The preseason games, camp scrimmages, stamina drills and summertime on-your-own workouts are in the rearview mirror for the Kraken. With the weekend’s announced 22-man roster, the countdown to the regular season and an opening night matchup at Vegas is now just hours away.
Seattle goes into the game with lots of familiar names and lineup combinations from the historic success of the second-ever season, plus a handful of newcomers and roster twists aimed at elevating the performance of a 2022-23 team that amassed 100 standings points. The team’s first three forward lines and top-two defensive pairs have been together for hundreds of game minutes last season, an encouraging change from the past two seasons. Where the roster gets a refresh is which skaters form the fourth line, a new defenseman on the third pair and who’s in goal when Philipp Grubauer is not.
The backup goaltending job goes to Joey Daccord, whom GM Ron Francis says was the best goalie in the American Hockey League last season with his sensational 25-game playoff run and a Western Conference championship providing plenty of evidence.
The 27-year-old and expansion choice from Ottawa has participated in five NHL training camps (three with Seattle) and “this is first time I didn’t get the bad news.” He was beaming at his locker Saturday morning, praising the performance and professionalism of Chris Driedger, who cleared waivers and is reassigned to AHL affiliate Coachella Valley.
Across the locker room, Tye Kartye was talking about finding out he made the opening night roster from Francis and head coach Dave Hakstol seconds before a team meeting with the group of 22. He said he was determined to walk into the meeting room looking like it was another normal day at the rink but “I couldn’t keep the smile off my face” and veteran razzing (a sure sign of acceptance) ensued.
After strong camp competition, the Kraken veteran center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare will center the fourth line with fan favorite Brandon Tanev, playoff star Kartye and free agent signee Kailer Yamamoto projecting as wings. Kartye and Yamamoto (both scored goals in the preseason) were mentioned by Francis during a Saturday press conference as players who can replace the scoring of last season’s fourth-liners who departed in free agency. The Kraken hockey boss also pointed out Andre Burakovsky (“he was the leading scorer before getting injured last year”), Eeli Tolvanen on the roster for “a whole season” and Oliver Bjorkstrand (“he was coming off summer surgery and had a bit of a slow start”) will boost goal totals.
On defense, two-time Cup winner Brian Dumoulin will rejoin former Pittsburgh Penguin defensive mate Justin Schultz on the third pair with last season’s trade deadline acquisition Jaycob Megna as the projected seventh defenseman. Dumoulin and Schultz did pair together at times during regular seasons and playoff runs in Pittsburgh.
The Kraken stands at 22, one under the maximum of 23 players. Francis addressed his strategy to be one player under the limit as retaining some cap space or salary amount “as we move forward here in case we want to do something, especially as we're close to the deadline. It's always valuable to have [the cap space] if you can.”
On game nights, 18 skaters (typically 12 forwards and six defensemen) and two goalies are in uniform. But the majority of NHL teams will put upwards of 30 or more players on the ice over the course of the grueling 82-game NHL regular season schedule.
“That was part of our conversations when we got down and 27, 28 guys and most likely the list [of different Kraken appearing in NHL games this season] is going to be longer than that,” said Hakstol after practice about the likes of Ryker Evans, Shane Wright, Cale Fleury, John Hayden and Chris Driedger among the final cuts. “Those guys [including players cut and reassigned to the AHL earlier in camp] are going to have an impact on our season and to be ready when that opportunity comes. We're starting right now with 22. We all know there's going to be other individuals at every position that are going to contribute to our team this year.”
