For those Kraken fans hoping the team will tank the rest of the season for the highest possible draft pick, Seattle’s game Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild was ideal. The game was fun to watch, and the home team put in a good effort, but spotting a strong defensive squad a three-goal lead and then trying to battle back was too big of a hill to climb. Ultimately, the pro-tank crowd got the outcome it wanted, with a Seattle comeback falling just short and the Wild skating away with a 4-3 win.
“I thought there was a lot of good [in our game],” coach Dan Bylsma said. “I just felt the puck went in a little too easily for various reasons at the beginning of the game.”
The Kraken tilted the ice and allowed just one shot on goal as they tried to find the equalizer in the third period, but Filip Gustavsson stood tall for Minnesota and stopped all 11 Seattle offerings.
The big storyline coming into this one was Yanni Gourde’s return to action and the implications of the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline, but Shane Wright did some things that also deserve mentioning.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken loss to the Wild.
Takeaway #1: Here’s Yanni!
Yanni Gourde played Tuesday for the first time since Jan. 2. The pesky veteran center missed 22 games after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia. Adding to the intrigue of his return, he has been widely rumored as a potential trade candidate before Friday’s deadline.
In terms of his performance, he looked like his old self. He was fast and physical, and in the middle of the second period, he went right to the top of the blue paint, where he ran into Gustavsson and mucked things up with his signature Yanni Gourde smirk.
“We missed him since Jan. 2,” Bylsma said. “To have his energy and his passion was noticeable for us to have him back in the lineup tonight.”
Gourde logged 12:53 of ice time and registered the second assist on Brandon Montour’s rocket of a shot that cut Minnesota’s lead to 4-3 with 11 seconds left in the second period, setting up an exciting third.
There’s a bigger picture to consider with Gourde’s return, though; with the NHL Trade Deadline looming on Friday, Gourde has been frequently mentioned in trade rumors, and if he were to move, then this would have been his last home game as a Kraken.
He was asked about this after the game and said, “I’m focusing on what I can control, and that’s— yeah, I can control showing up tomorrow, working hard, and that’s all I can control. So that’s what I’m focused on, and we’ll see what happens the next few days.”
He was also asked if there have been discussions about a contract extension with Seattle, and he said, “Yeah, we’ve been—“ before cutting himself off and adding, “There’s been communication. That’s all I’ll say.”
If I were a betting man, I’d say he sticks around, but stay tuned.
Takeaway #2: Shane Wright is blossoming
Shane Wright has been talked about a lot this season, but it’s remarkable to think back to how he looked before his series of healthy scratches earlier this year compared to how he looks now. The kid is flying around the ice, and every time he’s out there, he does something that makes you raise your eyebrows.
While I’ve always been cautiously optimistic about Wright’s future, I’ve also had reservations about how high his ceiling will be. But seeing him play with this level of confidence makes me think the sky is the limit for the 21-year-old center if this is the norm for him.
“I’m obviously trying to play confident, try to play my game and just continue to improve and continue to learn as much as I can and just kind of grow with every game I play,” Wright said.
After posting two assists in Seattle’s win Saturday over Vancouver, Wright scored a power-play goal Tuesday, one-timing Oliver Bjorkstrand’s seam pass and getting a little help from Brock Faber’s stick blade to fool Gustavsson at 14:10 of the second.
WRIGHT AS RAIN! ☔️ 🚨
Great seam pass by Bjorkstrand, and Shane Wright gets a little help from Faber’s stick for the power-play goal.
4-2 Wild. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/CmKneqXKtn
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 5, 2025
He now has seven power-play goals on the season, leading the team by three (Bjorkstrand and Montour are tied for second with four each).
If this is who Wright will consistently be—and I’m beginning to believe it is, as he has remained effective for two months now—then Kraken fans should have high hopes that he can be a cornerstone player for many years to come.
Takeaway #3: Goals going in “too easily”
There were some interesting quirks in this game. The Kraken didn’t challenge for goalie interference on Vinnie Hinostroza’s deflection goal at 12:27 of the first to make it 1-0 (Bylsma said they didn’t challenge because Jamie Oleksiak pushed Hinostroza into Joey Daccord). They did challenge for a missed high-stick call after former Kraken Devin Shore appeared to make it 5-3 in the third period and won that one. They also got a rare penalty shot and power play on the same play after Faber was called for slashing Eeli Tolvanen on a penalty shot and then boarding him, earning two separate infractions (Seattle failed to score on either).
The biggest issue was that Seattle gave itself too big of a hill to climb, falling behind 4-1 in the first half of the game before turning on the afterburners and trying to claw back.
Statistically, it was a tough night for Daccord, who faced only 20 shots and ended the game with an .800 save percentage. But he was disrupted on the first goal, had a dual-layer screen on the second goal with Hinostroza and Josh Mahura both standing in front of him when Jared Spurgeon banked a perfect shot off the post, then watched as Frederick Gaudreau got a bounce off Jamie Oleksiak’s skate, and Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Johansson executed a pretty give-and-go to make it 4-1 in the second.
To Seattle’s credit, it eventually clamped down on the Wild in a way we haven’t seen too often this season, controlling the last 27-ish minutes of the game. But in the end, it still wasn’t enough.
