Utah and Kraken offseason preview.

 Offseason plans, next we have the eliminated Coyotes/Utah and Kraken who were the 4th and 5th west teams eliminated, they are 3rd in my offseason preview series, as I will breakdown why both Seattle and Arizona missed the playoffs and what I personally think they could do in the offseason to improve their team to try and make the playoffs next year. 

In today's offseason preview blog post, the focus is on analyzing the performance and future strategies of the Seattle Kraken and the Coyotes/Utah Franchise, the 5th and 6th teams eliminated from the NHL playoffs contention. We take a look at the primary reasons for their elimination as Arizona had a bad stretch in the middle of the year and had quite a young and inexperienced team while the Kraken couldn’t overcome a bad start and also had a much worse offensive performance then the previous year, we also take a look at some players on expiring contracts and the teams draft capital as well, and I give some ways these teams can improve in the offseason which for the Utah Franchise entails adding to the blueline, getting more veteran help and use draft capital to add some young pieces, while for Seattle that includes adding a lethal top 6 forward up front, figure out what to do with Larsson and give Wright a NHL role. 

Utah Franchise

Significant Pending UFA's

C,RW T.Boyd 2-6-8 16GP

WIN L.O'Brien 3-9-12 69GP

LD/RD T.Dermott 2-5-7 49GP

RD J.Brown 2-6-8 45GP

Kirby Lee USA Today Sports 

Significant Pending RFA's

C,LW B.Hayton 3-7-10 33GP

RW M.Keleman 0-1-1 10GP

WIN J.Leonard 1-0-1 6GP

C N.Smith 0-0-0 0GP

C J.Jenik 0-0-0 1GP

LW B.McCartney 0-0-0 0GP

LD/RD S.Durzi 8-29-37 71GP

LD J.Valimaki 2-14-16 63GP

RD M.Kesselring 5-13-18 60GP

LD/RD J.J Moser 5-21-26 75GP

RD V.Soderstrom 0-0-0 3GP

LD/RD V.Kolyachonok 0-0-0 1GP

Current draft capital for Utah in 2024: 13

1RD: UTA 

2RD: UTA, WAS, FLO

3RD: UTA, EDM, COL

4RD: UTA, SJ

5RD: UTA

6RD: UTA, DAL

7RD: UTA

3 Reasons why the Coyotes missed the playoffs:

2nd Half Collapse 

So first up, going into the season I had high hopes for the coyotes, I mean they did start to veer away from the rebuilding sort of path and they went out and they used draft Capital to acquire Durzi, then they signed free agents such as Jason Zucker and  Matt Dumba and it looked like they were trying to become a little more competitive this year and at the start of the season they were, you go back to January 22nd so just a couple of months ago the Coyotes were in a really tight race for a playoff spot, they were two points back of the Predators for the final wild card spot in the western conference, four games above .500 at the 45 game mark and they were actually looking pretty good, but after that they absolutely collapsed I mean I think they were something like 10-20-2 to finish the year or something, I mean they've been absolutely awful since then they, had I think it was like a long 13 or 14 game losing streak that really kicked it off and ever since that losing streak they were never able to overcome it, they did have a couple of good games since then but still I mean that really derailed their season, they're had a really good season at the beginning, the first half of the season for the coyotes was really good and they looked like they had a lot of promise to potentially being in at least a playoff race this year, but that second half collapse was a major reason as to why coyotes were one of the first teams eliminated in the Western Conference and in the NHL. 

Bad Defence

Next up was the bad defense, the defense wasn't overly bad this year and not as bad as it was been in recent years, I mean I think the goaltending of Vejmelka and Ingram covered up a lot of the problems on their blueline but they did have a really young blueline with guys like Durzi, Moser and a couple of other guys who were more of a younger defenseman who are on that team so you know they were going to make a little bit of mistakes and they're also ninth lowest in the NHL in goals against at the end of the year, so they're not an overly great defensive team but they're also not one of the worst teams, however they were still bottom 10 and I think the defense did have a a huge problem with them missing the playoffs.

Young team

And lastly was the fact that they are still a younger team, as much as this was supposed to be a more competitive year where they grow a little bit, they still have a lot of extremely young pieces I mean Logan Cooley got his first NHL season this year, Moser was only in his I think second or third NHL season, Durzi is still quite a young player, Keller's still on the younger side, on top of that Dylan Guenther has been a really good piece for them when they called him up midway through the year, so there's a lot of young pieces on this team so they're bound to make some mistakes, this was not a team who was guaranteed to make the playoffs by any means and I don't think there was even any guarantees that they would be a competitive team, but they were supposed to do a little bit better than last year and they wound up being a tad bit better, so they did see some growth this year but with them still being a young team I think that was a major reason as to why this team missed the playoffs. 

So I think the reasons they wound up only doing slightly better then last year and still missed the playoffs was facts that the second half collapse thing that really just killed that Arizona Coyotes team, the bad defense which hasn't been overly great this year and the young team in front of them was probably the three reasons as to why this coyotes team did not do overly well this year. 

5 ways the Utah Franchise can improve in the offseason to get better for next year:

1) Future of team in Arizona: Now my first thing I thought they need to figure out this offseason was the future of the team and where they were going to play this year as their was a lot of questions about them remaining in Arizona, but that has been rectified with them moving to Utah so there is really no need to worry about their future home anymore, so that was the top priority this offseason but it has at this point already been solved.

Dennis Schneidler USA Today Sports

2) Use Picks to add young players: Next up for the Utah franchise is actually something I talked about before when they were going to be the Coyotes and that is to use their plethora of draft Capital to add more young players. Now we saw them do this last year as they had Montreal second round pick for the upcoming draft last year and moved it to LA in order to get Sean Durzi and it worked out fantastically as Durzi has been a fantastic top 4 defenseman actually and I think this Utah team will try to do some sort of a similar thing whether it be to trying to add a young forward like a guy like Kakko or Drury from the Rangers or the Hurricanes or try and add a young defender like Lundkvist from Dallas or Nic Hague from Vegas, so I'm not exactly sure who they will try and target, but I would expect them to try move draft capital and get some players who are currently in a tight cap situation with some their current team, so I expect the Utah team to definitely try and do that and incorporate more young players from other teams into their system. 

3) Rework the blueline and sign RFA’s: Up next if you look at their blue line I think they need to rework that blue line, now at this point Utah has a lot of Pending RFA Defensemen, so as we just talked about Valimaki, Kesselring, Durzi and Moser are all RFA’s and I expect all four of those guys to be back, now they need to be signed and I am not sure how long term Utah is willing to go there, but I expect all those guys to be back at the very least on one year deals if not longer for team Utah and then they also don't have a whole bunch of really great blueliners in the prospect pool, plus I don't know if Lamoureux or Simashev are going to be ready for the NHL next year, so I would expect team Utah to try and bring in some more top 4 defensemen just like Arizona did this year with Dumba so Utah will definitely be in the market for adding some blue liners, not sure if they'd be willing to overpay some of the older blue liners or if they're going to go for trying to add a solid top 4 defender, not exactly sure which way they're going to go but I definitely expect team Utah to be looking to add some Defenders to try and rework that blue line which has a lot of promise and some good players.

4) Consider moving guys like Bjugstad, Vejmelka, Kerfoot and Schmaltz: I also expect team Utah to consider moving out some guys like Vejmelka, Bjugstad, Kerfoot and Schmaltz, Schmaltz has two years left at just over a $5 Million dollar cap hit and he's a really good top six forward but I've seen his name pop up in trade rumours before in Arizona and I could see Utah also consider moving him so I would not be overly shocked if team Utah traded him, on top of that Kerfoot, Bjugstad and Vejmelka will all be entering the final year of their deals and even though all are really good players as Bjugstad and Kerfoot are solid middle six forwards and Vejmelka is a decent tandem goalie, if there's no real future for them in Utah then I could see them maybe hold on to them and deal them at the deadline but I also wouldn't be overly surprised if they dealt them in the offseason at some point to gain even more draft capital or if they can grab young players for them so that's another thing we have to watch out for when it comes to moves Team Utah may make. 

5) Add more vets: And lastly I think that they need to add some more veterans, I mean there's a lot of really good players on team Utah who has fantastic seasons last year in Arizona, but this is a younger team so I believe they should and probably will add some more veterans to get some more leadership established in that room and I think it would be a fantastic thing for team Utah and now that they are in Utah with a much more stable place and a closer to standard NHL arena I think it should be easier to attract Free Agents whether top end guys or more role players, but I definitely do think this team needs some veteran leadership and they will try to add some older players this offseason to help mentor the young guys. 

So that's sort of what I see for the team Utah right now,  those are three reasons why I think that the Coyotes missed the playoffs and those are the five ways I can see team Utah improving in the offseason to try and become a better team for this upcoming season which will be their first in Utah and I believe they will be a pretty active team this offseason but those are my thoughts on team Utah and I feel if they make the right moves this offseason they may be able to not only contend for playoffs but may even be a playoff team so we shall see.

Seattle Kraken 

Significant Pending UFA's

WIN T.Tatar 8-14-22 67GP

C,LW P.E Bellemare 4-2-6 37GP

FOR D.Shore 1-3-4 21GP

FOR J.Hayden 0-0-0 2GP

LW M.McCormik 0-0-0 1GP

RD J.Schultz 6-17-23 64GP

G C.Driedger 1-1-0 2.52GAA .917SV% 

Jerome Miron USA Today Sports

Significant Pending RFA's

C M.Beniers 14-20-34 71GP

WIN E.Tolvanen 16-25-41 76GP

RW K.Yamamoto 7-8-15 56GP

C L.Henman 0-0-0 0GP

RW K.Lind 0-0-0 1GP

Current draft capital for the Kraken in 2024: 9

1RD: SEA

2RD: SEA, NYR

3RD: SEA, TOR 

4RD: SEA

5RD: NONE

6RD: SEA

7RD: SEA, CAL 

3 Reasons why the Kraken missed the playoffs

Slow Start, Overachieving last year

Now the first reason in my opinion was the really bad start Seattle had, I mean they were below .500 I think for the first 25-30 games of the year and usually teams who were below the .500 Mark early on don't make the playoffs a whole bunch, so I wasn't expecting the Kraken to be overly competitive, as for me I'm surprised they were able to get close as they did and they were able to make it interesting down the stretch as they were close to the playoffs at the halfway mark and even at one point were above .500, but they were never able to really get into the playoffs so that's probably one of the reasons why they were eliminated and missed the playoffs and on top of that it's only the Kraken’s third year, I mean they overachieved last year as they had a really good season last year hitting 100 points and getting to game 7 in RD2, and a lot of people were surprised by how well they did last year but one must remember this is still an expansion team and is only their third year, so they missed the playoffs in their first year, they made it to the second round in year two and now they miss in year three so I don't think this is overly surprising either but the bad start was definitely a contributing factor as to why they missed the playoffs this year. 

Offensive Decline 

Next up was the offensive decline they experienced, they had a ton of players have career seasons last year on the offensive side of things and this past year was a little bit of a drop off for all those players, they also lost a guy like Daniel Sprong who had been a fantastic player last year for the Kraken and they also lost a couple of other bottom six forwards in free agency, so they did lose a little bit of their scoring touch in FA, and guys like McCann, Beniers, Schwartz, Eberle and Tolvanen did not have as good of seasons they year as they did last year, so it definitely does hurt the Kraken a little bit too, so given to how well they did offensively last year I mean if you look at their team right now they're bottom five in scoring as they wound up only being ahead of the Ducks, Sharks and Hawks, so they're not having an overly great season scoring goals after having a really good scoring season last year so that's another reason why I think the Kraken did not do overly well this year.

Grubauer’s bad play

And lastly was the poor play from Grubauer, I mean he's been injured a little bit this year so you got to give him a little bit of leeway, but ever since arriving in Seattle Grubauer has not looked overly good and this year is not any different as he had a below .900 SV% and a losing record, so Grubauer’s play being subpar definitely hurt the Kraken this year as not getting consistent goaltending they could rely on was a major reason as to why they fell so far this year and I think is another reason why the Kraken wound up missing the playoffs this year.

So in my opinion the Kraken not only overachieving last year but also having a slow start this year was a a key piece as to why they missed the playoffs, on top of having a little bit of a down year offensively and Grubauer not having a overly great season were probably the most pressing reasons in my opinion as to why they did not do overly well and missed the playoffs this year.

5 ways the Kraken can improve in the offseason to get better for next year:

1) Have Wright play in the NHL: First up I would have to say that they should definitely allow Wright to play in the NHL next year, he has a call up late in the season and got into a few games at the NHL level and actually looked fantastic, so I think they can have Wright as like a consistent top nine forward in the Seattle Kraken organization as like a second or third line Center now that Wennberg is gone and I think that'll be fantastic for the Kraken to get another high draft pick into the NHL on a consistent basis, so having Wright be a more consistent NHL player next year I think will be a huge win for them so I think they should heavily consider it. 

2) Add a Top 6 Scorer: Next up I think they need to add a top six goal scorer, I think after the season they had this year they showed that they need to have a solid goal scorer, I mean McCann is a really good player and they do have a couple of really good forwards on that team, but they don't have a real lethal goal scoring finisher so I think they definitely need to try and go out and get a goal scorer this offseason, I mean they have a lot of draft capital and they have a couple of really good prospects so I can definitely see them try and put together a package to try and go for a scorer on the trade market or if they are looking in the free agent market they could try and go after guy like Jonathan Marchessault who had a good season, I think they could also be a really good fit for Jake Guentzel if he doesn't stay in Carolina so I think they could definitely go after a couple of guys in free agency too, so we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens for Seattle but I definitely do think this team really needs to figure out a way to get some more solid level goal scoring in that team. 

Eric Hartline USA Today Sports

3) Move Grubauer, add a Starter or 1A: Next up I think they need to do something with their goaltending, Daccord came in this year when Grubauer was injured and started to become the starter and he's actually looked fantastic, now even though Daccord has been a fantastic goalie this year, I'm not sure if he's ready to be a starter but he can easily be a 1B and could definitely work in a tandem so I definitely think they need to keep Daccord on the team, but Grubauer like I said ever since signing in Seattle has not worked out overly well so I think they need to move Grubauer, try and find a new home for him and then bring in a new goalie whether it be a more 1A goaltender potentially in free agency like a Kahkonen or another goaltender like that or they need to try and go out and get a starter, we talked about how guys like Saros, Gibson and Markstrom could be available this year so I think they're going to need to make some sort of a move to try and get a new starter but we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens with the Kraken on the goaltending side, but I definitely think that's going to be a situation we have to watch out for this offseason in Seattle as I wouldn’t be shocked if they made a goaltending move. 

4) Move or Resign Larsson: Next up they need to either move or resign Adam Larsson, I mean he's going to be entering the final year of his deal and he's a really good top 4 defensemen and has worked out great ever since coming over in the expansion draft from the Oilers, he's been a very fantastic partner for Vince Dunn so if they can resign him I think they should definitely try and do so as he's been a really good top 4 defensemen like I said, but if they can't I think they need to consider moving him because he's a really good piece and he could definitely bring them in a lot of value on the trade market, so we will have to wait and see on that but I think they need to make a really good decision on Adam Larsson and either extend and keep him or move him for a solid haul. 

5) Add some more youth: And lastly I think they need to continue add some more young pieces to this lineup, I talked about Wright earlier and I think they can add a couple more forward pieces that are on the younger side, if they can give Ryker Evans on the defensive end a more consistent NHL role I think it could be a really good piece there for the Seattle Kraken and there are probably others too such as Sale and Firkus up front and Dragicevic on the backend, but I think this Kraken team definitely needs to get a bit younger this offseason and I think adding some youth may be a really smart move for them.

So that's why I think for the Seattle Kraken, those are the three reasons why I think they wound up missing the playoffs this year and those are the five ways I can see this team improve in the offseason to try and become a better team and maybe make the playoffs next year.

So that is my thoughts on the Utah Franchise and the Kraken as those are why I think they missed the playoffs, some RFA’s, UFA’s and draft capital for this offseason and I give some ways both teams can improve to get better for next year, and I would love to hear your thoughts, so do you agree or disagree with me and if not I would love to hear your thoughts on all that was discussed and how you think they can improve down in the comments section below.