Kraken Name Jordan Eberle Team Captain  

Jordan Eberle admits he wasn’t offered much advice when his general manager and head coach secretly told him he’d been named the second captain in Kraken history.

The 34-year-old Eberle, now in his 15^th NHL season, was an alternate captain in major junior hockey with the Regina Pats and early on with the Edmonton Oilers and for three seasons with the Kraken, but had never worn a “C” at any level. So, he was pleasantly surprised when general manager Ron Francis and head coach Dan Bylsma called him in for a Sunday morning meeting to tell him he’d been tabbed to fill a captain’s vacancy the hockey world had been speculating about with the Kraken the only NHL team still lacking one.

“Ron and Dan told me that I was going to wear the ‘C’ this year – and to keep it hush-hush,” Eberle said after Tuesday’s season opener, sparking laughter from assembled media members.

That he managed to do so for the next 48 hours, as did his teammates after they were told about the decision on Monday morning, made for a surprising, special moment for fans during Tuesday afternoon’s pregame ceremonies as Eberle was the final Kraken player introduced.

Fans had already seen all four alternates revealed – incumbents Adam Larsson, Jaden Schwartz, Yanni Gourde and new addition Matty Beniers – before Eberle’s turn came. And once Eberle was indeed officially declared to be the new captain of a team that’s been without one since the Mark Giordano trade to Toronto back in March 2022, the Climate Pledge Arena crowd of 17,151 erupted.

“I was obviously pretty honored,” Eberle said after logging an assist in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. “To be a captain in this league is pretty special.”

Learning of his new captaincy capped a busy weekend for Eberle. The prior day, he’d agreed to spend part of his Saturday morning alongside general manager Ron Francis co-hosting an exclusive online questions-and-answers session with Kraken season ticket members.

At this stage of his NHL career, Eberle has come to appreciate such exchanges with the people who’ve stood behind his team from the stands much as he tries to do in the dressing room, on the bench and while playing alongside those wearing his same uniform.

“It’s always nice to interact with them,” Eberle had said Monday of the meetup. “They’re the people that are cheering and the people that are loud in the stands – the ones that kind of will us to win hockey games.”

And it’s that off-ice attention to detail in addition to Eberle’s own will to win games on the ice – scoring some of the biggest goals in franchise history – that made him the natural selection to fill the captain’s role.

“I have nothing but good things to say about Seattle, the city and the fans,” Eberle said. “I’ve mentioned that on many occasions. It’s the reason why I signed here. My family loves it. From day one, obviously, with things not going very well in our expansion season, they were behind us.”

Eberle, that expansion season notched the first hat trick in franchise history, one of only two managed by a Kraken player to date. The following season, he scored arguably the biggest goal in franchise history, an overtime winner in Game 4 of the opening playoff round against Colorado that eventually swung the series in the Kraken’s favor.

His 58 goals and 152 points each rank second all-time among franchise leaders, but it’s his off-ice actions and composure that made him captain’s material.

There were lighter moments, such as his picking “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone as the team’s dressing room victory anthem in a 2022-23 season that saw it played early and often through a dream playoff run. Or when, during the team’s One Roof Foundation Gala, a nonprofit event last January at Climate Pledge, he led a group of players up onstage to sing along with the music group Train and lead vocalist Pat Monahan.

Some of Eberle’s tougher moments came early on last season, when he broke a bone in his hand against Colorado in just the fourth contest of the season. Exactly one week later, broken bone and all, he scored the winning goal in overtime in Detroit -- the first home loss for the Red Wings last season.

Two weeks later, Eberle suffered a deep gash in his quadriceps muscle when teammate Schwartz accidentally kicked him with his skate blade while falling during practice. The incident was frightening, coming just days after former NHL player Adam Johnson died from his throat being cut by an opponent’s errant skate while playing professionally in England.

Eberle wound up missing just three games, then was back out on the ice – his hand still not completely healed from the prior injury. A strong second half boosted his points total to fourth-highest on the team at 44.

In March, just days ahead of playing in his 1,000^th NHL game, Eberle signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract extension. By then, it seemed inevitable he’d eventually be named captain heading into the coming campaign.

He was an alternate with his Regina junior teams in his Saskatchewan hometown, then the Oilers led by captains Andrew Ference and then Connor McDavid.

Eberle was never part of the New York Islanders leadership group after moving on to that squad, but immediately became an alternate with the Kraken soon after being selected in the July 2021 expansion draft. Eberle, Larsson, Schwartz and Gourde have been alternate captain mainstays with the Kraken since that opening year – with Beniers now moving up to fill Eberle’s prior spot.

Bylsma gathered players in their private lounge at the Kraken Community Iceplex ahead of Monday’s practice to share news of Eberle’s captaincy.

“Leadership to me is often a misunderstood word,” Bylsma said. “Every person, in every situation, has a chance. You are a leader in how you act, the time you show up, how you train, how you eat, how we come to the rink, how we play.

“Everybody is a leader in that regard,” Bylsma added. “In addition to the effect that you have and the influence you have on any situation, leadership is all about the team. It’s all about having the team mindset, concept…and the other individuals that you have on the team. That’s what a true leader is. And today, I think Jordan Eberle exemplifies that greatly for our team, for you guys, last year and going forward this year.”

Bylsma continued with the praise after Tuesday’s game.

“Ebs being a captain, I think it’s long overdue,” he said. “It’s great to see him step on the ice as a captain for our team.”

Though he’d long been an alternate, wearing the “C” is something, Eberle, admittedly thought might never happen at a meaningful level.

“Other than if you go back to Novice and Atom, I mean – that was a long time ago,” he chuckled of his youth playing days. “Like I said, it’s a big honor. I’m proud to wear it.”

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