One-Hit Wonder? Scoring Splurge. Checking On The Checkers.
The annual Bite of Seattle was this past weekend. In that spirit, here are some tasty nibbles from around the Kraken-verse.
Hot Take Alert - Justin Schultz
Wasn't it philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who first posed the question, "Can a hockey player be considered a one-hit wonder if he's played in the NHL for a dozen years?"
Maybe Freddy wasn't the guy. In any case, The Hockey News' Connor Earegood has taken it upon himself to answer the question in the affirmative.
Under the headline, "The NHL's Biggest One-Hit Wonders of the Past 10 Years," Earegood includes Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz. We'll overlook that Schultz made his NHL debut more than 10 years ago, and give Connor the floor.
"Schultz is still a quality NHLer. He’s on this list because one season stands out above the rest. During the 2016-17 season when Pittsburgh’s top defenseman, Kris Letang, struggled with injury, Schultz made up the difference with a 51-point campaign and kept pace in the playoffs as the Pens won the Cup.
"Since then, he has stuck to a second-pairing job for the most part, so he hasn’t been asked to activate as he did in that banner 2016-17 season."
If you're still playing 18 minutes a night and putting up 10 points in 14 postseason games - which Schultz did for Seattle last season - Justin's hits just keep on comin'.
Kraken Knew The Score
Looking back a decade must have been this week's go-to method to mine for summer hockey stories.
Ryan Lambert of eprinkside.com looked over past team-by-team scoring totals, and found a shiny nugget of information about last year's Kraken offense.
"Over the last 10 seasons, only 11 teams have outscored the 2022-23 Seattle Kraken per game. The Kraken achieved an astonishing 289 goals, 3.52 goals per game. The scoring was well-distributed, with 13 players netting at least 13 goals."
Remembering The Kraken Farm Team In Charlotte, NC
Since the Coachella Valley Firebirds didn't exist in 2021, nor was there an arena to play in, the expansion Kraken needed a first-season AHL affiliation.
The Florida Panthers agreed to share their farm club, the Charlotte Checkers. Charlotte had been affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes when Kraken GM Ron Francis was there, so he was familiar with the franchise.
The joint arrangement actually worked - although most often it doesn't. Patrick Williams of The Hockey News On The 'A' Podcast explains why. "You're not playing your NHL team's system. In Charlotte, they really made it a point to integrate everybody. There were no 'Seattle' guys, there were no 'Florida' guys, they were all Charlotte Checkers.
"(Seattle) needed a place to put seven or eight callup candidates. You put Joey Daccord there. He's our goalie if we have an injury in Seattle. It was a one-year deal, and you knew you had Coachella Valley coming the following year."
Bonus Checkers Facts:
(1) Three hockey franchises in Charlotte have used the "Checkers" nickname.
(2) The name "Checkers" was originally selected by... Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
(3) One of the great all-time newspaper headlines involved a hockey Checkers team, but in Columbus, Ohio. When this one went out of business, the headline read, "Checks Cancelled."