Kraken Name Jordan Eberle Team Captain  

A day before Jordan Eberle was told he’d be named the second captain in Kraken franchise history, the 34-year-old was giving back to his team off the ice much as he usually does on it.

Eberle had 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, now entering a 15th season, 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,” said Eberle, officially announced as captain during pregame introductions Tuesday afternoon at Climate Pledge Arena ahead of the Kraken’s season opener against the St. Louis Blues. “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 a captain’s role left vacant by the March 2022 trade of Mark Giordano to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Eberle was the final player introduced to fans pregame on Tuesday, prompting a buzz in the stands that something might be up. The Kraken were the only NHL team by that point to have not named a captain and fans had already seen all four alternates introduced – Adam Larsson, Jaden Schwartz, Yanni Gourde and new addition Matty Beniers – before Eberle’s turn came.

The crowd, not surprisingly, erupted in applause.

“I have nothing but good things to say about Seattle, the city and the fans,” Eberle had said Monday morning, shortly after his teammates were secretly given the captaincy news. “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 151 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 Jaden 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 fourth-highest on the team at 44.

In March, just days ahead of playing in his 1,000th 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.

That part was confirmed on Sunday morning, the day after Eberle’s online meetup with season ticket members. Just before the team’s practice that day, Eberle was called in for a meeting with general manager Ron Francis and head coach Dan Bylsma to receive the news.

For most of his hockey life, Eberle seemed destined to be an alternate captain apprenticing for a lead role that never materialized. He was an alternate with his Regina Rams junior teams, then the Edmonton Oilers led by captains Andrew Ferrence 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.”

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