Seattle Kraken, Dave Hakstol

Kraken NHL Daily: Hellberg Adventures, Trade Talk

The Seattle Kraken take on the Kings in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, the final stop on this three game road trip. The Kraken have a five-game winning streak intact and a separate five-game road winning streak that started back on November 1st in Calgary.

The Kraken have had 19 different goal scorers this season, at the top of the NHL, with eleven of them tallying four or more.

“That’s been consistent for our team, different guys stepping up offensively,” Kraken Head Coach Dave Hakstol said postgame on Sunday. “We need everybody, everybody on our bench, to play the way that we want, in order to be able to skate and play with the energy that we want … different individuals stepping forward, stepping up, you don’t win without that.”

“We’ve built good wins, our team has a confidence in that,” Hakstol added. “we’ve done it different ways, but for the most part we’ve found a pretty good rhythm, both home and on the road, and you get a group of twenty guys every night, whichever twenty guys are in the line-up, working hard for one another and when you do that with a good level of confidence, more often than not that leads to good things.”

Don’t forget basic buy-in. The coaches deserve credit: the players are buying in to systems and messaging.

Let’s Skate !

Recently waived Kraken netminder Magnus Hellberg was plucked by the Detroit Red Wings, a team that acquired him previously this year. Sound familiar? Two stops with Seattle and two stops with Detroit, with a little Ottawa thrown in for good measure.

According to Kevin Allen, it sounds like this time Hellberg might get to hang around a bit thanks to Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s potential lack of faith in his American Leaguers. Plus, Hellberg provides the same NHL insurance policy he provided in Seattle for a spell.

Trade Talk

Jakob Chychrun’s name has been out there endlessly in trade rumors. The 24-year-old Arizona Coyotes D-man blends size, skill and affordability, working for just $4.6-million per season for the another two after this one.

Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek brought up the topic of the Buffalo Sabres, already heavy with young talent on the blueline, as a potential landing spot for the lefty.

At this point, the Kraken would not be suitors. The club has a good balance of size, offensive punch, and lefty/righty pairings.

Enjoy the Hockey Action !!

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.