The holiday season winding down means the World Junior Championship is also soon coming to a close.
The IIHF World Junior Championship is an annual, two-week tournament featuring the world’s premier under-20 players. Many current and former NHLers have become household names after playing in this event, ringing especially true for Kraken captain Jordan Eberle.
Four Seattle Kraken prospects have participated in this year’s tournament: Julius Miettinen and Kim Saarinen for Finland, Loke Krantz for Sweden, and Jakub Fibigr for Czechia.
While the participating players have been showing out for their home nations, things haven’t been going swimmingly in the Twin Cities when it comes to attendance.
Group A, which included the U.S., played at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, home of the Minnesota Wild. Canada’s Group B competed at 3M Arena in Minneapolis, home of the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Games involving the United States drew relatively strong crowds, averaging about 13,500 fans per game, but attendance for other nations has lagged. Some games have drawn just 28 percent of capacity, prompting online questions about the future of the event in the United States.
The U.S. has hosted the tournament three times since 2005, twice in Buffalo, N.Y., and once split between North Dakota and Minnesota.
The 2018 tournament in Buffalo saw Canada outdraw U.S. games at KeyBank Center, with the Canada–Sweden gold medal game the only contest to draw more than 10,000 spectators (not counting the USA–Canada outdoor game).
#WorldJuniors 12/26 Recap
3 – 2
(
: 5,125 / 28.5%)
2 – 6
(
3 – 6
(
5 – 7
(
12/27 Schedule:
v.
– 6pm ET
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) December 27, 2025#WorldJuniors 12/27 Recap
12/28 Schedule:
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) December 28, 2025
What might be contributing is the tournament being predominantly CHL-driven. In a historically college-dominated region like Minnesota, it might be difficult for local fans to keep track of all of the players and teams involved, since many top prospects play in Canadian markets with less U.S. media coverage.
No U.S. market will ever truly match the intensity and devotion of Canadian markets, which have hosted the tournament a record 17 times and will host two of the next three.
But if there’s a region in the U.S. with the junior hockey foothold and infrastructure to replicate that atmosphere, it’s Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, which has previously attempted to attract the tournament.
The U.S. won’t host the tournament again for at least three years, with host locations set through the 2028–29 season, which leaves ample time to begin building the case for the Pacific Northwest as the next host region.
The Seattle area venues
There are many great venues in the region that could be enticing host sites. The obvious flagship would have to be Climate Pledge Arena in downtown Seattle (home of the Kraken and Torrent), which holds 17,151 spectators for hockey. It would bring in the NHL and WHL crowds, as the Seattle Thunderbirds called it home from 1989 to 2008, and the two local WHL teams have played each other there once a year for the last five years.
Typically, the host country’s group plays in the larger venue, with the other group playing in the secondary venue. The U.S. at CPA sure would be a sight to behold.
The two other WHL venues would offer similar amenities for the other group as well.
Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett is an unmatched setting for WHL games, with a seating capacity of 8,149. About 45 minutes north of Seattle, Silvertips fans consistently pack the arena during the season. Complete with deafening cowbells that add to the intimate experience, it’s a unique environment in which to watch a game.
Everett is also about an hour south of the Canadian border, well located to draw fans in the Vancouver metro area and beyond to make their way down.
There’s also a second ice rink attached to the arena that could be used for team practices.
Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent is another facility that could be used for the event. About 30 minutes south of Seattle, the Thunderbirds always have the venue rocking no matter the year.
The horseshoe-like footprint of ShoWare might make it challenging for visiting fans to maneuver, but given its proximity to Sea-Tac Airport, it would offer added ease of access for visiting fans and media flying in.
Practice venues include the aforementioned rink attached to Angel of the Winds Arena, Kraken Community Iceplex, and various other rinks throughout the Seattle metro area.
Other possible hosts
The IIHF doesn’t strictly limit itself when it comes to proximity of the buildings used. The event usually stays within the same general region, but it does branch out from time to time and utilize venues that are farther away from each other. Right now, it’s in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region, with the two cities about 15 minutes apart, but in 2026, Edmonton and Red Deer, Alb. will share hosting duties despite being almost two hours apart.
Strong arguments also exist for other venues, such as Numerica Veterans Arena in Spokane or the Toyota Center in Kennewick. Both cities offer excellent facilities and top-tier fanbases who consistently show their support. There’s also a compelling case to include Portland, or even having the Rose City serve as the primary host city on its own, given its two venues and the strength of its fan base.
But Seattle and Everett makes the most sense. It would offer ease of coordination for the event, with other factors to consider like transportation accessibility, arena availability, and things to do in the area.
There are some challenges and work-arounds too with hosting a tournament like this. If done in an NHL city, often the NHL team goes on a prolonged road trip. The Wild had a seven-game road trip to accommodate the tournament this season. That would be something to consider for the Kraken.
But what do you think? Where would you like to see World Juniors games played if they came here?
The post A case for the Pacific Northwest to host the World Junior Championship appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The Seattle Kraken continued their torrid play on Monday, riding another ho-hum 41-save performance by Philipp Grubauer and pulling away from the Calgary Flames in the third period for a 5-1 win. The victory came with some memorable moments and extended Seattle’s point streak to eight games (7-0-1) since the end of their 1-9-1 skid that spanned nearly a month.
Ironically, the last game of that painful stretch was a 4-2 loss to these same Calgary Flames on Dec. 18. But the Kraken won their next game against the San Jose Sharks two days later, and they haven’t looked back since.
Including that previous loss at Calgary, the Kraken had scored first in their last nine games before conceding the icebreaker to Adam Klapka on Monday. Still, the fourth line once again got things on track in the second period, and it was all uphill from there with five straight goals.
“We used everybody tonight, everybody contributed, and I thought our third period was outstanding,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We limited their scoring chances, and we capitalized on ours.”
Here are Three Takeaways from a convincing 5-1 Kraken win over the Flames.
Takeaway 1: Jacob Melanson gets his first NHL goal
With the way that fourth line has been cooking, it was only a matter of time before Jacob Melanson got his first NHL goal. It came Monday in his fourth straight game with a point, following a great play by Ryan Winterton to get his own rebound off Dustin Wolf and—instead of shoveling it right back into the Calgary netminder—one-touching a cross-crease pass to Melanson at the backdoor.
MELLY CELLY!
The fourth line does it AGAIN, and this time, it's Jacob Melanson getting his FIRST NHL GOAL!
Nice play by Winterton to get his own rebound and send it across.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/DJmg7QhQFs
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 6, 2026
“Getting that first goal is unreal, and it’s cool that it came from ‘Wints,’ so it means a lot,” Melanson said. “We’re on the hunt, on the forecheck, and we reloaded well, and good things are going to come from us doing the right thing. So, I mean, we had a good reload, and ‘Winnie’ found me backdoor, which was nice to see.”
It was also a crucial goal in the game, because Seattle did not exactly dominate possession through the first two periods and allowed 31 shots on Philipp Grubauer by the time the second period horn sounded. But with Melanson scoring early in the frame at 2:17, Seattle just needed to get out of the period, and it would be a whole new game in the third.
“Second period, we were a little under the fire there, but we managed to get away and get out of that one with a tie,” Grubauer said. “And it was, I think, a phenomenal third period, different than the other night [against Nashville], for sure. We were giving them less time and space and didn’t give them time to make some plays. I thought that was incredible, and that’s how we need to play.”
Takeaway 2: A huge third period
Coming out of the second intermission, this game felt like another down-to-the-wire barnburner. Instead, Seattle turned on the jets and took over, getting rewarded with both a game-winning goal from birthday boy Shane Wright at 1:57 of the frame and an insurance goal from Vince Dunn at 5:12.
WRIGHT AS RAIN!️
Yet another impactful play by Ben Meyers, who makes a perfect saucer pass to Shane Wright, crashing the net for his first goal in eight games.
2-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/vUnLCVMXwD
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 6, 2026
Remarkably, even when the fourth line isn’t technically “on the ice,” they still seem to make an impact lately. In this case, Ben Meyers got a rare shift with Wright and Jared McCann and showed his offensive prowess again, lofting a perfect saucer pass into a spot where only Wright could get to it. Wright had gotten behind Calgary’s defense, so all he had to do was skate into the pass and chip it over Wolf.
“[Meyers] had some open ice there, and I saw the D step up a little bit, so I thought I could find some room behind him,” Wright said. “And, I mean, he made an unbelievable pass.”
On a personal level for Wright, it was a big goal. He hadn’t scored in eight games and was without a point in five, despite playing on what could be a productive line with McCann and Berkly Catton.
Dunn’s goal three minutes later came off a beauty of a pass from Kaapo Kakko, who has also found his game since being elevated to a line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. After Dunn scored what should have been the game-winner in overtime against Vancouver on Friday—only to have it negated by a Catton interference penalty—you could tell he was holding his breath to see if it counted when Beniers flattened Wolf a split second after the puck went in.
HE DUNN DID IT!
Perfect pass by Kaapo Kakko, and Vince Dunn snipes it past Dustin Wolf just before Beniers runs him over.
3-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/3zQtPz7AK2
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 6, 2026
Freddy Gaudreau added an empty-netter at 17:25, Beniers cleaned up a McCann rebound just 14 seconds later, and the Kraken rode their high horse out of Calgary with two more points.
Takeaway 3: Kraken continuing to climb
While the Kraken have been on fire, their Pacific Division counterparts have (almost) all been stumbling, making it the perfect time for Seattle to go on this run. Vegas has lost five straight, Edmonton has dropped its last two, and the Anaheim Ducks—who held first place for a good stretch of the season—have nosedived into a six-game losing streak.
The upshot is that with Seattle earning 15 out of a possible 16 points during this stretch, they’ve skyrocketed up the standings from last place in the division as recently as Dec. 21 to now third place. They also boast a points percentage good enough to actually sit ahead of Edmonton, who has played two more games, and just one point back of the Golden Knights for first place in the division. They will officially hit the halfway point of the season after Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
It’s all shocking when you consider how down and out this team felt just two weeks ago, but it’s also a stark reminder of how tight and tenuous the NHL standings are this season. The Kraken can’t stop winning now, or they’ll find themselves right back on the outside even faster than they climbed their way back in.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
Read more from Darren
The post Three Takeaways – Kraken ride huge third period to 5-1 win over Flames, now third place in Pacific appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The Seattle Kraken’s win against the Flames on Monday marked the 40th game of the season and therefore brings another installment of 10 for 10, where I go through 10 stats that add context and color to the Kraken’s season to date and how things are trending.
These last 10 games have been the Kraken’s best stretch of the season, which is a far cry from the doom‑and‑gloom 10‑for‑10 piece I wrote after Games 21 through 30 in the middle of December. This stretch began with a disappointing regulation loss, albeit a valiant effort, against the Colorado Avalanche back on Dec. 16.
Let’s get into it.
Data point 1: Grabbing points in the division
The Kraken’s ascension back into the playoff picture wasn’t just the result of improved play; it was also well timed with stumbles from the teams they were chasing. On Dec. 15, at the 30‑game mark, the Kraken sat sixth in the Pacific Division. Today, they’re third and just one point behind the first‑place Vegas Golden Knights.
During this 10‑game stretch, the Kraken earned five regulation wins against division opponents, and with Monday’s win over Calgary, they have now defeated every Pacific Division team at least once. No other Pacific team has managed that so far this season.
Despite the recent run, the division remains extremely tight, with just three points separating first and sixth place.
Data point 2: Second game of a back‑to‑back
The Kraken went 0‑12‑0 on the second night of back‑to‑backs last season. Zero points. Not even an overtime loss. Lane Lambert mentioned this in his initial press availability and emphatically stated it would improve.
Over the last 10 games, the Kraken had three back‑to‑backs and delivered five out of a possible six points in the second game of those sets.
Data point 3: Penalty kill improvement
In Games 21–30, the penalty kill stood out like a sore thumb and plagued the team throughout that stretch. They made some tweaks, and over the last 10 games, the results have dramatically improved.
Data point 4: Scoring first
I’ve mentioned the importance of scoring first several times this season. The Kraken are 15‑5‑3 when scoring first compared to 4‑9‑4 when allowing the first goal. They scored first in eight of the last 10.
Data point 5: Blocked shots
One thing that stood out in the eye test over this stretch was the shot blocking, so naturally I dug into the numbers. The Kraken blocked an average of 18.4 shots per game, their highest average over any 10‑game stretch this season. They’ve been blocking a lot of shots all year, but this was another level.
Part of this is driven by the state of the game. When you score first, you lead more often, and when you lead in the third period, you naturally fall into a more defensive structure. That leads to more blocked shots as you close out games.
Data point 6: Expected goal differential vs. actual goal differential
“The Kraken are getting lucky” has been a common narrative among the haters this season. People often cite expected‑goal models or the MoneyPuck “Deserve to Win O’Meter.” It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into more deeply, and I still plan to, but for now I put together a simple(ish) visual comparing expected goal differential to actual goal differential.
In short: anytime the X is below zero, the Kraken were expected to lose, where the colored bar represents the actual goal differential.
According to the chart, the Kraken should have lost six of their last eight games… but they won seven of their last eight and earned points in all of those. One might suggest luck, but I’d argue the Kraken do something unique that models underrepresent, such as a stronger defensive structure that invites more shot attempts against but limits dangerous ones.
Models are great and far more informative than most of the simple stats on NHL.com, but there are always outliers. This is no different than an undrafted player going on to play 1,000 NHL games. It challenges logic, but it still happens.
For the season, the Kraken have won 12 games they were “expected” to lose and lost five they were “expected” to win.
My hypothesis: the team plays distinctively differently when holding a lead, limiting high‑quality chances and giving goalies more opportunities to make saves. This inflates expected goals against while suppressing expected goals for. Combine that with strong goaltending, and you get the disproportionate goal differential. There’s more work to be done here, but this is my jumping‑off point.
Data point 7: Goaltending has been stellar
I’m sure the analytics‑fluent crowd would prefer something like goals saved above expected, but for a host of reasons I’m keeping this simple. Since this 10‑game window began on Dec. 16, the goaltending has been outstanding from both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord.
I really like the cadence of alternating every other game, and that should work well throughout January with so many one‑day‑or‑less breaks between games.
Data point 8: The 2021 NHL Draft class
One of the most enjoyable developments over the last 10 games has been the Kraken’s fourth line. It has featured some combination of Ben Meyers, Tye Kartye, Ryan Winterton, and Jacob Melanson, with the Winterton/Meyers/Melanson trio sticking together for the last four games.
One goal in particular stood out: the Melanson‑to‑Winterton finish in the home game against Vancouver.
That got me thinking, both Winterton and Melanson were part of the Kraken’s inaugural 2021 draft class. So I looked into how that class stacks up league‑wide for this season.
The Kraken have the third‑most NHL games played by their 2021 draft class. That’s impressive on its own, but the context makes it even more so. Arizona had two first‑round picks and three second‑round picks. Carolina had no first‑round picks but three seconds and 13 total picks. The Kraken had just one pick in each of the seven rounds. It’s also worth noting that only one of the Arizona/Utah picks still plays for that organization, and two Carolina picks in the NHL are still Hurricanes, while all four of Seattle’s are still Kraken.
Most draft analysts have been high on Seattle’s draft classes from the start. We’re now seeing that materialize at the NHL level.
Data point 9: Return of the depth?
Depth was a hallmark of the 2022–23 Kraken playoff team, and the KHN broadcast crew referenced it after Monday’s win over Calgary. Right now, contributions are coming from everywhere, and goals are coming from the most unlikely players. Ryan Lindgren, Cale Fleury, and Jacob Melanson each scored their first goals as Seattle Kraken during this stretch.
The Kraken still aren’t scoring a ton overall, but 16 unique goal scorers since Dec. 16 is the most in the league.
Data point 10: Points per game for Eeli Tolvanen
The last player I want to highlight is Eeli Tolvanen, who, after a slower start, has been coming on strong. It was great to see him named to Finland’s Olympic team alongside teammate Kaapo Kakko.
Wrapping it up
If the last 10‑for‑10 was about surviving the storm, this one is about what happens when the clouds finally break. The Kraken aren’t just banking points, they’re building an identity again. The defensive structure looks connected, the goaltending is giving them a chance every night, and the depth that defined their best hockey is resurfacing at exactly the right time.
There’s still plenty of season left, and the Pacific Division is tight enough that a single bad week can undo a lot of good. But for now, the Kraken have put themselves firmly back in the mix.
We’ll see where the next 10 games take us, but this stretch has reminded us that when this team is rolling, they can be a handful for anyone.
The post 10 for 10: Seattle Kraken Games 31–40 appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
…And in his 28th NHL game, Berkly Catton was officially off the schneid. The 19-year-old rookie connected with his teammates for his first and second career goals on Tuesday, helping the Seattle Kraken to a head-spinning 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins.
The victory extended Seattle’s win streak to four games (the win streak is hereby named Win Streak David, per the National Win Streak Service, named after David Pastrnak) and their point streak to nine games, improving to 8-0-1 over that stretch. It also meant they swept their third back-to-back in their four recent tries, picking up an almost unfathomable 15 of 16 possible points in those pairs of games.
The two teams ahead of the Kraken in the standings, Edmonton and Vegas, both won Tuesday. So, Seattle didn’t leapfrog into first place as they could have if those other teams lost, but they did hold serve and also gained two points of breathing room on fourth-place Los Angeles. It was a big win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 7-4 Kraken win over the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Catton’s big night
For as good as Catton has been in his first NHL season, you just knew it was eating him up that he hadn’t put the puck in the net yet. After scoring a combined 92 goals in 125 games over his last two seasons in the WHL, and considering he’s been playing on good lines with good players throughout the season, it was shocking that he hadn’t even gotten a fluky one to go in.
That is, of course, until the dam finally broke for Catton on Tuesday.
At 2:48 of the second period, with a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann fed Catton in the right circle off a rush. From a sharp angle, Catton let it rip. The puck pinballed off the inside of Jeremy Swayman’s blocker and in. Jubilation and relief swept across the young winger’s face as he celebrated with McCann, who Catton later referred to as a “mentor.”
BERKLYYYYYYYYYYY!
Berkly Catton FINALLY does it! With a delayed penalty coming, Jared McCann sets him up, and he rips it through Swayman.
Gotta love that smile! 1st career goal at long last.
2-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/vGTX5iOPb0
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
“A lot of weight off the shoulders for sure,” Catton said. “I dreamed of that for a long time, so that was awesome… I kind of just blacked out there. I don’t even know where it went in, to be honest.”
“It’s the best,” McCann said. “I said ‘finally’ [when I celebrated with him]. He’s been working really hard, and we were due. Just keep plugging away. I’m really happy for him.”
Once he got the monkey off his back, what did Catton do? Score his second one, of course.
With the game seemingly out of reach for Boston—although it did get a hair close for comfort in the end—at 5-2, Catton came out with the second power-play unit. He made a ridiculous play to pass to Freddy Gaudreau at the blue line and then slice his way through four defenders, suddenly getting behind all of them at once. Gaudreau threaded a beautiful pass back to him, and Catton deked to his backhand and banked it off the post and in to make it 6-2.
BERKLY SCORES AGAIN!
Sick finish off Gaudreau's area pass to make it 6-2, but then Mason Lohrei just answered to make it 6-3 #SeaKraken. pic.twitter.com/E9AnaW0uxG
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
“I figured maybe if I get one, they would start to come a little bit more,” Catton said. “So, that one felt good too… Great pass by Freddy. He kind of gave me a breakaway, and I just got it up, and it went in.”
Coach Lane Lambert also had some nice words about Catton when I asked him what it meant to see his young rookie break through.
“I thought it was awesome,” Lambert said. “I’ve said a few times… that once he scores, I think he’ll score a few. Obviously, he scored another one tonight as well, beautiful goal, by the way, and it’s huge. He’s a well-liked teammate, he works, he’s learning, he’s growing. And I’ve said it many, many times, I love the way he wants the puck.”
Takeaway 2: Critical power-play goal
Something that could get lost in the shuffle of everything that happened in this game is that it was anybody’s contest, tied 2-2, until the final two minutes of the second period. At that point, Jordan Eberle had scored on a 5-on-3, Catton had gotten his first, and Pastrnak had scored two bangers.
The fourth line, which was altered for this game (more on that in the Bonus Takeaway), connected yet again when Tye Kartye found Ben Meyers for a bang-bang goal at 18:23 of the second to make it 3-2.
Then, with the clock winding down, McCann scored a critical buzzer-beater that I believe was the most important goal of the contest. With seven seconds left, McCann whistled a one-timer off the glass that nearly went all the way out of the offensive zone. But Vince Dunn saved it at the blue line and fed McCann again higher in the zone. This time, McCann’s shot was perfectly placed, and it appeared to beat the horn, even though the green end-of-period light had come on behind Swayman, not the red goal light.
MCCANN CAN!
It's a power-play goal with 0.5 seconds left on the clock! The green light came on, but the puck was already in. #SeaKraken take a 4-2 lead to the dressing room after 2 periods. pic.twitter.com/M7sdTUeOLw
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 7, 2026
Review showed that the puck crossed the line with 0.5 seconds left—a massive break for the Kraken that sent them to the room with a two-goal cushion.
“I saw the [green] light on, so I didn’t know if I got it in in time,” McCann said. “So I looked at the bench, and everybody’s like, kind of looking at me dumbfounded, and I don’t think they did, really, either. So, yeah, luckily it went in [in time].”
In the third, Seattle ran up the score enough that the Bruins’ late push was—albeit slightly scary—ultimately too little and too late.
Takeaway 3: The Kraken are a scoring machine
The Kraken have been dumped on by many throughout this season for being one of the lower-scoring teams in the NHL, but if those naysayers watched only these last two games, they would think Seattle is an elite offensive club. In just over 24 hours, the Kraken racked up 12 goals in two contests after potting five in Calgary on Monday and then seven against Boston on Tuesday—the most they’ve scored in a game this season.
“Pucks are going in for us,” Lambert said. “I mean, we had some opportunities in those games when we were low scoring where we maybe couldn’t quite find the back of the net. But things are going in right now. Sometimes it has a way of ebbs and flows of the season, that kind of thing.”
Added McCann: “It was kind of a run-and-gun type of game tonight, not something we’re used to kind of playing. We showed that we could score goals, but we know we can be a bit better defensively.”
It was a nice stat-padding night for a lot of players, with Kaapo Kakko getting two goals and an assist, Catton scoring twice, McCann posting a goal and an assist, and Vince Dunn and Matty Beniers each recording two assists.
I do want to ring a very small alarm bell, though, related to that last comment from McCann. Sometimes when a defense-first team suddenly has a big offensive outburst, it can lead to bad habits and cracks in structure. The Kraken have gotten to this point by playing “the right way,” so look for them to get back to that against an outstanding Minnesota Wild team on Thursday.
Bonus Takeaway: Kartye returns, fourth line changed
Eeli Tolvanen was a late scratch due to illness, replaced in the lineup by Kartye, who had been a healthy scratch for three games. Considering how well the trio of Ryan Winterton, Meyers, and Jacob Melanson had been clicking, I was surprised—and frankly didn’t like—that Lambert chose to move Winterton up the lineup instead of keeping that line together and slotting Kartye into Tolvanen’s spot.
But to Lambert’s credit, the fourth line once again came through, and it was Kartye who picked up the assist on the goal.
“I liked Tye tonight,” Lambert said. “The hard decision [to scratch Kartye] came [a week] ago. I thought he played really well in Anaheim, I thought he played well in LA, and then we had some numbers, so he came out of the lineup. It wasn’t like he was playing poorly. And him and Meyers and Melanson were playing well in those games too, so I put that line back together. I just thought Winterton was a better fit to go up there with [Chandler] Stephenson and playing sort of a top-six role that plays against the Pastrnak line.”
Lambert could have even tougher decisions coming soon, if Tolvanen comes back next game and Jaden Schwartz is also ready to go.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
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The post Three Takeaways – Berkly Catton scores first two NHL goals in 7-4 Kraken win over Bruins appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
As the PWHL season marches on, now almost a third of the way through the season, it’s becoming clear that the vibe of the Seattle Torrent fandom is fun and whimsical. Yes, the fans enjoy high quality hockey and will cheer on the team no matter what, but they are too busy exchanging trinkets during intermissions and kissing anytime they get on the twins to be taking things too seriously. I love it, hockey is a game, after all.
International Updates
USA Hockey announced their Olympic roster, and four Torrent players made the cut: Hilary Knight, who will be headed to her fifth Games, Alex Carpenter, Cayla Barnes, and Hannah Bilka who will be making her Olympic debut. Seattle has the second-most US Olympians on their roster; only Minnesota has more. Aneta Tejralová, as expected, was named to the Czechia Olympic roster. Canada’s roster announcement is expected on January 9.
Goalie Gear (and more) Corner
Murphy’s mask has big Seattle landmark energy. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
During the last few weeks, we got to know a few of the Torrent goalies a little better.
Rookie Hannah Murphy admitted to having chills when she stood in goal and heard the crowd chant her name for the first time. Her roommate, Jenna Buglioni, who also roomed with goalies in college, shared that all goalies are weird but “[Murphy] is the least weird one.”
CJ Jackson spoke to us about their new Torrent mask. They said their vision for their gear was a minimalist pad setup, with the mask as the centerpiece. Being a fantasy fan (the Throne of Glass series is a favorite) CJ turned again to a knight-themed mask, but with a sparkly, grungy, Seattle twist. They love what knights symbolize, the idea of people who commit their lives to something greater than themselves.
The backplate is their all-time favorite, and got a little emotional when speaking about it. The art is based on a photo from their hometown of their dad’s rowboat. The boat was named after the family’s childhood cat, Maggie, and that’s what was on the initial design. But CJ’s cat Fiona passed away right before they moved to Seattle, so they decided to change the name—last minute— in her memory. The art reminds them of all the people who have loved them along their journey. In all a cool mask, but a great story behind it.
Notes and Notions
After Saturday’s game against Toronto, Alex Carpenter became the third player ever—and the first American—to reach 50 points in the PWHL.
Injury Update: Prior to the Montréal game, Coach Steve O’Rourke confirmed rookie center Jenna Buglioni, who went down the tunnel during the previous game, is on concussion protocol and is day-to-day.
Suspension Update: Defender Aneta Tejralová was suspended for two games after her game misconduct penalty against New York was reviewed by the player safety committee. She will be eligible to return for the Jan. 11 game at Minnesota.
Game Recaps
12.23 vs. Victoire @ Home
First off, the winner of the (unofficial) walk-in ugly sweater contest was undoubtedly Corrine Schroeder.
Montréal came into the game hot, on a four game winning streak and perched at second in the league standings.
Period 1
The Torrent started the game at higher execution and performance level than previous games, with a concerted effort to send more pucks to the net. Even so, the game started out pretty evenly matched. The Victoire had more time in their offensive zone, but the Torrent had more shots on goal. With one minute left in the period, Montréal’s star first line connected on a pretty passing play, Poulin to Stacey to Roque, and Roque finished past Murphy to put them up 1-0 in the first.
Period 2
The Torrent even the score early in the second period. On a 2-on-1 Alex Carpenter put away a rebound off a shot from Julia Gosling. The Torrent then had some good shots and possession on a delayed penalty, but the resulting power play was lackluster. Megan Carter got called for roughing with five minutes left, and Hannah Murphy came up with some big saves. The rest of the period saw the momentum shift towards the Victoire, and the Torrent had trouble getting the puck out of their end.
Period 3
Three minutes in, the Torrent made good on another delayed penalty situation, and a Julia Gosling one-timer from Hilary Knight put the Torrent up 2-1. There were good chances at both ends, but more chances for Montréal, as they finished the period putting up 15 shots on goal to the Torrents paltry three. Murphy shut the door, though, and preserved the win, even when a second Carter penalty and a pulled goalie led to a 6-on-4 in the dying minutes of the game.
12/28 vs. Sirens in Dallas, Texas
The Torrent fell 4-3 to New York in their first Takeover Tour game in Dallas to a crowd of 8,514.
Dallas is the furthest south the PWHL has ever played, and the game featured the league’s only two Texans: Seattle’s Hannah Bilka, and New York’s Allyson Simpson. The pair dropped the puck at the Dallas Stars game the night before.
This game marked the start of the team’s first real road trip, playing four games over 16 days. Their only other away game this year was the season opener in Vancouver.
New York’s win snapped a four-game losing streak (which started these teams last faced off in Seattle).
Alex Carpenter surpassed 100 faceoff wins this game, the first to reach that milestone in the PWHL this season.
The Torrent starting lineup on the ice at the American Airlines Center. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
Period 1
The Torrent started with some good pressure, and both teams took early penalties. Danielle Serdachny scored her first of the season on a chance she created purely with speed. Hannah Murphy notched her first point on the goal.
Aneta Tejralová took down Sirens star Sarah Fillier with a check to the head and received a well-deserved game misconduct. The Torrent then had to kill a five minute major for the first time, and Murphy came up with some clutch saves. With a minute and a half left in the first, New York rookie Casey O’Brien scored her first professional goal. One minute later, Grant-Mentis crashed the net and put away her first goal with the Torrent. New York had 21 shots to Seattle’s 11 in the first frame, but Seattle held a 2-1 lead.
Period 2
The second period was more sedate. A Carpenter slashing penalty led to a second O’Brien goal. The end of the period had chances back and forth, but New York seemed to have most of the momentum. The teams ended the second tied 2-2.
Period 3
A Lexie Adzija goal came early off some great work behind the goal by Grant-Mentis. The momentum never fully shifted, and Maddi Wheeler scored coming out of the penalty box for New York. A Serdachny hooking penalty led to another O’Brien goal, giving her a hat-trick in the same game she scored her first career goal (You don’t see that every day). The Torrent had some good possession with the goalie pulled, but nothing came of it. Murphy made some good saves throughout, but this was the first game where there were a couple she would probably like back.
1.3 vs. Sceptres in Hamilton, Ontario
The Torrent notched their first road win, but took only two standings points in a 3-2 shootout victory against the Sceptres.
This was the Torrent’s second straight Takeover Tour game and the first-ever PWHL game in Hamilton. The game was definitely less of a neutral site than other Takeover Tour games, as Hamilton is about an hour and a half drive from Toronto proper.
The game was the first hockey game played at TD Coliseum after large scale renovations, and boasted over 16,000 fans. Although the quality of the ice seemed sub-par, there was a takeover tour logo at center ice!
With this game, Seattle is no longer a newcomer and has officially played against all the other PWHL teams.
Cayla Barnes battling hard against the Sceptres. (Photo courtesy of the PWHL)
Period 1
Out of the gate the Adzija—Snodgrass—Grant-Mentis line was forechecking well and playing heavy on the puck. Five minutes in, Grant-Mentis backhanded the puck to Adzija, who kept at it until horn sounded for her second goal in two games. Seattle did a great job of breaking up Toronto’s zone entries through the period and dominated overall, out-shooting Toronto 14 to 6.
Period 2
The second period started shakily though. A loose puck in the neutral zone led to a Natalie Spooner goal to tie the game. Schroeder came up big with some highlight-reel saves to keep the Sceptres at one for the period. This game was the first time I really noticed how much more involved the goalies in the PWHL are without the “trapezoid rule”, and Toronto’s Raygan Kirk stood out as noticeably mobile.
Period 3
The Torrent dominated possession to start the third, and had a lot of good, dangerous chances. Daryl Watts got a goal against the run of play to put Toronto ahead 2-1. The Torrent turned the pressure up again, until Alex Carpenter put away a deflection with ice in her veins to tie it up with four minutes left and send the game to overtime.
Overtime & Shootout
Seattle defended well in OT and had some quality possession, outshooting Toronto 4-0, despite an initial struggle to get the puck out of their zone.
Hannah Bilka scored on the first shootout attempt in Torrent history, and Anna Wilgren showed off some sick hands to get Seattle’s second goal of the shootout. Corrine Schroeder stopped all of the Sceptres attempts, to record her first win with the Torrent.
Up Next
The Torrent play away again on Wednesday at 4:00 PST against the top of the table Boston Fleet.
The post The Current: Close games and goalie gear appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The Seattle Kraken are riding a nine-game point streak, going 8-0-1 in that stretch. On Dec. 19, just before the streak began, Seattle was tied for last in the NHL with 30 points after matching a franchise-worst stretch at 1-9-1. Since then, the Kraken have collected 17 of 18 possible points and now sit third in the Pacific Division.
As fans suffered through Losing Streak Camille and Losing Streak Darren, there were still reasons for optimism. All but two games, both against Edmonton, were one-goal losses once empty-net goals were removed. The Kraken were competitive but consistently finished on the wrong side of the result. Interestingly, by the eye test, Seattle has not played as clean during the current points streak as it did during the losing stretch.
To explore that discrepancy, I compared game-level data from three segments: the current point streak, the losing streaks, and the games prior to Camille and Darren. With the point streak at nine games, the losing stretch at 11, and the pre-Camille segment at 21 games, all comparisons use per-game averages. Data is based on all situations and sourced from MoneyPuck.
- Pre-Camille: 21 games from Oct. 9 to Nov. 22
- Losing streaks: 11 games from Nov. 23 to Dec. 18
- Points streak: nine games from Dec. 20 to Jan. 6
Expected and actual goals
On Nov. 22, just before Losing Streak Camille, the Kraken ranked third-to-last in the NHL in goals scored. With only 2.58 expected goals for per game, Seattle relied heavily on defensive structure and low-event games.
Several trends stand out in the data. During the pre-Camille stretch, expected and actual goals for and against tracked closely. As Seattle pushed for more offense during the losing streak, expected goals for increased by 16.9 percent. The results did not follow. Actual scoring fell to two goals per game, while expected goals against jumped 27.4 percent to 2.91.
That trend reversed during the turnaround. Expected goals for climbed again to 3.16, but the finishing finally arrived. Over the past nine games, the Kraken have averaged 3.89 goals per game while allowing just 1.89.
There are also red flags. During the point streak, expected goals against sit at 3.69 per game. Across the season to date, a 3.69 xGA would rank last in the NHL. Vancouver currently holds that honor at 3.52. As the eye test suggested, Seattle often posted higher expected goals for than expected goals against during the losing streaks, but the scoring support was not there.
Goaltending
For this section, the focus is on team-level goaltending rather than individual performances. Team save percentage shows a strong relationship with goal support, particularly when Seattle scores first.
- Pre-Camille: 13 of 21 games with the first goal, 61.9 percent
- Losing streaks: three of 11 games, 27.3 percent
- Point streak: eight of nine games, 88.9 percent
Goaltending has been a major strength during the point streak, after dipping below .900 during the losing stretch.
Playing with the lead also continues to set this team up for success. Seattle has scored first in 24 of 41 games this season.
Despite expected goals against reaching their highest point of the season, the goaltenders have delivered. Over the last nine games, the Kraken have posted 16.2 goals saved above expected. Across the rest of the season, including pre-Camille and the losing streaks, they sit nearly even at minus 0.4.
Shots
Before the losing streak, Seattle generated only 24.4 shots on goal per game. If that pace held through Jan. 6, the Kraken would rank last in the NHL. During that stretch, there was a clear shift toward urgency and putting more pucks on net.
Shots on goal increased from 24.4 to 28.3 per game, a 16 percent jump that closely mirrors the 16.9 percent increase in expected goals for. Shot attempts rose even more sharply, up 19.5 percent.
That increase came with tradeoffs. Missed shots rose 23.1 percent and blocked shots climbed 21.9 percent. Both exceeded the growth in overall shot attempts, meaning a larger share of shots failed to reach the net.
The point streak tells a different story. Shot attempts are at their lowest point of the season, driven in part by Seattle frequently playing with the lead.
During the point streak, the Kraken have trailed for just 3.1 percent of total game time, or 17:03.
Even with fewer shot attempts, shot quality and efficiency have improved. Missed shots are down 39.5 percent and blocked shots are down 33.1 percent. Shots on goal have dipped by only one per game, to 27.3, and remain 11.9 percent higher than during the pre-Camille stretch.
Kraken can’t rest on their laurels
The Kraken continue to benefit from the current point streak, but there is little margin for complacency. Offensive progress is real, and goaltending has been the anchor. The balance between offense and defensive structure remains a constant tug-of-war. Limiting high-danger chances and bringing expected goals against back down should be a priority as Seattle looks to sustain its scoring gains.
The Kraken will look to extend their point streak to 10 games Thursday against the Minnesota Wild at Climate Pledge Arena. The Wild are coming off two losses to the Los Angeles Kings (one regulation and one shootout loss).
Feel free to leave any comments or questions below, and Go Kraken.
Blaiz Grubic
Blaiz Grubic is a contributor at Sound Of Hockey. A passionate hockey fan and player for over 30 years, Blaiz grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an alumni of Washington State University (Go Cougs!). When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about hockey, he enjoys quality time with his wife and daughter or getting out on a golf course for a quick round. Follow @blaizg on BlueSky or X.
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The post Kraken winning streaks vs. losing streaks: What the data shows appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll have reports on Kraken prospect performances at the 2026 World Junior Championship, two significant junior hockey trades, a couple of key injuries, and some details from the new AHL collective bargaining agreement. We’ll also have weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and a preview of the week ahead, as always.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Kraken prospect reports from the World Juniors
With another WJC in the books, we’ve passed the unofficial halfway point of the prospect season. Before turning our attention to the draft process, let’s recap what we saw from Kraken prospects at the WJC.
Loke Krantz | F | Team Sweden
Sweden swept through the tournament (seven wins, zero losses) on their way to their first gold medal since 2012. Remarkably, it’s only Sweden’s third in the event’s long and storied history, a relatively modest number for a country that routinely fields a title contender year after year. It had become an annual talking point that Sweden couldn’t break through in the elimination rounds, but they changed that narrative this year.
Krantz, 18, defied public expectations by earning a role on this year’s team. He was active for all but one of Sweden’s games, though the lack of a special teams role kept his ice time modest. He topped out at 9:46 of ice time in the semifinal against Finland (see the video below) and logged 6:52 in the final.
I came away very impressed by Krantz’s speed and physicality on the forecheck, effectively leveraging his 6-foot-2 frame to contest and win possession for Sweden. While he didn’t score, I also found his instincts for locating soft spots in the offensive zone for shot attempts to be quite strong. There is a lot to work with here—much more so than your typical late-round pick. I hope he sticks with his SHL team for the balance of the season and we get a few viewings on FloHockey. His stock is way up for me.
Jakub Fibigr | D | Team Czechia (WJC)
Sweden defeated Czechia and Jakub Fibigr in the gold-medal game. Czechia had a couple of standout forward performances, but the team muscled its way through the tournament on the strength of a dominant top-four group of defenders, of which Fibigr was a part.
Fibigr’s game is not without inconsistencies, but he has taken strides in shoring up the defensive aspects of his game from the player I saw often lost and floating in defensive coverage last year for the Brampton Steelheads. All tournament long, he presented as a level-headed, team-leader type. He wore an “A” on the ice and frequently gave thoughtful remarks before and after games.
Fibigr does not bring any dynamic elements that suggest an above-average NHL projection, but he is now firmly in the mix among Seattle’s group of young blueliners who will be jostling for position over the next couple of years and could be knocking at the door shortly thereafter. Could Fibigr be one that emerges from that group? It’s certainly possible. His stock is up slightly following this event.
Julius Miettinen | F | Team Finland (WJC)
Team Finland avenged its 2025 WJC gold-medal game loss to the United States by downing the Americans in the quarterfinals, but it stalled out thereafter, losing to Sweden and Canada to finish in fourth place. This year’s team was a bit under-skilled when compared with past units and really ran out of steam toward the end (more on that in a moment).
Finland deployed Miettinen as a first-line center and a primary player on both special teams units. He saw more time on the wing on the power play this year, after spending most of his time net-front at last year’s event. He was also a top penalty-killer, taking about half of the draws for that unit. Despite that heavy usage, I didn’t see as many flashes from Miettinen this year as I did at last year’s event. He still worked hard defensively, but I didn’t see as much dynamism offensively or on the forecheck.
This may be attributable to the fact that Miettinen was a bit “miscast” in his WJC role. He projects as a high-end role player or complementary piece, rather than an offensive focal point. His stock is neutral for me.
Kim Saarinen | G | Team Finland (WJC)
For two years in a row, Finland went to Petteri Rimpinen for every WJC start while Saarinen sat on the bench. This diverges from the approach of most nations, which rotated in a second goalie for at least one game. Finland clearly preferred to keep Rimpinen in a rhythm, but you cannot help but wonder if he wore down with a seven-game workload over 11 days.
After Finland was eliminated from gold-medal contention, Finland played Canada for the bronze medal in the second game of a back-to-back. Rimpinen was clearly not at his best, conceding six goals to Canada on 34 shots. You could argue that an ice-cold Saarinen would not have been a better option, but that’s the situation Finland put itself in by not getting its second goalie any time earlier in the tournament. Personally, I wouldn’t manage the goalies this way. I think Finland’s approach cost the team a chance at the bronze medal, at least.
Saarinen’s stock is neutral.
Nathan Villeneuve and Jakub Fibigr traded to the Windsor Spitfires
It is an annual tradition that, as the WJC winds down, CHL trade news steps in to fill the void. With CHL trade deadlines arriving in early January, junior teams out of contention look to move players who are unlikely to return for future assets. With the added uncertainty involving junior hockey players moving to the NCAA ranks (including immediate moves), this year’s deadline was a particularly chaotic period.
Two of Seattle’s top junior players, Nathan Villeneuve and Jakub Fibigr, remained on junior teams that projected to miss the playoffs. Both were traded this week. On Monday, Jan. 5, the Sudbury Wolves traded forward Villeneuve to the Windsor Spitfires. Then, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the Brampton Steelheads traded defenseman Fibigr to the Spitfires.
These moves should provide a jolt and added development opportunity for the players over the balance of their junior seasons. It also gives Kraken fans (particularly fans who read Down on the Farm) the chance to get multiple prospect viewings on a single team, which is always a welcome development. On the other hand, it may delay Villeneuve’s return to the AHL lineup and, in fact, take him out of the mix for an AHL playoff push, which could be a blow for the Firebirds.
Separately, there were a number of trades involving the local Pacific Northwest teams, including two blockbusters that sent out highly skilled forwards. The Seattle Thunderbirds traded Vancouver Canucks prospect Braeden Cootes to the Prince Albert Raiders in exchange for futures, while the Spokane Chiefs sent draft prospect Mathis Preston to the Vancouver Giants. On the other side of the ledger, the Seattle Thunderbirds brought in skilled Dallas Stars forward prospect Cameron Schmidt from the Vancouver Giants.
Did you know? While the Kraken have never drafted a player from the Windsor Spitfires, Fibigr and Villeneuve are not the first Kraken prospects to play for Windsor. The last elite Spitfires team acquired Shane Wright immediately following his star turn at the 2023 WJC for its OHL playoff push. That team didn’t get as far in the playoffs as it expected (which, bizarrely, created problems for Shane Wright’s AHL eligibility for the ensuing season). The Spitfires hope their playoff luck will be better this time around.
Notes on three more Kraken prospects
Barrett Hall | F | St. Cloud State Huskies (NCAA)
Barrett Hall had the opportunity to play at Acrisure Arena this past week, as St. Cloud State participated in the annual four-team Cactus Cup tournament. The Huskies won this year’s event, which raises the possibility that Hall and the Huskies may return to Coachella Valley again next winter to defend the title. Check out Hall’s shifts from St. Cloud State’s Jan. 3, 2026, game against UMass-Lowell below. Hall is No. 15 in red.
Alexis Bernier | D | Chicoutimi Saguenéens (QMJHL)
When the QMJHL playoff contender Chicoutimi Saguenéens traded for Alexis Bernier a couple of weeks ago, we took it as a sign that Bernier was likely on track to return to play this season following offseason ACL reconstruction surgery. Based on a recent report from the Saguenéens, however, it sounds like we may get to see Bernier on the ice even sooner than might have been hoped. According to the team, Bernier is already back on the ice doing hockey-related activities, and the team projects him to join the lineup during the week of Jan. 20.
Jake O’Brien | F | Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
On the flip side of the injury coin, Jake O’Brien has been absent from the Brantford Bulldogs lineup since being cut from Team Canada camp. On Dec. 28, 2025, the team announced O’Brien was day to day with a lower-body injury and said he “will return to the Bulldogs lineup soon.” Now, about two weeks later, the star Kraken prospect still has not skated in a game. This is one to monitor. Hopefully it resolves soon.
Highlight of the week
Villeneuve scored two goals in his debut for the Windsor Spitfires, including one nifty move to the backhand on a penalty shot.
Kraken prospects data update
Overall, Villeneuve had three goals and two assists in three OHL games this week, which earns him Sound Of Hockey Kraken Prospect of the Week.
J.R. Avon has been out of the Firebirds lineup since mid-December with a lower-body injury. It’s a shame, because he was consistently catching the eye with his pace and finishing his scoring chances during his first 21 games with the Firebirds. A pending restricted free agent, it would be nice to see Avon back on the ice sooner rather than later.
Semyon Vyazovoi had another stellar week. In two starts, he gave up two goals total and won both games. Frankly, if he had not earned Prospect of the Week last week, he probably would have had the best case for it again this week.
Vyazovoi is tied for fourth in the KHL in save percentage and is one of only two goalies in the top five under 23 years old.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3: Jagger Firkus
2: Julius Miettinen, Kim Saarinen, Nathan Villeneuve
1: Barrett Hall, Ollie Josephson, Tyson Jugnauth, Nikke Kokko, Jake O’Brien, Semyon Vyazovoi, Zaccharya Wisdom
Previewing the week ahead
We’ll give our Deep Sea Hockey Game of the Week to the Jakub Fibigr’s likely debut with the Windsor Spitfires on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
Minor league players agree to a new CBA with the AHL, ECHL
After rumblings of labor issues in both the AHL and the ECHL—and the ECHL players actually initiating a strike—both leagues reached new Collective Bargaining Agreements with the players last week. Most importantly, these deals will keep those leagues operating without any further stoppage for years to come.
That said, two aspects of the new AHL CBA bear monitoring from a player-development perspective. First, the AHL “Veteran Rule” was tweaked slightly. Instead of five veterans and one “exempt” veteran with slightly less experience, teams will be allowed to play six veterans regardless of experience level.
Second, the AHL CBA introduced entry-level contracts for AHL-only players. It appears these contracts may come with an additional year of potential team control through a “qualifying offer” mechanism. The Kraken have used AHL-only deals for some of their draft picks previously (e.g., Kyle Jackson, Justin Janicke), so this contract change could be relevant to the team’s roster management moving forward.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Oliver Suvanto
Oliver Suvanto is a six-foot-three Finnish center with strong fundamentals, physicality, and defensive skills. His offensive game looks a bit less refined, aside from a solid north-south skillset, but the instincts seem to be there to develop more over time. He’s regarded as one of the top international centers in this class and checked in at No. 10 overall on Corey Pronman’s most recent prospect ranking for The Athletic. Suvanto had two goals for Finland at the WJC.
Recent prospect updates
January 2, 2026: Mid-season Kraken prospect ranking
December 26, 2025: Watching Kraken prospects at the 2026 World Junior Championship
December 20, 2025: Resetting Seattle Kraken draft capital after the Mason Marchment trade
December 13, 2025: Ryan Jankowski talks Kraken prospects
December 5, 2025: World Juniors Announcements, Kokko saving the day for the Firebirds
November 29, 2025: Projecting Kraken prospects to the 2026 World Junior Championship
November 21, 2025: Blake Fiddler brings intriguing tools
November 15, 2025: Firkus steps forward for Firebirds
November 7, 2025: Caden Price looks the part in pro debut
October 31, 2025: College hockey seasons under way for Kraken prospects
October 25, 2005: Mølgaard is an all-situations contributor as an AHL rookie
October 17, 2025: Tyson Jugnauth earns important role with the Firebirds
October 10, 2025: Firebirds drop the puck on the 2025-26 season
October 3, 2025: Catton makes his case for the NHL Roster
September 26, 2025: Junior seasons begin, J.R. Avon settles in
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
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The post Down on the Farm – World Juniors reports, CHL trades appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The point streak lives! While Win Streak David—the second named win streak of the season—officially came to a close at four games, the Seattle Kraken rallied back from a 2-0 deficit in the third period and stole a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. It was the 10th straight game in which the Kraken earned a point (8-0-2), and it kept them in third place in the Pacific Division on a night when every team around them in the standings also earned points.
“It was contested, there’s no question,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We knew it would be. I thought both goaltenders played well. We certainly had our opportunities, they had their opportunities. So it was a pretty good hockey game overall, if you’re up in the stands watching it. I don’t know if I loved it overall, standing behind the bench watching.”
After giving up two goals through traffic in the first period, Philipp Grubauer was once again electric the rest of the way and gave Seattle every chance to complete the comeback. But in the extra frame, the Kraken looked as bad as we’ve seen them look in an overtime period, and Mats Zuccarello ultimately finished a 2-on-1 rush with Kirill Kaprizov to give the Wild the win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken loss to the Wild in overtime.
Takeaway 1: Poor start
Minnesota is an elite team in the NHL, no question about it. But man, the vibes of this game—aside from Pride Night happening, which always brings fun energy—were not good. While the Kraken didn’t give up many Grade A chances, they also couldn’t get much going at the offensive end of the ice, and there were shades of earlier games this season where they’d get the puck on their sticks and just hand it over to the Wild’s pesky and skilled forwards.
“The first period was awful, and our execution was probably the main— biggest part of that,” Vince Dunn said. “It’s just tough when you’re chasing the game a little bit to start the game.”
And chase they did, something that hasn’t happened much for this team of late, as they dropped into a 2-0 hole by the end of the first.
Both goals came off quick-up passes from Minnesota defensemen to start rushes, and both were scored on floating wrist shots from distance that found their way through bodies in front of Grubauer.
Ryan Hartman scored the first after Jamie Oleksiak made a solid defensive play to break up the initial attack. But Hartman got to the loose puck and used Oleksiak as a screen to beat Grubauer and make it 1-0 at 5:00.
Brock Faber then scored at 15:54 to make it 2-0 on a controversial goal in which Matt Boldy held Dunn’s stick for a longtime, then laid it to Quinn Hughes, who made a fancy-Dan pass back to Faber.
Dunn cleverly declined to comment on the non-call against Boldy after the game.
While the defensive structure appeared mostly sound, it did not feel like Seattle was going to have the juice to get back in this one against a top opponent.
Takeaway 2: Nice rally
BUT! The Kraken adjusted and dug deep in the second period, slowly tilting things back in their favor for stretches.
“I thought we started to really play with about seven or eight minutes left in the second period, where we started to create some zone time,” Lambert said. “We did a really good job there, and I thought it carried over to the third.”
With momentum shifted in the third, Adam Larsson broke through “The Wall of St. Paul” (Jesper Wallstedt) after Dunn’s shot hit the post and ricocheted all the way out to Larsson at the other point.
THE BIG CAT!
Vince Dunn hits the post, but it skips all the way out to Adam Larsson, who rips it past his countryman.
2-1 Wild. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/PEnJBEJqfK
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 9, 2026
Then, with momentum fully shifted, the Kraken earned two consecutive power plays. They came up empty on the first but quickly converted on the second, with Matty Beniers finding a Jared McCann rebound and putting it away.
“Give our guys credit. They did a great job to come back,” Lambert said. “It’s a huge point for us, but again, the disappointment for me is that the game started slow for us, and we can’t do that.”
The Wild regained momentum after Beniers tied it, but Grubauer was stellar down the stretch and got his teammates to the extra frame—where they laid a big, rotten egg.
Just when you think they’re out on this point streak, the Kraken pull you… BACK IN!
Takeaway 3: What was up with that OT?
One thing Seattle typically does a good job with is earning and maintaining puck possession in 3-on-3 overtime. That… uh… did not happen Thursday.
Here is a list of mistakes that occurred in just 2:09 of gameplay during the extra frame:
- Chandler Stephenson lost the opening draw.
- Stephenson won a puck in the neutral zone but then immediately gave it back to Quinn Hughes.
- Vince Dunn gained control in Seattle’s zone but passed it backward to nobody, handing possession back to Minnesota.
- Matty Beniers gained full possession and rushed up the ice while his teammates changed. Instead of circling back or dumping the puck all the way back to restart, he tried to force a 1-on-2 and lost the puck.
- Beniers almost turned it over again at the defensive blue line, but that created a 3-on-1 opportunity when the Wild got overzealous.
- On said 3-on-1, Ryker Evans failed to get a pass through Brock Faber, which created the fatal 2-on-1 the other way, leaving forward Freddy Gaudreau—who astutely pulled up on the 3-on-1, recognizing the Kraken were overcommitted—as the lone player back against Kaprizov and Zuccarello.
Lambert summed up the OT mishaps nicely.
“We started off with a lost face-off, couldn’t get the puck back. They’ve got some dynamic players over there, there’s no question about it. So they had a couple of really good opportunities, but I thought our goaltender was excellent. And then what we’ve been really good at this year in overtime, is possessing the puck and making plays when we get it, and we weren’t good at that tonight. We gave it back to them, we had an opportunity to catch them tired, and we were changing so that we could have had that puck on our stick a long time. And we tried a 1-on-1 move, lost the puck, and then we didn’t execute on a 2-on-1. So that overtime was not one of our better ones, that’s for sure.”
—
One additional note: Kraken captain Jordan Eberle did not play in this game due to an upper-body injury. Lambert had called him a game-time decision at morning skate. After the game, Lambert said, “I’m hoping it’s more of a day-to-day thing. Certainly, that’s a hole and a blow for us to have our captain out. We’ll see where we go from here. We miss him out there.”
Lambert did confirm that Eberle is going on the team’s five-game road trip, which begins Saturday in Carolina.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
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The post Three Takeaways – Kraken rally back to keep point streak alive in 3-2 OT loss to Wild appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. The Seattle Kraken’s remarkable point streak that took them from last place to third in the Pacific Division has ended at 10 games (8-0-2). The Kraken grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third period Saturday, but the relentless Carolina Hurricanes pushed back to tie the game and ultimately take a 3-2 regulation win.
While the Kraken got caved in in terms of possession and shot volume, they hung right in and gave themselves a good chance to win this contest. But the class of one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference shone through, and the Canes came out victorious.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken loss to the Hurricanes.
Takeaway 1: They had it
The flow of this game felt a lot like the 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 16, though the Kraken spent much more of that game on their toes than they did in this one. Facing another elite team Saturday, Seattle took a third-period lead and appeared to be heading toward an unlikely win. But top teams are never out of games—especially when you only have a one-goal lead—and as was the case against Colorado, Carolina turned on the jets late in the third period and simply refused to lose.
The tying goal, scored by Jordan Martinook at 10:37 of the third period, didn’t involve an obvious mistake by any Kraken players. Jordan Staal delayed behind the net, which lured Matty Beniers to him, then snuck his pass between the legs of Adam Larsson onto Martinook’s stick in the slot. Because Beniers had tried to flush Staal out from behind the net, he wasn’t able to get back to the top of the crease in time to take Martinook’s stick away.
The winning goal, which came three minutes later at 13:50, was more the result of a Kraken mistake. Cale Fleury—who, by the way, has been awesome in his extended stint filling in for Brandon Montour—tried to chip the puck off the glass to create an offensive rush. But Seth Jarvis stepped up and gloved down the clearing attempt in the neutral zone, and the Hurricanes transitioned quickly. As they closed in on Joey Daccord, Ryan Lindgren shoved William Carrier into Daccord—enough contact to disrupt the netminder, but not self-inflicted enough to challenge for goalie interference—and Jaccob Slavin completed Carolina’s comeback.
Takeaway 2: Pretty goals
The Kraken had a shockingly low shot volume in this one—their lowest output of the season—and were nearly outshot by a 3-1 margin, mustering just 12 shots on Brandon Bussi compared to Carolina’s 34. Those numbers don’t tell the whole story, though, because the Kraken did have some good looks either blocked by Hurricanes defenders, while Seattle’s shooters also sent pucks wide and failed to execute on a few rush opportunities.
Considering that paltry volume directed at Bussi, the Kraken did a decent job of making the most of their chances and got two pretty goals from Matty Beniers and Berkly Catton on the night.
Beniers was Seattle’s best player in this game, and his confidence appears to be soaring since being reunited with Kaapo Kakko, who also helped his game take off last season. He was rewarded with a beautiful goal to tie the game 1-1 at 14:13 of the first period, deking Slavin out of his jockstrap at the blue line, racing in, and slipping it through Bussi.
The score remained 1-1 through the first five minutes of the third period, when Catton broke through for his third goal in three games after going goalless for the first 27 games of his NHL career. Ryan Winterton read Bussi’s breakout pass and picked it off, then slung a perfect feed to Catton in the slot, who whipped it inside the left post.
Takeaway 3: Jaden Schwartz returns
There’s no doubt the Kraken sorely missed Jaden Schwartz during his 19-game absence, which dated all the way back to Nov. 26, when he came up lame and hobbled off against the Dallas Stars. Schwartz finally returned Saturday and looked like his old self. He was fast, physical, and creative, nearly scoring on a breakaway and setting up several chances for his teammates.
He told KHN’s Piper Shaw after the game that his body “held up” well and that he felt good. Getting Schwartz back is a huge boost for this team.
Schwartz’s return coincided with Chandler Stephenson temporarily exiting the lineup, as his wife just gave birth to the couple’s third child. Meanwhile, Jordan Eberle missed his second game in a row with an upper-body injury that has made him day to day, and Brandon Montour continues to slowly work his way back.
Seattle certainly remains undermanned, but the players who were able to go hung right in with one of the NHL’s top teams. It’s a shame they couldn’t pull that one out.
Now Seattle heads to the Big Apple to take on a Rangers team Monday that just lost 10-2 to the Boston Bruins. The Kraken are now behind San Jose again in the standings, so they badly need to take care of business in that game.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
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The post Three Takeaways – Kraken point streak snapped with 3-2 loss to Hurricanes appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
Those were two very large points for the Seattle Kraken, who overcame an early 2-0 deficit to escape from New York with a 4-2 win over the Rangers.
After Seattle saw its 10-game point streak snapped with a regulation loss Saturday in Carolina, getting back in the win column against a recently struggling team felt crucial. It wasn’t easy, but the Kraken figured it out.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Rangers.
Takeaway 1: Grubauer and Kraken recover after sketchy start
There are probably some in the Kraken fanbase who still feel spikes in their blood pressure when the Kraken give up an early goal with Philipp Grubauer in net. In a previous version of Grubi, it was something we saw all too often, and the current version of Grubauer—Renaissance Grubi, as we’re calling him—has now given up early goals in his last two starts. The big difference between Renaissance Grubi and the old version of Grubi, though, is that he doesn’t seem to get rattled by early goals anymore.
Just as Grubauer did against Minnesota on Thursday—when the Kraken also rallied back from a 2-0 deficit and forced overtime—he settled into his game as it went on and once again gave his team a chance to complete the comeback, which they did this time.
The Rangers’ first goal was an odd one. Soon after an ineffective early power play ended, Mika Zibanejad missed the net with a shot, then beat Vince Dunn to the loose puck and chipped it toward Grubauer from below the goal line. Grubauer was sliding back toward the net and looking the wrong direction, and he dragged the puck into the net behind him. Give credit to Zibanejad, because it’s a smart play to quickly chip that toward the goalie, but it’s also a strange goal to give up.
The next one was certainly not on Grubauer, but it came just 2:23 later, which made me wonder briefly if the netminder was off his game. Jared McCann tried to one-touch a breakout pass off the wall in the neutral zone backward toward Dunn, but inadvertently fired a missile six inches off the ice that was far too hot for Dunn to handle. That handed the Rangers a quick-developing 2-on-1, and Sam Carrick beat Grubauer from point-blank range.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Quick looked like a world-beater at the other end of the ice, stopping three Grade A Seattle chances in the first period, including a breakaway from Ryan Winterton.
Despite a few good chances, the vibes after that opening frame were not good, especially when the Kraken Hockey Network flashed the stat that the Rangers entered the game 12-0-0 on the season when leading after the first period.
BUT…
Grubauer and his teammates recovered and were visibly the better squad from the second period on, owning a 21-10 shots-on-goal advantage over the final 40 minutes. Grubauer made a few sharp saves the rest of the way, but his biggest stop of the night came with the Rangers pushing for the equalizer in the final 30 seconds, robbing J.T. Miller from about two feet away.
Takeaway 2: Kraken were a different team in the second
The Kraken needed to shake off that first period, and they certainly did, scoring two quick goals to tie the game by the 4:27 mark of the middle frame.
The second line—still without Chandler Stephenson due to the birth of his third child—got things started offensively when Freddy Gaudreau stole a puck in the neutral zone to create a 2-on-1. He made an exquisite backhand saucer pass to Eeli Tolvanen, who chipped the puck up and over Quick to get Seattle on the board.
EELI GOALVANEN!
Freddy Gaudreau with the neutral-zone steal and a great saucer pass to Eeli Tolvanen, who makes a move and buries it upstairs.
2-1 NYR pic.twitter.com/7ozOD21xMR
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 13, 2026
Three minutes later, the top line of Kaapo Kakko, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle—the captain was back in the lineup after a two-game hiatus—took the baton and went to work. Beniers retrieved a Dunn rebound at the left half wall and worked it low to Kakko. Kakko, making his triumphant return to Madison Square Garden, threaded a perfect pass through three Rangers defenders to Eberle at the top of the slot. Eberle delayed and waited for Quick to drop down, then sniped a perfect shot into the top-right corner to tie the game.
O, CAPTAIN!
Kaapo Kakko with a great setup to Jordan Eberle, who dusts it off and snipes the top corner.#SeaKraken have started shooting high on Jonathan Quick, a wise adjustment.
2-2 pic.twitter.com/b0VbKQqWq5
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 13, 2026
That second line of Schwartz, Gaudreau, and Tolvanen was excellent in this game, by the way, and as BFOP Alison Lukan pointed out on the KHN post-game show, they controlled 98 percent of the shot quality when they were on the ice. That’s especially impressive considering they were deployed heavily against Artemi Panarin, Zibanejad, and Will Cuylle.
Takeaway 3: Third line finishes the comeback
While the top two lines were responsible for pulling Seattle back into the game in the second, it was the third line of Berkly Catton, Shane Wright, and Jared McCann that completed the comeback. Wright carried the puck into the zone and dropped it for McCann just inside the blue line. McCann shoveled it to Ryan Lindgren—also making his triumphant return to MSG—who had activated and was cutting down the slot.
Lindgren made a skilled play to find Berkly Catton open at the backdoor, and although Catton fanned on what should have absolutely been his fourth goal in four games, Wright crashed in and helped poke the puck over the line. The goal was ultimately credited to Catton, though, giving the rookie his fourth goal in four games after being held goalless through his first 27 NHL games. It’s safe to say the floodgates are open for him.
The win was a big one for Seattle. It put things back on track after a brief derailment Saturday and also nudged the Kraken back ahead of the San Jose Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division standings.
—
The Kraken are getting healthier. Schwartz returned Saturday, Eberle returned Monday, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stephenson rejoin the team for the back half of this road trip. Meanwhile, Brandon Montour skated with the team in a red non-contact jersey at morning skate Monday.
With depth players making such a massive impact over the last few weeks—guys like Ryan Winterton, Ben Meyers, Jacob Melanson, and Cale Fleury all chipping in—very difficult (and potentially unfair) decisions loom.
The post Three Takeaways – Kraken overcome two-goal deficit, win 4-2 against Rangers appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The Kraken have been rolling for the better part of a month now, riding a 10‑game point streak that finally snapped Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was bound to end eventually; you can only white‑knuckle your way through so many one‑goal games before the good luck you’ve been riding runs out. Seattle is back in the playoff picture, though, clinging to the first wild‑card spot. What’s been interesting about this run is that it didn’t just materialize out of thin air. The seeds were planted a little earlier.
Improved special teams
If you zoom out a bit, the Kraken’s course correction really started before the win streak officially began. Dec. 8 against Minnesota, six games before the point streak kicked off, felt like the moment things began to turn. And the biggest driver of that shift has been special teams suddenly clicking.
Before Dec. 8, the power play was converting at 16.9 percent. Since then, it’s been humming along at 32.6 percent. The penalty kill has followed the same arc, jumping from 64.8 percent pre‑Dec. 8 to 80.4 percent since. When both sides of special teams swing that dramatically, it starts to show up in the standings, especially for a team that leads the league in one‑goal games if you strip out empty‑netters.
When your margins are razor thin every night, you don’t need elite special teams to change your season; you just need them to stop actively hurting you. The Kraken have gone a step further and turned them into a strength.
The tightness of the Pacific Division
Of course, all of this is happening inside the tightest division in the NHL. The Pacific Division remains a tightly packed mess, with just three points separating second and fifth place as of Monday morning. Seattle sits fourth, holding two games in hand on both Edmonton (second) and San Jose (third).
For most of the season, I’ve assumed Edmonton and Vegas would eventually pull away and make this a race for third and a wild-card spot. And they still might. But neither has put together the kind of sustained run that slams the door on the rest of the division. The Kings and Ducks have their own vulnerabilities, and the Sharks, well, the Sharks are scoring goals, but they continue to play a Swiss cheese defense.
All of that is a long way of saying the Pacific is wide open. I’m not predicting the Kraken finish top‑two, but it’s no longer a fantasy‑land scenario. A month ago, that felt impossible. Now it feels… plausible. And that’s a testament to how dramatically this team has stabilized.
Everyone is talking about the fourth line
One of the more delightful subplots of the last few weeks is that everywhere I go, people want to talk about the fourth line. And honestly, that’s cool.
The personnel has shuffled a bit with Ryan Winterton and Tye Kartye rotating in and out, but the heartbeat of the group has been Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson. Melanson gets most of the attention because he plays with wreckless abandon. His forechecking is relentless, his hits are violent, and his energy is contagious.
But the line works because Meyers is the stabilizer. His positional play is so clean, and his skill level is surprisingly above average for a fourth‑line center. He’s been a key contributor in what the team has needed out of that role—reliable, smart, opportunistic—and has chipped in offensively at key moments. It’s also worth noting that he was the only personnel change on the penalty kill when that unit turned the corner in early December.
The Kraken have been searching for a fourth line with an identity for most of their existence. They might finally have one.
Other musings
- Saturday’s loss to Carolina added yet another one-goal game to their tally this season. The Kraken have now played 32 one‑goal games (excluding empty‑netters), after logging 41 all of last season.
- Here’s another odd one: Seattle leads the NHL in percentage of game time spent tied, sitting at 49.6 percent. Nearly half their season has been played in a deadlock. No wonder every night feels like a stress test.
- The overtime frenzy has cooled a bit since the early-season chaos, but the Kraken still lead their brief franchise history with 14 overtime games already. Their single‑season record is 19 (2023‑24), and they’re well on pace to go over that mark this season.
- The Kraken finally held a four‑goal lead last Monday against Calgary, their first of the season. It was also the first time my blood pressure dipped below “concerning” since October.
- Seattle has also quietly posted a 3-2-2 record and .571 point percentage on the second half of back‑to‑backs. For the first time in franchise history, I no longer feel obligated to type the word “dreaded” before “back‑to‑back.”
- A small but interesting wrinkle from Thursday: Berkly Catton logged 51 seconds of TOI in overtime, the most he’s played in OT this season, and notably, it was the first time he started overtime. A tiny detail, but one that suggests growing trust.
- Eeli Tolvanen deserves a shoutout as one of this season’s unsung heroes. He leads all Kraken forwards with 46 blocked shots, including three big ones against Minnesota last Thursday. In a season where every game feels like a coin flip, those little moments matter.
- The Kraken’s 12 shots on goal against Carolina were the fewest in a single game in franchise history.
- Seattle now owns the ninth‑best power play in the NHL. If you had told me in October that this group would crack the top 10 at any point, I would have thought you were crazy. They finished 23rd last season.
Goal(s) of the week
There were simply too many worthy candidates this week, so we’re rolling with three.
The first comes from Anabella Fanale of the Minnesota Gophers, but the real magic is in the setup from Abbey Murphy, who looked like she was screwing around at a Saturday morning stick and puck to make the play happen.
Next up: the two Kraken rookies who scored their first NHL goals this week.
Jacob Melanson gets the nod first. I included the full sequence because it perfectly encapsulates what this fourth line has been doing lately, relentless pressure, smart little plays, and a bit of chaos. Melanson’s skate pass on the entry is delightful, and Winterton’s recovery after Calgary tries to clear the zone is exactly the kind of detail that makes this line so effective.
Then there’s Berkly Catton, who scored three goals this week, all of which could have been goal‑of‑the‑week contenders. This one was my favorite, mostly because he didn’t realize it went in and skated away looking mildly annoyed.
Player performances
Matty Beniers (SEA) – Three goals and two assists across four games. He looks like he’s rediscovering that swagger, and the Kraken need him to keep it going.
Kaapo Kakko (SEA) – Two goals and two assists as he continues to settle back in after missing a big chunk of the season. His confidence is creeping upward shift by shift.
Ben Meyers (SEA) – Not the flashiest stat line of the week, but he’s been a huge part of the fourth line’s recent success and has a knack for scoring at exactly the right moments. One goal, one assist, and a whole lot of impact.
The week ahead
The Kraken have a real opportunity in front of them with a four‑game road swing through the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, and finally Utah Mammoth.
There are no easy games in the NHL, but Seattle is catching both the Rangers and Devils at vulnerable moments. New York is 3‑5‑2 in their last 10 and just got thumped 10‑2 by Boston. New Jersey is 2‑7‑1 in their last 10 and recently lost 9‑0 to the Islanders. Historically, the Kraken haven’t fared well in either building—one win ever at MSG, none at Prudential Center—but if there were ever a time to steal points, this is it.
Thursday brings a rematch with the Bruins, who have won five of their last six. The lone blemish? Their 7‑4 loss to the Kraken last week. On paper, that’s the toughest matchup of the trip.
But the biggest game of the week might be Saturday in Utah. The Mammoth are tied with Seattle at 48 points but have played three more games. That’s a classic four‑point swing scenario, and the kind of game that can influence the playoff picture down the stretch.
Four points out of eight would be perfectly acceptable. Six, with one coming against Utah, would go a long way toward keeping this momentum rolling.
And finally…
After that brutal stretch from late November through mid‑December, the Kraken have played themselves back into the playoff picture and may still give us what we asked for back in October: meaningful hockey in mid‑March. Would it be nice to see them create a little breathing room in the standings? Absolutely. Is it required? Not yet.
Even with a couple dents showing in the last two games, I feel better about this team now than I did when they were winning early in the season. They look connected. They look committed. And maybe most importantly, they look like a group that genuinely believes it can win. What say you?
The post Monday Musings – Kraken need to keep it rolling appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
[Knock on wood, knock on wood, knock on wood.] At the risk of jinxing them, the Seattle Kraken seem to be getting healthier with every passing day.
Jaden Schwartz returned to the lineup Saturday in Carolina after missing 19 games with a lower-body injury. His return coincided with Chandler Stephenson exiting and being designated as a non-roster player due to the birth of his third child. Stephenson missed two games and is expected to return Wednesday when the Kraken visit the New Jersey Devils. On Monday, captain Jordan Eberle returned from a two-game absence related to an upper-body injury.
Meanwhile, defenseman Brandon Montour—who has been out with a Mason Marchment-related hand injury since Dec. 16—has returned to practice and skated with the team again on Tuesday. Based on this and his original timeline, Montour could be nearing a return within the next few games.
If nobody else gets sick or injured in the next two contests, difficult decisions will have to be made by the Kraken brass as they decide who to scratch—and eventually who to send down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds—to make room for returning regulars.
The immediate conundrum – who to scratch against the Devils?
Stephenson will almost certainly slot back into his second-line center role Wednesday. Without Stephenson, the forward lines for a 4-2 win at the New York Rangers on Monday looked like this:
Kaapo Kakko // Matty Beniers // Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz // Freddy Gaudreau // Eeli Tolvanen
Berkly Catton // Shane Wright // Jared McCann
Jacob Melanson // Ben Meyers // Ryan Winterton
With Stephenson back, who do you scratch if you’re Lane Lambert? Even that is a tough question to answer because the fourth line of Melanson/Meyers/Winterton has been the lynchpin for this team’s turnaround over the last month. But I would be surprised to see any player from the top three lines come out, especially after all three of those lines contributed to the comeback win at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
Entering a back-to-back with travel against the Devils and Bruins, Lambert was unsurprisingly vague on his plans when asked about this so-called “good problem” by Bob Condor on Tuesday in New Jersey. “You take it one [game] at a time, so we’ll see where we’re at and set our lineup for tomorrow and deal with the Boston game when that comes. But certainly, there are some healthy bodies, and we have some numbers and some people that maybe we can put in some fresh legs.”
If it were my decision, I’d probably put Stephenson at 2C, Gaudreau at 4C, and scratch Meyers—only because that feels like the least disruptive option. My second choice would be to move Gaudreau to fourth-line wing and scratch Winterton.
I don’t particularly like either option, but something will have to give.
What happens when Montour returns?
The bigger question—and again, this is all mooted if somebody gets sick or injured in the next couple of days—is what happens when Montour returns. The Kraken are currently at their 23-man roster limit, and that doesn’t include goaltender Matt Murray, who is still on injured reserve.
Once Montour is activated, Seattle will have to make a corresponding move. There are only three players who can be sent to the Coachella Valley Firebirds without being exposed to waivers: Wright, Winterton, and Melanson. Any other candidates—like Kartye, Meyers, Cale Fleury, or even Josh Mahura (yes, I think Mahura could be a candidate)—would have to be exposed to a claim from another team before they could be sent to the AHL. One could imagine a world in which any of those waivers-eligible players gets snatched up by a banged-up team looking for depth.
My preference would be for the Kraken to make a trade or two to clear out their multiple logjams of middle-to-bottom-six forwards and depth defensemen. But if that doesn’t happen, then my pick—and I really hate this call—would be to send Winterton to CV with the expectation that he comes back as soon as a spot opens up.
If that happens (or if Melanson gets sent down), the reasoning surely wouldn’t be because the Kraken front office thinks the player deserves a demotion. Instead, it would be done purely from an asset-management perspective. I do think this is the right approach, because the second the Kraken lose one of their depth guys to waivers, another player will get hurt, and they’ll be kicking themselves for losing a useful replacement.
This is also the exact reason that waivers exist; to protect the more veteran players from being sent haphazardly to the AHL.
The curious case of Matt Murray
Adding another curious wrinkle to all this is the fact that the Kraken still have a third goalie waiting in the wings in Matt Murray. Murray has been on injured reserve since coming up lame against the San Jose Sharks way back on Nov. 15. He’s been practicing in full for quite some time now and is being slow-played by the Kraken, who are no doubt hesitant to activate him and use up a scarce roster spot.
At some point, they’ll have no choice but to activate Murray because according to the collective bargaining agreement, once a player is healthy enough to play, he must come off IR.
One has to wonder whether Murray gets sent to CV for a conditioning stint, which could buy a little more time before another roster decision has to be made. Murray would have to agree to such a loan, however, and may not want to go to the minors.
—
These things have had a way of working themselves out so far this season. Every time Seattle has appeared to be getting healthy, somebody else has gone down with yet another injury, and the decisions have made themselves.
But if that doesn’t happen this time, and everyone ends up available at once, how would you solve these conundrums?
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
Read more from Darren
The post With Kraken health improving, difficult lineup and roster decisions loom appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
The Seattle Torrent joining the fold here in the Pacific Northwest is a move that quickly made history in the sports community, both locally and beyond. For a city whose hockey culture has been steadily growing since the introduction of the Kraken, a professional women’s team has the potential to grow the fanbase even more. The Torrent have had some ups and downs in the early stages of their first season, but they’ve received unwavering support so far, which will hopefully only grow with on-ice improvement over time.
The expansion into the Seattle sports market was a smart one – when you combine the die-hard loyalty of Seattle sports fans with the excitement of a new franchise, you start to see some sports magic happen. This excitement was present when the Kraken were introduced, and the city rallied behind them. That magic continued when the Torrent started off their inaugural season. In their first regular-season game, the fans here in Seattle broke the attendance record for the PWHL, drawing 16,014. They haven’t reached that number in games since, but home attendance has remained strong, giving an early indication that the city’s support of the team is sustainable.
The fact that the Torrent have had three of their four wins come on home ice has definitely helped draw in more fans in the area. But, they are starting to make some progress on the road too, as just last Saturday they got their first win away from Climate Pledge Arena, a 3-2 victory against the Toronto Sceptres in Hamilton, Ont.
Plus, they started off the new calendar year on a good note, which always helps.
Starting 2026 with a dubpic.twitter.com/EGR5Jo88aZ
— Seattle Torrent (@PWHL__Seattle) January 4, 2026
The Torrent have a star-studded roster that should continue to bring excitement into the arena as they start to straighten out some of the bumps they have run into in the past few games. The top line will be something to continue to watch, specifically. It includes Captain Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Julia Gosling who together have scored 10 of the Torrent’s 20 goals this season, with Knight also leading the team in assists. The Torrent’s roster is set up for success (and some exciting hockey) once they solidify their consistency throughout the three periods on the ice.
This success won’t just come from the top lines though, as the Torrent have proven to have some depth to their roster. Young players like Hannah Bilka have shown up in critical moments. The team also has some versatile goaltending options between young Hannah Murphy and veteran Corinne Schroeder. Seattle is set up to grow into a tough competitor, and their strong start with the fans proves that the city is ready for it.
Captain Hilary Knight skates towards the puck. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
The challenge lying ahead…
While everyone hopes that the team will continue to win and improve its chemistry together, the fans will have to take a short break from watching the Torrent to turn their attention towards the Olympics. Luckily for Seattle fans, the Torrent has six players that are set to play at those Games. The USA lineup will include Alex Carpenter, Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka, and USA captain Hilary Knight, whose appearance will make this her fifth Olympics. Julia Gosling will join Team Canada’s roster, and Aneta Tejralová will be playing for Czechia.
The Olympic break has the potential to spotlight some of the Torrent players while also giving them some time to play with the most elite in the game. Hopefully the scale of attention and level of play that will be placed on them will follow them back to Seattle for the rest of the regular season and bring added interest in the women’s game. The Olympics coinciding with the start of the Torrent’s introduction to the league makes for an incredibly entertaining first season for Seattle fans.
The Torrent are just at the beginning of their story here in Seattle. Establishing themselves within the Seattle market has already been accomplished with their impressive first turnout of the season, but the next step is to continuing to grow their identity within that space. The Torrent’s performance and fan engagement post Olympics will be the next big step in building up that team identity to further solidify themselves as both a strong competitor in the PWHL and within the market here in Seattle.
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Although the Kraken are just a Brandon Montour (and a Matt Murray) away from having their full lineup available for the first time all season, they did not have their best performance in a 3-2 overtime loss to the reeling New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
In a tough-sledding affair, Seattle didn’t get much going offensively in regulation—though the Kraken were buoyed by an opportunistic Adam Larsson goal and a power-play goal from Jared McCann—and then bungled the 3-on-3 OT period, as they did against the Minnesota Wild last week (the last time they went to OT).
The point is valuable and puts the Kraken two points clear of the idle San Jose Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division. But as coach Lane Lambert said after the game, Seattle left “something on the table” in this one.
Here are Three Takeaways from a low-energy, low-event 3-2 Kraken loss to the Devils.
Takeaway 1: Another early goal against
The Kraken have seen an uncomfortable trend emerge recently, giving up the first goal early in games. In fact, it has happened in each of the last four contests—three times with Philipp Grubauer in net and once with Joey Daccord.
Against Minnesota on Thursday, Ryan Hartman scored first at the 5:00 mark. At Carolina on Saturday, Logan Stankoven scored at 3:23. Against the New York Rangers on Monday, Mika Zibanejad scored at 3:08, followed by Sam Carrick at 5:31.
And on Wednesday in New Jersey, a Dougie Hamilton shot from the point was tipped on the way in, leaving an easy tap-in for Cody Glass on the rebound. That goal came immediately following a defensive-zone face-off and put the Kraken back to chasing just 54 seconds into the game.
While the Kraken have consistently rallied back in each of these games, they’re still just 1-1-2 over that stretch. Zooming out, they’ve done a pretty good job of scoring first this season, but they need to nip this recent early-goal trend in the bud before it turns into a larger—and more damaging—issue.
Takeaway 2: Another bad OT period
After what was easily Seattle’s worst overtime performance of the season against the Wild on Thursday, the Kraken looked only marginally better in the extra frame this time and came away with the same result.
New Jersey controlled the puck for almost the entire 3:42 of overtime, leading up to Nico Hischier’s second goal of the game and the game-winner. Jordan Eberle did have two looks after a fortunate bounce deep in the Devils’ end but couldn’t convert, and Vince Dunn also had a chance just before the deciding goal against.
Unfortunately for Dunn—who also assisted on both Kraken goals in this game—he picked exactly the wrong time to go for a line change.
You can see how he made the decision. Eberle appeared to have Hischier covered, and Matty Beniers was also back, so from Dunn’s perspective there was sufficient coverage for a quick change. But the timing was off, with New Jersey having just gotten possession. Making matters worse, just as Dunn headed for the bench, Eberle switched sides to chase Jack Hughes, leaving a clear lane for Hischier up the ice. Hughes hit Hischier with a cross-ice pass, and he was off to the races, deking and beating Grubauer for the 3-2 final.
Takeaway 3: McCann/Wright/Catton line is cooking
The only line that produced anything on this night was the third line of Jared McCann, Shane Wright, and Berkly Catton. That trio has really been humming lately, and on Catton’s 20th birthday, they connected once again.
Eight minutes after Glass gave the Devils an early lead, McCann took a perfect stretch pass from Dunn that put New Jersey’s defenders on their heels. Wright drove to the net and pushed New Jersey back, and McCann tried a quick feed to Catton racing down the opposite wing but fanned on the puck. Instead of panicking or forcing the issue, McCann reset and laid it back for a trailing Adam Larsson, who skated into it and ripped a shot over Jacob Markstrom to tie the game 1-1 at 8:55 of the first period.
THE BIG CAT!
Jared McCann whiffed on his initial pass to Berkly Catton, so Catton went to the net, and McCann passed to a trailing Adam Larsson instead. Larsson rips it home with Catton at the goalmouth.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/p3DhTXcLIT
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 15, 2026
McCann also scored a power-play goal, cleaning up a Dunn rebound just five seconds into a man-advantage opportunity to tie the game 2-2 at 5:06 of the second. With his goal and assist Wednesday, McCann now has 10 points (5-5—10) in 10 games since returning from injury on Dec. 28.
He’s been a nice, steadying presence for the young players he’s skating with, and they seem to be working off each other well. Catton, in particular, was especially good in this game and seems to be gaining more and more confidence with every outing alongside McCann.
With Chandler Stephenson returning to the lineup Wednesday after the birth of his third child, I was surprised that Jacob Melanson was the player Lambert chose to scratch. After all, he had seemed to be a catalyst in getting this team moving back in the right direction when he was inserted onto the fourth line a few weeks ago.
Given that they played what Lambert called a “slow” game against the Devils, one has to imagine Melanson will be back in the lineup Thursday in Boston, on a night when the Bruins will be highly motivated and Seattle will have to wait around for Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 to be lifted to the rafters in a pregame ceremony.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
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The post Three Takeaways – Sluggish Kraken fall 3-2 to Devils in overtime appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
When we heard Thursday’s Kraken game at the Boston Bruins was jersey retirement night for Boston Bruins legend Zdeno Chara, we knew it would be an uphill battle for Seattle, facing an emotional team and playing its second game of a back-to-back with travel. What we didn’t necessarily expect (and maybe we should have) was just how early into the game the hill to climb would turn into a mountain.
With the Bruins riding the Chara wave, the Kraken fell behind very early yet again and then spent the entire game trying to dig their way out. They pushed hard in the closing minutes but came up short in the end.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Bruins.
Takeaway 1: Another bad start and other similarities to Wednesday at NJ
After Wednesday’s game in New Jersey, I started ringing alarm bells about Seattle conceding early goals after it had given up the icebreaker in four straight games. That trend turned into a clear and present danger Thursday—and one that needs to be addressed.
On Wednesday against the Devils, the Kraken gave up the opener 54 seconds in when Cody Glass found a rebound for an easy tap-in goal. On Thursday, Marat Khusnutdinov burned around Cale Fleury and then deked past Joey Daccord, who had dropped to his butterfly far too early and had no chance of recovering. Daccord, by the way, was just OK in this one, stopping 20 of 23 shots.
The time of Khusnutdinov’s goal? 54 seconds… AGAIN! What are the chances of that?!
The Kraken continued to drag a$$ for the next three minutes, and although they had numbers back on a rush, Jaden Schwartz and Fleury seemed to get crossed up momentarily in coverage. Schwartz recovered and got his stick on Viktor Arvidsson’s shot-pass to Casey Mittelstadt, but Schwartz poked the puck right into an open net, giving Arvidsson the goal and Boston a 2-0 lead.
To Lane Lambert’s credit, he immediately used his timeout. He was demonstrative and stern in his address to the team, and from the next face-off on, Seattle controlled the rest of the first period.
Another similarity to the night before: Seattle did get on the board within eight minutes, scoring five seconds into a power play drawn by Kaapo Kakko—the exact same amount of time that elapsed before Jared McCann scored a power-play goal Wednesday.
The problem this time, though, was that the Kraken didn’t get themselves sorted as quickly as they had the night before and allowed a second goal in between their opponent’s first goal and their own. That second one against came back to bite Seattle and meant chasing for the entire game.
Takeaway 2: Some good, some bad from power play
The Kraken power play converted twice in this game, improving to seventh in the entire NHL at 23.7 percent on the season, which accounted for all of Seattle’s offense. As mentioned in Takeaway 1, Chandler Stephenson cut the deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 7:29 of the first period. Stephenson won the draw to Matty Beniers and then headed toward the net. Beniers poked it up to Vince Dunn, who sent it across to McCann at the top of the right circle. McCann then rifled a shot-pass to Stephenson at the top of the crease, who redirected it into an open net.
They made that one look easy.
Seattle added its second power-play goal at 12:27 of the second period, after Brandon Montour’s shot off the end wall skipped right to Eeli Tolvanen in the right circle. Tolvanen quickly sniped it over Jeremy Swayman’s left shoulder to pull the Kraken within 3-2.
Sandwiched between those two power-play goals, though, was a lackadaisical play by Beniers four minutes into the second period. He slowly drifted back to retrieve a puck in Seattle’s zone and, rather than turning on the jets to create separation from Mark Kastelic, tried a little shimmy-and-escape move. He was moving so slowly that it was an easy read for Kastelic, who picked Beniers’ pocket, went in on a breakaway, and scored a short-handed goal to put Boston up 3-1 at the time.
Despite a strong push late in the third, Tolvanen’s goal stood as Seattle’s final tally of the night, meaning Kastelic’s shorty ended up as the game-winner.
It was a rare misstep by Beniers, but a critical one nonetheless.
Takeaway 3: Montour returns, Melanson leaves, Evans scratched
As I wrote earlier in the week, we knew the Kraken had difficult lineup and roster decisions coming with Brandon Montour nearing a return from a hand injury that sidelined him for a month. In that article, I predicted Ryan Winterton—one of just three players, along with Jacob Melanson and Shane Wright, eligible for assignment to the AHL without having to clear waivers—would be sent down to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Instead, the Kraken scratched Melanson Wednesday, then reassigned him to CV on Thursday when they activated Montour from injured reserve.
The decision was a “six in one, half-dozen in the other” situation, because the front office surely didn’t want to lose a player to waivers, but also likely didn’t want to send either Melanson or Winterton down. Something had to give, though, with the lineup fully healthy for the first time all season, and this was the call they made.
Interestingly, on the same day the grittiest player on the team was sent down, Winterton had his first NHL fight after taking a nasty hit from Alex Steeves and then standing up for himself instead of letting Vince Dunn do his bidding.
I wouldn’t have liked the call to send Winterton down either, but I especially don’t like the decision to reassign Melanson. The team turned things around when he arrived in the NHL, and since he’s come out of the lineup, the Kraken have put together two straight uninspiring performances and gone 0-1-1. I’ll reiterate what I wrote in my previous article: I’d like to see the team make a trade to clear out its logjam, improve offensively, and get Melanson a permanent spot on the fourth line.
For as effective as Tye Kartye and Freddy Gaudreau can be as fourth-line players, the Kraken need to do what they can to reunite Winterton with Ben Meyers and Melanson. When those three played together, they looked like one of the best fourth lines in the NHL. Any other combination just doesn’t seem to work as well.
By the way, with Montour back in, Ryker Evans was healthy scratched. It wasn’t a bad call, given that Evans has had some tough outings lately, but Fleury also did not have a great game against the Bruins. I’m curious to see if things look different Saturday in Utah, as Lambert tries to salvage the final two points from an otherwise disappointing road trip on which the Kraken currently sit at 1-2-1.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email [email protected].
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The post Three Takeaways – Kraken fall behind early, can’t catch up against Bruins in 4-2 loss appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
Welcome to “Down on the Farm,” your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. This week, we’ll dig in on Jacob Melanson’s development and NHL performance following his reassignment to the AHL on Thursday, Jan. 15. Beyond that, we have news on a couple of notable all-star elections, weekly and season-to-date data updates, all-shifts videos, the Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, and a preview of the week ahead, as always.
If you have a Seattle Kraken prospect–related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey.
Jacob Melanson has improved drastically in one specific way
Following a spate of injuries at the NHL level, the Seattle Kraken recalled 2021 fifth-round pick Jacob Melanson and deployed him for regular shifts on the team’s fourth line. Over a 15-game stretch from Dec. 14, 2025, through Jan. 12, 2026, with Melanson, 22, in the lineup for an average of 9:25 TOI per night, the Kraken went 9-4-2.
As Kraken GM Jason Botterill told the KHN Pregame Show on Wednesday, Nov. 14, the first word that comes to mind when you think of Jacob Melanson is “physicality.”
Among all players with at least 50 minutes of time on ice in the NHL this season, Melanson’s 28 hits per 60 minutes ranked second in the entire league—behind only Garnet Hathaway’s 30 hits per 60. This certainly brought a unique element to the Kraken lineup, which otherwise skews smaller and lighter. After Melanson, only Tye Kartye (18 hits per 60 minutes) ranked within the top 100 in this physicality rate metric.
The eye test told us that Melanson’s hard-nosed play style also seemed to inspire and catalyze the team to positive results.
That said, we should be cautious about confusing correlation and causation. Melanson was on the team during a hot streak, but he averaged fewer minutes on the ice than any of his teammates during that stretch and contributed just two points (one goal and one assist).
We also know hits alone do not necessarily correlate with team success. More hits often means you’re chasing an opponent in possession. And, to make matters worse, a player can leave his team vulnerable when he plays out of structure solely for the sake of being physical. Defense is more difficult four on four than it is five on five.
At least one scout criticized Melanson’s past play at the AHL level for precisely this reason. J.D. Burke of Elite Prospects wrote this about Melanson during the 2023-24 season: “I’m not a big fan of his game though. I suspect he’ll be so undisciplined that he’ll hurt your team more than he helps it at the NHL level. I’m not even just talking about the senseless penalties. He’s basically always out of position, and his linemates may as well be shorthanded in the offensive zone.” I admit that there were times when watching Melanson’s AHL games over the last couple of years that I had similar thoughts.
This year has been different, though. Melanson has done a much better job of controlling his aggression and deploying it within the framework of the play to win advantages rather than conceding them. This is underlined by the fact that he took zero penalties in 141 NHL minutes despite playing with emotion and “on the edge.” He also showed playable offensive instincts, often working to the front of the net after winning possession on the forecheck.
MELLY CELLY!
The fourth line does it AGAIN, and this time, it's Jacob Melanson getting his FIRST NHL GOAL!
Nice play by Winterton to get his own rebound and send it across.
1-1 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/DJmg7QhQFs
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 6, 2026
Indeed, Botterill told KHN that he thinks Melanson has “improved drastically, even [since] training camp.” Discipline in channeling his physicality has been one area of improvement.
That said, from my vantage point, Melanson’s biggest developmental strides over the last year-plus have come in his skating.
A few months after Melanson was drafted, Elite Prospects gave him a significantly below-average skating grade. Cam Robinson wrote that “this is a player who lacks the foot speed to really contend for a future offensive role in the NHL.” Melanson is “lessed with good size and tenacity to use it on the forecheck,” Robinson wrote, but “[f]ifth-round picks are long shots to make the NHL, [and] ones that have challenges moving around are even less likely. Melanson falls into the latter category.”
That does not compute with the player I saw this past month, who was capable of outracing opponents to retrieve pucks for offensive-zone possession or scoring chances. So, I sought out Melanson’s player-tracking data to see if the numbers lined up with my eye test. The results were really interesting.
The NHL does not make analyzing NHL Edge data at scale very easy. It tends to present the data in counterintuitive ways. (Why “speed bursts per mile skated”? Why not “speed bursts per minute on ice”?) And it only provides results on an individual player basis, which makes scraping the data at scale quite difficult. That said, a couple of invaluable web resources, like Pucklytics, have done that yeoman’s work, and my insights are indebted to their efforts. (Pucklytics is missing a handful of players due to data retrieval errors here or there, but the numbers below should be in the right ballpark.)
According to NHL Edge, among all players with at least 10 games played, Jacob Melanson ranked ninth in the NHL in average skating speed at even strength. His average speed was second on the Kraken, behind only teammate Ben Meyers. This result was encouraging, but it also makes sense given that you want your fourth line to come out and play aggressively.
I also wanted to determine whether Melanson’s top-end speed was competitive. His top speed (22.19 miles per hour) ranked fourth on the Kraken, behind only Chandler Stephenson, Berkly Catton, and Ryan Winterton.
That said, what he may lack in true top-end speed, he more than made up for in his ability to hit speeds above 20 miles per hour with regularity. NHL Edge categorizes a skating speed over 20 miles per hour as a “speed burst.” Melanson has 19 speed bursts per 60 minutes on ice. This figure ranks third in the entire league, behind only Connor McDavid (23) and Vinnie Hinostroza (20).
This is an enormous developmental leap for a player who had “challenges moving around” as a junior player.
Put it all together, and Melanson is now able to deliver game-changing pace and physicality at the NHL level in 10-minute increments. In a 15-game sample, he leveraged those traits to positive relative shot-quality results despite starting more than his fair share of shifts in the defensive zone.
Everything about Melanson’s 15 games in the lineup points to a prototypical fourth-line profile moving forward. He’s not only an identity player, but also a positive play driver from the bottom of the lineup.
Notwithstanding all of this, Melanson’s run with the NHL team came to an abrupt end—for now—on Thursday, when the team reassigned him to the AHL. The move was necessary to open a roster spot for Brandon Montour in the defenseman’s return from injured reserve.
Why did this happen? As Sound Of Hockey‘s Darren Brown detailed before Montour’s activation, there was a necessary bit of “asset management” going on here. Only Melanson and Winterton could be reassigned to Coachella Valley without risking waivers. It’s understandable that the team opted to keep the longer-tenured Winterton for now.
That said, I think it’s fairly clear that Melanson has a real NHL career ahead of him as an 11th or 12th forward. I would be surprised if he was not in an NHL lineup “permanently” within the next 12 months.
As for the Kraken, they are winless in two games since removing Melanson from the lineup. After the team’s Jan. 14 game against the New Jersey Devils, coach Lane Lambert said: “I thought we played slow hockey tonight. Prior to the game, we said we were going to have to play fast and I didn’t think we were sharp. And part of being sharp is you play with some speed.” If that sharpness and speed isn’t there in the days ahead, the solution may be in Coachella Valley.
Notes on four more Kraken prospects
Nikke Kokko | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Top goalie prospect Nikke Kokko had to leave last Saturday’s game with an apparent (significant) lower-body injury. The team announced later in the week that Kokko is out week-to-week. While we hope for the best, this seems like an injury that could be on the longer side of the week-to-week timeline. I wonder if the Firebirds may benefit from a conditioning stint for Matt Murray to help bridge the gap until Kokko returns.
Jagger Firkus | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
In his second professional year, Firkus has emerged as a point-per-game producer at the AHL level. He paces the Firebirds with 35 points (14 goals and 21 assists). That production has made him an AHL All-Star, as announced by the team on Jan. 15.
Tyson Jugnauth | D | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
AHL rookie blueliner Tyson Jugnauth will join Firkus at the All-Star Game. This is an especially impressive feat for the rookie professional, and the achievement has its roots in hard work in Seattle this past summer. From my vantage point, Jugnauth still has a lot of work to do defensively, but this honor provides meaningful validation. The arrow is pointed in the right direction.
Jani Nyman | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
After a bit of a slow start back in the AHL following his reassignment, forward Jani Nyman caught fire over Coachella Valley’s last two games, compiling four goals in that stretch. Overall, he has five goals and an assist in seven AHL games this season. He seems to have gotten his legs back under him in an offensive role. The plan for the time being is likely for Nyman to keep that production rolling with the Firebirds until an injury (or other transaction) creates space for his recall in a top-nine role.
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) January 15, 2026
Kraken prospects data update
Jakub Fibigr debuted for the Windsor Spitfires this week, registering an assist in two games.
Jake O’Brien has yet to return to Brantford’s lineup due to a multi-week injury. Most recently, he missed a matchup with Fibigr and Nathan Villeneuve’s Spitfires last Sunday.
Fresh off a disappointing World Junior Championship, in which he didn’t play a single minute, Kim Saarinen started twice in Liiga this past week. He won both games, one by shutout. This effort was enough to edge fellow Finn Jani Nyman for Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week.
Semyon Vyazovoi continues to stack success in the KHL. His three-win week warranted Prospect of the Week consideration too.
Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
3: Jagger Firkus, Kim Saarinen
2: Julius Miettinen, Nathan Villeneuve
1: Barrett Hall, Ollie Josephson, Tyson Jugnauth, Nikke Kokko, Jake O’Brien, Semyon Vyazovoi, Zaccharya Wisdom
Previewing the week ahead
We have an active week ahead of us. We’ll give our Deep Sea Hockey Games of the Week to Friday and Saturday matchups between Clarke Caswell’s Univ. of Denver Pioneers against Ollie Josephson’s Univ. of North Dakota Fighting Hawks. The NCHC matchups features two top-10 teams and should be great competition.
Tracking 2026 NHL Draft prospects: Adam Valentini
After projected top-10 picks Gavin McKenna, Tynan Lawrence, and Keaton Verhoeff, Adam Valentini may be the next most notable draft-eligible college hockey player this season—him or Illia Morzov. Valentini’s 18 points trail only McKenna among all first-eligible NCAA players. Many draft prognosticators have the 5-foot-11, left-shot forward going within the top 50 picks in the draft.
Recent prospect updates
January 9, 2026: World Juniors reports, CHL trades
January 2, 2026: Mid-season Kraken prospect ranking
December 26, 2025: Watching Kraken prospects at the 2026 World Junior Championship
December 20, 2025: Resetting Seattle Kraken draft capital after the Mason Marchment trade
December 13, 2025: Ryan Jankowski talks Kraken prospects
December 5, 2025: World Juniors Announcements, Kokko saving the day for the Firebirds
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
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The post Down on the Farm – Jacob Melanson is speeding toward an NHL future despite the demotion appeared first on Sound Of Hockey.
