Optimism surrounds release of Kraken
Nick Suzuki said he was relieved — and maybe a little confused — when the Seattle Kraken decided against picking Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price in the expansion draft last July. He wasn’t the only one. Hockey fans had a similar reaction when GM Ron Francis passed on Vladimir Tarasenko and James van Riemsdyk, along with other big-name stars, and instead chose players who were younger, less established and who carried a smaller cap hit and contract term. For a team that’s hoping to win fans — and games — right out of the gate, it seemed like a strange strategy. But if you think the NHL’S 32nd franchise will finish in 32nd place overall this year, think again.
“I liked their draft,” said Suzuki. “I think if they can piece it all together and jell, they’ll have a good season.”
Talk to most players around the league and this is what you’ll hear about the NHL’S newest franchise. Most believe the Kraken, who cobbled together their roster from the spare parts of their competitors, will be immediately impressive. Most wouldn’t be surprised if they challenge for a playoff spot. Some are even predicting an overnight success story similar to what the Vegas Golden Knights experienced.
Maybe this is just a case of everyone trying to be nice to the new kid in the school. Or maybe, having witnessed what the Golden Knights were able to accomplish in their first year in the league, no one wants to have their old takes exposed should the Kraken win the Stanley Cup.
“They’re going to come out like Vegas,” said Montreal’s Tyler Toffoli.
The truth is, no one really knows what to expect out of Seattle, who went 4-2-0 in the pre-season. That includes the person who built the roster from scratch, who doesn’t put any stock in what were meaningless exhibition games.
“We won’t until the season starts,” Francis said this week. “You’re trying to figure out who meshes with who, what guy should play with who on defence and what winger should play with what centre. There’s a lot of newness for us. Guys are going to get opportunities here that maybe they didn’t have in other spots. Certainly, it gives them an opportunity to have more success and that’s what we’re hoping takes place here.”
On paper, there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly special about the Kraken’s roster.
The team is built from the net out, with Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger sharing goaltending duties, while Mark Giordano, Adam Larsson and Jamie Oleksiak highlight a deep defence corps. Up front is a completely different story. There are no legitimate top-line forwards. Or even secondline forwards. With Yanni Gourde as the only player who finished among the top 100 in scoring last year, goals could be hard to come by.
Then again, we were saying the same thing about the Vegas roster, which looked even less spectacular following the expansion draft in 2017.
Of course, that was before William Karlsson emerged out of nowhere as a 40-goal scorer, Marc-andre Fleury performed his second act as a Vezina Trophy winner, and a bunch of Golden Misfits formed an unusual identity around being unwanted and unprotected. Before you knew it, the Golden Knights had won the Pacific Division and went to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Washington Capitals.
With a little luck, perhaps something similar will occur in Seattle.
Maybe, but there are no guarantees. If anything, don’t be surprised if the team is more like a traditional expansion franchise and starts out struggling to find their footing and identity.
“People are going to talk about the comparisons to Vegas, but when you look at the two situations, they’re dramatically different,” said Francis, trying his best to downplay expectations. “GMS didn’t have much time to prepare for (Vegas’ expansion draft) and know what would happen. This time, they knew it was coming. The GMS who went through it once already had figured out what they wanted to do differently. They learned from their mistakes.”
For those reasons, pundits have a more critical view of the Kraken than the players do. The Hockey News has Seattle modestly finishing sixth in the Pacific Division, ahead of only Anaheim and San Jose. ESPN has them ranked 25th overall and finishing out of a playoff spot.
Betonline, meanwhile, has given Seattle 33-to-1 odds of winning the Stanley Cup — better odds than 15 other teams, including Winnipeg, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.