The Chicago Blackhawks continue their road trip out west with a stop against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

The Kraken sit four points out of the second wild card spot with 75 points. Four teams stand between Seattle and the San Jose Sharks and, boy, Seattle isn’t quite the analytics darling. The Kraken sit in 31st in 5-on-5 shot attempt share (one spot below Chicago) and 31st in 5-on-5 expected goals share (one spot above Chicago). Add on their minus-25 goal differential, and it’s all making the postseason is looking unlikely for Seattle.

Not helping the Kraken’s playoff dreams is their two-game losing streak and their 3-5-2 performance over their last 10 games. This is a team that’s built to thrive in the muddy middle of not being good enough for serious contention, and not bad enough to bottom out for high draft picks. The players Seattle has drafted haven’t quite reached their potential. Matty Beniers is second in scoring with 45 points (19 G, 26 A), Shane Wright is 10th in scoring through 72 games with 26 points (11 G, 15 A) and Berkly Catton has 15 points (6 G, 9 A) through 58 games in his first NHL season. Kaapo Kakko is another young forward with high potential who was acquired from the New York Rangers in December 2024. But Kakko only has 35 points (12 G, 23 A) in 57 games.

The young players seem to be the crux of Seattle’s problems because their veteran core isn’t horrible, despite being locked down with term. Jordan Eberle leads the team in scoring with 52 points (24 G, 28 A), but is 35 years old and is signed until the 2027 season. Center Chandler Stephenson is third in scoring with 45 points (15 G, 30 A), but the 31-year-old has some of the worst 5-on-5 analytics in the league and is signed at $6.25 million until 2030. However, it’s the blueline that truly exposes Seattle’s contractual obligations.

Vince Dunn leads Kraken defensemen with 41 points (11 G, 30 A) and is signed for one more year at $7.35 million. Brandon Montour has 31 points (10 G, 21 A) and, at 31 years old, is signed until the 2029 season with a $7.14 million cap hit. Adam Larsson (5 G, 17 A) is 33 and has a contract that expires in 2029, costing the Kraken $5.25 million to the cap. Ryan Lindgren, who’s 28, has a $4.5M cap hit until his contract is up in 2029. Seattle has a few difficult-to-move contracts on their blue line and desperately need their young forwards to take a big step in development.

While there’s no official word on who’ll be in net, starter Joey Daccord has an .899 save percentage through 44 games and played in the Kraken’s 6-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday. Philipp Grubauer has a .911 save percentage through 30 games. Injuries are as follows: Wright is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, forward Ryan Winterton is day-to-day for personal reasons, and forward Max McCormick is out for the season. Starting lineup is below.

SEA: McCann-Beniers-Eberle
McMann-Stephenson-Kakko
Schwartz-Catton-Tolvanen
Meyers-Eberle8-Gaudreau
(Melanson/Winterton/Wright-red)

Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Montour
Evans-Oleksiak https://t.co/jSQF37AohY

— Game Day Lines (@GameDayLines) April 4, 2026

The Chicago Blackhawks are 2-5-3 in their last 10 games and have lost five straight. Nick Lardis was on the ice for the morning skate (along with Andrew Mangiapane), which is a good sign after he took a puck to the hand in Chicago’s 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Ever since Lardis has been moved into the top six, he’s been scoring. In his last seven games, Lardis has six points (4 G, 2 A). Another young Hawk that has been interesting to watch is Anton Frondell. Through his first six NHL games, Frondell has five points (1 G, 4 A). While watching him create plays in the offensive zone is exciting, observing Frondell’s awareness in his own end is extremely intriguing. The sample size is too small to look at analytics, but watching his two-way play is a reason for hope.

The Blackhawks didn’t run line rushes this morning, so no lineups until the pregame warm-up. Even though last game saw some mid-game blending, that lineup is below.

Blackhawks lines in warmups at Oilers:

Greene-Bedard-Lardis
Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mikheyev
Donato-Nazar-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Boisvert-Slaggert

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Korchinski-Del Mastro

Knight

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 3, 2026

The only line-up change to report is the d-pairing getting a new look. Sam Rinzel is now on the top pair with Alex Vlasic.

Arvid Soderblom is in the Blackhawks’ starter’s crease in Seattle.

No forward line rushes today, but Rinzel/Crevier switched places in the D pairs:
Vlasic-Rinzel
Kaiser-Crevier
Korchinski-Del Mastro

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 4, 2026

Let’s see a good game from the kids and hopefully a win.

Let’s go Hawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Kraken
45.59% (30th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 45.04% (31st)
42.29% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 44.64% (31st)
2.54 (31st) — Goals per game — 2.80 (26th)
3.24 (25th) — Goals against per game — 3.07 (18th)
46.1% (31st) — Faceoffs — 47.8% (25th)
17.6% (27th) — Power play — 20.1% (19th)
83.6% (1st) — Penalty kill — 72.9% (31st)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 9:00 p.m. CT
Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720