More than halfway through the Seattle Kraken‘s 2024-25 season, the team once again finds itself at a familiar crossroads.
In the eight games since I wrote my column regarding the team’s New Year’s resolutions on Jan. 6, the Kraken have gone 4-4-0 and appear no closer to qualifying for the postseason than they did at the beginning of the month. The recent treading of water is part of an extended stretch of disappointing play that started in mid-December, and their 6-9-1 record over that time has pushed them to the margins of the playoff race.
The projection models from Hockey Reference, MoneyPuck, and The Athletic all give Seattle a less than five percent chance of even making the playoffs, let alone mounting a serious challenge for the Stanley Cup. With a record of 21-24-1 through 48 games, they sit six points back of the Calgary Flames for the second and final wildcard spot in the Western Conference. They have already played three more games than the Albertan club, so the raw points total paints a falsely optimistic picture.
According to Tankathon’s remaining schedule strength metric, the Kraken own one of the NHL’s most difficult rest-of-season slates, making an already steep trek even more harrowing. There is no honor in occupying the NHL’s mushy middle with no higher aspirations, a hard truth the franchise would do well to accept and internalize before the trade deadline (March 7th). If they commit to a retooling of sorts, the Kraken could become a legitimate contender in less than half a decade.
Kraken Can Make a Splash at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline
While most teams may be hesitant to pivot towards committing to a lengthy, full-scale rebuild, the Kraken are in a unique position. They can bypass the initial teardown due to their well-stocked prospect pool, and collection of promising young players already on the NHL roster. This should ease the transition and help avoid a lengthy stay in the league’s basement. It’s a process that could be undergone even quicker if general manager Ron Francis auctions off most, if not all, of his pending free agents by the trade deadline.
Center Yanni Gourde (age 33), winger Brandon Tanev (33), and recently demoted forward Daniel Spring (27) are all set to become unrestricted free agents (UFAs) this summer and should collectively fetch a big haul, according to most insiders. Gourde has 83 career playoff games and a pair of Stanley Cups on his resumé, while Tanev’s physicality and underrated goal-scoring touch should have other general managers salivating.
All four of Jaden Schwartz (32), Oliver Bjorkstrand (29), Jordan Eberle (34), and Jamie Oleksiak (32) become UFAs in the summer of 2026, which could set the stage for a complete roster detonation if the front office decides to sell off its expiring assets earlier than expected. They may also draw more interest a year ahead of time since teams may be more likely to part with higher-quality assets if they know that they will have a player for two potential playoff runs.
As of this writing, the Kraken hold their first- and second-round picks in each of the next three drafts (they don’t have their third this season), and have two fourth-round selections in both 2025 and 2026. It’s not a bad base from which to start, but it can be augmented handsomely by executing an aggressive retool.
While the front office may decide to keep a few of the aforementioned veterans around to help shepherd along the youth movement, Seattle could end up with the most enviable stockpile of draft picks outside of the Chicago Blackhawks (11 combined first- and second-round picks through 2027) Philadelphia Flyers (10), and the Montreal Canadiens (nine), though the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks could leapfrog the pack with an active deadline.
Kraken Have Strong Prospect Pool
As several organizations could attest to, finishing near the bottom and drafting often in the lottery is no guarantee of future success. Teams may lean too heavily on youth without properly insulating them with steadying veteran presences, and foster a losing culture ripe with negativity and hopelessness. Fortunately, the Kraken have a number of prime-age players who could bridge the gap between a rough year or two and a brighter mid-term future.
Eeli Tolvanen (25), Joey Daccord (28), Vince Dunn (28), Jared McCann (28), and Andre Burakovsky (29) should all remain positive contributors for the next few seasons, with Kaapo Kakko (23), Ryker Evans (23), and Matty Beniers (22) already having progressed past the prospect phase of their development. Even quasi-prospect Shane Wright (21) counts more than 100 combined NHL and American Hockey League (AHL) games over the past two seasons.
Seattle is set to graduate a number of junior and AHL players to higher levels, several of whom could play with the Kraken as soon as this spring. Prospect guru Scott Wheeler of The Athletic ranked the Kraken’s prospect pool 12th in the NHL a year ago, and they have since added highly-rated forward Berkly Catton (picked eighth-overall in 2024).
19-year-old Eduard Sale has scored 15 points in 27 AHL games this season. Carson Rehkopf has tallied 77 goals in his last 92 Ontario Hockey League appearances. Julius Miettinen, Lukas Dragicevic, and Caden Price have all averaged over a point-per-game in junior, while Jani Nyman (20 years old), Ty Nelson (20), Jagger Firkus (20), Niklas Kokko (20), and Ryan Winterton (21) have all played major roles with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds as they look to make their third-straight appearance in the Calder Cup Final.
There are very few NHL teams that are able to build such a booming farm system while not truly bottoming out, so it’s almost scary to think about what the Kraken could add to their pipeline with a forward-looking trade deadline.
Kraken In Strong Position Going Forward
While a quasi-retool could prove to be immensely fruitful, there are no doubts that the franchise could suffer in the immediate short-term. The Kraken will likely miss the playoffs for the third time in four seasons and could easily see that stretch to four of five or five of six if there are bumps in the road to contention.
Somewhat cynically, Kraken ownership should assume that the team is too new for the fanbase to abandon it due to a handful of trying seasons. The messaging out of the organization should be geared towards highlighting what should inarguably be a very bright future if the right moves are made.
Ask fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins (three Stanley Cups in the salary cap era), the Chicago Blackhawks (three), the Tampa Bay Lightning (two), or the Colorado Avalanche if years of accruing draft capital paid off in the end. The Kraken may become the NHL’s next dynasty, or fail to make the playoffs for the next decade. What’s important is that they tried to win, but standing pat at the deadline means they did not.
Data courtesy of the NHL.
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