Growing and Developing

The Kraken nearly tripled the team's prospect pool this summer, motivating Seattle to announce Tuesday former NHLer Jeff Tambellini as director of player development. The newest member of the front office arrives with vast experience in all levels of hockey.
"It's 10 out of 10 for the job and location," said Tambellini, who finished his NHL playing career with Vancouver, appearing in four games during the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. "My wife and I are both from Vancouver. The West Coast is home for us. The player development resources available in the Kraken organization are amazing."

Tambellini said "our biggest objective right away" is to optimize those resources - world-class facilities, NHL-tested and winning coaches, individualized conditioning/nutrition programs, on-ice skills improvement, mental skills training ­- to put the team's draft choices and signed free-agent prospects (to NHL and AHL contracts) in the best position to make it to the NHL.
"It's a big, big step going from junior hockey or college hockey into the American [Hockey] League and then to the National Hockey League," said Tambellini. "It's my job along with our whole staff to help these players navigate that transition, make them better players. To make them stronger off the ice, set up their training schedules and teach the details of what goes into being a pro.
"It's also a difficult step for these young players to go from competing against teenagers to competing against men. It can make a lot of careers if they are handled the right way. That's our objective, to give these kids the best opportunity to reach the NHL."
Supporting that goal is newly named skills development consultant Matt Larke, who joins the Kraken coaching staff from a similar role with USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (U17 and U18 teams) last season and having played professional hockey from 2008 to 2016.
"It's really a dream come true to work with an NHL franchise," said Larke Tuesday after a summer training session. "Plus, I obviously get the opportunity to work with a great staff."
Larke clearly made his own positive mark when he was invited to be part of the coaching group guiding Seattle's prospects at the Kraken Development Camp in July. His week at the Iceplex served as a tryout of sorts while the prospects were looking to catch the eye of coaches and front office executives.
"I wanted to show I could teach while still keeping 26 to 28 players moving at the same time [during on-ice sessions]," said Larke, who worked with elite juniors players in the United States Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League in past seasons. "So that every player has a takeaway and how they can go home to work on it for the rest of the summer.
The team also announced Tuesday that former Seattle goaltending coach Andrew Allen remains with the team as a scout evaluating goalies.
"I'm really excited," said Allen, "I love the organization and everybody involved. When the opportunity presented itself to continue to be part of it, going back to the scouting side which I was doing before the expansion draft, I was truly happy."
Tambellini's player development leadership role is vital in supporting the progress and NHL readiness of the team's draft choices and free agents signees (from NCAA and European ranks). Tambellini will work closely with the staffs of the Kraken, Firebirds and ECHL affiliate Kansas City Mavericks, plus coaches of certain draft choices still with junior, NCAA or Europe-based teams. All with a common goal for the prospects to better understand the Kraken hockey system and culture.
Tambellini certainly qualifies as a development director who can relate to Seattle prospects aspiring to reach the highest level in the sport. He started his journey to six NHL seasons (scoring 27 goals and adding 36 assists 242 games) with stops in the juniors British Columbia Hockey League, NCAA University of Michigan, the AHL (30 goals in 2006-07 and 38 goals in 2007-08), then taking his game to the Swiss and Swedish professional leagues plus one more AHL season in the Tampa Bay Lightning development system.
"You can never fully prepare for the NHL until you get there and feel the speed and see the size of players, how talented every player in the entire league is," said Tambellini, who served as lead NCAA recruiter and pro scout for the Tampa Bay Lightning over the last two-and-a-half years. "These players see how good someone like Yanni Gourde is, how fast and how competitive the top players in the game are.
"That's a big part of it, to prepare these kids for that day, give them a chance. Let them know what's ahead. We think with our resources, and the people we have, we're going to get them through to that NHL opportunity."
Tambellini's NHL opportunity started with being drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round (27th overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft. He played four games with the Kings in his 2005-06 NHL rookie season before getting traded to the New York Islanders mid-year. Tambellini played 176 games for NYI over five seasons before signing as a free agent with his hometown Vancouver Canucks for 2010-11.
The following season, Tambellini played the first of four seasons in Europe before returning to play the 2015-16 AHL season for the Tampa Bay affiliate Syracuse Crunch, scoring 29 goals and adding 20 assists for 49 points in 65 games. His "best linemate" that season? Yanni Gourde, who notched 14 goals and 30 assists in 65 games and was still two seasons away from becoming a regular and eventual two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Lightning.
When his playing days ended in 2017 after a final season in Sweden, Tambellini returned as an assistant at his alma mater Michigan, where he had notched 129 points (65 goals, 64 assists) in three seasons. Following his freshman year, he was drafted in the first round by Los Angeles.
During the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Tambellini left Michigan to serve as head coach and general manager of the BCHL Trail Smoke Eaters franchise, where his grandfather Addie played for Trail in 1961 on a squad that is the last Canadian amateur team to win World Championships.
Tambellini's dad, Steve, played for the BCHL franchise one season himself before going on to get drafted by the New York Islanders No. 13 overall in the 1978 NHL Draft and being part of the 1980 Stanley Cup-winning Islanders squad. Dad Steve played 553 NHL games with NYI, Colorado, New Jersey, Calgary and Vancouver, scoring 160 goals and adding 150 assists.
Grandson and son Jeff got a jump start on his new job last week watching Team Canada World Juniors selection camp in Calgary. During an exclusive phone conversation Monday, Tambellini reported happy news for Kraken fans: 2022 second-round (35th overall) draft choice forward Jagger Firkus "was the best player on the ice" generating eight scoring chances in the first half of an intrasquad game.
Plus, third-rounder and defenseman Ty Nelson "from the time he stepped on warmups he handled himself like a captain" and fourth-round forward Tucker Robertson "played a really strong game" and "complemented Jagger really well, playing off each other and in different spots on the power play."