The Seattle Kraken have come to terms with their lone remaining restricted free agent. According to a team announcement, the Kraken have signed defenseman Ryker Evans to a two-year, $4.1MM ($2.05MM AAV) contract through the 2026-27 NHL season.
The Kraken selected Evans with the 35th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft. He was coming off a solid, albeit shortened, year with the WHL’s Regina Pats, scoring three goals and 28 points in 24 games with a -4 rating. The following year, again with the Pats, Evans posted an even better 14 goals and 61 points in 63 games with a +9 rating.
Evans immediately made a name for himself in the Kraken’s organization. Seattle started him with their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, in the 2022-23 season, and he responded well with six goals and 44 points in 71 games with a +19 rating. Still, the 2023 Calder Cup playoffs put him over the top in terms of prospect rankings, scoring five goals and 26 points in 26 games with a +13 rating en route to a berth in the Calder Cup Final. He was included on the AHL All-Rookie Team at season’s end.
Despite being on everyone’s radar as one of the better prospects in Seattle’s system, Evans’ transition to the NHL didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. He skated in 36 games for the Kraken in the 2023-24 season, but only mustered one goal and nine points with a -5 rating. Still, his 54.2% CorsiFor% at even strength and 91.3% on-ice save percentage at even strength proved he was ready to play in the sport’s top league.
Given those indications in his underlying metrics, Evans earned a full-time spot on the Kraken’s roster this past season. Finishing the season with five goals and 25 points in 73 games with a -12 rating while averaging 19:29 of ice time per game in a top-four role. His underlying metrics dropped somewhat, but that’s to be expected with twice as much playing time.
Even though Evans is a promising young two-way defenseman on Seattle’s roster, his only drawback is that he doesn’t offer them anything different than what they’ve been accustomed to in the past few years. The Kraken only finished with one defenseman scoring more than 40 points last season (although Vince Dunn would have had he not missed time due to injury). Evans can be a solid offensive contributor, but he’s not expected to push for the 60 or even 50-point plateau.
Still, he’s already beaten out Jamie Oleksiak in terms of positioning on the team’s depth chart, and his spot in the lineup isn’t expected to be altered by Seattle’s signing of Ryan Lindgren this summer. He’ll likely see his ice time grow year-on-year, especially if the Kraken begin phasing out some of their older talent.
Do you think there will ever be a day when we do not use plus/minus anymore ?
It’s lost its gusto over the past few years, especially with how well we can isolate player value now, but I think it will always hold some value as a broader stat, especially for line groupings. Take, for example, Washington’s first line in 2013-14 of Johansson, Backstrom, and Ovechkin. The former two had -20 ratings, while Ovechkin had a -35. Each had good offensive production, so a +/- of that magnitude shows inherently that something is wrong on the defensive side of the puck, and Ovechkin having nearly double the amount of his linemates shows something else altogether. So I think, as a broad statistic, we can see if something is generally good or bad, and then we can use more isolated metrics to pinpoint the issues.
I would also add that the sports needs some easily accessible stats to work with, like ERA for baseball. Casual and new viewers need a metric to use, and there is much more money to be made in marketing to casuals than dedicated fans.
If you go too deep into analytical numbers, you end up losing the crowd and then everyone looks down on the stat geeks for ruining the game
Don’t you know…
A plus/minus for goals (the key to the whole game) is silly.
It’s a plus/minus of shot attempts that really matters as that is how we measure “possession”.
Somehow we came up with that before just using a timer/clock.
Possession metrics/Corsi are good indicators.
Meh. I’ll take WHIP as a more I insightful stat.
I prefer WAP!
You can’t even trust points, so why rank on +/-. Chandler Stephenson had 51 points and was second on his team in scoring, but according to Luszczyszyn… he still sucks.
I’m still on the fence on Evans’ role with the kraken. I’ve been a known detractor in the past. 3rd pairing for 2.05 x 2 is less commitment than I expected (the “good”), but it still doesn’t make huge sense to me in terms of icing a great team… but I guess that isn’t actually the objective anyway. Overall contract doesn’t seem too bad for the team, and it’s decent for Ryker, bordering on good. Keeps options open and pays him a decent amount. Nothing there to complain about. Botterill gets a “win” in a low stakes game lol
He’s young, I think he’ll be pretty good, too.