The Seattle Kraken public relations department kept busy on Friday, releasing the club’s preseason schedule and its plans for Kraken Development Camp following next week’s NHL Draft.
As for the preseason, the Kraken will start with split squad games on Monday, September 25th with one part of the camp roster playing the Flames in Calgary at 6 pm pacific and a separate group playing more Flames at the Climate Pledge Arena at 7 pm pacific.
Three nights later the Kraken will host the Vancouver Canucks at 7 pm pacific on Thursday, September 28th. On October 2nd Seattle will host the Edmonton Oilers.
At this point the roster should be getting reduced somewhat dramatically with two road games on the calendar for October 4th at the Canucks and October 6th at the Oilers.
The contest on Wednesday the 4th will actually be played at the Abbotsford (BC) Centre, home of the American Hockey League Canucks.
Here’s your preseason power point version:
— Monday, September 25th, split squad vs. Calgary Flames, 6 pm pacific at the Saddledome and 7 pm pacific at Climate Pledge Arena
— Thursday, September 28th, Vancouver Canucks at Seattle Kraken, 7 pm pacific.
— Monday, October 2nd, Edmonton Oilers at Seattle Kraken, 7 pm pacific.
— Wednesday, October 4th, Seattle Kraken at Vancouver Canucks, 7 pm pacific.
— Friday, October 6th, Seattle Kraken at Edmonton Oilers, 6 pm pacific.
If you’re superstitious at all and curious how the Kraken did last preseason leading up to their remarkable 2022-’23 regular season … pretty darn good. Seattle went 4-and-2.
They won their first four contests while outscoring their opponents 14-to-3. The only three goals they gave up during the preseason winning streak were to the Canucks in a 4-3 Seattle overtime win on September 29th. (Ryan Donato is pictured scoring the overtime game winner).
Martin Jones and Joey Daccord split a shut-out win against the Oilers, Magnus Hellberg and Philipp Grubauer split a shut-out win against the Flames and Grubauer had one on his own against the Canucks.
Seattle lost their final two exhibition matches, 4-1 on the road in Calgary on October 3rd and 5-3 on October 7th in Edmonton.
Kraken Prospects
In their announcement regarding their 2023 Summer Development Camp, the Kraken featured the names of existing prospects Shane Wright, Jagger Firkus and Ty Nelson. Obviously there are many others, while fans will also be able to see whomever Seattle drafts next week in Nashville.
Round-1 of the NHL Draft is Wednesday, June 28th and the subsequent rounds, two through seven, are the next day. The Kraken presently have the 20th-overall pick in the 1st-round with three selections slated for the 2nd.
Seattle also has one pick in each of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th rounds. They have two selections in the 6th round.
The team announced that fans will be welcomed into the Kraken Community Iceplex on both July 2nd and July 5th to watch the proceedings. That includes the end-of-camp scrimmage on Wednesday the 5th.
Threesome
Of the three aforementioned prospects — we provided our “Kraken of the Future” links below their names – Wright would be the highest profile athlete.
The 4th-overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal had quite the adventurous season, ranging from time with the NHL club while scoring his 1st NHL goal, a stint in the American League with Coachella Valley, a Gold Medal at the 2023 World Junior Championship while captaining Team Canada, back to the Ontario Hockey League where he played for a different team, the Windsor Spitfires, after getting traded from the Kingston Frontenacs, and finally back to the AHL for playoff games with the Firebirds.
Wright finished the postseason with nine points in 24 games in helping Coachella Valley get to the Calder Cup Final. He’s right back at it, or is it “Wright back at it” following a very short breather.
