Don’t look now, but the beginning of the 2026-27 NHL season is just around the corner, with the Seattle Kraken opening the new campaign away from home against the Calgary Flames (Oct. 1). The team will be looking to improve on the 79 points it accrued last season en route to a 27th-overall finish in the league standings. Last season marked the fourth time in five seasons of existence that Seattle missed the playoffs, upping the ante for Year Six of the Kraken experience.
Head coach Lane Lambert returns behind the bench, with general manager Jason Botterill remaining the lead executive. The offseason saw the addition of two new supporting cast members in Pascal Vincent (assistant coach) and Patrik Allvin (vice president and assistant general manager), while previous assistant coach Jessica Campbell departed for New Jersey. The organization’s key decision-makers have a momentous task in front of them on and off the ice, so all eyes will be on the new faces to make a difference.
Despite another disappointing season, the front office shied away from taking any ambitious swings this offseason. While three veteran skaters departed the organization- defenseman Jamie Oleksiak and forwards Eeli Tolvanen and Jaden Schwartz- the only notable addition came in the form of winger Mackie Samoskevich, a restricted free agent acquired from the Florida Panthers for a first- and a second-round draft pick. It was reported that an eight-year, $120 million contract ($15 million average annual value) was offered to Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson, but he rejected the team’s advances and returned to Texas for another year.
As a result, the team looks much like the one that missed the playoffs last season. That doesn’t immediately spell doom for the year ahead, but the state of affairs in the Pacific Northwest could have been more positive.
Without further ado, let’s dive into five bold predictions for the new Kraken season.
Kraken Miss the Playoffs…Again
Let’s get the doom and gloom out of the way up front. I predict the Kraken miss the playoffs, marking four seasons since their last postseason appearance (2023) and the fifth time in six seasons since expansion. It’s not a particularly optimistic appraisal of the team’s chances, but the front office did little to suggest significant improvement over their 79-point showing last season.
An elevated role for Samoskevich, a full season of McMann, and one or more of Shane Wright, Berkly Catton, or Jagger Firkus taking a step forward in their development would go a long way toward bolstering a stagnant attack. It’s difficult to see that being enough to crack the 90-point barrier, however, given the lost production of outgoing forwards in Tolvanen and Schwartz.
The Kraken are already in a tough playoff race, regardless of the improvement of the team’s likely competition on the fringes of the Western Conference. The San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators are two non-playoff teams who enjoyed better offseasons than the Kraken, and already finished higher in the standings last season. Even the 72-point Chicago Blackhawks (without an injured Connor Bedard for a month) look more promising than Seattle, with Patrick Kane and Bowen Byram being added to a cadre of young talent.
Outside the Los Angeles Kings, no major candidate from the 2025-26 playoff field is likely to drop out of the bracket. Considering all of the above, the Kraken’s defense and goaltending are essentially the same as is the coaching staff, so it’s hard to squint and see where the required 10- to 20-point leap is going to come from at this point to leapfrog four to six teams this season.
Kraken Move Dunn and McCann at 2027 Trade Deadline and Embrace Rebuild
If the Kraken are staring at another year of futility at the 2027 NHL Trade Deadline (March 1st), any pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs) could be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The two most likely trade candidates would be defenseman Vince Dunn and forward Jared McCann, both top-five in Kraken history in games played and points scored for the franchise.
Dunn has scored at a 50-point pace or higher in three of his five seasons with the Kraken and ranks in the top 25 in every meaningful offensive category among NHL defensemen since joining the organization ahead of the 2021-22 expansion season. He would immediately bolster any contender’s top-four and could bring in a haul, carrying an eminently affordable $7.35 million cap hit that could be halved with salary retention.
McCann has also been a revelation in Seattle, scoring at a 31-goal, 63-point pace over his five-year Kraken tenure, including a 40-goal outburst in 2022-23. At $5 million, the 30-year-old’s expiring cap hit is minuscule compared to the contracts being handed out since the league’s recent cap growth, and his positional versatility lets him slot in anywhere in a top-nine forward group.
Despite their status as fan favorites, Dunn and McCann will be 30 or older once their new contracts kick in, and are unlikely to offer much relative value for a (should-be) rebuilding team in their later years. Moving them this season would mean everyone in the organization has finally faced reality and understands the foundation was shaky from the beginning.
The team at The Athletic projects the Kraken to earn 75 points, third-last in the entire league, but also ranked their prospect pool seventh this past spring. That’s without accounting for the addition of defenseman Chase Reid (drafted seventh-overall this summer) and the two 2027 first-round picks Seattle already has at its disposal before any significant trades have been made this season. The signs are all flashing and pointing down the path of a (insert preferred rebuild-adjacent term here), but another season spent in the league basement would all but make the franchise’s choice undeniable.
Catton Enjoys Breakout Season
Kraken fans might be wondering what, if anything, is worth watching this season if all signs point to another year spent spinning its wheels in the mud. Outside of a miracle run to the postseason, the growth and development of the franchise’s blossoming young talents can provide the glimmer of optimism needed to grind through a dour campaign.
While Matty Beniers and Shane Wright get most of the attention as recent top-five draft picks, 20-year-old Berkly Catton could be this year’s beacon of hope. While the Saskatoon native only tallied seven goals and 17 points across his 66-game rookie season, his junior production (a 50-goal, 122-point pace over his final two seasons) and underlying NHL numbers suggest a bigger role is in the cards.
Catton ranked sixth or tied for sixth among Kraken forwards in individual high-danger chances and expected goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five last season. His usage resembled that of a bottom-six forward at even strength last season, but his chance creation demands a higher-lineup role more often.
It appears as though he’ll be slotted in as the team’s third-line center to start the season, but it’s possible he – flanked by Kaapo Kakko and Wright – is too productive to break up. Catton is a strong skater, and additional physical maturation could help him handle the rigors of NHL play in his sophomore campaign. If there’s not much left to play for later in the year, expect him to be force-fed ice time and enjoy plenty of power-play usage.
Kraken In Store for Difficult Season
While the Kraken fanbase is begging for a measly scrap of optimism, none appears to be on the way ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.
The roster hasn’t seen any meaningful turnover, and familiar questions remain about the middling forward group, inconsistent goaltending, and uninspiring leadership behind the bench and in the front office. That, coupled with improvement from young and hungry teams in the West, makes a playoff appearance increasingly unlikely for an organization navigating choppy waters.
Here’s to a great season!
Data courtesy of Hockey Stats and Natural Stat Trick.
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