Kraken's Jordan Eberle Sees Bright Future For ROY Candidate Beniers

Seattle Forward Is Kraken Quotable For June 15

Editor's Note: Kraken center Matty Beniers is a finalist for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL Rookie Of the Year ("ROY"). The winner will be named at an awards ceremony June 26 in Nashville.

Faith In Management's Plan: "Back to the trade deadline last year (March, 2022), we traded, I think, five, six guys. You weren't really sure what direction we were going. Ron addressed, especially the older guys, that this isn't a rebuild. (Francis said), 'I want to add pieces, and use these to be a good team right off the bat.'

"Then in the summer, they add Burkie, they add Bjorki, they add Schultz, they add Jonesy. (Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Justin Schultz, Martin Jones.) I mean, a lot of good veteran players that I respect in this league. It kind of gives you some excitement.

"Then you see pieces like Matty (Beniers), who's obviously taking a big step, Tye (Kartye), and adding pieces like Tolvey (Eeli Tolvanen), who was a huge piece.

"You have a lot of faith in what they're doing, and the way that they're building this team. Then, obviously, we make it as far as we did."

Bullish On Beniers: "The biggest thing for Matty that I've seen, he's a young kid and things roll off him. You see him in Game 7 (against Dallas), carrying the puck through the neutral zone the end of the third period. You don't (often) see confidence like that out of a young kid, and he has that. Maybe it's a naive confidence, but I think it's worked for him.

"He's a fun guy to be around. He's energetic. He's always got a smile on his face. It's good to have that young energy. With him, he's just going to get better. That's the crazy thing for me; you see a guy like that, he's already been so productive at 20 years old.

"As he gets older and starts to fill out a little more, he's just going to get better. So he's obviously going to be a huge piece of this team."