Just as the children and teenagers have gone back to school, so too have the NHL players and coaches gone back to their respective base of operations around the league. With many clubs commencing training camp this week (and rookie camps already in the rearview mirror), summer break is officially over. The Seattle Kraken arrive on the scene with some news about the team and the organization as a brand. Let’s discuss.
Training Camp on Sept. 19
We’ve already discussed the team’s rookie camp that took place last Thursday and Friday. Furthermore, fellow The Hockey Writers scribe William Espy covered the Rookie Faceoff event that transpired over the weekend in Los Angeles and featured Seattle’s young guns. A fine 5-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche was followed up by a narrow 5-3 loss at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights. Jagger Firkus was a player to watch out for and it appears his skills lived up to expectations.
Now the big boys enter the rink. In actuality, they have already performed some drills at the team’s practice facility. Fresh faces like defenseman Brandon Montour and forward Chandler Stephenson have now had the opportunity to mingle with their new teammates, just as Matty Beniers and Adam Larsson embark on the next chapter of their Kraken journeys after recently signing contract extensions.
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Unsurprisingly, the list of players on the training camp roster is more extensive than that for last week’s rookie camp. There remain a lot of decisions to make for new head coach Dan Bylsma and his staff. The arrival of Montour and Stephenson adds complexity to the proceedings. It seems unlikely that Stephenson will be on the fourth line, but he won’t necessarily be on the first, either. Whose place on the second or third lines from last season will he claim? Are Jaden Schwartz’s minutes in jeopardy?
Likewise with Montour, whose presence generates uncertainty on the blue line. Being paired with Vince Dunn won’t be a huge surprise – lord knows he’s getting paid as a top blue-liner. There would be some irony to that insofar as Larsson formed the top pairing in 2023-24 with Dunn and literally just signed a sweet extension. Will Larsson now be part of the second pairing with Jamie Oleksiak?
If there are Kraken regulars who might be fighting for all the minutes they can get this season, names like Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev come to mind. They’ll still get to play, but they were not among the top guys last season. Food for thought: as recently as June, Tanev was circled by the Ottawa Senators as a potential acquisition. Then there are players like defenseman Maxime Lajoie who arrived in the summer via free agency, or Cale Fleury, who has been with the organization since 2021-22 but has rarely suited up in the NHL. There is much to mull over in Seattle.
Kraken Preseason Action
It won’t be long after camp opens that the club takes to the ice for actual games, albeit of the preseason variety. Seattle’s schedule has an interesting twist insofar as they’ll tussle six times against Western Canadian rivals in the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. The action starts on Sunday, Sept. 22 at home versus the Flames before a trip just north to play the Canucks on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Seattle and Vancouver complete their September home-and-home on Friday, Sept. 27. The preseason schedule attempts to get the team used to back-to-backs by having the Kraken head north on Saturday, Sept. 28 to face the Oilers in Edmonton. They’ll stay in Alberta all weekend since the next match is on Monday, Sept. 30 against the Flames in Calgary. Finally, the team comes home to conclude its preseason skirmishes versus the Oilers on Wednesday, Oct. 2.
New Kraken Theme Night Logos
This author won’t claim to have the training and vernacular to critique art, but they know what they like, and the Kraken unveiled something pretty awesome last week.
Having themed evenings is nothing new from a conceptual standpoint. Part of the fun is discovering how invested an organization is in promoting a particular movement or cause and how they accomplish the goal. In Seattle’s case, the club invited seven artists from the area to devise alternate color patterns for the Kraken crest, each inspired by a particular cause.
If diversity was the objective, they got that down pat because some of the concoctions are stunning. The Lunar New Year Night logo is bonkers. The seven themes and creators are Hispanic Heritage Night by Victor Melendez (Oct. 19), Indigenous Peoples Night by Keith Stevenson (Dec. 10, 2024), Pride Night by Kelly Bjork (Jan. 6, 2025), Lunar New Year by Shayla Hufana (Jan. 28, 2025), Black Hockey History Night by Rae Akino (Feb. 4, 2025), Women in Hockey Night by Marisol Ortega (March 14, 202), and Green Night (April 14, 2025) by Kel Lauren.
Additionally, November will feature two themes with designs inspired by the club’s jersey partner Fanatics: Military Appreciation Night (Nov. 12, 2024) and Kraken Hockey Fights Cancer Night (Nov. 20, 2024).
Kraken Media Empire
To call it an “empire” might be a stretch, but on Monday, Sept. 16, the club presented the Kraken Hockey Network.
After departing from the ROOTS Sport at the end of last season, wheeling and dealing led to a kind set-up that only the Kraken can boast about, at least for now. Starting this season, not only will people in the Seattle, Washington region be well served in a cool, new way, but those in Oregon and Alaska will be too. Non-nationally broadcast matches – which TNT and ESPN handle – will be shown on stations KING-5 and KONG, among others. KGW in Portland and KREM in Spokane will also feature Kraken games.
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Where things get interesting is how Kraken games will be shown to their fans via a new Prime Video deal. Supporters in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington will get to stream non-nationally shown games on the service at no extra cost. The Kraken are the first NHL franchise to strike such a deal. Word has it that, should Seattle make the postseason, it will include the first round of the playoffs.
If it works out, one assumes that other clubs will follow. The deal is indicative of where sports media distribution is heading. Consider that the National Football League is already in its third season on Prime Video for Thursday Night Football. Whether this is a good or bad thing for team supporters who don’t live in the designated areas, only time will tell. For now, as long as John Forslund gets to yell “That’s hockey, baby!”, Kraken faithful can remain content.
With a rookie camp, audacious new logos, a newly minted media-distribution deal, and the big boys hitting the ice for official drills and preseason contests, change is definitely in the air for the Kraken. Of course, the biggest and most important change would be a competitive season accompanied by a postseason berth, but we’ll get there when we get there. There are eight months to figure that part out.
