From Here To Helsinki: Kraken Prep For Finland

Head equipment manager Jeff Camelio smiled and chuckled while staring at an ever growing mountain of Kraken clothing, equipment and electronics stacking up in a dryer room space beyond the team’s locker room.

Camelio is one of numerous Kraken employees working double-duty preparing for an overseas trip to Finland, where the team plays a pair of games next week against the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the NHL Global Series. Playing in Europe is not the same as in North America, where forgotten or misplaced items can easily be acquired in short order.

“The biggest challenge is we’ve got to make sure we don’t leave anything because there’s no turning back,” Camelio said. “If you forget something on the road, typically you can get it shipped in the next day. This time, you’ve got to make sure you have everything and plan for anything.”

The Kraken are taking a travel party of 117 people to Finland, including players, coaches, wives, team staffers, partners and others. That’s about double the usual 55-to-58 people on the team’s regular charter, meaning they’ve gotten a bigger plane for this trip and will have a bigger baggage list on board.

The 7,300 pounds of items Camelio and his staff had assembled by midweek included 300 pounds worth of sticks, 291 pounds of game jerseys, 194 pounds of practice jerseys, 210 pounds of skates, 408 pounds of blades, 40 pounds of helmets, 80 pounds of socks and 90 pounds of tape.

“We’re taking extra sticks for guys,” Camelio said. “We’re actually going to be using six sets of jerseys over there, so three per guy for each game. We’ve got to make sure we have helmets for both (home and away) uniforms since we’re going to use two colors over there, which we typically wouldn’t need on the road.

“Even little things like tape that we’d normally have supplied for us on a regular basis. We have to bring toiletries. We have to bring speakers for the locker room music. Anything we could possibly need that would be typical in an NHL city, we have to make sure we have.”

He’ll even have “travel suits” – sweat pants and sweat shirts – for players to wear on the plane during the long flight.

Hence, the growing pile of items waiting to be packed away in the team’s box truck on Friday afternoon.

“We have a huge pile started in our dry room,” he said. “Skate mats for the stalls. We have some special logos and nameplates for the event as well. So, we’ve got a huge pile of stuff packed and ready to go.”

Kraken team services director Kyle Shohara has been working to ensure the plane in which all that gear will be stored is comfortable enough for the 9-plus-hour flight from Seattle to Helsinki. The Kraken plan to fly out immediately after Saturday’s home game against the New York Rangers and land in Finland early Sunday afternoon local time.

The front part of the plane will have first-class, reclining flat-bed seating in individual pods up front, a premium business class type of middle section and economy seating for the remainder – though the idea is for passengers in that rear section to have an entire row of seats to themselves.

“For me, the biggest thing is that we’re basically doubling our normal travel party,” Shohara said. “So there’s a lot more people to inform when it comes to making sure everyone has the right travel documents, knows what time the flight is, where to park. It’s not your typical road trip.”​

Shohara and outgoing team services director Brennan Baxandall also worked out a way to get checked luggage pre-screened for as many people as possible so the team isn’t waiting hours to take off after Saturday’s game. A luggage drop off has been arranged for Friday morning at Kraken Community Iceplex while others can check items at the airport Saturday with a cut-off time several hours before the scheduled flight.

“As many of us as possible will hopefully drop off our luggage in advance,” he said. “So that it's screened, it's loaded into the plane before we even get there to really minimize the amount of time it takes for us once we arrive at the plane to eventually take off.”

That extra time is needed, he said, to accommodate Camelio and all the additional equipment he has to get loaded on.

“It’s a tedious process, so we're really trying to maximize the time before we take off for for any added luggage,” Shohara said.

Once in Finland, things proceed somewhat typically as it would during any other road trip. Aside from the team needing two hotels; one for the team and coaches and front office, the other for all of the additional staffers and team partners making the trip.

“Normally, we're just dealing with one hotel, a couple of busses,” Shohara said. “And now with an added hotel, that's additional bus routes, additional busses in general. So again, just another added layer to this trip.

“I mean, it does happen during the regular season sometimes too. We'll run into instances where the main hotel can't accommodate the entire group, so we have to have an overflow.

“So really, that's the same process, same mindset. It's just making sure that whatever hotel you're at, you have an up to date schedule with accurate bus times, and you know which one to get on.”

Meals are something that’s required some planning as well, with Madison Yerigan, the team’s lead sports dietician, working closely with chefs at the team’s hotel in Finland to source local food. Yerigan is also going over all the planned meals, line by line, to ensure that players with dietary restrictions know the ingredients ahead of time and can have alternate dishes arranged.

Other than that, Shohara said the main thing is reminding people to bring the proper electricity adapters to Finland so they can use their electronic devices.

“It’s little things like that,” he said. “I mean, there's also going to be pamphlets on the duration of the flight, when is the right time to maybe try to take a nap, go to sleep, so that all of us are refreshed and as energized as possible for the time change.”

Kraken equipment manager Camelio has been trying to keep his energy up just getting ready for the flight.

He’s made sure to stock some hydroculators – specialized stainless-steel heating units filled with water that heats and stores reusable moist heat packs. Apparently, they are not a common item in Europe.

But more importantly, he made a list of all plug-in equipment items the team needs – everything from skate sharpeners to glove dryers to phone chargers – and sent it to the NHL to verify that the power requirements will work overseas.

Camelio has only worked overseas once, as an assistant equipment manager for Team USA when it won gold at the 2025 IIHF World Hockey Championships in Denmark and Sweden. But this will be his first time doing it as the head guy and, like the players, he relishes the challenge.

“It takes some work to get everything ready,” he said. “But I think it’s going to be a great experience for everyone.”