Dunn 'doing it all' in breakout season for Kraken

SEATTLE -- Vince Dunn is talking about horses.

"I've always just wanted one," Dunn says, by way of explanation. "It would just be nice to cruise around, ride on it. Get away from the city for a little bit."
They make him happy, always have, the reality of them, the idea of them, having grown up with friends who owned them. Dunn likes the concept of wide-open spaces, the slower pace outside of a city, a product of his childhood in Lindsay, Ontario, in the Kawartha Lakes region.
Maybe, he thinks, in retirement.
But for Dunn, just entering the prime of his career at 26 years old, retirement is a long way away. The defenseman has come into his own this season with the Seattle Kraken, embracing the luck and the skill and the talent that have brought him here, to becoming the face of a franchise on the rise.
And, as with the Kraken, he too is on the rise.
"[He's] just kind of doing it all for us right now," said forward Jaden Schwartz, who has been teammates with Dunn each of the six seasons that the defenseman has been in the NHL. "Everyone around the League is starting to see how good he is and the potential he has. I've gotten to be able to see it for a long time now. He's been awesome."
So has the team, which is trying to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its second season. The Kraken have a chance to take another step closer when they host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, HULU, SN NOW). The Kraken hold the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, five points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames. Any kind of win against the Coyotes, or one point against the Coyotes combined with a Nashville Predators loss of any kind to the Carolina Hurricanes would clinch a berth for Seattle.
Dunn played the first four seasons of his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues, winning the Stanley Cup in 2019 in his second season. He had hit the highest high -- and it made everything else pale in comparison. And then the Blues opted to expose Dunn in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
Seattle nabbed him. He was happy to be selected by the Kraken, had been hoping for it. He felt ready for a change, a fresh start.
"Just a lot of weight off my shoulders," he said.
His first season with the Kraken, a disappointing one all around, lined up with his previous NHL seasons. He tied his NHL career high with 35 points (seven goals, 28 assists) as the team found itself on uneven footing.

But something happened to Dunn before the start of this season -- he declines to get any more specific, saying it was "nothing too crazy" -- that made him take a closer look at how he was approaching the game, at how he was attacking practices and how he was feeling about the grind of NHL life.
"There were some things that happened outside of the rink, some personal issues, where I was like, 'Whoa, I am pretty lucky to be doing what I'm doing,'" Dunn said.
He believes he had let it get to him, the downsides of being an NHL player, dragging his way through the life he had worked so hard to achieve. He made it his business to turn his perspective around.
It has helped, in so many ways.
"Just trying to be happy," Dunn said. "I think for myself I was a little bit miserable sometimes and I didn't really realize it, selfishly. I'd be like, 'Ugh, I have to practice today, I don't want to practice today.' But I think just showing up every day and being excited -- there's a lot harder days for a lot of people out there."
Those around Dunn have seen a renewed focus this season, a dedication to being the type of player he can be, the type of player he has always had the potential to become, on the ice and in the gym. He is 10th among NHL defensemen with an NHL career-high 63 points (13 goals, 50 assists).
"The credit goes to Vince," Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. "He came in last year maybe not where he needed to be. And I think there's a process that goes to kind of learning and gaining the trust of what the coaches are trying to do with you and you with the coaches and I think he's worked hard at it.
"In that locker room and on the ice, he's been terrific for us. A big part of our success this year for sure. It's great to see him kind of maturing both as a person and as a player on the ice."
It's the idea of treating the rink, treating the Kraken, as a place that Dunn wants to be, as a place that that he has spent so much of his time working to get to.
"I would say it's my happy place," Dunn says now. "I think just having a better mindset on life and that kind of translating to my game. Just being grateful for every opportunity.
"To wake up, put my skates on and live my dream a little more. I was pretty young making it to the NHL and it happens really fast. You take it for granted a little bit, I'd say. Especially when you win so early in your career, you're kind of just like, been there, done that, that was easy. At the same time, it wasn't at all."
He made it his business to be thankful, for his job, for his friends, his family, for his city and the team and the staff, for his teammates. And they have been, in turn, impressed with the results.
"The things that he's doing on the ice are easy for everyone to see, in terms of the added minutes, the responsible defensive play, the offensive production that he's bringing," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "But the things that are a little more difficult to see are kind of behind the scenes just in terms of his presence, his ability to handle different situations, whether it's good or bad, always having the ability to move on and move on to the next play.
"'Dunner's' really grown there in terms of his confidence and his presence within the game, from game to game and over long stretches."
It's not like the foundation wasn't there in St. Louis, like the Blues didn't see the potential, the skill level, the vision, the toughness when they selected him in the second round (No. 56) of the 2015 NHL Draft.
"I did," said Blues forward Sammy Blais, a former teammate and close friend. "I always knew he had the capacity to have a season like that."
Dunn, for one, believes that the opportunity has been the key, the confidence that he feels the Kraken have in him.
He has been able to translate that onto the ice.
"I don't think that I wasn't given a lot of opportunity before, but I think maybe I was held back from a lot of things even when I was excelling or outperforming other people," Dunn said. "I know there's a lot of business-side things that can get a little complicated in the sport that we're in and I understand that.
"But I also knew that I had a lot more to show and give. I've just tried to take a hold of what's in front of me and just kind of roll with it. There's no reason why I can't keep improving. I know my game still has a lot more to show."
It's why Blais is effusive in saying how much Dunn likes Seattle, how much he'd like to re-sign when he becomes a restricted free agent this offseason.
That's crucial. For a team without much star power, Dunn is becoming the biggest name. He's 23rd in average time on ice, at 23:43.
He's maturing. He's understanding what's needed of him, on the ice and in the gym, mentally and emotionally and physically. As defense partner Adam Larsson said, "I think he's elevated every single thing about his game this year. It's been fun watching him grow, on and off the ice."
Dunn knows how good he can be, now.
He knows how much fun that is.
He knows that none of this was guaranteed.
"I'm pretty lucky for everything that I have in my life," Dunn said. "There's no reason why I can't be happy mostly all the time -- I know everyone has hard days and everyone goes through [stuff] -- but at the same time, I'm living my dream and I'm really happy to be doing that, really fortunate.
"When you love the game, it loves you back. I'm a true believer in that."
Independent correspondents Lou Korac and Paul Delos Santos contributed to this report