NHL Network Analysts Say Seattle Poised To Duplicate Vegas Model
It'll be a while before the Seattle Kraken can fully escape the shadow of their nearest expansion neighbor, the Vegas Golden Knights.
For one thing, the Golden Knights are defending Stanley Cup champions. For another, the hype will soon-enough start building for the Winter Classic, which will match Vegas and Seattle on New Year's Day at T-Mobile Park.
Vs. Vegas: Seattle Kraken center Jaden Schwartz (17).Most crucially, the Kraken and Golden Knights are Pacific Division rivals. The road to where Seattle wants to go this season will likely run through Vegas.
For all those reasons, it's natural that a recent conversation between NHL Network analysts would include a comparison of the two teams' timelines.
Mike Kelly, an analyst at hockey analytics company Sportlogiq, specializes in looking under the hood of surface statistics. Kelly saw promise in the Kraken, even when their first-season record didn't reflect it.
"I think from the beginning, they were a well-structured team," Kelly said. "Two years ago, they weren't as bad as their record. They weren't terrible in their first year. Goaltending killed them.
"They brought in a couple of players, Matty Beniers was great. On top of the improvements from bringing in outside help and internal development, they got much better goaltending. They built on that and had a great second year."
Vs. Vegas: Seattle Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer (31).Sportsnet's Sam Cosentino lauded the Kraken's roster construction, adding that the model isn't all that different from the one followed by the Golden Knights.
"When they first came into the league, everyone looked at their expansion draft and said, 'They're never going to be able to do what Vegas did," Cosentino said.
Vs. Vegas: Seattle Kraken forward Yanni Gourde (37)."But the end goal was the same for (Kraken GM) Ron Francis. When you look at Vegas now, four lines of depth, big and rangy on the back end. We're starting to see some of that with Seattle: the four lines of depth, the forecheck, the system they play, the speed.
"Checking teams are successful; Seattle is a checking team. Most importantly, that vision that everyone thought that they would have, of being that Vegas Golden Knight, four-line depth team is starting to come to the fore. I think we're going to see a lot more of that in the years to come."