2024-25 NHL team preview: Seattle Kraken

Credit: Feb 24, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Kraken right wing Jordan Eberle (7) celebrates with center Matty Beniers (10) after scoring a goal against the Minnesota Wild during the third period at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

LAST SEASON

The Kraken entered 2023-24 riding the greatest high of their short history; in just their second season of existence, they’d knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in Round 1 of the playoffs and pushed the Dallas Stars to Game 7 of Round 2. Had the Kraken, a plucky veteran team with Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers mixed in, arrived earlier than expected?

Nope. After being buoyed by the NHL’s second-highest team shooting percentage in 2022-23 at 11.57 percent, the puck luck regressed to the mean last season. Seattle’s shooting percentage fell to 9.11 percent, good for 29^th in the NHL. The Kraken dropped from fifth in the NHL in goals per game to 29^th. Beniers endured a classic sophomore slump. The Kraken lost seven of their first nine games and never seriously threatened for a playoff spot. They did enjoy a nine-game winning streak beginning in late December but cancelled it out with an eight-game skid in March. They were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention by the first week of April and fired coach Dave Hakstol after the season.

The Kraken entered the summer struggling to find an identity. Did their 2022-23 playoff run create unrealistic expectations for a three-year-old franchise still building out its pipeline of prospects? Apparently not, according to GM Ron Francis, who doubled down on the team’s commitment to veterans, handing out seven-year contracts to defenseman Brandon Montour and center Chandler Stephenson at $7.14 million and $6.25 million AAVs, respectively. In doing so, have the Kraken actually boosted themselves back into contender status? Or have they improved just enough to doom themselves to more mediocrity?

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Brandon Montour, D
Chandler Stephenson, C
Josh Mahura, D

Departures

Justin Schultz, D (UFA)
Brian Dumoulin, D (Ana)
Tomas Tatar, LW (NJ)
Kailer Yamamoto, RW (Utah – PTO)
Devin Shore, C (Min)
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, C (Col – PTO)
Chris Driedger, G (Fla)

OFFENSE

The Kraken of 2022-23 rolled line after line effectively and produced six 20-goal scorers and 13 players with at least 13 goals. But it wasn’t difficult to see that the finishing ability would be difficult to sustain. Jared McCann, for instance, buried a franchise-record 40 goals but converted on more than 19 percent of his shots despite being a 10.5 percent career shooter entering that season. The regression was predictable and harsh team-wide in 2023-24; McCann plummeted to 29 goals, and only two Kraken players scored 20 or more. With fewer chances being finished, top defenseman Vince Dunn’s point total dropped from the 60s to the 40s. Beniers in particular took a huge step back offensively, picking up just 15 goals and 37 points after delivering a 24-33-57 line in his rookie season. Beniers was still quite effective defensively, however, and there’s the rub: he always profiled better as a two-way player than an All-Star scorer. He’s not a lock to be Seattle’s long-term answer on the first line.

So if McCann has regressed to his career norms and Beniers is never going to score at an elite level, where else will the offense come from going forward? The Kraken hope new additions Stephenson and Montour help. Stephenson is being paid like a top-six forward and delivered between 51 and 65 points in each of his final three seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights, but he’s more of a speedy, versatile lineup augmenter than a needle mover. Montour, on the other hand, possesses a high offensive ceiling, having delivered 73 points just two seasons ago, but that came with an elite collection of talent around him on the Florida Panthers, who made consecutive Stanley Cup Finals and took home the prize last season.

If Seattle really wants to become an above-average offensive club, it can’t expect its brigade of high-floor, low-ceiling veterans such as Jordan Eberle and Oliver Bjorkstrand to be the driving force. The help must come from the pipeline. Is Shane Wright finally ready? He helped Seattle’s farm club, the Coachella Valley firebirds, reach back to back Calder Cup Finals. He buried four goals in eight games of NHL action last season to boot. It’s time for the 2022 Draft’s No. 4 overall pick to get a year-long look. It’s not inconceivable that Wright, who has a deadly release, becomes one of Seattle’s best goal-scorers this season.

DEFENSE

Smothering the opposition wasn’t Seattle’s problem last season. The Kraken carried the league’s fourth-best expected goals against rate and allowed the ninth-fewest goals in the NHL. Beniers looks like he’ll win a Selke Trophy someday. The Kraken scored 61.54 percent of the goals and got 52.15 percent of the scoring chances with their top pair of Dunn and Adam Larsson patrolling the ice at 5-on-5 last season. They also may have a future key contributor in efficient puck mover Ryker Evans, whom they snagged in Round 2 of the 2021 Draft. He’s been a horse at the AHL level and got into 36 games at the NHL level last year. He can be eased in on third-pair minutes, albeit he played 19:11 per game as a rookie, so it’s not like he was totally sheltered.

Can the Kraken’s penalty killing find its way this season? For all three seasons of the franchise’s existence, it has been their defensive Achilles heel, falling below 80 percent. Between Larsson, Jamie Oleksiak and Will Borgen, they have some serious net-clearing help on the back end, but it hasn’t translated to success.

GOALTENDING

Philipp Grubauer is only Seattle’s starter right now if you equate salary with merit. He carries three more seasons on a contract paying him $5.9 million per year. It’s one of the worst deals in the league relative to performance. Among 65 goalies who played 20 or more games last season, he sat 55^th in goals saved above expected. Since he signed his deal with Seattle in summer 2021, 39 goalies have played 100 or more games, and he has the lowest save percentage among all of them at .893. Woof.

Joey Daccord, a bargain at $1.2 million for one more season, is the superior tender right now. He sat in the top half of the NHL in goals saved above expected last season, and his .916 SV% placed him sixth in the league. It’s worth noting that Daccord is streaky; his great stat line from last season partially reflects an amazing December and January. But that run alone is better than anything Grubauer has given the Kraken. Daccord started 46 games to Grubauer’s 34 last season, but that was partially because Grubauer played just three games in December and none in January due to a lower-body injury. This time, Daccord has earned the right to start over Grubauer even if he’s healthy.

COACHING

Dan Bylsma’s rollercoaster journey has finally led back to the NHL. He led the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2008-09, but his second NHL stint in Buffalo was a failure and he bounced all over across the past seven seasons, from assistant coaching gigs with USA’s World Championship team and the Detroit Red Wings to the USHL and, finally, AHL Coachella Valley. It would be an understatement to say he’s earned the internal promotion after steering the Firebirds to consecutive Calder Cup Finals. The Kraken’s young charges, most notably Wright and Evans, are already familiar with him. Also promoted from the AHL is groundbreaker Jessica Campbell, the first woman to become a full-time assistant coach behind the bench at the NHL level.

ROOKIES

Wright has only played 16 NHL games but is no longer a rookie because he played at least six games in consecutive seasons. Evans is a sophomore now. We don’t project any rookie to crack Seattle’s opening night lineup for 2024-25, but the Kraken have some names to watch in Coachella Valley who could get the nod at some point this season. Big, skilled winger Jani Nyman came over from North America and saw action in the AHL late last season. After playing one Calder Cup playoff game, Jagger Firkus is making his regular-season pro debut with the Firebirds. He torched the WHL for 63 goals and 126 points in 63 games last season. Could he end up fast-tracked to the NHL level if the Kraken are starved for goals?

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Which Matty Beniers is the real one: the productive rookie or snakebitten sophomore? While he’s never going to win an Art Ross Trophy, he was at least a front-line scorer in Year 1. But if he struggles to generate offense like he did in Year 2, will we have to recalibrate our expectations for him?

2. Can Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour live up to their contracts? They’re being paid to be difference makers but both left recent Stanley Cup champions on which they were useful cogs, not stars. Will they be exposed without elite teammates or will they blossom in bigger roles?

3. Can Shane Wright become the face of the franchise? Entering their fourth season, the Kraken haven’t found their true star yet, despite the fact they handed Beniers a seven-year extension at a $7.14 million AAV this summer. Who will perennially represent them at All-Star Games and challenge for major individual awards? Is it Wright? Perhaps it will be Berkly Catton someday. But the Kraken don’t have that marquee attraction yet.

PREDICTION

The Kraken probably shouldn’t have improved over the summer given they still need to build out their farm system. But they obviously did improve by adding Stephenson and Montour. Given the Pacific has several rebuilding squads in the San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks, and that the Los Angeles Kings had a bad offseason, Seattle should battle for a top-four spot in the Pacific. That should put this team in the 90-point range right around the playoff bubble. Welcome back to the Murky Middle.

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