Kraken Season Preview.

 Season Preview series, in this new blog post series we preview the  Kraken’s upcoming season, as the Kraken who missed the playoffs last year look to improve off of last years season and they are the 1st team we are doing in this series as I breakdown there offseason and what they could do next year.

In today's Season preview blog post, the focus is on analyzing the recent performance and future season of the Seattle Kraken, the 1st team in my season preview series. We start by taking a look at the the teams most recent season as the Kraken missed the playoffs and were below .500, then we also look at the teams offseason as we look at  Seattle’s free agent additions and losses, the teams trades and their top 3 picks from the 2024 draft, we also take a look at 2 questions I have for Seattle entering training camp and look at 3 ways the they can improve to do better then last year, and I give not only my lineup projections for this upcoming season, but also how I think they will fair this upcoming season with my season predictions plus I also give my rating for Seattle’s offseason on how I think they did.

Seattle Kraken 

23-24 Season Recap

34-35-13 record, 81 points, 6th in PAC, 12th in West, 25th in League

217 Goals For: 29th in NHL, 236 Goals Against: 9th in NHL

Point Leaders

Jarred McCann 62

Oliver Bjorkstrand 59

Vince Dunn 46

Goal leaders

Jarred McCann 29

Oliver Bjorkstrand 20

Jordan Eberle 17 

Rookie Leader

Tye Kartye 11-9-20 

The Kraken last year didn’t have a good year, as after making the playoffs and surprisingly hitting 100 points in year 2 of their franchises existence where they also won their first playoff series and fell to Dallas in round 2 in game 7, they took a pretty big step back, as they were below .500 again in the 23-24 season, and while they had a respectable defensive team, their offense fell flat as they were 29th in the NHL in goal scoring and didn’t have one 30 goal player or 70 point player, so they bad offensive play and a better Western Conference lead to the Kraken falling out of the playoffs last year and finishing the year under .500.

Players they re-signed

M.Beniers 7x$7.14

E.Tolvanen 2x$3.48

J.Hayden 1x$.775

M.McCormick 2x$.775

L.Henman 1x$.775

Stephen R Sylvanie USA Today Sports

Additions

C.Stephenson 7x$6.25

B.Meyers 1x$.775

B.Biro 1x$.775

M.Stephens 2x$.775

B.Montour 7x7.14

J.Mahura 1x$.775

M.Lajoie 1x$.775

Losses

Tomas Tatar to New Jersey

Kailer Yamamoto (UFA)

Pierre Eduard Bellemare (UFA)

Kole Lind to Dallas

Devin Shore to Minnesota 

Justin Schultz (UFA)

Chris Driedger to Florida

Trades

Moved Brian Dumoulin to the Anaheim Ducks for a 2026 4RD pick (ANA)

Analysis: Here we have the Offseason moves for the Kraken, if you look at their additions they re-signed John Hayden, Max McCormack, Luke Henman, Matty Beniers and Elli Tolvanen who are all either RFA’s or UFA’s who they brought back so interesting stuff there as they keep around some depth and two solid top 9 forwards, they also bring in Chandler Stevenson on a 7-year deal at a $6.25 million dollar cap hit to bring in some top 6 help, they bring in some depth on the forward group as well by adding guys like Brandon Biro, Ben Meyers and Mitchell Stephens on short term cheap deals as call up options, on the defensive end they add Montour on a 7-year deal with AAV of $7.14 million which will add another offensive element to their backend in their top 4 and then they also add Josh Mahura and Max Lajoie on short term deals to add some depth on the defensive end

So they made some interesting additions there, then they lose Tomas Tatar to New Jersey, they lose Pierre Eduard Bellemare and Kailer Yamamoto who are both UFA’s right now, they also lose Kole Lind to Dallas and Devon Shore to Minnesota, they lose Justin Schultz who's also a UFA right now and they lose Chris Driedger to Florida and they did make one trade this year that didn't involve just pick for pick swaps and that was them trading Brian Dumoulin who was a serviceable 3rd pair D-Men who became expendable to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for their 2026 fourth round pick, so there was some interesting moves there from the Seattle Kraken this offseason so some pretty interesting additions there to offset some of their losses they suffered.

Top 3 Picks from the 24 Draft

1RD #8 C,LW Berkly Catton: future top 6 forward

2RD #40 C Julius Miettinen: potentially a future 3rd or 4th line Center

2RD #63 C Nathan Villeneuve: potentially a future 3rd or 4th line Center

2 Biggest Questions entering training camp:

1: Beniers Extension: Now the two biggest questions entering training camp for the Kraken in my opinion are one: the Beniers extension but after making this blog post Beniers signed with the Kraken so that isn’t a pressing concern anymore for the Kraken.

Sergei Belski USA Today Sports 

2: Will Wright Make Team: Secondly is will Wright make the team, now Wright's a really good player there in the Seattle Kraken organization and he started to work his way up over the past couple of years and I think he's poised to make a top nine role this year at the NHL level, so we're going to have to wait and see but I think the big questions for the Kraken in my opinion right now are the Beniers contract which has been resolved and will Wright make the team as those are two major questions in my opinion. 

Here is My current Projected Lineup for the Kraken for the 24-25 season.

          J.McCann-M.Beniers-J.Eberle 

 O.Bjorkstrand-C.Stephenson-J.Firkus

           E.Tolvanen-S.Wright-A.Burakovsky

           J.Schwartz-Y.Gourde-B.Tanev

                           V.Dunn-A.Larsson

                      J.Oleksiak-B.Montour

                          R.Evans-W.Borgen

                              J.Daccord

                             P.Grubauer 

Spare: T.Kartye

24-25 Season Predictions: 98 points, 4th in PAC, 1WC in West, 17 points better then last year.

Next up we have my current Prediction for the Kraken for the 24-25 season and I have them currently finishing 17 points higher than last year with 98 points and I have them being the first wildcard team in the West just sneaking into the playoffs, so I don't think they'll do overly bad and they might still miss the playoffs as I've seen a lot of people say that, but I could see them be sort of like the Nashville of next year where a lot of people are expecting them to miss the playoffs even after making some decent additions in the off season and they surprise a lot of people and make a wild card spot, so I can see Seattle be that sort of a team but I have them finishing fourth in the Pacific and with 98 points making the playoffs as a first wild card team so that's my opinion on the Kraken. 

3 ways to Improve

1: More Offense: Now if you look at the three ways that in my opinion I can see them improve to be a much more competitive team next year, one is they need more offense, they add Montour and Stephenson to give them some more offensive boosts and I think adding Wright in the offensive group will also give them an offensive boost and if they can have some players have bounce back Seasons after having lower end Seasons last year like say Eberle, Schwarz, Burakovsky and maybe a couple of other guys too, so I think this team could definitely take some more steps offensively which would be a huge way to improve themselves back into a playoff spot.

2: Better play from Grubauer: Next is if they can get a better play from Grubauer that could also be a huge indication that they could turn things around going back into a playoff spot Grubauer’s a fantastic goaltender but he hasn't really worked out over well in Seattle so if he can pull his and replicates what he did last year I think the Kraken would be really good in net.

3: Young players step into big roles: And lastly if they can have younger players step into those big roles, I mean like I said Wright is a guy who I think could definitely be a solid second or third line Center this next year but I also have Firkus making the team and he's a rookie as he's never played at the NHL level and I could see him be really good pickup there in the middle six, you also have Ryker Evans who I have making the third pair on the defensive end and he could be a really good pickup there so I have younger players stepping into bigger roles there for the Kraken this year and I think if they can have those players thrive in those bigger roles such as Firkus, Wright and Evans I think this team could be really good so that's my opinion of the Seattle Kraken and those are the three ways I can see him improve.

Final Offseason Rating: B+

So in my opinion with all the things that they've done this offseason I’m  going to give them a B+ rating, they had a pretty good offseason in my opinion as they replaced a lot of their lost depth with some added depth and they add Stephenson and Montour who I think as much as their contracts are not going to age overly well are going to be fantastic additions this year, like I expect Stephenson to be a 50 to 60 point player this year and Montour to be a 40 to 50 point player and I expect Montour to sort of run that top power play unit for that Kraken team so I expect the Kraken to definitely get some more offense as they got some much needed help in the offseason and I think their B+ rating for this offseason is warranted plus I also think that this team is going to be playoff bound this year so that's my opinion on the Seattle Kraken and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.