Given I was tied up with other media responsibilities, thank you to multiple brethren at the Kraken Community Iceplex for zipping out pic’s of Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak skating in a regular practice sweater this morning, seemingly close to re-joining the Kraken line-up.
He’s still considered day-to-day and his status for Wednesday night’s home game against the San Jose Sharks will be determined in the morning.
The big fella, 6-foot-7, 255-pounds, played 14:27 in ice time before leaving the game at the Climate Pledge Arena on November 8th against the Nashville Predators.
It should mean at some point Oleksiak hops back into the second pair alongside righty Justin Schultz, with Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson above them and Carson Soucy and Will Borgen below them on the depth chart. Soucy has been playing second pair minutes with righty Cale Fleury or lefty Gustav Olofsson filling in.
By the way, NHL Jamie is not the most famous Oleksiak in his home country of Canada. His sister Penny is a the most decorated Canadian in Olympic history with seven medals won in the sport of swimming. She won four of them, including a gold, as an 18-year-old at the 2016 Summer Olympics and won three more medals in 2020.
In 2016, she was named the country’s top female athlete and also the top athlete overall. I reckon she’s training for Paris 2024 in an effort to add to that total.
The Wright Ice Time
Seattle Kraken 2022 4th-overall NHL Draft pick Shane Wright will finally be seeing some substantial ice time this season and it begins tonight as a member of the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. Part of a five game ‘conditioning’ stint over two weeks, Wright will lace them up against the Wranglers in Calgary.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to play some valuable minutes at a high level,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said Tuesday.
In seven games thus far at the NHL level, the highly touted prospect has one assist, 1 shot-on-goal, 2 penalty minutes and has been on the ice for four more goals for his team than against.
Waiver Man
Yikes, there he goes again. On October 3rd, goalie Magnus Hellberg, signed by Seattle in mid-July as a free agent, was waived by the Kraken and snagged by the Ottawa Senators. Five weeks later, the Senators waived him and he was claimed on November 10th by the Kraken.
Tuesday the Kraken waived him again. No room at the inn. With the return of netminder Philipp Grubauer off injured reserve, re-joining Martin Jones in the NHL tandem, Seattle really had no choice.
The AHL goalies for the Kraken at Coachella Valley are presently Joey Daccord, who recently saw a game of NHL action, and Christopher Gibson, signed and added to the franchise’s goalie depth on October 27th.
Kraken coach Hakstol referred to Hellberg as “a great teammate” in his time serving as Jones’s back-up.
