Few teams needed a good start to the season more than the Seattle Kraken.
Thoroughly disappointed internally after missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, which culminated in a brutally honest news conference last spring, the Kraken needed to come out of the gates in decent form, and that’s exactly what’s transpired.
At 8-4-1 after a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, the Kraken are producing good vibes early on in the Pacific Northwest.
“We’ve been happy with our start here,” Jason Botterill, general manager and executive vice president of the Kraken, told The Athletic. “(With) the short camp, we really appreciated that a lot of guys came back here early and got acclimated. Having (coach) Lane (Lambert) back here for the second year meant not having to go through implementing a new structure. It was building off things from last year.
“So I think that’s allowed us to have a good start to the season.”
The Kraken had seven of their first nine games on the road and did more than survive, going 4-2-1 in those games, which has helped set the tone.
“We played the way we want to play,” Botterill said. “We’ve showed our speed out there. We’ve been an attacking team. We’re a team that really feeds off four lines contributing. Especially on our Eastern road trip, I think that was really evident.”
The Kraken have had 16 different players score goals so far this season. The sum-of-its-parts offense is how they’re built and how they have to find success without a franchise offensive superstar.
The reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes also don’t have an offensive superstar. Their depth is their strength. There’s a recipe there.
“For us to be successful, we have to have that team mentality,” Botterill said. “Look at how our lineup is set up right now. I know Lane is very comfortable playing any one of our four lines against other teams’ players.”
The Kraken’s biggest moves this summer weren’t splashy: re-signing Bobby McMann after acquiring him from the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, and trading for and re-signing restricted free agent Mackie Samoskevich. But they reinforced the scoring committee.
“What we’re trying to create is more internal competition,” Botterill said. “You don’t know from night to night who is going to contribute to the offense, but it’s been a group effort, and we’ve had some success so far.”
Berkly Catton has been part of that effort. The 2024 No. 8 pick has made meaningful strides in his second NHL season and has three goals and nine points in 12 games, tying for second on the team.
“We understood there would be growing pains, but what we loved about keeping him as a 19-year-old last year was that even at the start of the year when he didn’t have a lot of success offensively, he was sticking his nose in there,” Botterill said. “And he has such great hockey sense, he was learning from all these different situations. Then if you look at his numbers in March and April, his pure offensive numbers weren’t great, but he was creating a lot more opportunities and chances.
“Speed has always been a big part of his game, but we’ve asked him to work harder at getting stronger and finding that extra gear. If you look at him now, there’s not many shifts where you don’t see that extra burst from him. That’s helped him out a lot, and now you’re starting to see the rewards.”
And then there’s Kaapo Kakko, leading the team in scoring with 10 points (two goals) in 12 games. Something of a reclamation project after a December 2024 trade with the New York Rangers, who, of course, drafted him No. 2 in 2019, the Finnish winger has found another level in his game.
“What’s really impressed me that I didn’t know about him prior to him joining our organization is just his hockey sense and his ability to make plays,” Botterill said. “He’s been able to create a lot more in and around the net, and it’s great to see.
“Especially with our team going to Finland in a couple of weeks (Nov. 12 and 14 against the Hurricanes), I know a lot of our players are excited about going over there, but obviously with Kaapo going to his home country and playing excellent hockey right now, it’s going to be a great experience for him.”
As mentioned earlier, the scoring-by-committee approach is necessary without a star-level offensive force in the lineup — an absence that’s not for lack of trying, of course.
It’s been well publicized how hard the Kraken tried to get Artemi Panarin in a trade last season. He didn’t want to extend in Seattle. And they had a trade in place in June for Dallas Stars star Jason Robertson, but he turned down $125 million over eight years from Seattle (a $15.625 million average annual value).
It shows Botterill isn’t sitting on his hands. He’s unafraid to swing big. And he’ll keep trying, especially at the scoring wing position.
“We’re always going to be in discussions with different things in trying to improve our team,” Botterill said. “We feel that we have a lot of talented young centermen. If you look at our draft history — until this year, we’ve done a lot through the middle and try to build this organization through the middle.
“If we can find help on the wings, it’s something that we’re going to continue to look at.”
Fair or not, striking out on Panarin and Robertson has created a narrative that Seattle isn’t an attractive market for players. Botterill rejects that.
“The only thing I push back on is that, hey, players have come to Seattle,” Botterill said. “You look at Brandon Montour, Chandler Stephenson, Ryan Lindgren, they were all free-agent signings who came out to Seattle. And we’ve obviously had a lot of our internal guys re-sign.
“Once players get to Seattle, they understand the resources we have out here and the excitement that they have to be here.”
Still, the Robertson one obviously stung. I mean, imagine turning down that kind of money. There’s a cure-all to luring star players, though: winning.
Vince Dunn, meanwhile, is a pending unrestricted free agent, and it’s a priority for the Kraken to re-sign him. Seattle’s power-play quarterback is in the last season of a four-year deal carrying a $7.35 million cap hit. Finding the right deal for the 29-year-old in the NHL’s new salary landscape will be the challenge.
“Vince is an original Kraken,” Botterill said. “He’s talked about his passion for the organization. When we talk about our leadership group helping move this thing along, he’s a big part of that. Vince plays in so many different situations.
“Look, it’s something that we’ll continue to stay in contact with his agent as we move along here. From Day 1, we’ve been happy to have Vince part of our group, and we will look forward to continuing that.”
In the meantime, while Botterill keeps working the phones ahead of the March 1 trade deadline, the organization’s No. 1 priority is within.
“We can look at different things from an acquisition standpoint, but our main focus has to be internal development,” Botterill said. “That’s not just for 18- and 19-year-olds. It’s helping develop a guy like Kakko. Trying to get the most out of a guy like Jordan Eberle.”
Botterill points to Justin Rai, head of player strategy, as the type of person who supports the coaching on this internal development.
“To me, that’s how our organization is going to continue to make a step, is helping our players not only get to the National Hockey League but once they get here, helping them take that next step,” Botterill said.
In some ways, that echoes last spring’s news conference, where Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke promised an independent review of how the Kraken did things.
That resulted in hiring an outside firm, the Sportsology Group, led by former Chelsea director of football operations Mike Forde. Sportsology came in and did a deep dive on the inner workings of the Kraken. And they’re still working to support Botterill.
“Mike and his staff are now partners with us on how we can maybe structure things a little differently,” Botterill said. “Can we make sure there are better lines of communication throughout the organization — say, from amateur scouting to player development to (AHL) Coachella Valley to the National Hockey League.
“They have a ton of knowledge, from football, European soccer, baseball, and as our organization continues to grow, they’re going to be great partners with us. I’ve enjoyed working with Mike. He’s been great for our organization, and I look forward to continuing to work with him.”
