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Daniel Sprong Out For Remainder Of Series

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Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment will play in tonight’s Game 6 against the Seattle Kraken. Marchment was hit in the head by an inadvertent elbow from Kraken forward Alex Wennberg in Game 4. He missed most of that game and sat out Game 5 with the injury that resulted from that hit.

The Stars winger is playing the first year of a four-year contract that pays him $4.5MM per season. The physical winger stands at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds and also adds some scoring punch to the Stars lineup. He put up 12 goals and 31 points in 68 regular season games with the Stars and added five points in ten playoff games before being injured. He will add some depth to the forward group that is looking to eliminate the Kraken in Game 6 and move on to the Western Conference Final.

  • While the Kraken will look to stay alive tonight, they will have to do so without one of their depth forwards. According to Alison Lukan of NHL.com, Seattle will not have the services of Daniel Sprong tonight. Head Coach Dave Hakstol says although Sprong skated and is listed as day-to-day, he does not expect the 26-year-old winger to play again in this series. Sprong scored 21 goals and 46 points in 66 regular season games, but left Game 3 of this series with an upper-body injury and remains out of the lineup.

Seattle Kraken Sign Ty Nelson To Entry-Level Contract

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The Seattle Kraken have locked in their best unsigned defense prospect, signing Ty Nelson to a three-year, entry-level contract. Per the team, the contract carries a $925,000 cap hit.

Seattle selected the 19-year-old Nelson with the 68th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Most public draft analysts didn’t have Nelson falling that far, with some having the right-shot defender ranked in the mid-to-late first round. Concerns about his size, as he stands at 5-foot-10, dropped him to the third round on draft day.

It’s looking like quite the pick for Seattle, though, as Nelson had another terrific season in juniors with the OHL’s North Bay Battalion in 2022-23. With his team losing in the third round of the OHL’s postseason to the Peterborough Petes, however, Nelson has now opted to get under contract with the team that drafted him.

Nelson, serving as an alternate captain for North Bay, led a team loaded with NHL-drafted forwards in postseason scoring, posting six goals and 25 points in 20 games (along with a team-leading +15 rating). He silenced a lot of doubts about his NHL ceiling this season, employing his confident puck-moving style of play to the max.

How much that production translates to the NHL remains to be seen, but he does remain one of the better prospects in the Seattle system as a whole. He’s ineligible to play in the AHL next season for Coachella Valley, however, meaning he’s likely destined for another season of juniors with North Bay.

Jared McCann Will Be Game-Time Decision For Game 4

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The Seattle Kraken are in position to take a stranglehold on the Dallas Stars tonight in their Second Round series, with a win giving them a 3-1 series lead. In their quest to do so, they may have regular-season goal-scoring leader Jared McCann back in the fold. Head coach Dave Hakstol would not confirm McCann’s Game 4 availability but told reporters he’d “probably” take warmups.

McCann has been out of the lineup since Game 4 of the First Round, taking a late hit from Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar which resulted in a one-game suspension. His return to the lineup could provide a potent boost to a team that lit the lamp seven times in Game 3, giving them yet another offensive weapon for Stars netminder Jake Oettinger to worry about.

The 26-year-old McCann did have just one assist in three-and-a-half playoff games against Colorado but led the Kraken in scoring with 40 goals and 70 points during the regular season. While rookie Tye Kartye has done well in McCann’s place, NHL experience tends to win out as the games get harder.

The Kraken will, however, be without forward Daniel Sprong tonight, as reported earlier.

Seattle Kraken Sign Goaltender Niklas Kokko To ELC

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The Seattle Kraken have announced that they have signed goaltender Niklas Kokko to a three year entry-level contract. Kokko was on the roster of Finland’s 2023 IIHF World Junior team but did not see any game action.

The 19-year-old spent the bulk of this past season with Hermes of the Mestis league where he put up fairly pedestrian numbers. Kokko had a 4-6-4 record with a .901 save percentage and a 2.95 goals-against average. Although Kokko didn’t see any game action in the recent World Juniors tournament he did backstop Finland’s U18 squad to a bronze medal at the 2022 U18 IIHF World Juniors.

Kokko was Seattle’s second round pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft and has good size for a young goaltender standing 6’3” tall and weighing around 185 pounds. He will likely fill out a bit more as he gets older, which should help him improve on his numbers. Given what Seattle is doing they must be happy with his development thus far.

It will be interesting to see where Kokko fits into Seattle’s plans. He is a long way from the NHL, but Seattle will be looking to develop him over the next few years to likely be the heir apparent to Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer is signed for another four seasons while Chris Driedger is signed for just one more. The Kraken still have Joey Daccord in the AHL but may let him walk when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. The only other goaltender of note in the Kraken system is Ales Stezka. He continues to play in Czechia and at the age of 26 it appears that he will likely not be an NHL option for Seattle. With Grubauer signed long term it appears as though Kokko will have ample time to develop in Seattle’s system and could have a golden opportunity in the very near future.

Daniel Sprong Out With Upper Body Injury

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The Seattle Kraken have announced that forward Daniel Sprong has been ruled out of game 4 against the Dallas Stars. The 26-year-old is dealing with an upper body injury and won’t dress tonight as they Kraken look to take a 3-1 stranglehold on their second round series. Sprong has just two points in 10 games in these playoffs and is currently mired in a six-game pointless streak. He played just 6:36 in Seattle’s 7-2 game 3 victory and has been largely relegated to fourth line minutes during his recent stretch of poor play.

Jared McCann Skates But Is Doubtful For Game Three

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  • Kraken center Jared McCann skated today for the first time since being injured in the fourth game of their series against Colorado. However, head coach Dave Hakstol told reporters, including NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that it’s very unlikely that the 26-year-old will be available tomorrow against Dallas.  McCann was on the ice in a non-contact jersey so until he’s cleared by doctors for contact, it’s doubtful that Seattle will have their 40-goal scorer available to them.

Dave Hakstol Named Jack Adams Award Finalist

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The finalists are Dave Hakstol of the Seattle Kraken, Lindy Ruff of the New Jersey Devils, and Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins.

Hakstol, a longtime college hockey coach at the University of North Dakota, is a finalist thanks to a stellar second season behind the bench of the expansion Seattle Kraken.

2023 Calder Trophy Finalists Announced

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This week, the NHL is revealing the finalists for its end-of-season awards.  On Wednesday, the Calder Trophy was front and center.  The league revealed that the finalists for its top rookie are Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, Sabres defenseman Owen Power, and Kraken center Matthew Beniers.  The award is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Skinner came into this season as the presumptive backup behind Jack Campbell, Edmonton’s big summer signing to help shore up their goaltending.  However, it didn’t take long for him to start pushing for playing time, eventually taking over as the starter.  That helped him earn an All-Star nod midseason.  Skinner led all rookie netminders in victories with 29 and games played with 50 while ranking second among qualifying rookies (who had at least 25 GP) with a 2.75 and a .914 SV%.  While his playoff performance doesn’t count in voting which is done at the end of the season, he has started all six games for the Oilers who kick off their second-round series tonight against Vegas.  He’s looking to become the first goalie to win the award since Steve Mason did so in 2008-09.

Power, the first-overall selection in 2021, got his feet wet in the NHL down the stretch last season but 2022-23 was his first full NHL campaign.  It was an impressive one for the 20-year-old as he led all freshman rearguards in scoring with 35 points in 79 games.  Power also logged nearly 24 minutes a night, ranking him second on the team behind Rasmus Dahlin and inside the top 20 league-wide among all players, not just rookies.  Buffalo’s last winner of the Calder Trophy was defenseman Tyler Myers back in 2009-10.

As for Beniers, he was the second-overall pick in 2022 and followed the same path as Power, playing late last season but seeing his first full NHL campaign in 2022-23.  The 20-year-old led all rookies in scoring with 24 goals and 33 assists in 80 games while ranking fourth among first-year forwards in ATOI at just over 17 minutes a night.  Beniers only recorded one penalty all season, making him just the fourth player in NHL history to play in at least 80 games and have two penalty minutes or fewer.  He’ll be looking to become the first player from an expansion franchise to win the Calder Trophy within his team’s first two seasons since Peter Stastny (Quebec) won back in 1980-81.

The winner of the award will be revealed at the NHL Awards ceremony on June 26th.  Meanwhile, the finalists for the Norris Trophy are up next to be announced on Thursday.

Seattle Kraken Sign Ales Stezka

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The Seattle Kraken have signed Ales Stezka to a one-year entry-level contract, according to a team release. The 26-year-old goaltender has been playing pro in Czechia and is coming off a stellar playoff run with HC Vitkovice where he has played for the past two seasons. His cap hit for next season will be $950K before he becomes a restricted free agent next offseason.

Stezka was originally drafted in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Minnesota Wild, but has not played an NHL game in his career. He has not played in North America at all since playing two seasons in the USHL with the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Chicago Steel from 2015-17.

The 6-foot-4 and 201 pound goalie had a 2.14 GAA and a .924 SV% last season in Czech Extraliga, the top pro circuit in that country. He was sensational in the postseason where he had a 1.24 GAA and a .960 SV% in 12 games, where his team remarkably only had a record of 6-6.

The Kraken will begin their second round playoff series tonight against the Dallas Stars, but this signing is for future depth at the position. With backup Martin Jones a free agent, the organization has only Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger signed in goal for next season.

Seattle will hope for a similar landing like Karel Vejmelka had in Arizona where he came over from Czechia in 2021 and surprisingly took over as their starting goaltender while posting respectable numbers on one of the weakest teams in the league.

Jared McCann Expected To Miss First Two Games

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Earlier this morning, Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff reported that Seattle Kraken forward Jared McCann did not make the trip with the team to Dallas, and will likely miss the first two games of their second-round series. McCann has not played for Seattle since Game Four of their opening-round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche after receiving a late hit from defenseman Cale Makar.

Although the Kraken were able to weather the storm against the Avalanche, it will become increasingly challenging against the Stars without their top forward. McCann had by far the best season of his career, leading the Kraken in points, scoring 40 goals and 30 assists in 79 games played.

Since his absence from the team, the Kraken are 2-1, largely scoring by committee. In their final three games against the Avalanche, the team scored six goals in total, all scored by five different players. Unlike the Avalanche, the Stars have not been decimated by injuries in these playoffs. Their depth came in handy against the Minnesota Wild in their opening-round matchup, and the Kraken will have to match up against even more pressure without their top point-scorer in the lineup.

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