As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Seattle Kraken.
Who are the Kraken thankful for?
It seems a lot of things are clicking at the right time for the Seattle Kraken, but their season has been underlined by Joey Daccord’s surge into the starting role. The 27-year-old goaltender has appeared in 23 games this season, setting a 9-5-8 record and .919 save percentage – the highest save percentage of any goalie with 20-or-more games in Seattle’s short history. Daccord’s eight extra time losses leads the league, with the goaltender facing an average of 28.5 shots in his overtime outings. His season could easily be leaned in a much more impressive light with a few lucky bounces in extra time, though Daccord doesn’t seemed phased by the poor record – kicking off the new year in style by recording the first shutout in Winter Classic history. The netminder saved all 35 shots that the Vegas Golden Knights sent his way on January 1st, en route to his second shutout of the season and the fifth-most saves he’s had this season.
Seattle has been in need of a true starting goalie after Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger failed to confidently hold onto the role in the chances they were given. They turned to Daccord this summer, signing him to a two-year, $2.4MM contract despite him playing in just 19 NHL games prior to the 2023-24 season. But he’s going above-and-beyond to prove Seattle right for taking a chance on him, establishing himself as not only a starter, but maybe one of the best options in the league on the back of the NHL’s fifth-highest save percentage.
What are the Kraken thankful for?
Low-event hockey.
Daccord has provided a great back-end for Seattle this season but that hasn’t exactly inspired the team to new heights. They still remain in the bottom-five of goals-for this season, and middle-of-the-pack in goals-allowed. The Kraken aren’t favorites to go out and out-skill any given team but they’re starting to find the secret to winning – low-event hockey. The Kraken have done best in games where they aren’t recording a ton of shots, going 7-1-2 over their last 10 games while averaging just 26.2 shots-for. This is pitted against an average of 31.6 shots-against, speaking to the ability of Daccord to hold Seattle in games. It’s been a quality-over-quantity approach, with the Kraken going 10-7-3 in games where they record 30-or-fewer shots, and 4-7-5 in games where they record more than 30 shots. This is regardless of how the opponent performs, with the Kraken going 7-4-4 in games where they’ve faced more than 30 shots.
It’s clear Seattle is at their best when they’re able to slow down the game and take time in creating their chances. They rank in the bottom five of both high-dancer chances-for and against this season, showing how strong they can be when chances are forced to the outside and strikes to the net are few-and-far between. It’s a style done to good effect by smooth puck-mover Vince Dunn, shoot-first forwards like Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen, and Jordan Eberle, and one capped off nicely by strong net-front presences like Matthew Beniers. But the question will inevitably become whether it’s a style that can maintain Seattle through the postseason, or if the team will need to inevitably lean into high-action hockey.
What would the Kraken be even more thankful for?
A top scorer.
The Kraken got off to a bit of a slow start but have since gotten plenty of production from their top end, with 14 different players boasting 10-or-more points. The group is led by Dunn’s 31 points in 38 games, followed by Bjorkstrand and Tolvanen who have 29 points and 23 points in as many games. And while those numbers are certainly admirable, the lack of a true top-scoring forward is holding Seattle back. Jared McCann was able to fill this role last season, netting a 40-goal, 70-point season that deserved more excitement at the time. But he’s lost that spark this year, managing only 14 goals and 22 points in 37 games. That still leads the Kraken lineup in goals, but it hasn’t been enough to revitalize a team that ranked sixth in goals-for last season. The lack of a true top-scorer has also impacted – or maybe it’s the result of – how Seattle is able to roll out their lineup, with head coach Dave Hakstol preferring a roll-four approach with bottom-line players are averaging between 12 and 14 minutes of ice time, while the top line only sees a slight boost to 16 to 18 minutes. That’s certainly different than how a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs have used their bottom line, with their depth averaging closer to seven-to-nine minutes of ice time. The Kraken will need to find a way to either lift up their past top scorers or fold in new ones if they want their offense to start producing enough to start helping Daccord win in extra time.
What should be on the Kraken holiday wish list?
A quiet Pacific Division.
The Kraken enter the new year combatting with the Arizona Coyotes and the Edmonton Oilers for the last Wild Card in the West. Exactly where everyone expected these teams to be at the start of the year, right? And while Seattle is absolutely heating up, they also sit with the most games in the Western Conference, giving them a disadvantage as other teams begin to catch up and paint a clearer picture in the standings. If the Kraken want to keep trained on the postseason, they will need their division to remain quiet for the rest of the season. That means no phenomenal explosion from Connor McDavid as he tries to pull Edmonton back to where they were expected to rank – it means no resurgence from the Calgary Flames as they look to pull themselves up by their bootstraps under a new coach – and it means no more flashy offense from the likes of Vancouver or Los Angeles, two teams performing well above their preseason expectations. Seattle has made their living on calm, low-event hockey this season and, if they want their playoff chances to stay rich, they’ll need to find a way to project that energy onto the rest of their division.
Krak-heads should also be thankful for the rotten ice during the Winter Classic yesterday that managed to thwart Vegas’ high-skill counterattacking game.
Yeah, it was the ice, that’s why they didn’t get any of those 35 shots in.
I’m thankful for the Kraken getting hot and starting to get healthy. Burakovsky is back and working into form on the 4th line. Schwartz will be back in the near future. Let’s see what the offense looks like when the top lines are what they’re supposed to be.
You mean he’s not fazed by the poor record.
Of course the Kraken roll four lines. By the very nature of the expansion draft, as some have phrased it, their top six frighten nobody, but their bottom six is better than everyone else’s.
Seattle has enough offense, The defense needs alot of help and honestly Hakstol never been a winner at the NHL level.
Against my better judgment I’m going to try to reason with you. Looking at moneypuck, the Kraken have lowest xGoals against per 60 All Situations in the league. You may have different metrics that you prefer. But I’d be surprised if any of them lead to the conclusion that Seattle is bad defensively.
41-27-14. 39-33-10. 42-26-14. 12-15-4. 27-49-6. 46-28-8. 15-14-9. Quite a bit of winning there. Maybe you don’t get real data in your amusing version of reality.
You are correct, I’m saying that when everyone is healthy offense won’t be a problem.
What I do is put all the loses in the same column, I find that it gives a true evaluation of a team, Coach etc… regulation, overtime, And shoot out loses are all loses.
I dunno man. He stunk in Philly.
@matt68… Don’t waste your time. Even in their first season, the Kraken we’re 11th in the league in xGA. They’ve been even better last season and this. The “defense needs help” crowd couldn’t be more uninformed. For those folks I will paraphrase Bill Clinton… “It’s the goaltending, stupid”. If you’re gonna try and rationalize your opinion by saying ‘goaltending IS defense’… you’re doubling down on stupid.