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When the Seattle Kraken headed into pre-season camp, the team looked similar to the 2023-24 squad. The team announced its roster heading into tomorrow's season-opening tilt with the St. Louis Blues (an afternoon contest for national TV) and 17 of the players suiting up saw appreciable time in the Emerald City a year ago. But six pre-season contests showed it's not quite the team that finished 34-35-13 a year ago. First there's a new face behind the bench. Dan Bylsma takes over the parent club after leading the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Kraken's AHL affiliate to the league finals the past two seasons. Bylsma also has a pedigree going back to the 2008-09 season when he was promoted from the AHL to coach the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bylsma and the Pens caught lightning in the bottle putting together a run that culminated in a Staley Cup championship. Then there's Shane Wright who made a cameo appearance in Seattle last season but spent most of the season under Byls...

People who have followed hockey for many years can recall games where one particular player seemed to be getting into scrums and even fisticuffs all night long. Seattle Kraken fans haven't seen that very much. Especially last season when the team was criticized for not responding to cheap shots against players like Matty Beniers and Jared McCann. That wasn't the case at Vancouver's Rogers Arena on Tuesday night. Forward John Hayden, who's been slowed down by injuries and has spent the last two seasons with the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL, was a thorn in the side of the Canucks and public enemy number one of Vancouverites in attendance. Hayden started the night stepping up to fight 6'6 defenseman Vilma Alrikson after the Swedish rookie ran Logan Morrison from behind. The `little guy' at only 6'3, Hayden appeared to deliver the most punches. ``That's John Hayden in a nutshell," opined former NHLer Eddie Olczyk on the Kraken telecast. ``He ...

 Pre-season games, especially early ones, are more about individual performances than they are about the final score. The Seattle Kraken dropped a 6-1 decision to the Calgary Flames last night at Climate Pledge Arena - really a Flames' rookie team- but there were still some bright spots as the Kraken begin a new era under new head coach Dan Bylsma.   The Kraken had their share of rookies on the ice in their first pre-season tilts, including the two top picks from the 2024 amateur draft - number-one pick Berkly Catton and number-two selection Nathan Villeneuve. Both made their presence felt in the game.   First the positive. Villeneuve, who played for the Sudbury Wolves a season ago, recorded the Kraken's only goal in the second period. He took a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand stationed along the right wing boards, and snapped a shot past Calgary netminder Dustin Wolf, a former American Hockey League Most Valuable Player. Wolf, a former Everitt Silvertip, stopped 3...

Brandon is an awesome guy. Great in the locker room. If you’re out of the fight, he’ll drag you back in.                                                                          Josh Mahura   Last season, Seattle Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour, was a part of history. Two seasons ago, Montour's Florida Panthers lost in the Stanley Cup finals. That made it even sweeter, when Montour's Panthers rebounded last June to defeat the Edmonton Oilers and win the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup. Signed by the Kraken as a free agent, Montour admits his thoughts have drifted to making history again - helping the Kraken bring the hallowed Stanley Cup to the Pacific Northwest for that franchise's first-ever championship. ``The Stanley Cup is meaningful. It's crazy the reaction it gets," said Montour, who li...

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...

  SEATTLE KRAKEN 2021-2024 ALL-TIME RECORD 107-112-27 Playoffs 7-7 ALL-TIME ROSTER MASON APPLETON 2021-22, ALEX-BARRE BOULET 2021-22, NATHAN BASTIEN 2021-22, PIERRE-EDUOARD BELLEMARE 2023-24, MATTY BENIERS 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, OLIVER BJORKSTRAND 2022-23, 2023-24, COLIN BLACKWELL 2021-22, WILL BORGEN 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, ANDRE BURAKOVSKY 2022-23, 2023-24, DENNIS CHOLEWSKI 2021-22, AUSTIN CZARNIK 2021-22, JOEY DACCORD 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, RYAN DONATO 2021-22, 2022-23, JOONAS DONSKOI 2021-22, CHRIS DRIEDGER 2021-22, 2023-24, BRIAN DUMOULIN 2023-24, VINCE DUNN 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, JORDAN EBERLE 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, RYKER EVANS 2023-24, CALE FLEURY 2022-23, 2023-24 HAYDN FLEURY 2021-22, JESPER FRODEN 2022-23, MORGAN GEEKIE 2021-22, 2022-23, MARK GIORDANO 2021-22, YANNI GOURDE 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, PHILIPP GRUBAUER 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, JOHN HAYDEN 2022-23, 2023-24, CALLE JARNKROK 2021-22, MARCUS JOHANSON 2021-22, MARTIN JONES 2022-23, TYE KARTYE 2...

The Seattle Mariners, who have batted a putrid .219 on the season, have begun to make some moves. Yesterday, the Mariners acquired outfielder Randy Arozarena from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for minor leaguers Aiden Smith (the team's number 12 prospect according to Baseball America ), an outfielder and right-handed pitcher Brody Hopkins (number 29). "We need to start solving our problems," Mariner general manager Justin Hollander told the Seattle Times last week and that was even before a horrendous 1-5 homestand against division rivals Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels. The Mariners were swept by the Angels of Anaheim (minus Mike Trout), who are mired in fourth place. The M's who led the Astros by ten games in June, saw their lead disappear quicker than Joe Biden's presidential campaign and now trail Houston by a game in the standings. Arozarena, a 29-year-old Cuban native, burst on the scene in 2020, when after playing 23 games in the regular season, he ...