Kraken Feeling Connected As New Season Opens

Vince Dunn has been around enough of these Kraken season openers to know what a “together” team feels like. 

And to hear the defenseman tell it, the franchise’s sixth season starting Thursday night in Calgary has a more together feel for the group than it has in quite a while. It wasn’t only all the gloves flying off and punches getting thrown the moment an opponent so much as looked at a Kraken player the wrong way during preseason games. 

More like a camaraderie on and off the ice, some of it natural and some by design, the team hopes can parlay a 3-1-0 preseason into staying competitive throughout an expanded 84-game schedule without any back end fade.  

“I think the biggest thing right now is we have a very friendly bunch,” Dunn said. “That can sometimes take you down a bit because you won’t always push each other because you want to be the nice guy. So, right now, we’re trying to be honest with each other and push each other and not take it to heart.” 

The Kraken a season ago got off to the best start in franchise history and carried themselves into a playoff spot through most of February. But they faded with a 7-17-2 record after the Winter Olympic break, causing a tumble in the standings and casting a pall over what had otherwise been a mostly positive season beforehand. 

“What I’d like to see and what we’re trying to do is just be more predictable and play the right way shift to shift with the consistency part,” Dunn said. “I think our last preseason game (Saturday in Vancouver) was a good example of what we don’t want. In the first period, we started off hard and then we tapered off. And last season, that became a trend. We either started that way and didn’t finish it or we didn’t get a start like that and had to come on hot in the third period. 

“So, it’s a maturity thing. I think guys need to realize that the little moments in the game are very big for us. We might not always be going out and scoring goals or having big moments.  

“But it’s just kind of winning your shift and doing your job. And not just hoping the guy next to you is going to do the same thing. But knowing he’s going to do the same thing.” 

Players had already grown largely familiar with one another even before a series of designated team-building outings throughout training camp. The two major additions, blazing fast forwards Bobby McMann and Mackie Samoskevich, were already known to several incumbent Kraken players. 

McMann came over from Toronto for 18 games after the trade deadline last March, scoring 10 goals and signing a six-year, $34.5 million contract extension this past summer. Samoskevich arrived via trade from Florida, where he’d briefly crossed paths with current Kraken defensemen Brandon Montour and Josh Mahura, plus he now lives in a house with his onetime college teammate Matty Beniers and second-year centerman Berkly Catton – having trained with both a good part of the summer. 

About the only newcomer with no Kraken ties is 6-foot-9, 242-pound forward Curtis Douglas, who signed as a summer free agent and quickly helped with some of those preseason fists that flew.

Back to housemates Beniers, Catton and Samoskevich, who, along with Shane Wright, form the biggest names among an emerging Kraken core age 23 and younger. That youth has been paired with more veteran, holdover names from past Kraken teams expected to help keep the squad competitive while ongoing development continues. 

Those veterans, starting with captain Jordan Eberle and continuing on through alternates such as Dunn, Montour and Adam Larsson, not to mention prolific goal scorers McMann and Jared McCann, are among those being counted on to keep this together-feeling team honest. 

“It’s good to have that familiarity, but also for me it’s not feeling complacent or too comfortable,” McMann said of coming into camp with the security of a long-term deal as opposed to battling for NHL and AHL roster spots most of the past five years. “Like, hey, I know these guys and I know the coaches and I know they trust me. But it’s also earning that trust every day. And earning the opportunities I get every day and pushing guys to earn theirs as well. 

“So, I think that’s the focus,” he said. “You want that tight group of being friends. But you also want to be able to challenge each other.” 

If the similarly surnamed McMann and McCann can each come close to their 30-goal potential, it would go a long way towards assuaging concerns about an offense that finished with the NHL’s fifth lowest total last season at 2.73 goals per game. McMann had 29 combined goals for the Kraken and Maple Leafs a season ago while McCann is a former 40-goal man who scored at a 30-goal pace with 20 in only 52 games. 

McCann’s struggle with lower body issues through most of the past two seasons have been widely documented. But he spent the summer healing what previously ailed him and said this camp was the best he’s felt in years.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said. 

Like Dunn, McCann has been with the Kraken since inception as an original 2021 Expansion Draft pick. He was also the first Kraken player to sign a long-term extension, doing so back in March 2022. 

Rather than rest on his laurels after that deal, McCann scored 40 goals the following season as the Kraken made the playoffs with 100 points and battled deep into the second round. That team had a very together feeling from the start of camp as well and McCann would like to see this season’s group similarly stay in the hunt. 

It will have to do so without three mainstays from that team, forwards Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen and defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, who all departed as free agents. But, as mentioned, there has been enough roster holdover that those still here are more familiar with expectations of coach Lane Lambert and staff. 

Lambert and company have also added some new system wrinkles in hopes of igniting the offense without sacrificing defense. 

“He did change up some systems stuff,” McCann said. “So, when it comes to learning that stuff, I feel like everybody’s sort of in the proverbial doghouse until they get it right. But it’s been good, though. Everybody’s feeling comfy, but we still have that competitive edge, especially in practice right now where everybody’s pushing each other.” 

Lambert has brought in assistant coach Pascal Vincent from the Montreal organization to fill the vacancy caused by the departure of Jessica Campbell. Vincent will be tasked with helping create more offense through greater connectivity between defensemen and forwards. 

Lambert stressed the need for that connectivity the final two preseason games featuring the main roster of Kraken players. It’s a challenge made more difficult by the shortened preseason and new rules limiting veterans with at least 100 games of experience from appearing in more than two contests. 

“I think we’re still building,” he said. “We’re still building with some of the adjustments we’ve made. I think we like some of them but I think we have to get better at them.” 

But as Lambert noted repeatedly, every team is in the same boat when it comes to reduced preseason preparation time. Plus, he feels having so many returning players has helped with the “expectation and understanding” of what he expects foundationally.  

And he did see quite a few positives in areas such as even-strength offense and the powerplay. 

“Offensively, I think we’re doing some good things,” he said. 

Lambert added he feels the team has done “quite well” with the tweaks and adjustments made to last season’s systems. And while not yet 100% dialed-in, he feels players will soon get there if they stay focused on finer details. 

The second year coach was very pleased with what he saw in camp from Samoskevich, who will miss the opener with an upper body injury described as a “day-to-day” situation.  And with 20-year old Catton, who has put on 10 pounds of muscle and gone back to his natural center position after spending his rookie campaign on the wing.

“We kept him here last year so that he could be better and more physically ready this year in training camp,” Lambert said. “And we think he is and think he has been.” 

Lambert plans to roll out three well-balanced forward lines all largely interchangeable with one another. The defensive side – other than Oleksiak leaving – remains largely unchanged from last season, anchored by goalies Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer.  

There is hope that if defenders can move the puck up ice to forwards quickly enough, it will ease plenty of defensive zone pressure and take heat off the goalies. Both netminders performed exceptionally well last season when connectivity between defensemen and forwards was at its peak.  

So, for now, the goal is for the team to parlay its togetherness and connected feel off the ice into one that’s more evident once the puck drops on the 2026-27 season ahead. The Pacific Division is widely expected to have a least a playoff spot or two up-for-grabs beyond usual mainstay teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers, who’ve been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals between them. 

The Kraken open with three games in four nights of what will be four straight contests against Pacific Division foes – including Edmonton and Vegas – and then a five-city East Coast road trip. 

In other words, a strong start again will be key to maintaining the season-long competitiveness the Kraken desire.  

Sixth-year Kraken defender and alternate captain Dunn, who previously won a Cup with St. Louis in 2019, likes what he’s seen heading into the opener. 

“We’re really competing in practices, which is nice to see,” Dunn said. “The energy is pretty good right now for the guys. And I think that with us having a very similar team, you know each guy’s habits and tendencies. So, those parts of it should help us for sure.”