A Tale Of Differing Kraken Draft Paths

Kraken alternate captain Matty Beniers couldn’t even get the congratulatory phone call part right five years ago when the franchise made him its first ever pick in an NHL Draft anything but typical.  

The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging in July 2021, and the draft being held remotely when Kraken general manager Ron Francis tried phoning Beniers in Massachusetts, where he’d watched on television alongside dozens of family members and friends as the league’s newest franchise chose him No. 2 overall. Beniers didn’t recognize the phone number and let it go to voicemail before the Kraken texted and told him to answer; just another unorthodox draft day chapter Beniers now chuckles about and appreciates given all he’s been through since. 

“The whole shebang and going there, with the big stage, the lights and everything, that would have been awesome,” Beniers, 23, said. “Obviously, we didn’t get to do that. But at the same time, we were able to share the experience of being drafted with 40 or 50 other people that are closest to you. That watched you grow up and become the person you are. That’s a rather unique experience in itself.” 

And ultimately a lesson. That the draft day celebration, for all its pomp and ceremony, is just the start of an arduous NHL journey for even top prospects.  When the Kraken select at this year’s Sixth Upper Deck 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo on June 26-27, their picks will attempt to follow Beniers, Shane Wright, Berkly Catton, Ryan Winterton and others who’ve only now become NHL regulars in more frequent numbers. 

And for Beniers, arguably the most developed and accomplished of the team’s 42 picks over five drafts, one key is setting aside post-selection euphoria and getting down to work. 

Beniers didn’t even partake in a post-draft development camp as Kraken Community Iceplex was still being finalized and the team barely had enough prospects to ice a one-shift lineup. Instead, he played a second season for the University of Michigan, then jumped to the NHL for a 10-game audition in April 2022 in which he scored three goals and added six assists for nine points. Things seemed a breeze the following season as Beniers notched 57 points to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. 

“I think there’s definitely more of a mental side to this game than people see,” Beniers said two weeks ago, fresh off a daily, three-hour, off-season weight training and conditioning session. “That’s the first thing you learn throughout the first couple of years. You go through ups and downs. And you learn how to navigate that.” 

He’d keep learning on-the-fly even as his dazzling rookie season wound down. 

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For Kraken centerman Wright, 22, the ups and downs began on draft day itself in June 2022 in a packed Bell Centre in Montreal.  

Wright had been surrounded for days by fans, pundits and team evaluators speculating as to whether he or Slovakian forward Juraj Slafkovsky would go No. 1 overall to the local Canadiens. Long touted a consensus No. 1 choice, Wright missed the entire 2020-21 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) season due to pandemic canceled play.  

His ensuing 2021-22 draft season, Wright put up an impressive 94 points – some felt it wasn’t as notable as his 66-point rookie major junior debut as an underage 16-year-old in 2019-20. Slafkovsky had kept on playing junior and international hockey overseas through the pandemic and then professionally in Finland. When draft day arrived, it was Slafkovsky called first, which caused a discernable uproar among thousands of Montreal fans in attendance, some thrilled and others infuriated. 

But Wright’s draft experience was only beginning.  

The New Jersey Devils, loaded with forwards but short on defenders, used their second overall pick on right-handed shot defenseman Simon Nemec. Then Logan Cooley, a centerman just like Wright, was picked by Arizona at No. 3. 

When the Kraken called Wright’s name at fourth overall, thrilled at the turn of events, the 18-year-old’s face was a mix of emotions. In the stands, his father, Simon, had just told him prophetic words: “It’s not when you go. It’s what you do.”

That he’d be defined by what he did from there. 

From that day onward, Wright admittedly carried a chip on his shoulder. One he’d motivate himself with to make changes – both physically and mentally – to get to the NHL on a timeline quite different from Beniers. 

Unlike the NCAA prospect, Wright as a major junior draftee was ineligible for AHL play due to a transfer agreement between the NHL and Canadian junior leagues. He’d either have to make the Kraken in a nine-game trial run or return to junior hockey. 

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Winterton’s draft day in 2021 was similar to Beniers, given the remote circumstances that had him watching from his Toronto area home. But Winterton’s day was also quite different from hype surrounding Beniers and Wright, while his ensuing route to the NHL was even more arduous. 

Many had once touted Winterton, 22, as a second rounder who could perhaps sneak into the top draft grouping. But like Wright, he’d missed an entire OHL pandemic season, and his Sept. 4 birthdate made him one of the draft’s youngest eligible players. 

The Kraken had used their second-round pick on defenseman Ryker Evans, gambling that Winterton – who they’d hoped higher on their list than other teams -- might still be there the round after that. When he was, a “pleasantly surprised” Francis snagged him at 67th overall. 

Winterton was “shocked and overjoyed” to be chosen, calling it the culmination of a dream since age 6 or 7. But his struggles seeing that dream through were just beginning. 

He blew out his shoulder in OHL training camp with the Hamilton Bulldogs a few months later, missing a Kraken training camp invite and five months of junior hockey.  

Winterton rebounded strong in the season’s second half, leading Hamilton to the OHL championship and Memorial Cup final. But Winterton had dislocated his shoulder the OHL championship round before returning. His shoulder issues lingered into his final junior season, where he played only 34 games for his new London Knights team. 

The next fall, after taking part in Kraken training camp, the 20-year-old reported to Coachella Valley for the 2023-24 AHL season to begin his professional career. 

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Compared to his contemporaries, Catton, 20, led a charmed life before, during and immediately after his draft day. The Saskatchewan boy who’d dominated major junior hockey with the Spokane Chiefs, sat in the majestic Sphere facility in Las Vegas in June 2024 wondering whether NHL teams would look beyond his relatively small size and see his lofty numbers. 

The Kraken did, picking him at No. 8 overall.

“It’s so cool,” Catton said at the time. “Especially just playing in Spokane, too. I’m always in Seattle. Now, I get to play at the Climate Pledge (Arena). It’s just so cool.” 

Catton’s final year with Spokane he put up 109 points that nearly matched his 116 the prior draft year, then added an unworldly 31 in just 20 playoff games to lead the Chiefs to the WHL final. 

Like Kraken draft pick Wright two years prior, Catton had a January birthdate and was days too young at 19 to make the AHL’s age 20 minimum by a Dec. 31 cutoff. Meaning, like Wright beforehand, Catton would likely need to return to junior hockey he’d already dominated. And the Kraken weren’t having it. 

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Beniers found himself slowing down physically and mentally as his rookie NHL season passed the January 2023 halfway mark. He’d enjoyed a dramatic start, putting up 20 of his eventual 57 points the season’s first seven weeks. 

But points waned in a five-point December ahead of January, when Beniers started off stronger but then had five pointless games. In his sixth straight game without a point, he was leveled behind the play by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers. Beniers suffered a concussion and missed the NHL All-Star Game.  

“I think that the 82 games for me was a little tough,” said Beniers, who’d played half that number in the NCAA. “I’m not a person that necessarily finds a lot of fatigue. And I found a lot more fatigue in my first and second years. You could play the first 40 and feel great. But it’s the last 40, or 42, that’s where guys start to separate.” 

Beniers still was named the league’s top rookie, partaking in the Kraken’s spring 2023 playoff run deep into the second round. But then, his sophomore season provided the same mid-season challenges, another January injury from a blindside hit – this one in Columbus by Cole Sillinger – and dwindling offensive totals partly due to drawing tougher assignments against top players from opposing teams. 

“You want to get better every year,” Beniers said. “And when you don’t see your production continue to improve, you’re obviously not super happy. It’s the same in any job, regardless of what you’re doing. And then, we also struggled as a team.” 

The Kraken missed the 2024 playoffs. Beniers saw his production fall by nine goals and 20 points. 

“I found myself at certain times leaving the rink and just thinking about hockey all day long,” he said. “That can be tough.” 

Tough and unsustainable. Beniers knew changes were needed. 

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Wright’s experience his first season post-draft, when Beniers was becoming Rookie of the Year, was quite the odyssey. And that seemed to bother everybody else more than Wright. Pundits, especially those running hockey prospect websites, agonized all winter about Wright’s rather unique experience playing in multiple leagues. But Wright had made the best of it – especially the beginning where he soaked in some NHL life. 

The Kraken did not want Wright returning to dominate junior hockey teenagers, so they kept him out of training camp. They figured he’d be better off practicing with NHL pros than eating pizza on Ontario junior hockey bus rides.

Wright appeared in eight Kraken games, then had a one-time allowable AHL conditioning stint for two weeks and afterward captained Team Canada to gold at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. He played one additional Kraken game – his ninth and last of the trial run – and scored his first NHL goal against the Canadiens team that passed on taking him in the draft.

He returned to junior hockey for a second-half stretch run after being traded by the London Knights to the Windsor Spitfires, a supposed Memorial Cup contender upset early in the playoffs. After that, Wright was eligible for the AHL postseason and got time there with a Calder Cup finalist. 

The season after that, the OHL granted Wright a onetime exemption to play AHL hockey as a 19-year-old. His rookie AHL season, he scored 22 goals and added 25 assists in 59 games. He also scored four goals in eight additional Kraken games. And saw the physical improvements he needed as a pro. 

Working that summer with Toronto-area consultant Gary Roberts, he packed on several pounds of additional muscle skating at a training facility alongside future Kraken teammates Vince Dunn, Brandon Tanev and Winterton. 

“It’s been great,” Wright said at Kraken training camp in September 2024. “I think being able to just work out there with the caliber of players that are there, skate with those guys and see what they do is really good for me. I can kind of judge where I’m at based on how they are and see where I stack up against high-end NHL players.” 

Wright stacked up well. He and Winterton, the 2021 third rounder also attending camp, ranked among top Kraken players in physical testing. 

After a strong preseason start, Wright scored in Calgary, then twice in the team’s Edmonton exhibition finale. And this time, when camp ended, Wright wasn’t joining the Kraken for some nine-game trial run. It was as a full-time NHL player. 

He’d go on to score 19 goals that first full NHL season, reviving memories of why he’d been touted as a No. 1 overall pick. And he’d done it with limited ice time, often playing fourth line minutes, still at age 21. 

The sky seemed the limit. Just as it often does for young stars drafted into the NHL and trying to find their footing. 

But as with Beniers before him, Wright found the slope a slippery one. 

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Winterton had been one of Wright’s linemates with Coachella Valley in 2023-24, having gotten beyond shoulder woes plaguing him since his 2021 draft day. 

Like Wright, Winterton trained summers in Toronto with consultant Roberts to bulk up his shoulder and body to withstand pro rigors. Winterton and Wright became frequent Kraken callups together starting in November 2023 as injury replacements for a game in Colorado against the Avalanche. 

Winterton had enjoyed a hot start to his rookie 2023-24 AHL season, finishing with 22 goals and 13 assists in 58 games. Throw in 12 Kraken games that season, it was the most he’d ever played.

Given his previous injury time missed, Winterton wasn’t quite at Wright’s level. He logged a lone assist in his dozen NHL games and went without even a shot in a handful. Details of his pro game needed improvement, which included leveraging his above average speed with improved physical play. 

After Wright broke camp with the Kraken in October 2024, Winterton played a second AHL season and put up a solid 37 points to go with his 35 the prior campaign. Coaches saw his complete game rounding out. 

This time, it was Winterton scoring twice – as Wright had the prior year – in the 2025 preseason finale against Edmonton. Soon after, Kraken general manager Jason Botterill told Winterton he’d break camp with the NHL squad.  

And to never take it for granted. 

“I think I’m ready this time,” Winterton said. “When you get called up the first couple of times, even in-season, it’s a little different. You’re kind of trying to get the feel of everything. But I’ve been skating with the guys through all of camp, so it feels a little bit easier this time.” 

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Kraken 2025 draftee Catton, still a fresh-faced teen out of junior hockey, didn’t know what to expect last October when kept on the roster out of camp alongside Winterton. Catton, then 19, hadn’t paid pro dues as Winterton and Wright before him. He’d looked physically overmatched his opening three preseason games, then rallied and even scored off a rebound his fourth contest. 

“I think when you don’t score for a couple of games, obviously it gets on your mind a bit,” Catton said. “So, it’s nice to get that one. But it was nothing crazy. Just a rebound and I put it in. But it did feel good though, even if I tried to hide it.” 

Catton would deal with plenty more such feelings in months ahead. 

The team liked his camp work ethic, even when muscled off the puck by bigger players. They’d have preferred to send him to the AHL. But the transfer rule keeping Wright from the AHL in 2022 was still there. 

So, the Kraken kept Catton in the NHL, figuring it the best initial spot for his development. 

He spent the season’s first two weeks in the pressbox. Then, on Oct. 20, the Kraken penciled him in against the Flyers in Philadelphia as his parents scrambled to make the daylong trip from Saskatchewan. 

On his very first shift, Catton earned a secondary assist on a Cale Fleury shot deflected home by Jordan Eberle. Catton’s charmed existence from his dominant WHL years seemed to follow him. 

Then, the hard stuff began. 

Catton notched two more assists before October ended but then went pointless in nine straight games. It was during that pointless stretch his nine-game NHL trial expired as Catton played a 10th contest.  

And he never looked back. 

Points were few, and his goal-less games stretched through the calendar year. But the Kraken saw improvement and figured they might as well see things through. 

Mason Marchment was traded to Columbus in December, freeing up the No. 27 jersey number Catton had worn for Spokane. Catton, without a goal and just five assists, began wearing that number on New Year’s Day against Nashville.

“Honestly, a new number is almost like a fresh start,” Catton said. “And it was a new year, so a ‘fresh start’ was my mindset. Obviously and realistically, it probably doesn’t make any difference. But maybe, psychologically it’s like having a fresh start. So, I think that part helped me a little bit.” 

Three games later, on Jan. 6 against Boston, he scored not once but twice. His first two career regular season goals snapped a 27-game drought, his longest in memory. 

“When you’re in a drought like that, you start to think the puck’s not going to go in when you shoot it,” Catton said. “You think it’s going to hit something while it’s on its way in and stay out.” 

By season’s end, Catton had seven goals and 10 assists, his first NHL fight and also stabilized his off-ice life by rooming in the basement of veteran Chandler Stephenson’s family home. And while Catton was no one’s Rookie of the Year pick like Beniers, it’s worth remembering few thought he’d stick in the NHL this early. 

“It was just a whirlwind of a year from start to finish,” he said. 

Catton plans to work this summer on “burying” future scoring chances. And on making every shot count, hoping for ice time in Saskatchewan alongside Edmonton Oilers goalie Connor Ingram and other NHL caliber netminders to build his confidence. 

“I definitely have my goals for next year with numbers,” Catton said. “And then I think just being trusted is another big one. And I think that comes through time and doing the right things over and over again.” 

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Beniers began focusing on doing more things right ahead of his third full NHL season.  

“Taking ownership of your own training is a big one,” he said. “It’s treating your body like a pro. And that’s something you really need to learn and do.” 

Beniers had been displeased with his 2023-24 sophomore slump. That ensuing summer of 2024, he poured himself into workouts determined to overcome the mid-season fatigue plaguing his two prior campaigns. 

The Kraken gave him a mental boost as well, naming him an alternate captain ahead of the 2024-25 season opener against St. Louis.

Beniers would rally for five additional goals and six more points that season, enjoying top-line status throughout. After, he joined Team USA overseas and played a key role in bringing this country its first gold in 93 years at the IIHF World Hockey Championships. 

He also began seeing a sports psychologist to help him through tougher challenges of being a pro athlete. 

“It’s the same as lifting weights,” Beniers said. “Your brain is a muscle, and you’ve got to build it.” 

Beniers just completed a second straight 20-goal season and added seven additional points. He’s grown more confident in his on-ice role and leadership responsibilities. feeling psychology has been huge. 

“Just keeping myself level-headed,” he said. “It’s helped me with being a better leader, continuing to grow as a leader. It’s a life skill.” 

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And those skills continue to be developed not just by Beniers, but the others. Former first-rounder Wright, drafted one year behind Beniers, now needs to face his own challenges after some sophomore struggles.  

His 12 goals were seven fewer than his first season; his 27 points 17 fewer.  

But like Beniers previously, turning 21 his difficult sophomore season compared to Wright becoming 22, he’s still young enough to make needed adjustments.  

“Everybody’s going to look at Shane Wright’s season and go, ‘He had this many points and he had that many points last year,’” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “Ask Shane if he feels he’s a better player now than he was at the beginning of the year. And the answer would be, ‘Yes, he does.’ Sometimes the points can fool you a little bit. I thought Shane got stronger defensively. I thought he got stronger on faceoffs. I thought he improved his 200-foot game.” 

Winterton faced adjustments of his own in a season that saw him score four goals and add 14 assists in becoming part of a chaos causing fourth line along with Jacob Melanson and Ben Meyers. He was also a player the Kraken used on forward lines higher up. In March, his brother, Jacob, also a former OHL player, died from a bone cancer battle that had preoccupied Winterton’s thoughts the entirety of his debut campaign. 

“Today, I lost my best friend,” he wrote on Instagram. 

But the Kraken gained a player in Winterton they expect bigger things from in coming seasons.

As they did with Catton, who is still admittedly seeking the confidence to make his shots count against NHL netminding. 

“This coming September, when training camp opens up, he’s going to be in a much better position than he would have been had he gone back to junior in my opinion,” Lambert said. “I’ve seen this happen before with other players – Noah Dobson being one of them before in New York. Obviously, he’s 19 years old. Obviously, in the best league in the world and there’s certainly some growing pains along with that. But what impressed me most about him was his ability to maintain his confidence.” 

To hear Beniers tell it, that confidence can take years – and even some sports psychology work – to fully instill itself to where young players stare down adversity and put up numbers regardless.  

“There’s no right, one path,” Beniers said. “It’s just taking advantage of things when you do get your opportunity and continuing to get better. That’s all it is, is, ‘How can I get better and try to improve?’ And as time goes by, you get better at navigating the NHL – the travel, the different aspects of it. The media.” 

Which means fans, like the players themselves, need to be patient as well in deciding which players will ultimately fulfill their potential. 

“It’s so interesting and it does happen at different paces,” Beniers said. “Some guys come in and do great right away – just take off. And then some guys are stars after years. I look at (Columbus forward) Charlie Coyle. That guy, his best years have been age 29 and on.  

“It’s so interesting how guys just take off at different moments in their careers.” 

And why the draft is often just the start of meeting expectations surrounding it. Something the Kraken hope that, as with Beniers, their prospects now making NHL arrivals in greater numbers continue to progress at.