The Seattle Kraken placed winger Jaden Schwartz on injured reserve Thursday morning, per CapFriendly. Schwartz left Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks with a lower-body injury and did not return.
The move indicates Schwartz will miss at least seven days after sustaining the injury earlier in the week. Therefore, he has been ruled out of the Kraken’s next three games. The earliest he is eligible to return to the lineup is Thursday, December 7, against the Devils.
Schwartz, 31, had no points in his last five games after starting the season with eight goals, seven assists and 15 points in 18 games. Those 15 points remain tied for third on the team behind winger Oliver Bjorkstrand and defenseman Vince Dunn.
The Kraken have once again gotten solid depth production throughout their top nine, but the lack of a true superstar is beginning to haunt them after last season’s solid run. They sit with an 8-10-5 record and 21 points, fifth in the Pacific Division and three spots back of a Wild Card berth in the Western Conference.
Missing Schwartz certainly won’t help matters. He’s logged significant minutes for the team, averaging 17:15 per game, and his 53-point pace would be his highest total in five years. Despite the heavy usage and strong production, his possession numbers have left much to be desired – his 47.7% Corsi share is the worst among Kraken skaters with at least ten games played.
With Schwartz unavailable, recent call-up Marián Studenič will likely make his season debut tonight against the Maple Leafs. Moving Schwartz to IR opens up a roster spot for an additional recall from AHL Coachella Valley if the team wishes. They’re left with only 12 healthy forwards as Brandon Tanev remains sidelined with his second lower-body injury of the season but is still on the 23-man roster.
Thankfully Burakovsky is skating with the team in a non contact jersey and Tanev could be back soon as well. Now if we could get playoff Gru back…
I think playoff Gru jumped on the last flight out of Dallas and has been seen somewhere in Germany. It seems he won’t be returning any time soon, if ever.
There are a number of teams with winning records with no more goals than Seattle does. The difference between Florida and Seattle, for instance, isn’t that the Panthers have “superstars” … not when you have Kevin F’n Stenlund as your third-leading goal scorer. It’s that — as usual — the Kraken don’t have goaltending worth a damn. Bob and Stolarz are keeping pucks out of the net, and Daccord and Grubauer aren’t. Seattle just isn’t winning 8-5 games this season. But was it realistic to expect that they would?
*…as usual – GM Ron Francis don’t have goaltending worth a damn.
I think the decision to let go our entire fourth line from last year has really hurt the team. That line (Sprong, Donato and Geekie) would have cost an extra million or two to resign the entire line, but compare it to what we have now and I would have kept them all!!
A regarding goaltending, it must have something to do with the overall defensive okay of the team. It might be partially the lack of good goaltending, but it’s hard to believe the Grubby, Driedger and Daccord are all that much worse than they were with their other teams. Only Martin Jones played at his usual level, and was the only reason the Kraken had a winning season last year. Oh yes, he’s gone as well!
That’s a fallacy, I’m afraid. Indeed, Jones played at his usual level — which for several seasons now has been poor — and racked up the worst save percentage of any #1 goalie in the NHL last season.
Going back over game-to-game results, Jones was the beneficiary of a lot of those offensive explosions. I didn’t pick that 8-5 win out of thin air; he had two of those wins. Jones also “won” games 5-4, 9-8 (!), 8-4, 7-4 … He *averaged* over four goals a start of goal support, and only in TEN games for which he had the decision did Seattle score fewer than three goals.
With that kind of support, the Kraken could’ve dropped a few cinder blocks in the crease and they’d still have made the playoffs. They didn’t make the playoffs because of Martin Jones; they made the playoffs in spite of Martin Jones.