The newest member of the Seattle Kraken, forward Jesper Froden, picked up a point in his debut last night on a goal by Jamie Oleksiak that tied the game with the Boston Bruins 3-3 in the second period. It’s Froden’s first ever NHL assist to go with the lone goal he scored last April while a member of the Bruins.
The 28-year-old right wing was called up by the Kraken from the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL this week after compiling 47 points in 44 games this season.
Froden had the assist, a blocked shot, and finished a plus-two in 10:41 of ice time.
“Competitively, I thought he met the challenge,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said postgame. “For me, he did a good job tonight. He did a nice job and showed us, like I said, his intelligence and his competitiveness for the first night out.”
By the way, Oleksiak’s goal, his seventh goal of the season, set a new career high for the big defenseman.
Driedger Moves
As anticipated, last year’s Kraken back-up goalie Chris Driedger, who appeared in 27 games for the club, was sent down to the Coachella Valley team to get in some work after clearing waivers. The 28-year-old with 65 career NHL games under his belt underwent off-season knee surgery, has been out since, and was replaced on the roster by veteran Martin Jones. It was an upgrade, especially considering Jones’s experience level and the fact he costs $1.5-million less per season.
Driedger still gets paid his NHL salary, but it doesn’t impact the big club’s salary cap. Barring injury to one of the other NHL goalies, one would expect him to finish the season there.
Balanced Scoring
When Vince Dunn (pictured) scored his 10th goal of the season Thursday night against the Bruins, he became the 12th Kraken player this campaign to reach double-digit goals. That level of balanced scoring leads the NHL. Consider Yanni Gourde is just one goal away from reaching ten on the season and the club is that close to expanding that impressive number to thirteen players.
Defensemen Oleksiak and Justin Schultz would be next with seven and six goals respectively.
