Why the Kraken, despite a Game 7 loss, are built for the long haul
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By Sean Gentille
May 15, 2023
When Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the Seattle Kraken’s only goal of Game 7 — he cut Dallas’ lead to 2-1 with all of 18 seconds left — the Blink-182 song “Dammit” blared over the P.A. at American Airlines Center.
Makes sense for a crowd in Dallas. All they needed was the title. The chorus, though, made more sense for Seattle: I guess this is growing up.
That’s what the Kraken did this season. It was a Year 2 growth spurt that, painful end aside, has them set up quite nicely. Why?
Matty Beniers will only get better
We’ll get this out of the way early because it’s obvious; Beniers wasn’t great in the playoffs. The Kraken relied on him too much for seven points in 14 games to work in any real way. It wasn’t an issue of luck, either. Beniers’ shooting percentage was above 13, and his expected goals number was under the three he scored. He wasn’t getting chances. So it goes.
That’s life, though, for a 20-year-old, two-way center who’d just played the longest season of his career at an exceedingly high level. Beniers’ presence — and potential to grow into a high-end, do-everything 1C — might be the biggest reason to feel good about what the Kraken have built. They have depth, which we’ll get into. Elite talent, which Beniers is on track to bring to the table, is a necessary component, too.
Vince Dunn took the leap
For years, Dunn has fit a specific archetype; the third(ish)-pair guy who seemed to have more to offer. That was the narrative that followed him from St. Louis, at least, and this season, he made good on his potential across the board. At 26, he’s an analytics darling no more — just a good player. Dunn, playing on a top pair with Adam Larsson, had 64 points this season. Maybe most impressively, Seattle scored 4.01 goals per 60 with him on the ice. No defenseman who played more than 21 games with his team had a bigger number. Mix in some passable defensive impacts, his individual production and the role in which Seattle used him, and you’ve got something good.
He’s an arbitration-eligible RFA this offseason coming off a two-year, $4 million AAV deal. The Kraken have the cap space necessary to lock him in long term, and it’d be shocking if they didn’t get something done. He’s a huge piece.
Yes, they’re very deep
“The Kraken have a ton of solid players” is a storyline that was beaten into the ground for good reason; it’s true. Jared McCann led the roster with 40 goals — and 12 other players had between 13 and 24. That wasn’t an accident either, or random chance. It was the plan. GM Ron Francis filled his lineup with talented, buy-low players. He swooped in to add Bjorkstrand, a three-time 20-goal scorer, when the Blue Jackets found themselves in an unexpected summer cap crunch … for third- and fourth-round picks. It seemed ridiculous at the time, and Bjorkstrand’s play since has only reinforced that. Eeli Tolvanen has an elite shot but couldn’t stick with the Predators. Seattle took a waiver flyer on him, and he rewarded them with 18 goals in 61 games. The roster is dotted with stories like that, and they speak to a depth of talent that carried the Kraken farther than most of us expected. It wasn’t a boilerplate way to win seven postseason games and knock off the defending champs, and that made it great.
Andre Burakovsky will be back and Shane Wright will be around … probably
Plus, the whole “short on high-end talent” problem is on track to be suitably addressed. Burakovsky, a 70-point capable winger with legitimate defensive value, only played 49 games and missed the entire postseason. Adding him to the lineup will make a major difference. Wright, who felt like found money with the fourth pick last summer, had an uneven season featuring eight NHL games spread over two months, an OHL trade and a gold medal as captain of the Canadian WJC team. Big things, either way, are still expected from him.
Philipp Grubauer showed signs of life
Would it have been almost literally impossible for Grubauer to be worse this season than last? Yes. But still, he saved about five goals more than expected this season, then put up a .926 in Seattle’s first-round win over his old teammates in Colorado. The numbers are still not great, and he was rickety against the Stars, but Grubauer reestablished himself as an NHL-caliber goaltender. He wasn’t knee-capping the Kraken on a nightly basis, if nothing else. Given that they’re paying him $5.9 million annually for the next four seasons, that counts as a win.
They’ve got the space to improve
Dunn’s contract, as we said, is going to be interesting. Beyond that, the Kraken are projected to have more than $18 million in space with only Ryan Donato and Carson Soucy as pending UFAs who contributed this season. Joonas Donskoi is on the list, too, but his future is in doubt due to concussion issues. The free-agency class is notably weak, and Francis hasn’t shown a taste to overpay in that space. That’s a good quality to have. But if there’s a player they like — and, again, the evaluation in Seattle seems to be spot on — the Kraken will have the flexibility to get something done.
They’re a good team in a good sports town
That’s been one of the most gratifying things to come out of this run. Seattle is one of North America’s great sports cities, period, and the Kraken just gave fans a great set of reasons to keep showing up and showing out. Those fans might not have needed one, but they got it, nonetheless.
Sean Gentille is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the NHL and Pittsburgh sports. He previously covered Pittsburgh sports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the NHL for Sporting News, and he's a graduate of the University of Maryland. Follow Sean on Twitter @seangentille
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