They’ve been good about limiting dangerous chances.
In order to get to that franchise-best record through nine games, the Kraken haven’t picked off rebuilding teams. The early schedule has been challenging. They beat Vegas, Winnipeg and Toronto, all of whom won their respective divisions last season. On Saturday they added Edmonton, a team that’s given them nothing but trouble through four seasons and change. Any one of those games would have been a signature win last season, and they’ve done it four times in nine games.
It hasn’t all gone according to plan. The power play is middle of the pack, a little better than it was last year. The penalty kill is worse. The Kraken embarked on a long road trip while fighting injuries to important players like top-six wingers Jared McCann, Kaapo Kakko and Mason Marchment. McCann has missed five games as of Tuesday, but is practicing again, while Kakko appears to be ahead of schedule in returning from a broken hand sustained in the preseason. Newly acquired Marchment only missed one game.
Power-play puck-mover Brandon Montour left the Kraken’s six-game road trip (2-2-2) to be with his brother, who battled ALS and passed away Oct. 20.
In response, Seattle called in reinforcements from the minors and got the road swing back on track.
Someone offered me a ticket. What can I expect?
During the Kraken’s lone playoff season, they went 21-14-6 on the road but were barely above .500 at home. So it’s not necessary to indulge the home fans, but always appreciated. The Kraken started 3-0 at home for the first time ever, including two gutsy wins — against Vegas and Edmonton.
The Lambert era came with a change that’s fairly inconsequential to the casual fan. Morning skates were moved from Kraken Community Iceplex, where they had been all four years prior, to Climate Pledge Arena, where their opponents were already skating. Were the Kraken at a slight disadvantage before, getting loose on different ice? Different boards, different bounces, different atmosphere? Early returns have been positive, but too soon to call.
“We’ve done a pretty good job of taking advantage of home ice. Overall, I think we’ve had pretty solid performances,” Lambert said Tuesday. “Certainly we’ve had solid performances from our goaltender as well.”
Who?
He was talking about Joey Daccord.
The Kraken aren’t scoring in bunches — no surprise there. They sat 25th of 32 NHL teams with an average of 2.78 goals per game Tuesday afternoon.
In his first season as Seattle’s unquestioned No. 1 — and the first year of a sizable extension — Daccord has been good at making leads stand up. That’s especially true when the Kraken are allowing 30-plus shots on him, which they have four times.
He’s appeared in seven of nine games through Monday and all three home games, sporting a 5-1-1 record. He bounced back from a bad outing in Philadelphia, where he was pulled after two periods and five goals allowed, to shut out Winnipeg.
Who is this Berkly Catton guy?
McCann’s temporary replacement was 19-year-old Berkly Catton, a 2024 first-round pick who broke out last season with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs and is on the cusp of a full-time NHL job.
He made his NHL debut six games into the season in Philadelphia. The clock is ticking on his nine-game Kraken trial run — he’s played five, including Tuesday’s game against Montreal. After he appears in nine games, Seattle has to decide whether to let his entry-level contract kick in or return him to the WHL.
It’s strange, but just go with it — according to a longstanding agreement between the NHL and the WHL’s umbrella organization, the Canadian Hockey League, Catton is too young to play in the pros below the NHL level this season. If he doesn’t stick at the top level, he has to go back to playing against fellow teenagers. A new agreement will reportedly allow each NHL team to send one 19-year-old player to the American Hockey League per season, beginning in 2026-27, a year too late for Catton.
Catton has been a fine stand-in for the high-scoring McCann, but is still getting used to playing at this level. He has two assists and is waiting on his first NHL goal.
Maybe McCann returns this weekend, Catton returns to the press box and the ticking clock stops, like it did with Shane Wright in 2022-23. Catton plays again occasionally, bides his time until the World Junior Championship in December — again, straight out of the Wright playbook.
Or maybe the Kraken have seen enough in either direction. Catton returns to the Chiefs, having missed a good chunk of their season but with working knowledge of NHL life and expectations. Or they decide it’s worth starting the countdown to Catton’s next contract.
Wasn’t this summer all about re-signing Kakko? Where is he?
He signed a three-year extension this offseason, but fans haven’t gotten a chance to see what a more settled Kakko looks like. The 24-year-old winger, a potential franchise building block, got hurt while absorbing a preseason hit and is seemingly close to a return.
There’s a silver lining. He usually played with top-line center Matty Beniers, and in his absence, Beniers and Jordan Eberle linked back up. Beniers in particular has looked fired up in the early going. He has six points (one goal, five assists) in nine games and Eberle had three goals in two games against Winnipeg and Edmonton, respectively, giving him four goals and eight points on the season.
When can I officially tell my cousin/dentist/therapist/etc. ‘The Kraken are back, baby’?
They put themselves in a good position. But the tried-and-true season benchmark is Thanksgiving, when about three-quarters of the teams in a playoff spot historically hold onto that spot. It’s worth noting that the Kraken won four of their first six games and were 4-4-1 through nine last year before the wheels flew off.
And there are subplots to a few of those early wins. Three nights into the season, Vegas didn’t look like they do now. The Oilers have been OK-to-awful around this time the past two seasons before pulling it together in time for a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
The buy-in is certainly there now. Whether they can weather the remaining schedule, a whopping 70-plus games, remains to be seen. I’d wait a few weeks, but you do you.