Catton Earns Assist In NHL Debut, But Kraken Lose

PHILADELPHIA – Top Kraken prospect Berkly Catton was reflecting postgame upon a day’s worth of NHL debut excitement culminating with a secondary assist and first career point just seven minutes in.

Unfortunately for Catton and his teammates, that assist on a Cale Fleury shot deflected home by Jordan Eberle for Monday night’s opening goal would pretty much be the only Kraken highlight. And that meant for a subdued, albeit still happy postgame summation from Catton following a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in which the Kraken largely left their legs and compete level in the pregame dressing room.

“It’s a lot, for sure,” former Spokane Chiefs star Catton, 19, said of dealing with the night’s events. “It’s kind of nice, honestly just to even get the (rookie) lap out of the way. Then, everyone just forgets about it, and you just go play.”

The Kraken, however, didn’t play for very long before coughing up the first of two Owen Tippett goals that tied things ahead of two more by Tyson Foerster on their way to losing in regulation for the first time all season. In hindsight, the fact it took the Kraken a whopping 63 seconds to touch the puck on a delayed penalty called against them even before Eberle’s opening goal was a tipoff to how the night would play out.

Jani Nyman got one back for the Kraken on the power play midway through the game but Tippett’s second of the night short side on Joey Daccord late in that middle frame more or less sealed it. Daccord was lifted two periods in and replaced by Philipp Grubauer after surrendering five goals on 21 shots.

Catton was only inserted in the lineup after Jared McCann was listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed lower body injury. The No. 8 overall draft pick from 2024 was told Sunday he’d be playing after the Kraken determined McCann would be unable to go, with the team placing Catton into their scoring leader’s customary left wing slot alongside Eberle and Matty Beniers.

And he made a nice play in getting the puck to Fleury back at the point ahead of his wrist shot through traffic.

“My first touch of the game was an assist, so that was pretty cool,” Catton said. “It did end up going (in) off Ebs, right? So, yeah. A secondary assist on my second shift, that was pretty cool.”

From there, though, the reality of NHL play when your team stops skating caught up pretty quick.

“They’re a really good defensive team, too, and there wasn’t a whole lot (of opportunity) the whole game,” Catton said of the Flyers. “Maybe the odd chance here or there.”

As a player with only one NHL game on his resume, Catton was playing the postgame diplomat in assessing his team.

Not so for Kraken forward and fellow Saskatchewan native Jaden Schwartz, a veteran of 817 such contests.

“It wasn’t our best night in a lot of different areas,” Schwartz said. “Puck play and defensively and puck management and, you know, just speed and energy. We were just a little flat at times.”

Part of that was likely due to this being the fourth game of a tough six-city trip with two more contests to go in Washington on Tuesday night and Winnipeg on Thursday. Also, perhaps due to the reason Catton was even playing in the first place, his team likely feeling the effects of missing not only McCann but also Brandon Montour, Freddy Gaudreau, Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans.

“It just wasn’t our best night,” Schwartz said. “I don’t think we dug in quite enough in certain areas.”

Schwartz was far more effusive about Catton’s play.

“You could see his vision, his skillset,” Schwartz said. “He’s pretty good with the puck, sees the ice well and makes a lot of little plays.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert also had good things to say about Catton making “a really good play” ahead of Eberle’s goal and getting “his feet wet” ahead of potentially more action this trip.

Lambert wouldn’t use the missing Kraken regulars as an excuse for what transpired on the ice. He expects his team will come back better prepared and battle-ready in facing the Capitals on a short 24-hour turnaround.

“You just can’t lose the battles, and we lost too many of them,” he said. “We played slower today, for whatever reason.”

Eberle’s pregame advice to Catton had been almost the opposite of that slower reality: Warning him the game would seemingly go by very fast and to enjoy every moment.

Now that it’s done, the Kraken can only use Catton in eight more games before they’d have to make a call on whether to keep him and burn the first of three years on his entry level contract. They kept him to start the season largely because he’s a year too young for AHL eligibility and would have to be sent back to a junior hockey level he’s already dominated for the past two seasons.

Instead, the Kraken are hoping to spread Catton’s remaining eight-game trial period out long enough to keep him in the NHL for at least a couple of months where he can continue learning from hanging around players largely in practice and the locker room.

“It’s been great – going to the morning skates and feeling that out,” Catton had said after Monday’s morning skate. “And being in all the meetings and stuff. And even how I’ve started working with coaches after practice and stuff. They’ve been great.”

Catton talked about how his parents began working on their flight itinerary from Saskatoon, Canada to make it here for the game as soon as he let them know he’d be playing.

“Saskatoon to Philadelphia is not an easy flight,” he quipped. “So, I think they’ve had a long day of travel.”

Indeed, both parents journeyed from Saskatoon to Calgary, then to Atlanta — about 2,900 miles — before arriving at the team hotel here Monday about 1 p.m. local time.

And while they didn’t see the best Kraken effort, they did witness their son capping a lifelong climb to reach this point ahead of embarking on a new, higher-level push.

“It was a really exciting night,” Catton said. “I’m just happy my family was here, and I just got to share it with them.”