Pacific division predictions
By Phil Gretzky
4. Seattle Kraken
GM Ron Francis is sitting quite securely in his chair and smiling right about now I’m guessing. The Kraken are still experiencing some expansion woes in building a winner but are well on track for their plan. It only took them two years to make the playoffs, as they grabbed a wildcard spot last season. They upset the Colorado Avalanche in the first round and then proceeded to lose against Dallas in the second round, but it was a great first step as the team had a taste of success.
Will the Kraken build on that this season? I’d say they have a chance, but I don’t see them as a top-three team in the division just yet as they are a bit lacking in top-end talent. Nonetheless, this is a good and scrappy team that may not have a lot of sexy names but is a team based on depth.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that the reigning Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers is on your roster too.
Surrounding Beniers are Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Andre Burakovsky, Jaden Schwartz, and Alex Wennberg. Solid if unspectacular top six six-forward group – although Jaden Schwartz really should practice better defensive play as he’s been below -10 the last two seasons in a row. You’d really expect better from a veteran of 668 NHL games who’s making $5.5 million for the next three seasons.
The bottom six forward group are no slouches either. If you checked the first link you’ll see ex-Oiler Kailer Yamamoto has been signed by the Kraken to play fourth-line RW.
The D corps are very solid too. Vince Dunn finished second on the team in scoring – and 10th in the league amongst blueliners – in scoring with an eye-popping 64 points in 81 games all while maintaining a +28 – that’s huge. Expect some regression next season, however, as he finished with a shooting % of 9.4%, 2.5% above his career average.
Ex-Oiler Adam Larsson had a rough first season defensively in Seattle but rebounded in a big way last season with a +27 and a career-high 33 points in a full season played.
The second pairing isn’t quite as impressive, but still solid as Jamie Oleksiak had 25 points last season and his partner Will Borgen had 20, the former in 75 games and the latter in the full 82. Those are career highs for both players, but again shooting %s plays a part in those numbers so don’t necessarily expect improvement. A now 33-year-old Justin Schultz anchors the third pairing, and he thrived in his downgraded role putting up 34 points and a +4 in 73 games for the Kraken last season. His partner is 31-year-old former Pen Brian Dumoulin.
The departure of Carson Soucy to Vancouver may have an impact on this lineup yet, we’ll see.
What will prevent the Kraken from making their way up the standings appears to be between the pipes as they don’t have a great option in either a starter or 1a/1b situation. Both Philip Grubauer and Martin Jones – the latter of whom has since departed for Toronto – finished with sv%’s below .900 and GAAs above 2.5…..ouch.
Third-stringer Joey Daccord has shown some promise, but in five games played he only finished with a .900 sv% and a GAA of 3.14, so don’t expect him to make the team on the regular without a major turnaround. Chris Dreidger is signed as well but he put up relatively the same numbers as Jones and Grubauer last season.
Expect Seattle to run in place until they get more high-end talent on their roster and – like LA – improve their goaltending.