Will Stephenson bring scoring punch to the Kraken

-

While the Seattle Kraken have never sipped from the Stanley Cup after winning an NHL championship, several individual Kraken players have celebrated that moment. Perhaps to install a winning attitude, the Kraken have signed their share of Cup winners - Philip Grubauer and Andre Burakovsky with both Washington and Colorado and Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz with the St. Louis Blues.

As Seattle begins its fourth NHL season - full practices began Thursday at the Northgate Training Facility - two more cup winners have joined the Kraken. Forward Chandler Stephenson celebrated with the Washington Capitals in 2018 and with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023. Defenseman Brandon Montour was part of the Florida Panthers first-ever championship last spring and like all the winning players got to bring the Cup back to his hometown, Ohswekan, Ontario for a day.

Unlike the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks, the Kraken didn't pursue several free agents but made a splash with the two big signees- Stephenson for seven years at $6.2 million and Montour, seven years at $7.14 mil.

``Stephenson brings a winning pedigree and offensive consistency to our team," said Kraken general manager Ron Francis.

Stephenson's an offensive-minded center who's known as a playmaker, setting up teammates with his passing ability. He should center one of the Kraken's top two lines and has also received votes for the Frank Selke Award given to the top defensive forward. He's also over 50 percent on faceoffs, a problem that's plagued the Kraken in the past.

``First day of the season is exciting," said Stephenson, after his first day of practice. ``It's an adjustment. You have to learn a new system. It's a feeling out process, like the first day of school."

When asked about goals for the upcoming season, Stephenson responded, ``to win the Cup.'' Which is exactly what the Kraken organization and fans want to hear.

Stephenson began his NHL career with the Washington Capitals back in 2015-16 when he went scoreless in nine games. He played on the Capitals' cup winner in 2018,but came into his own with the Golden Knights.

In 2021-22 he recorded 21 goals and 43 assists and the next season on a championship team he added 16 goals and 49 assists for a career-high 65 points.

Stephenson played in the outdoor classic in Seattle on New Years' Day and was impressed then with the Kraken organization (``they did a phenomenal job''). He played with the Kraken's Jaden Schwartz in junior hockey - Schwartz even briefly lived in Stephenson's home- and Schwartz was the player he reached out to when Stephenson was thinking about coming to Seattle.

In the Kraken's first practice, Stephenson played on a unit with Schwartz and his former Capital teammate Andre Burakovsky, attempting to make a comeback after two injury-plagued seasons.

``I'm chomping at the bit to get going," said Stephenson. The Kraken play their first pre-season game, Sunday night (9/22) hosting the Calgary Flames. Seattle has another home pre-season game on Friday night (Sept. 27) against their geographic rivals, the Vancouver Canucks.


When not playing a game, the Kraken are practicing mornings at their Northgate facility. Approximately 60 players were at the first two days of practices including those who'll play at the Kraken's AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley and some players who'll return to juniors.

Here's the Kraken complete pre-season roster.

1 VICTOR OSTROV 3 WILL BORGEN 6 ADAM LARSSON 7 JORDAN EBERLE 8 CALE FLEURY 9 CHANDLER STEPHENSON 10 MATTY BENIERS 11 BRANDON BIRD 12 TYE KARTYE 13 BRANDON TANEV 15 JOHN HAYDEN 16 NIKOLAS BROUILLARD 17 JADEN SCHWARTZ 19 JARED McCANN 20 EELI TOLVANEN 21 TUCKER ROBERTSON 22 OLIVER BJORKSTRAND 23 GUSTAV OLOFSSON 24 JAMIE OLEKSIAK 26 RYAN WINTERTON 28 JOSH MAHURA 29 VINCE DUNN 31 PHILIPP GRUBAUER 35 JOEY DACCORD 37 YANNI GOURDE 39 NIKLAS KOKKO 41 RYKER EVANS 43 ALEXIS BERNIER 49 JULIUS MIETTINEN 51 SHANE WRIGHT 52 JAKOB FIDIER 56 CLARKE CASWELL 57 JAGGER FERGUS 58 MAXIM LAJOIE 59 BEN MEYERS 61 LUKE HENMAN 62 BRANDON MONTOUR 63 JACOB MELANSON 67 MITCHELL STEPHENS 70 ANDREI LOSHKO 71 MAX McCORMICK 72 OLLIE JOSEPHSON 74 CARSON REHKOPF 79 TYE NELSON 82 EDUARD SALE 83 TYSON JUGNAUTH 84 KADEN HAMMELL 85 LLEYTON ROED 88 DAVID GOYETTE 90 NATHAN VILLENEUVE 92 LUKAS DRAGIECVIC 95 ANDRE BURAKOVSKY 98 VILLE OTTAVAINEN

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seattle's first major league team?

-
Image
With the widely rumored return of the Seattle Sonics, the Emerald City would surely be considered a `major league' city in the sports world. Of course, that wasn't always the case. The ill-fated Seattle Pilots came and went in 1969, but if you were a local sports fan your appetite was wetted by University of Washington football (Seattle's primary sports team for many years) and minor league baseball and hockey. But not many people know that a major league team - a world champion no less- moved to the Pacific Northwest in the winter of 1959-1960. The Chicago Westerners, the 1959 world champions in the wild-and-wacky pseudo sport of the Roller Derby appeared at the venue that was known as various times as the Seattle Civic Arena, Seattle Ice Arena and Mercer Arena. While the Ravens also skated games in Spokane and Portland, four games that were televised from the Civic Arena can be found on YouTube - two games apiece against the New York Chiefs and the Los Angeles Braves.  It...
Read more

Farewell to Pete Carroll

-
                                                  Farewell To Pete Carroll The Seattle Seahawks made longtime coach Pete Carroll a `special advisor’ two days after the 72-year-old Carroll announced he had no plans to leave coaching. Kudos to Channel 7, which accurately posted a cutline under a Carroll interview which read accurately ‘Carroll Fired.’ Seattle nation- `the 12’s’- registered their displeasure on social media. Well, some of them did. After all, Carroll’s the winningest coach in team history, including two Super Bowl appearances. But it was a different story 23 years ago when the New England Patriots announced they were relieving Carroll of his duties after three seasons with the team. Ironically, Carroll’s 27-21 mark as Pats’ head coach was the second-best winning percentage in the team’s history behind guess who? - Bill Belichick. But author J...
Read more

Kraken acquire Larry David's favorite player

-
Image
The Seattle Kraken acquired Kaapo Kakko today from the New York Rangers today in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen and a third round and sixth round pick in the upcoming NHL amateur draft. As often happens, Seattle fans were sorry to see Borgen go. An original Kraken, one of the more physical players on the team, a fan favorite, and Matty Beniers roommate. To say that New York fans feel the same way about Kakko would be an understatement. Ranger Nation has universally panned the deal of social media and coupled with the trading of captain Jacob Trouba last week, fans are calling for the scalp of Ranger GM Chris Drury. However, the most interesting aspect of this trade is that Kakko was a particular favorite of longtime New York sports fan and star of TV’s  Curb Your Enthusiasm,  Larry David. The iconoclastic comedian appeared on Michael Kay’s ESPN radio show a couple of years ago berating then Rangers’ coach David Quinn for benching Kakko. (on a personal note, this writer co...
Read more