It’s safe to say that 2024 didn’t go according to plan for the Seattle Kraken. After a surprising postseason berth in 2022-23, the club followed it up with a patently mediocre 2023-24 and all the expected offseason changes that come with such an underwhelming scenario. As 2025 looms, what should the Kraken’s New Year’s resolutions be? Here are some suggestions for the club’s improvement over the next 12 months.
Kraken Must Establish Character and Identity
Pop quiz. What is the Seattle Kraken’s identity? What is the organization’s character?
We’ll wait.
If readers struggle to conjure up concrete, demonstrable responses, they need not be flustered. That’s because they don’t really have one.
By that, we aren’t referring to how the club markets itself. In other words, the overall branding that gets people to buy game tickets and merchandise. In that respect, Seattle is doing all right. The “yeet the fish” tradition at the end of games when the nominated stars come back out to cheers, those sweet, sweet, Winter Classic uniforms from last season, the hiring of the NHL’s first female coach, assistant or otherwise, in Jessica Campbell. We could go on.
That’s all fine.
But what sort of team chemistry does the club have? What is the attitude like on the ice, on the bench, and in the dressing room before games, between periods, and after games, especially with the losses that are piling up?
Are they a tough team? Not really. They’re 27th in penalty minutes against (198) and 22nd in penalty minutes drawn against the opposition (228). They don’t rile up many other players or teams. As a matter of fact, inspecting how they react when certain rivals try intimidating them, Seattle’s players don’t always stand up for each other.
Do they score a lot? Not really, netting 2.78 times per match, good for 22nd.
Do they prevent other teams from scoring a lot? Not really, conceding 3.11 times a game, which ranks 20th.
The Kraken are just kind of “there.” They “exist.” There are roster members that have character, most notably Yanni Gourde, who sounded off after his side’s first-period performance on Dec. 20 versus the Chicago Blackhawks. He seems to know the team is going nowhere fast these days. Who else does?
When saying this, we may be painting with broad brush strokes, but there doesn’t appear to be a ton of fight in Seattle. It’s difficult to define, like one of those things one recognizes when they see it. It’s a nebulous, instinctive mixture of what shows up on the stats sheets and what results from the proverbial eye test.
As such, at the very top of the list, in 2025 the Kraken must find its identity. Be a scrappy club, an offensive juggernaut, an impenetrable defensive fortress, or an acceptable mix of all three. Something. Anything. This is head coach Dan Bylsma’s job, and to a certain extent, that of general manager (GM) Ron Francis. The club’s overall state rests largely on their shoulders.
The franchise incurs the risk of losing its relevancy capital. The newness factor worked for a couple of seasons, especially with the postseason run in the spring of 2023. It won’t for much longer with these results.
Use the Goaltender Pipeline
Another perplexing matter is what Seattle is supposed to do with its netminding situation. On the one hand, the club has a total of six goalies if the regular roster and non-roster players (like the American Hockey League – AHL) are taken into account.
They are:
- Joey Daccord (NHL)
- Philipp Grubauer (NHL)
- Ales Stezka (AHL)
- Niklas Kokko (AHL)
- Kim Saarinen (Finland’s Liiga)
- Victor Ostman (ECHL)
That’s a lot of options. The problem is that one of them, Philipp Grubauer, is a 13-year veteran with a 3-10-0 record this season, a 3.63 goals-against average (GAA), and a save percentage (SV%) of .877. He costs $5.9 million per season and won’t be a free agent until July 2028. To top it off, his contract features a 10-team no-trade clause.
If things don’t get any better in 2024-25, Francis will want to call those other 21 clubs exempt from the German’s no-trade stipulation.
As the Kraken embark on the final week of hockey for 2024, they have called up Ales Stezka from the Coachella Valley Firebirds in light of Joey Daccord not traveling with the team to Vancouver to play the Canucks. Stezka is the older of the Firebirds’ netminders as he’s 27, whereas Niklas Kokko is 20. In that sense, it’s a more sure-handed decision. The reality is that Seattle should start figuring out, slowly yet surely, what they have in Kokko.
It’s safe to argue that Daccord is the future. His 2.51 GAA and .912 SV% certainly make him one of the finer keepers in the league. It helps that he has a winning record, if barely: 12-9-1. Given that he’s locked up for the next five seasons, it’s imperative the club discern who it can rely on when the Massachusetts native needs a breather.
Come Up With Better Negotiating Tactics
The previous point bleeds into the next. The Grubauer contract does not look good at all these days. There are a couple of other ones that the club might regret.
Forward Andre Burakovsky is having an especially poor campaign, having scored only twice in 34 games (with 14:43 of ice time) to go along with a minus-10 rating. The 29-year-old Austrian hasn’t had it easy, with major injuries sidelining him for long stretches during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. That’s bad luck and fate working against someone. The worst part is that the injury bug took a liking to Burakovsky immediately after he won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2021-22 and switched sweaters for Kraken deep sea blue.
This season is year three of a five-year deal that rewards him with $5.5 million per annum. At the conclusion of 2023-24, it would have been disingenuous to complain about the contract, given the player’s unfortunate injury setbacks. The context differs in December 2024. He’s genuinely not playing very well. His Corsi, Fenwick, and high-danger chances shares (HDCF%) are under 50% when playing 5-on-5 hockey. That’s a lot of money paid for statistics that nobody would ever write home about. What’s more – in hindsight – the Burakovsky deal is starting to carry a whiff of the old: “Player X had that one season better than his previous ones, so let’s pay him.”
Related: Kraken Call Up Gustav Olofsson and Ales Stezka from AHL’s Firebirds
Then, there is the curious case of Chandler Stephenson. Granted, it’s a bit early to conclude that his seven-year, $6.25 annual average value (AAV) contract is the worst thing ever. He signed it barely six months ago. Kraken fans are definitely hoping it’s not the worst thing ever. Suffice it to say that Stephenson’s impact has not been felt. Rather, it has been felt, just not the way the club drew it up. A 44.44% Corsi share, a 43.17% Fenwick share, and a scoring chances share (SCF%) of 41.23% – all 5-on-5 hockey. Three markers in 35 contests and a minus-13 rating. Yes, the 20 assists are nice, but those other figures are terrible.
The moral of the story is that Francis and his staff need to use a different strategy when negotiating contracts. Those three players, none of whom are playing very well this season, are getting paid $16.65 million in 2024-25. The summertime critics of the Stephenson signing, which could have made up a small army, sound smart now.
Compounding the issue is that, through three-plus seasons, Seattle simply doesn’t have a stellar performance record. There may be a problem when it comes to making a splash in free agency or at the trade deadline.
The Kraken are in a delicate place as 2025 peeks from around the corner. Next year could make or break many seasons to come for the franchise. The last thing a newish club needs is to perpetually finish out of the playoffs, but not far enough to get a mouth-watering draft pick in the first round. Why should a fanbase fall in love with a team that’s constantly average to below average? There is plenty of work to be done in the Pacific Northwest, but as with every New Year, hope springs eternal.
