35-41-6, 76
points (7th Pacific, 27th overall)
2.99 GF/GP, 16th; 3.20 GA/GP, 24th
18.9 PP%, 23rd; 77.2 PK%, 21st
Key losses: LW Andre Burakovsky
Key additions: C Frederick Gaudreau, LW Mason Marchment, D Ryan Lindgren
Expected lineup:
Jaden
Schwartz – Matty Beniers – Kaapo Kakko
Jared McCann – Shane Wright – Jordan Eberle
Mason Marchment – Chandler Stephenson – Eeli Tolvanen
Tye Kartye – Frederick Gaudreau – Jani Nyman
Vince Dunn – Adam Larsson
Ryan Lindgren – Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans – Jamie Oleksiak
Joey Daccord – Philipp Grubauer
PP1: McCann - Beniers - Eberle - Schwartz - Dunn
PP2: Marchment - Stephenson - Kakko - Wright - Montour
5-on-5:
Will the real Seattle Kraken please stand up?! Through four seasons in the NHL, I don’t feel we are any closer to figuring out what this team is supposed to be. At first, they looked like a good defensive squad, and when their absurd, league-leading 10.34 S% at 5-on-5 kicked in during the 2022-23 season, they looked really good. The regression in the following season was expected, and since then have shown marginal improvements, if any.
Setting aside their anomalous season, the Kraken have finished eighth, sixth and seventh in the Pacific, and remain below average in just about every team metric. It often feels as though they’re in hockey purgatory; not quite good enough to make the playoffs but not nearly bad enough to be in the lottery. For an expansion franchise that’s still eager to excite a fan base, that’s not a good place to be.
Their 2024-25 season raised major red flags. For an analytics-inclined front office, their possession numbers were the weakest they’ve ever been. At 5-on-5, they had the eighth-worst share of shot attempts, the fourth-worst expected goals and the fifth-worst high-danger shot attempts despite having the ninth-best shooting percentage. They were woefully inconsistent, too, often alternating between winning streaks and losing streaks, usually lasting just three games. One would reasonably expect these to be the reasons why Dan Bylsma lasted just one season as head coach despite having profound success with their AHL club.
Jared McCann led the team in scoring for the fourth straight season, which is great for McCann but an indictment against everyone else. To date, the franchise record for points in a single season is McCann’s 70 in 2022-23 when everything they threw at the net seemed to go in, and only one other forward – Jordan Eberle, in the same season – has scored more than 60 points. With all due respect to McCann, he’s barely in the top 100 in league scoring.
In fantasy terms, the Kraken don’t offer any forwards until the middle to late rounds when most of your forwards have already been filled out. After McCann, you could make an argument to select any one of their six or seven forwards who will end up scoring 50 points. The Kraken were one of seven teams – Ducks, Wild, Islanders, Senators, Flyers, Canucks being the others – who did not feature a single 30-goal scorer last season. (We can safely assume the Wild, Sens and Canucks will feature at least one in 2025-26).
The lack of a marquee forward is a big reason why the Kraken offense has remained so mid. There’s no one who can elevate their roster, and so they’re often stuck creating offense by committee. It creates problems because it’s difficult to pinpoint who will be their star forward on a nightly basis, and it can also be difficult to decide which three forwards to throw out in crunch time. Streaming Kraken forwards becomes a chore with little payoff.
The Kraken were horrible at generating scoring chances from the slot, both at even strength and on the power play. Where they excelled was generating shots from the blue line, and for two reasons: Vince Dunn and Brandon Montour, who combined for 29 goals and 368 shots. It’s not unusual to see this, but like their offense with McCann, they aren’t exactly superstar, elite defensemen.
The Kraken’s biggest hopes hinge on their two young centers, Matty Beniers and Shane Wright, and also Kaapo Kakko, a former lottery pick acquired from the Rangers. Beniers started off well but his past two seasons have been very underwhelming (80 points in 159 games), and he’s getting to a point where he might top out as a dependable, two-way second-line center. Kakko’s play picked up since joining the Krake with 30 points in 49 games, but the jury’s still very much out on him and he may also top out as 60-point complementary winger.
That leaves Wright, who scored 44 points in 79 games and seems to have the highest upside among the trio. After falling to fourth in the 2022 draft despite being hailed as a potential first overall pick, Wright is just finding his footing in the NHL and, so far, he looks good. For what it’s worth, THN Yearbook & Fantasy Guide projects Wright to lead the Kraken in scoring with 63 points, three ahead of McCann.
Power Play:
The Kraken had the third-lowest expected goals and ranked 12th-lowest high-danger shot attempts per 60 minutes. Their best wingers tend to be more perimeter players, which has forced them to use players such as Eeli Tolvanen down low. It works fine in a pinch because the Kraken don’t have many options, but we are talking about a 5-foot-10 middle-six winger who punches well above his weight and isn’t exactly your prototypical net-front presence.
It's one reason why they've opted for two pretty equal units - one with Dunn and the other with Montour - and that trend likely continues this season. It's the only way to ensure that they at least get all of their top scorers on the ice as it's often too difficult to determine which unit is better than the other.
The Kraken have never been particularly potent on the power play, and again I think this harkens back to the lack of an elite forward whom they can funnel their offense. They generate a lot of their shots from the point, which is great because Dunn and Montour are very good at doing so, but it’s difficult to score when your best chances are coming from so far away.
All stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com, moneypuck.com, hockeyviz.com, allthreezones.com, hockey-reference.com, eliteprospects.com unless otherwise noted.