Nyman Scores Again As Kraken Youth Vie For Spots 

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Kraken prospect Berkly Catton has watched with admiration as another aspiring forward keeps filling the net in his simultaneous quest to break camp with an NHL job.

That would be winger Jani Nyman, who notched his team-leading fourth preseason goal early in Friday night’s 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. Nyman continues to make a case for the team keeping him after just one AHL season and Catton, for his part, is impressed by what he’s done.

“He just knows how to score, plain and simple,” Catton said. “And it’s a lot of fun to watch. I have a lot to learn, I think, from him. Just in front of the net where he goes and how he gets open. And it obviously helps that he has an unreal shot like that.”

We’re now two thirds done with these exhibition contests and it’s getting down to crunch time for many of the team’s young aspirants such as Nyman, 21, and teenager Catton, 19, who shifted from his customary center spot to left wing in this one. The move relieved Catton of some of his center responsibilities and seemed to open room for him to show more speed and creativity although he’s yet to register a point in his first three preseason games.

Nyman, meanwhile, opened the scoring just 2:19 into the matchup by getting to a dangerous position near the net front and redirecting a Lukas Dragicevic blast from the right point. It’s his second such net front goal to go with another that came on a one-timed slapper in which his elite shooting ability rose to the forefront.

Tyson Jugnauth added a second period goal – his first ever wearing an NHL uniform – on a nice pass from behind the net by Ryan Winterton, who is yet another Kraken AHL prospect forward hoping to break camp with the squad. That put the Kraken up by a pair and it took the Canucks almost half a game to get a puck behind goalie Matt Murray but they finally did when Braeden Cootes deflected a Jonathan Lekkerimaki blast from the left point to cut the Kraken lead to one.

Murray kept the Kraken ahead by stopping a Lekkerimaki breakaway later that middle frame, but he couldn’t halt an opening minute point blast in the third by Filip Hronek that traveled through a heavy screen to tie it up 2-2.

Then, with 7:28 to go in regulation, Jake DeBrusk jammed home a loose puck to put Vancouver ahead for the first time. Evander Kane added an empty net goal to seal it in the final two minutes.

Murray went the distance and nearly pulled one out for the Kraken, stopping 33 of 36 shots, including several acrobatic saves during a third period Canucks power play to keep things even until DeBrusk delivered.

The veteran netminder was pleased with his mobility in his first full game action of the preseason. He’d come into camp feeling stronger physically nearly two years after undergoing double-hip surgery that curtailed his NHL career and limited him to AHL action for much of last season.

Murray also likes what he’d seen from Nyman thus far.

“He’s just a big strong kid and a really good athlete,” Murray said. “And he’s got a heck of a shot. He’s one of those guys in practice that it hurts when it hits you.”

While goal scoring isn’t everything in preseason, the demonstrated ability of Nyman to keep putting pucks in the net in a variety of situations is clearly something the Kraken hoped for from the 6-foot-2, 212-pounder coming into camp. Nyman had three goals in a dozen games with the team during a brief Kraken taste last season and has continued to score at every level of amateur and professional hockey he’s played.

Kraken coach Lane Lambert, while agreeing there’s more to analyze than merely Nyman’s goal totals, nonetheless did not want to minimize those.

‘He’s doing a good job of putting pucks in the net, right?” Lambert said. “So, that’s a really good sign for us.”

Lambert added there are “a couple of different areas” the team will continue to work on not just with Nyman, but all the younger players. He specifically mentioned “wall plays” and “managing the puck” -- adding the Kraken didn’t forecheck as much the latter half of the game and lost some key puck battles in what should serve as a team lesson moving forward.

That said, when asked specifically about Nyman’s wall plays and puck management, Lambert replied: “He’s done a really good job for the most part.”

As for Catton, another player the Kraken are taking a long look at keeping to start the regular season, he seemed more involved in this game offensively from the get-go. Lambert said moving Catton to the wing gave the team a chance “to see what he looks like” in a different situation.

It didn’t take long for Catton to show off some speed in this one.

On the game’s very first shift, the prized 2024 first round, eighth overall pick from the Spokane Chiefs jumped on a Hronek giveaway in the Kraken zone and nearly outraced the Canucks defense all the way down the ice. Catton managed to get off a 36-foot wrister after being caught from behind, but that was only a precursor of what was to come.

Playing on a line with Eeli Tolvanen and Freddy Gaudreau, Catton’s trio kept the Canucks on their heels for most of the opening frame and then beyond. Catton and Tolvanen in particular seemed to find some chemistry and had the Canucks running around aplenty.

“With a wing, there’s a lot of new responsibilities but maybe not as much as at center,” said Catton, who’d played the position “growing up a little bit” but otherwise not all that often. "So, I think it was good to get a better look at it. It felt good.”

Getting that early scoring chance admittedly helped Catton get into the flow of things right away.

“From the first game and out it feels a little bit better,” Catton said. “And I think that’s all I can really do is just keep trying to build it. I got the puck on my stick a little more tonight and made some more plays.”

And he’ll likely have time to keep building it, as Catton is too young for the AHL and the Kraken would need to send him back to a junior hockey level he’s dominated if they don’t keep him out of camp. Not so for Nyman, building a solid enough NHL case for the Kraken to perhaps avoid any AHL conversation for the time being.