With the preseason winding down and virtually all of the coaching camp cuts within the rearview mirror, the 2024-25 Seattle Kraken have largely taken form. It’s fairly clear who might be between the pipes, who will defend the blue line and who the forwards might be. It’s due to this fact time for the ultimate, mega season preview. We’ll preserve issues easy – with a touch of mirth – by predicting two doable outcomes: the group’s finest and worst-case eventualities.
Finest Case State of affairs Arguments
Beniers, McCann and Firm Bolster Offense
There aren’t any two methods about it. Seattle’s assault final season was faulty. It went past not scoring many targets (2.61 per match, 29th league-wide). They didn’t even shoot the puck on the internet very a lot – 2,347 complete photographs, no higher than 26th. Finishing the trifecta of mediocrity was a 9.1% taking pictures effectivity, which landed them in 29th.
If issues go properly, then the forwards who made headway two seasons in the past revert to baller standing. Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Jaden Schwartz had been all 20-goal scorers. McCann was a real menace, main the group with 40 targets.
Montour and Stephenson Show Doubters Mistaken
It was mentioned all offseason: how may normal supervisor (GM) Ron Francis decide to such an terrible pair of free company offers by signing defenseman Brandon Montour and ahead Chandler Stephenson to long-term offers? They’re on the improper facet of 30 and there have been some holes both of their sport or their well being currently.
If the upcoming season goes properly for the Kraken, it doesn’t take a level in hockey science to guess that robust, wholesome seasons are required from each. Montour has been paired with Adam Larsson throughout camp and in preseason matches. Because the months go alongside they kind an insurmountable wall because the second defensive pairing, repelling something that comes their approach.
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Stephenson, whether or not taking part in with McCann and Eberle, Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen and even Andre Burakovsky, has a season to recollect. He shatters the 60-point plateau for the third time in his profession, reaching 75.
Local weather Pledge Area Is a Fortress
A very good group must defend dwelling ice. It’s already robust to win away from dwelling. The least a membership can do is make visiting sides really feel uncomfortable once they take to the ice. In 2023-24, the Kraken had been a disappointing 17-18-6 at Local weather Pledge Area. In 2022-23, the season they earned a playoff berth, they had been a far superior away facet, posting a resplendent 26-11-4 street tally to a good if unspectacular 20-17-4 at dwelling. We don’t have to get into the 2021-22 maiden marketing campaign, which was merely unhealthy throughout.
In a nutshell, by a trio of seasons, the Kraken have by no means been a formidable dwelling group. That should change. If the membership can maintain its head above water on its travels, nice. However strong efforts at dwelling are a prerequisite to being a fearful franchise.
Local weather Pledge turns into a fortress. Opposing groups quiver and quake when the PA announcer yells “It’s time to launch the Kraken!” and the house crowd goes wild throughout the opening ceremony. The sector’s calling card is its dedication to renewable power and crushing the spirits of any who dare oppose the Kraken.
Joey Daccord Is the Actual Deal
Netminder Joey Daccord got here out of seemingly nowhere final season when common starter Philipp Grubauer went down with an damage in December. The 28-year-old was, on the time, a complete non-entity. In 4 seasons with the Ottawa Senators and Kraken, he had participated in 19 video games. What’s extra, he sported dreadful goals-against common (GAA) and save proportion (SV%) figures – 4.30 GAA and .850 SV% in 2021-22. Oof.
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In 2024-25 he exhibits the hockey world that he’s the actual deal. In truth, he performs so properly that he turns into the apparent primary, with Grubauer largely backing him up. Seattle makes the playoffs and there’s no doubt in anybody’s thoughts that Joey is the person to protect the web in April and past. How you doing?
That’s a Buddies refer- you realize what, by no means thoughts.
Final Finest Case: 2nd Spherical of Playoffs
It occurs yearly. A membership that failed to go away a significant affect within the earlier marketing campaign blows folks away the next season. The 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks weren’t a lot to jot down dwelling about and in 2023-24 received the Pacific Division and reached Spherical 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
On the very least head coach Dan Bylsma and his ensemble can ask themselves with a level of legitimacy: why not us?
Reaching the Western Convention Ultimate could be formidable, particularly with the likes of the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, Canucks, and Colorado Avalanche standing of their approach.
A practical situation sees the Kraken earn a postseason berth ending third within the Pacific, most likely behind the Oilers and Canucks. They take out Vancouver in a first-round upset earlier than battling valiantly in a Spherical 2 defeat. OT heartbreak in Recreation 7. The Kraken head again to its waters for the summer time, furiously concocting its revenge for 2025-26.
Worst Case Arguments
Seattle Will get the Unhealthy Dan Bylsma
Most hockey followers bear in mind how Bylsma arrived in Pittsburgh in mid-2008-09 and coached the Penguins and a younger Sidney Crosby to Stanley Cup glory. It was an ideal story.
However the Kraken get the Bylsma of the Buffalo Sabres period. It was believed he could be the one to get that moribund franchise out of its miasma of mediocrity. They missed the postseason in each 2015-16 and 2016-17, though neither marketing campaign was an utter catastrophe (81 and 78 factors, respectively). The issue, one Bylsma alluded to in his introductory press convention this previous summer time, was that he was not nearly as good at constructing relationships again then. The headlines had been disastrous, like this one from NBC Sports activities again in 2017 concerning the Jack Eichel scenario.
Bylsma’s connection along with his roster is common at finest and fully flounders as soon as the losses pile up. Shouting matches echo by the corridors of Local weather Pledge Area.
Neither Grubauer nor Daccord Are Reliable
The massive query surrounding Daccord is whether or not 2023-24 was a one-hit marvel. We’ve seen them earlier than. Consider Jim Carey within the mid-Nineties. Daccord will get too snug as Seattle’s newfound darling, begins letting some softies in and loses his confidence. In September 2025, he’s in a coaching camp battle for the backup place with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Grubauer, properly, he’s who he’s. We’ve written about him earlier than. He’s an “virtually man.” He virtually acquired the glory however was on the bench when the Washington Capitals received the Stanley Cup in 2018. He was virtually the answer in Colorado however was proven the door in the summertime of 2021, the offseason earlier than the Avalanche made good on Nathan MacKinnon’s potential and received the Cup. Grubauer is Grubauer. He’s positive. However he’s not that man.
Montour and Stephenson are Gassed, Harm-Plagued
Hockey is a tricky sport. There’s a motive why the expression “the improper facet of 30” is used. It wasn’t birthed due to the realities of hockey, however they’ve simply stored it alive.
Montour, along with being 30, missed time in 2023-24 as a consequence of accidents. He’s additionally performed in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals when the Florida Panthers misplaced to the Golden Knights in 2023, then beat the Oilers final June. He may be somewhat gassed.
Likewise for Stephenson, who was pivotal in Vegas’ Cup run two seasons in the past. That group’s 2023-24 was up and down. Controversial administration choices, lack of consistency, damage issues. Stephenson, relatively than really feel rejuvenated, wants 2024-25 to get the bodily and emotional fatigue out of his system and isn’t the nice chief Seattle thought it signed. On a December evening when he’s named the sport’s first star, he feels a humorous sensation in his proper shoulder as he tries to “yeet the fish” into the Kraken dwelling crowd. He’s out for a month.
The Youngsters Are Not All Proper
This one could be a pointy knife twist. Beniers’ 2024-25 makes pundits and the fanbase marvel if his Calder Trophy-worthy 2022-23 was a one-hit marvel. He by no means rekindles that offensive flourish and is a defensive legal responsibility all season. Why is he getting paid $7.142 million yearly for one good marketing campaign he had as a 20-year-old?
Shane Wright, after a lot hoopla since June 2022 when the franchise drafted him within the first spherical, by no means makes Seattle’s desires come true. He doesn’t have the velocity, contact, or physicality to make a severe affect. His minutes are restricted on the fourth line and he stares off blankly from the bench, bleary-eyed, on nights when the primary line is hopelessly making an attempt to make one thing occur within the third interval of a 5-2 sport.
Final Worst Case: No Playoffs
The Kraken miss the postseason. Moreover, they don’t come shut, spending the ultimate three weeks of the common season exhibiting as much as video games as a result of their contracts demand it.
Seattle is unhealthy however not terrible sufficient to have a severe shot on the primary general choose in 2025. They land someplace in that awkward seven-to-10 vary and make the most effective of what’s out there after the groups forward of them shed tears of pleasure as a result of they’ve chosen the brand new Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini.
And people are our predictions for the most effective and worst-case eventualities for the 2024-25 Kraken. May any of these come true? We’ll discover out over the following seven months in the event that they miss the playoffs or extra in the event that they make that deep Cup run. There isn’t a lot time left, with puck drop towards the St. Louis Blues lower than per week away on Oct. 8.
