Kraken future is now

Kraken center Shane Wright feels he’s a different person than the newly drafted teen who first showed up to the team’s rookie camp two years ago.

And it isn’t just the external version of Wright that’s been remodeled; several pounds of packed-on muscle courtesy of a full American Hockey League season and two summers of workout and diet tutelage in Toronto from Kraken fitness consultant Gary Roberts. The internal part of Wright has undergone big change as well to where he’ll enter this week’s Kraken Rookie Camp with expectations far beyond merely sticking with the NHL team’s roster.

“I think it’s just the maturity and confidence,” Wright, 20, who’s appeared in 16 Kraken games over two seasons, said of personal changes since being selected No. 4 overall at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft in Montreal. “I really understand what it’s like to play at the pro level. And at the NHL level especially.

“I have the confidence in myself to know what I can go out and perform and make a difference.”

That confidence gained by Wright and others moving up the chain is a big reason the future is finally arriving for a Kraken franchise that’s spent four summers building a farm system now ready to start supplying multiple annual NHL mainstays. Rookies take the ice Thursday and Friday at the Kraken Community Iceplex, then head to Los Angeles for the seven-team NHL Rookie Faceoff Tournament – where they’ll play against top prospects from the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and Sunday.

They’ll return to the Iceplex next Tuesday, followed by the fully attended NHL portion of Kraken Camp, pres. By Starbucks, opening Sept. 20.

Up to now, center Matty Beniers, the team’s No. 2 overall pick in 2021, is the only Kraken draftee to land a full-time role during the franchise’s first three years. Undrafted forward Tye Kartye last year became only the second Kraken prospect to stick out of training camp for an entire season.

But this season, Wright and defenseman Ryker Evans, 22, a second-rounder from 2021, are expected to land permanent jobs in camp with forward prospect Ryan Winterton, 21 – a third-rounder from 2021 – also preparing to make the case he should stick after a brief NHL taste last winter. There’s also defenseman Ville Ottavainen, 22, and forward Jacob Melanson, 21 – fourth-and-fifth-round selections from 2021 – having completed debut AHL campaigns and looking for NHL time the coming season or two.

And the next wave after that is intriguing; a flurry of major junior hockey forward standouts preparing to launch pro careers with the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Chief among those: Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League respective scoring champions Jagger Firkus, 20, and David Goyette, 20, and Finnish pro league standout Jani Nyman, 20. There’s also Carson Rehkopf, 19, a second rounder from last year, whose 52 goals ranked second among all OHL players.

Unlike Firkus, Goyette and Nyman, Rehkopf as a teenage major junior draft pick is too young to be eligible for AHL play – missing the Dec. 31 cutoff date to turn 20 by mere days -- and must return to his OHL team if he doesn’t make the Kraken out of training camp. Otherwise, he’d almost certainly debut in the pros this fall.

Another top pick, winger Eduard Sale, 19, the team’s 18^th overall selection out of Czechia’s pro ranks last year, will either make his AHL debut or head back to the OHL depending on how well his bulked-up frame translates to improved on-ice performance in camp. OHL standout two-way defenseman Ty Nelson, 20, and Finnish goalie Niklas Kokko, 20, will also have a shot to prove they’re pro-ready.

For Kraken player development director Jeff Tambellini, the bevy of talented prospects knocking on the NHL door is a marked departure from prior years building the franchise’s farm system from scratch.

“It’s been a long time in coming just to start to see the different layers of prospects make their way in,” Tambellini said. “You know, we’ve had a really slow transition from the Kartyes and the Ryker Evans into the Shane Wrights and the Wintertons and the Ottavainens and Melansons.

“And now, there’s this big wave of (other) guys coming in and it’s really exciting to see these guys in a pro environment.”

Even more exciting will be the Kraken’s participation in the Rookie Faceoff Tournament. While the team has staged rookie camps before, Tambellini said there’s a difference between a controlled practice environment and one where young prospects wear the team uniform and square off against fellow prospects from other NHL squads.

“It’s a great way to introduce these young players to the pace of pro hockey, the size of pro hockey,” Tambellini said. “So, it’s a really good opportunity just to get some views on guys in non-junior (hockey) environments.

“When you don’t have them in games wearing a sweater, it’s hard to get a real, true evaluation of the players because a lot of them have just been picked and they’re only 18 or 19 years old.”

For that reason, the Kraken could hold back older, more proven prospects such as Wright and Evans from the tournament to preserve them for the NHL season – though the team has yet to specify which players will be going. It seems a given they’ll send the youngest prospects from the past two drafts and that includes centerman Berkly Catton, 18, the team’s 8^th overall pick last June from the Spokane Chiefs.

Some pundits suggest the highly-skilled Catton is pro-ready now, though he’s also ineligible for AHL play as a teenage major junior draftee and will almost certainly spend another season in Spokane. His January birthdate means Catton will also be ineligible for AHL play a year from now – meaning the Kraken will have to think long and hard about keeping him for 2025-26 if he continues dominant WHL play.

And that means his name can be added to the growing list of prospects expected to push the NHL envelope the coming 12 months.

Just like Catton and Rehkopf, centerman Wright also has a January birthday that ordinarily would have made him ineligible for AHL play a season ago by mere days. The Kraken had tried keeping Wright directly out of their 2022 camp, but he got into only eight games before being sent back to junior hockey.

Faced with Wright again being forced to return to junior hockey last season despite being AHL-ready, the Kraken were able to gain a onetime rules exemption so he could suit up with Coachella Valley.

And Wright used that exemption to his advantage, adjusting to the more physical pro game with fitness help a summer ago from team consultant and longtime former NHL mainstay Roberts. Wright returned to Roberts and his Toronto-based high-performance institute this summer along with Winterton, Rehkopf and Kraken regulars Vince Dunn and Brandon Tanev.

“Gary’s done a great job with those guys,” Tambellini said. “With Shane (Wright) and Ryan (Winterton) especially. Those two guys came in last year in elite shape and they were at the top of our NHL group (physical) testing-wise.”

The kind of results bound to boost confidence.

“It’s been great,” Wright said of the training. “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.”

And now, the Kraken hope to keep making such on-ice comparisons involving Wright, Evans and soon others – only this time, with them permanently wearing NHL colors.

The next chapter of Kraken hockey starts now, be part of it. Season Ticket Memberships are available.