
7. Seattle Kraken
Not much to say about a team that just started operating last season, they’re going through the typical growing pains of an expansion franchise, yet they aren’t my last place team in the Pacific Division.
I was impressed that they were able to land Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand in the offseason. That’s quite a coup for their wings, especially since both guys can play both wings.
Not so coincidentally, both the aforementioned players are playing the wing for Alex Wennberg on the first line. Wennberg has seven points in 13 games, Burakovsky 10 in 13, and Bjorkstrand seven in 13. The second line meanwhile, is centered by Matty Beniers who has nine points in 13 games, with Jordan Eberle on one side (eight points in 13 games) and Jaden Schwartz on the other one – another great pickup in the offseason and currently leading the Kraken in points with 5-5-10 in 13.
That’s a typical top six for an expansion franchise.
2022 fourth overall pick Shane Wright centers the third line, not much from him so far as he’s only got a single assist in seven games. His wingers are Brandon Tanev (eight points in 13 games) and Yanni Gourde, who has 2-5-7 in 12 games.
The fourth line is centered by Morgan Geekie, who has seven points in 10 games. His wingers are Daniel Sprong, who has had a surprisingly good start to the season with seven points in seven games, and Ryan Donato, with 1-2-3 in 10 games.
Not a lot of talent there but certainly good depth scoring from top to bottom so far. A scrappy bunch.
On D, it’s a similar story. Vince Dunn mans the top pair left side for the Kraken, with 2-6-8 in 13 games so far. His partner is stay at home defender Adam Larsson, whom the Oilers lost to Seattle in the expansion draft when they poached him in free agency. 2-1-3 in 13 games is about what you’d expect from him.
The second pairing is Jamie Oleksiak, who has 3-2-5 in 13 games, and Justin Schultz, who has 1-5-6 in the same 13 games. The bottom pairing is Carson Soucy – 1-3-4 in 13 games, and William Borgen, 1-2-3 in 13 games.
In goal is where the Kraken might actually be in trouble, as both of their starting goalies – Chris Dreidger and Phillippe Grubauer – are on the shelf right now.
In their places, at least for now, are Martin Jones and Joey Daccord. That’s going about as well as you’d think – Jones has a .901 sv% and a 2.61 GAA. I’m not seeing any games played for Daccord, but oddly enough Grubauer is the only other goalie who’s played games right now – .860 sv% with a 3.77 GAA. Grubauer must’ve just recently become injured in the previous game and Daccord hasn’t played yet – no stats listed for him.