Kraken Up – Simmer’s 9
1) In case you missed it and want to make plans — plus get better tickets at a lower price and see some prospects in action — the Kraken preseason schedule was released last month and includes these two home dates:
September 19th (Saturday) – Vancouver Canucks
September 24th (Thursday) – Calgary Flames
2) The Kraken’s first ever Washington state born prospect – whether or not he actually reaches that level of status remains to be seen – is Hawke Huff from the unincorporated village of Mazama in Okanagan County in the north central part of the state.
A little east of the North Cascades National Park, Mazama is much closer to Canada than it is to Seattle. Just hop on highway 20, the state’s longest, and you’ll get there eventually through some gorgeous scenery.
Huff turned age-20 two weeks ago, just a few days after being selected by the Kraken in the 5th-round of the NHL Draft. He played three seasons of junior hockey with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL. He was passed over in the draft during his first two years of eligibility, but stepped up his play last season and was nominated for the league’s defenseman-of-the-year award. So maybe we should call him a prospect. He’s a 6-2, 200-pound righty.
3) 21-year-old center Leo Carlsson became the NHL’s highest paid player last week when his Anaheim Ducks matched an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers that will pay the lefty Swede $18-million per season for five years.
Simply put, once players come out of their three-year, entry-level NHL contracts and become restricted free agents (RFA), other teams from around the league can present offers to unsigned players. The Flyers went big, forcing the Ducks to match the deal or give up the player. Had the Ducks given him up, Philly would have been obligated to turn over four future first-round NHL Draft picks to Anaheim.
There’s a sliding scale of compensation a team has to provide in return for a player obtained on an offer sheet, depending on the value of the contract. Obviously, Carlsson’s five-year contract was a whopper.
4) The Shane Wright trade speculation continues. This was our latest update.
5) On the entertaining video interview found at the very bottom of this page, recent ex-head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs Craig Berube, a Stanley Cup champion from running the bench for the St. Louis Blues in 2019, said this of current Kraken head coach Lane Lambert, his associate head coach in Toronto for the 2024-’25 season:
“Lane’s a very detailed guy, knows the game extremely well. I think he brings a lot of emotion to the game which is great. As an assistant coach, whether it’s in the room with us, on the bench, a very prepared and detailed guy. He was great to work with, I really enjoyed him. I learned a lot from him, just, he’s been around a long time, so, he was great for us and I wish him all the best in Seattle.”
6) Trivia Time! – Without looking it up, with Jaden Schwartz departing for the Avalanche, name the five remaining original Kraken who were acquired as part of the NHL expansion draft back in 2021. (Answer at bottom of page)
7) Apparently both current Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer and former Seattle goalie Chris Driedger got hitched in the last few days, with photos of “Grubi’s” event making the rounds on social media.
Now, since I don’t want to completely give away the trivia answer by captioning this photo here, I’ll put the caption below the trivia answer down below. Just know, a hunk of that answer is in this pic’. See if you can identify them. Let’s call it a visual daily double.
8) Our Glenn Dreyfuss provided the market’s most thorough coverage of the Seattle Torrent from the franchise’s origin through its entire first season. Due to some bizarre, unprecedented developments beyond our control, we’ve cut back on our blanket coverage of the PWHL in Seattle, but it didn’t stop Glenn from nailing things with this report on soon-t0-be rookie star Abbey Murphy.
9) Below you’ll find the link to a story about the demise of the sports talk radio station AM650 in Vancouver. Oddly enough I was getting very close to writing about their coverage of hockey — they were the flagship station for Canucks broadcasts — and some of the recent comments coming out of there. Part of it was my desire to up the ante on the off-ice rivalry between the two Pacific Division neighbors.
Why? Because during one afternoon program in early July, a group of them were laughing wholeheartedly and making fun of the Kraken for losing out on free agent Artemi Panarin, who chose to head to the LA Kings instead of the Kraken, and Jason Robertson, who chose not to be traded from the Dallas Stars to Seattle. They were yucking it up pretty good.
That’s right, the incestuous little mob that covers the worst team in the NHL — one that had its highest scoring forward, its superstar defenseman, and its head coach choose to get the hell out of there — giving the Kraken grief. All’s fair in the end, I give the Kraken grief all the time, but coming from there?
Maybe it was the bad karma that did them in …..
Earlier Kraken:
— Glenn’s Gems; Prospect Reid Helps Kraken Win (Plastic) Cup
Earlier Canucks:
— What Canucks Fans Should Miss About AM650
Trivia Answer: The five remaining original Kraken are Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Adam Larsson, Vince Dunn and goalie Philipp Grubauer.
The caption: Former Seattle forward Yanni Gourde on the left, then McCann, then the groom, then Larsson, then Eeli Tolvanen tucked away in the back, just above Dunn.
Bonus Video: A hockey education and some fun …
