Party Of Five For Kraken 2021 Draft Picks

Kraken defenseman Ville Ottavainen sneaking a point shot through traffic for his first NHL goal last week in Philadelphia provided his team a notable milestone as well. 

Ottavainen became the fifth player taken by the Kraken in the 2021 NHL Draft to score a goal for the franchise, making them the league’s only team to achieve that feat. Carolina also had five players from that draft make the NHL but only four scored for the Hurricanes while a fifth player, Ville Koivunen, was traded to Pittsburgh while still in the AHL and had his first goal with the Penguins last season. 

For Ottavainen and some of the four other 2021 draftees to score for the Kraken – Matty Beniers, Ryker Evans, Ryan Winterton and Jacob Melanson – their odysseys at times mirrored that of the defenseman’s milestone inaugural goal from the top of the faceoff circle. Meaning, they faced a lot of traffic getting to their NHL destination – particularly fourth round pick Ottavainen, a bit of a longshot from Finland who took five full years to make it other than a lone regular season finale debut nearly two years ago.

“I feel like I've settled in pretty well,” Ottavainen said after scoring his first goal in his fifth NHL game. “I've just tried to play through my strengths. Use my skating, be hard to play against. Be physical in our own zone, and just play simple. Make plays when I have the chance, and jump into the play. But try to be reliable.” 

When it comes to draft picks, first and second rounders are usually expected to have a decent shot at NHL play. A Hockey Writers study last July of draft data from 1963 through 2024 found that first round selections play at least one NHL game about 89% of the time, second rounders about 68%. But it slows down big after that, with third rounders roughly 53%, fourth rounders 42%, fifth rounders 33%, sixth rounders 31% and seventh rounders 25%.  

That’s why the Kraken hitting on their picks in each of the opening five rounds was so unusual.  

“Usually, if you hit on two guys in a particular year you can call it a successful draft,” Kraken amateur scouting director Robert Kron said. “That’s not making excuses, it’s just hard to hit on people. I mean, there’s still a long way to go for these guys but to have five guys already making it out of that one draft is satisfying. And it was a COVID draft. So, there were a lot of challenges.” 

One of the biggest challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic raged throughout 2020 was major junior and college hockey leagues partially shutting down or canceling seasons outright. There were also travel restrictions in place for crossing borders – particularly between the U.S. and Canada and to certain European nations – not to mention arena attendance limits as well that reduced the amount of in-person scouting that could be done.  

“It was a lot less travel and a lot more video,” Kron said, adding the team’s analytics department also helped fill-in several blanks. “It was also knowing players from years prior. And credit to all the scouts and all the people who worked on it. Right now, it’s rewarding to see.” 

Kron cautioned that scoring a goal in the NHL doesn’t automatically mean a player will enjoy a sustained career.  

“These are early days, right?” he said. “Hopefully they stick for as long as they can.” 

The odds grow more daunting when it comes to playing at least 100 NHL games, with first rounders at 70%, second rounders 40%, third rounders 28.2%, fourth rounders 22%, fifth rounders 15%, sixth rounders 15% and seventh rounders 11%. 

As for Kraken picks from that 2021 draft, alternate captain Beniers was pretty much considered the consensus No. 2 choice and he immediately validated it by winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in 2022-23. He’s gone on to play 341 career games and last week notched his 200th career point as he evolves into a strong two-way centerman. 

But beyond that is where things got tricky. 

Almost no prognostication boards had Kraken selection Evans going any higher than the third round. The Kraken took a lot of criticism at the time for using their 35th overall pick on the defenseman early in the second round, but he’s since gone on to play 186 career games and is averaging 22:36 of ice time per game on the team’s second pairing alongside Brandon Montour.  

“With things like gut feeling, some people in the industry believe in it and some don’t,” Kron said. “I’m one of those who does believe in it. Now, sure, you have to have your research down in order to believe in your gut. But I think it is a gut feeling sometimes.”

With Evans, he said, Kraken scouts were unanimous in recommending him as the second round pick. There had been size concerns about Evans since his youth, leading him to go undrafted his first year of eligibility in 2020. As an “over-ager” his age 19 season ahead of the 2021 draft, he had only been rated No. 192 overall by NHL Central Scouting. But Kraken scouts were tremendously impressed by his two-way skills each level Evans moved up and felt him vastly underrated.  

“It was a controversial pick and in hindsight, a bit of a risk,” Kron said. “But it was a situation where the scouts in the room were unanimous. I had never seen anything like it in my career. I’d never seen everyone so aligned on one player.” 

With third round pick Winterton, there had once been speculation about him being taken in the second round. But his stock seemed to drop during the pandemic as the Ontario Hockey League canceled its entire 2020-21 season. Scouts instead had to rely almost entirely on his prior rookie OHL season to form opinions.  

Plus, he’d experienced some shoulder instability issues that would resurface once again immediately after the draft. All of that meant he was still around by the time the Kraken’s 67th overall pick came around.  

The Kraken had seen Winterton play well for Team Canada at the IIHF World 18U Championships in Dallas in spring 2021 alongside the likes of Shane Wright, Logan Stankoven and Kent Johnson.  

“It was difficult because we couldn’t have every scout there,” Kron said. “So, there were a lot of discussions about what he’d been like his underage year before the league shutdown and stuff. So, a lot of credit goes to our scouts that they did that.” 

Winterton has since gone on to outperform his draft slot and will appear in his 100th career game Thursday against the Utah Mammoth. He has two goals, four assists already for one of the NHL’s most productive fourth lines.

After that, defenseman Ottavainen was picked 99th overall in the fourth round out of JYP in Finland’s top Liiga pro circuit. He definitely had the size and a coveted right handed shot, but it’s always an unknown how the less elite European players will transfer their skills to the smaller North American ice surface.  

But the Kraken had built a formidable European scouting staff, led by Czech Republic native Kron, hoping to find such talent from overseas. Plus, Ottavainen had spent a season with the OHL Kitchener Rangers in 2019-20 before returning to Finland’s pro ranks, so scouts did have some North American rink play to help formulate evaluations.  

“With Ville, it was my contacts in Finland and knowing Finland a little bit, plus his time in Kitchener,” Kron said. “That was a little bit risky, but at that point, we felt he was a big man and he’d played very well that year over in Finland.” 

Still, it took two more Finnish pro seasons and additional three years of development with the Coachella Valley Firebirds before the Kraken opted this fall to keep Ottavainen to start the season. He’d played in a lone NHL game to end the 2024-25 season due to a locker room illness, but then spent the ensuing campaign entirely in the NHL as the Kraken worked with him on improving his all-around physical game. 

Kron said Ottavainen is a good example of how getting a player to the NHL involves more than just making the right draft picks. Player development is a big part of it; everyone from the NHL development team, roving performance coaches and the minor league staff at AHL Coachella Valley needs to stay in constant communication and be on the same page to help get players ready. 

Melanson being taken at No. 131 overall in the fifth round is another example of playing the right hunch. Maritimes scout Trevor Steinberg had been very impressed by Melanson’s competitive edge playing for Acadie-Bathurst in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Though he’d scored only eight goals as a power forward, his gritty, aggressive forechecking also showed a scorer’s touch at times and piqued the Kraken’s interest.

There are some skills that can’t be taught and Melanson certainly had edge to his game that translates well to NHL play. 

In a September 2022 preseason game for the Kraken, the still junior-level prospect was suspended two games for an illegal check to the head of Edmonton Oilers winger James Hamblin. Again, it was the job of Kraken player development staffers to take Melanson’s zeal for chaos and hyper-aggressive play and channel it into a more finished product his NHL team would someday benefit from. 

That he honed at AHL Coachella Valley and then, like Ottavainen, he was called up in late 2024-25 due to illness and injury depleting the roster. He made a lone game NHL debut on March 6, 2025. Then, last December, the Kraken promoted him more permanently and Melanson appeared in 36 games the rest of the way, notching 188 hits for the eighth highest total in team history in less than half a season. 

Melanson made the opening night roster this season but suffered a serious chest injury in that first game and is now out indefinitely. But when he did play for them, Melanson brought an energetic chaotic style that included a Kraken record 12 hits in one game against the Vegas Golden Knights. 

One lingering question about the 2021 draft is whether a sixth Kraken player will make the NHL. At least one player who still has a chance, almost certainly won’t be scoring a sixth goal by a Kraken draftee as Russian netminder Semyon Vyazovoy earns his money keeping pucks out of any nets. 

Vyazovoy, taken 163rd overall in the sixth round, currently plays in the Kontinental Hockey League, considered by many the second best pro circuit outside the NHL, where he looks dominant as the No. 1 goalie for his hometown Salavat Yulaev Ufa squad. He just earned KHL Goaltender of the Month honors for September after posting a standout .931 save percentage last season. 

Vyazovoy remains under contract with his KHL team through the current season but it’s not yet known what will happen with him after that.

As for seventh rounder Justin Janicke, taken 195th overall, he’s currently with Kansas City of the ECHL, trying to work his way up to AHL Coachella Valley full-time. Janicke played 11 games for the Firebirds last season, splitting his time between there and primarily the ECHL after finishing his college career at Notre Dame. 

Janicke made an impression at last month’s 2026 Prospects Showcase in Abbottsford, British Columbia, scoring twice in a 7-3 win over Vancouver Canucks prospects after being inserted as a last-minute injury replacement. 

For now, Ottavainen remains the 2021 draftee striving to make the Kraken a permanent home as he fills in for injured Ryan Lindgren, out for roughly another month, on the third defensive pairing. Making it this far has been a dream come true for the defenseman, especially with the Kraken preparing to play a pair of games in his native Finland next month. 

Ottavainen for now has his first NHL goal out of the way. But as scouting director Kron said, there’s a difference between tasting the NHL and sticking there for any significant length. And Ottavainen knows that will require consistency in playing the tight, physical game that got him here in the first place.  

“I need to play a reliable game, and build from game to game,” Ottavainen said. “I know they don't expect highlight reels from me, so it’s just being reliable and going game by game. And like I think I had a solid game last game, so just go from that.