Kraken Goalie Joey Daccord's Extraordinary Success Story

Netminder Has Allowed Five Total Goals In Last Five Games, All Wins

Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series examining the unlikely rise of Seattle's newest sports hero.

Only time will tell if Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord is the next Tim Thomas. Or the next Jim Carey. Or somewhere in between.

Right now, the Kraken couldn't care less, because as the first Joey Daccord, he's brought the team back from the brink of a lost season.

Daccord has been the sturdy - not to mention charismatic - backbone of the team's current six game winning streak, and 10 consecutive games earning at least one point. The Boston native has started nine of those 10 games, producing eye-popping numbers.

We'll dig deeper into those numbers later. First, consider the series of remarkable events which conspired to place Daccord in a position to make this outstanding run.

Not a lot of scouts made it to Daccord's off-the-beaten-path college team, Arizona State. He likes to remind people that not only was he a late-round draft pick (7th round by Ottawa in 1999) he was pick number 199, exactly the same as another Boston athlete, NFL great Tom Brady.

He never played much for the Senators; one game 2018-19, eight more in 2020-21. Even when the Kraken chose him in their expansion draft, he only suited up five times for Seattle in Season One, and didn't win any of them.

Goalies are traditionally later bloomers than skaters. Last season with AHL Coachella Valley, Daccord bloomed like the Skagit Valley Tulip Fields. At age 26, he compiled a 26-8-3 regular season. 

Then he played out of his mind in the postseason; three shutouts, four victorious playoff rounds, and within a Game 7 overtime of a Calder Cup championship.

That earned Daccord the chance to compete this September with Chris Driedger for the backup spot behind number one Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer. Driedger had been considered the heir-apparent, until a disastrous ACL tear at a 2022 international tournament.

Driedger, having completed surgery and an arduous rehabilitation, did nothing in training camp or pre-season games to lose the number two goalie job. But Daccord again rose to the occasion, played even better, and won a spot on Seattle's opening night roster.

Still, Daccord was expected to primarily sit second chair. After all, Grubauer had played his best Kraken hockey in last season's NHL playoffs - and said part of the reason was because he got to play every other night.

Everything changed on Dec. 9, during a home game against Tampa Bay. Grubauer stretched to make a save, and his body didn't comply. Grubauer hasn't played since, and his return is unknown. Except for one game started and won in Calgary by Drieger, it's been Daccord's net ever since.

In part two Sunday, we explore the comparisons with Thomas and Carey. Like Daccord, they were American-born goalies who burst unexpectedly into the NHL spotlight. One led his team to a Stanley Cup; the other burned brightly, but soon faded.