General manager Jason Botterill teased a sea change in how the Seattle Kraken would craft its roster. Based on the projected lineup for Thursday’s opening night game in Calgary, the promise suggested in that tease remains unfulfilled.
The tease in question wasn’t the offseason announcement that the front office would be “aggressive” in pursuing star talent. Botterill & co. made good on that one. Call the lack of landing a big fish in a trade a miscalculation. The miscalculation was believing a top-flight restricted free agent like Dallas’s Jason Robertson would gladly join the Kraken, as long as the team backed up the Brinks truck to his door.
We know now that wasn’t the case. And we always knew that the thin gruel available in this summer’s free agent market didn’t contain any game-changers.
Kraken Moving Forward With Younger Forwards
The tease that perked the ears of Kraken fans, that made them believe the people in charge finally got it, that there was a philosophical direction to escape the murky depths of the NHL bottom feeders, was Botterill’s pronouncement to NHL.com on Aug. 23. “There’s a possibility we could have seven or eight forwards 23-and-under on opening night,” Botterill said.
Letting prospects grow together is a coherent, if sometimes painful, strategy. It’s what division rivals in Edmonton, Anaheim, and San Jose have successfully done. It would explain why veteran forwards Jaden Schwartz (to the Avalalanche) and Eeli Tolvanen (to the Rangers) were allowed to walk in free agency.
Yet, of the 15 forwards currently listed on the Kraken roster, just six meet Botterill’s age criteria. They include Berkly Catton (20), Shane Wright (22), Ryan Winterton (23), Jacob Melanson (23), Matty Beniers (23), and Mackie Samoskevich (23). Even that’s a bit misleading. Beniers and Samoskevich have November birthdays, so the list of 23-and-unders will shrink to four by six weeks into the season.
It’s also unclear how long into the season Wright will remain in Seattle. Paradoxically, for the Kraken to receive a trade offer of sufficient value, Wright would have to play well enough that the Kraken might no longer wish to honor his trade request.
It’s possible – likely, even – that additional prospects from the Coachella Valley Firebirds will make their way to Climate Pledge Arena during the season. A combination of injuries, trades, superior play at the AHL level, and/or subpar play at the NHL level will see to that. Jake O’Brien (19), Julius Miettinen (20), Carson Rehkopf (21), Oscar Fisker-Molgaard (21), Jani Nyman (22) and Jagger Firkus (22) are among the Kraken draft pick forwards who could be summoned.
(Editor’s note: With Samoskevich on injured reserve, the Kraken will likely have just five “youngsters” in the line-up on Thursday.)
Earlier Kraken:
— Simmer’s Turbo-9; Canucks, Kraken, PWHL, USA Vs. Canada
I guess you can put this one up there with the “prolific offseason”. How can so many obviously smart people be so clueless?