This hasn’t been the dandiest professional off-season for former Seattle Kraken winger Eeli Tolvanen.
The Finnish forward waited all summer on the free agent market before settling this week for a one-year, $1.5 million bargain-basement deal from the New York Rangers. Of course, Tolvanen could use that as motivation to prove the league was wrong not to offer the dollars and term he’d hoped for. (Tolvanen had just completed a two year, $7 million contract with Seattle signed in 2024.)
In the meantime, the 27-year-old forward joins the ‘Eastern Home For Wayward Ex-Kraken’, joining Tye Kartye and Oliver Bjorkstrand. It would have been a quartet, but Will Borgen was traded to Boston in July.
Kraken, Minus Tolvanen, Headed To Finland
On top of everything else, Tolvanen will now miss out on the two games the Kraken will play in his homeland this November. Seattle will take on the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL Global Series, Thu., Nov. 12 and Sat., Nov. 14.
The lone Finnish Kraken representative will be Kaapo Kakko – oddly enough, the player traded from the Rangers in exchange for Borgen.
“Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke has described Seattle and Helsinki as kindred spirits,” says Seattle Mag. “Both cities face the sea and organize themselves around it. Both run on ferries. Their libraries are civic icons. Both drink absurd quantities of coffee against the same dark winter. Finland exports metal the way Seattle exported grunge. Both sea towns have phenomenal craft beer. There is even a karaoke bar in Helsinki called Kraken.”
According to the team, 250 Seattle fans so far have signed up to make the trip. They’ll find the NHL Global Fan Fest, a free festival which includes accuracy and hardest-shot booths, video games, bubble hockey, street hockey, etc.
Just as this will be the first time the Kraken have played outside North America, there will also be a first for fans remaining stateside: morning hockey! The Thursday game, designated as Seattle’s “home” game, is set to start at 9 am Pacific time. The Saturday contest is slated for a 10 am Pacific puck drop. The team says watch parties will be announced closer to the game dates.
The venue where the games will be played, Veikkaus Arena, has its own back story. “In March, 2022,” says Seattle Mag, “EU sanctions hit its Russian owners (over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). It sat empty for three and a half years, until a Finnish real estate investment firm bought the arena and Live Nation signed a 20-year deal to run the building. It reopened in October, 2025.”
Earlier Kraken:
— Seattle Goalie of the Future; Who’s Kim Saarinen?
— Big Time Seattle – NHL Talk With TV’s John Forslund
