Screen Shots: Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Olympics and Kraken
Adam Proteau discusses reports of the Oilers' Connor McDavid and Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews being captains at the All-Star Game, renewed confidence in NHL players going to the Olympics and the Kraken being one of the hottest teams in the league.
This is Screen Shots, a regular feature in which we tackle a few different hockey topics and analyze them in a few short paragraphs. On to it, we go:
Those are precisely the right choices for the event, which will be held in Toronto. You’ve got the best scorer in the game in Matthews and the best player in the game in McDavid. No matter how the league fills out the rest of the all-star rosters, it’s hard to ask for more than that.
With a renewed determination to spotlight the best individual stars in the league, putting Matthews and McDavid front and center will bring out the best of them, and viewers will be delighted by what they see from the two dynamos. Nobody expects the All-Star Game to resemble a first-rate, emotion-packed event like we see in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but fans have every right to expect the league’s top stars to put their skills on display for everyone to marvel at. And that’s what they’re going to get from McDavid and Matthews. We’re in for a real treat.
News was made earlier this week when International Ice Hockey Federation boss Luc Tardif looked confident that the NHL will have Olympic participation at the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Corina, Italy. We’re also optimistic, and barring some catastrophic change in the relationship between the NHL, NHLPA and the Olympic committee, it’s safe to say Olympic participation is definitely happening. It's good news, at long last, for a true best-on-best tournament.
We'll also get a best-on-best showdown at a 2025 World Cup, but the Olympics are just a little more special than that. It’s always a risk for NHL teams to surrender their best players and risk them being injured at a non-NHL tournament, but it’s a risk the Players’ Association is more than willing to take. The result is going to knock the socks off fans and media alike.
We’ve got a couple of years before we get that Olympic participation, but it’s easily worth the wait.
Finally, let’s tip our cap to the Seattle Kraken, the hottest team in the league at the moment.
They’re 8-0-2 in their past 10 games, and they’ve won six in a row, tying themselves with fellow Pacific Division team Edmonton in their current win streak. The Kraken are nearly at the halfway point, having played 39 games, and they've recovered from a slow start that saw them lose eight straight games in late November and early December to post a record of 8-14-7. And now, thanks to their hot stretch, they’re firmly in the mix for a wild-card berth in the West.
Because of their early woes, the Kraken looked like they might have to sell off looming UFAs, such as veteran forwards Jordan Eberle and Alexander Wennberg and defenseman Justin Schultz. Now, they may be buyers at the trade deadline. As per PuckPedia, Seattle has approximately $2 million in salary cap space, and that may be enough to improve their forward group or defense corps with depth additions.
Regardless of potential roster moves, there's important hockey to be played in Seattle until further notice. That's a victory for a still-young-and-evolving franchise and Kraken GM Ron Francis. They’ll have to hold off teams such as the Oilers and Calgary Flames for a lower playoff berth and secure their second post-season appearance in three seasons of operation.
The Vegas Golden Knights have set a high bar for expansion teams, but the Kraken are doing very well in their own right. Their fans should have confidence their team will have the opportunity to improve on their appearance in the second round of the playoffs last season.
