Matty Beniers On Wanting To Win In Seattle

Matty Beniers stepped up to the microphone following the opening workout of his fifth Kraken season knowing full well he’d be called upon to do what a leader does.

Having Beniers be the first player voice heard from Thursday morning at Kraken Training Camp, pres. by Starbucks, is hardly a surprise given where the alternate captain has been this summer. After all, when the Kraken this week announced the additions of Brandon Montour and Vince Dunn as alternate captains, a team social media graphic of the now five-man leadership group had Beniers positioned directly to the right of captain Jordan Eberle.

Even if you don’t put any stock into Beniers being slyly framed as the heir apparent to the captaincy once Eberle’s two-year contract extension ends ahead of 2028-29, the 23-year-old centerman did a fair job of positioning himself for that role this month in a widely replayed interview with Mark Lazarus of The Athletic with regards to the Jason Robertson situation.

Robertson back in June nixed a proposed trade that would have sent him the Kraken’s way on a multi-year deal, choosing instead to stay in Dallas on a one-year contract. Beniers immediately defended Seattle as a great place to live and play when asked by Lazarus about Robertson, who reportedly also spurned offers by St. Louis and possibly others.

“It obviously doesn’t feel good when you’re on a team and you try to get someone else and they don’t want to come,” Beniers told the publication. “But at the same time, if you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you, anyway.”

So naturally, Beniers took to the microphones Thursday at Kraken Community Iceplex knowing the “A” on his jersey demands more than a “no comment” follow-up to those remarks. He quickly told the assembled media the comment was “just the honest truth” and not so much a shot at Robertson as a staunch defense of a city he’s committed to playing for another five years beyond the four he’s already been here.

“We want guys that want to be here,” Beniers said. “And that love this city and want to be here and want to win here.”

The Kraken opened camp with plenty of questions about where they go from here after a 2025-26 campaign in which they were playoff positioned in early March, but faltered to a 7-17-2 finish down the stretch. But there aren’t any questions about where Beniers, with four full seasons and parts of a fifth under his belt already, is at with regards to his mindset.

Beniers had watched much of the North American media have “a big fun day” with the post-Robertson aftermath and some unchecked Seattle-bashing. And despite still being seven weeks shy of his 24^th birthday, Beniers figured it was up to him to do something about it.

“I think it was kind of our duty, to be like, ‘Hey, no. We love it. It’s great here. We want to win here. We have great fans here,’ ” he said Thursday.

Those fans would love to see Beniers take the next step in his growth beyond his Calder Trophy rookie season, a dropoff sophomore campaign and two more steadily building his way back from those struggles into a solid, two-way center on the team’s top line. Beniers will quickly tell you he’s matured plenty from the 18-year-old drafted No. 2 overall out of the University of Michigan back in July 2021.

That maturation is a big reason the Kraken named him to its leadership group three seasons into his career. Not all leaders ascend the same way; witness Dunn finally being given a jersey letter for the first time at age 29 after five Kraken seasons and eight in the league.

Connor Bedard this week became the second-youngest captain in the history of the storied Chicago Blackhawks at age 21. Kraken captain Eberle didn’t get that honor bestowed until two years ago at age 34 after years as an alternate with multiple teams.

But teams aren’t equal in their circumstances. For the Blackhawks, going through a youth movement built squarely around Bedard, appointing him captain three seasons in made a lot of sense.

For the Kraken, developing a young core age 25 and under highlighted by Beniers, Kaapo Kakko, Mackie Samoskevich, Berkly Catton, Ryker Evans and others, including top prospects Jake O’Brien and Chase Reid, the situation isn’t as clear-cut. The Kraken still have plans to stay competitive this season – as they did through much of the prior campaign – so that the younger players don’t spend their formative years in a culture of losing.

That explains keeping significant top veterans around, including Eberle, Jared McCann, Dunn, Larsson, and Montour. For all the youth the Kraken have, their leadership group is mostly veteran with Beniers as the lone exception.

Then again, Dunn was part of a young Kraken core not too long ago. He began emerging as a leader the team’s 100-point second season in 2022-23 in which he set a career best in production totals as the Kraken advanced deep into the second playoff round.

And now, three seasons beyond that, Dunn’s leadership was recognized with the “A”.

As for Montour, a Stanley Cup winner with Florida just ahead of joining the Kraken two years ago, his leadership traits were obvious from the get-go. It seemed more a matter of spots already being filled in the leadership group back then and his needing to get time in with his new team before anything official happened.

“You know those guys have been leaders in the locker room already,” Beniers said.

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert indicated much the same thing about some other current Kraken veterans also showing leadership skills without necessarily having it officialized with a letter. As for Montour, he said: “Monty’s got a lot of energy. He brings it every day. He draws people in. He brings people together.”

And with Dunn: “Vince is a guy who, I wouldn’t say he’s more serious, but he’s got a serious side to him.”

Lambert will need that leadership in what’s a much shorter preseason than usual; down to four games from six as the NHL expands the regular season by two matchups to 84. When Lambert was asked about having to “cram” too much instruction in during a limited timeframe, he cautioned about throwing too much at players too quickly.

For now, he’ll aim for more “consistency” so there are no similar late collapses like last season. He’s optimistic the extension of Bobby McMann and a fully healthy Jared McCann can provide more of an offensive boost than some perhaps expect.

He’ll be leaning on new assistant coach Pascal Vincent to help fine-tune cohesiveness and connectivity between defensemen and forwards to generate additional offense. And also to free up Lambert to focus on more personal time connecting with his players.

Having a five-man leadership group as opposed to the four last season can also help with some of the in-room dynamics.

Newly-named alternate captain Dunn said the player leaders he’s had throughout his career “shaped who I am” and prepared him for a responsibility he’s been stepping toward the past several years.

“It seems like just yesterday when I was looking up to a lot of people,” Dunn said. “I know there’s a lot of young character in the room now and they’re going to have to look to us to lead by example.”

Dunn feels honored the team believed in him enough to anoint him the role. And that he had to work for it. “It’s really exciting to not feel like it’s just kind of given to you,” he said. “We’ve all had to earn in here.”

That includes Beniers, more than five years his junior.

“I think when we all first met him, he was kind of happy-go-lucky and that’s not a bad thing,” Dunn said. “That’s probably the energy you bring when you come from a (Michigan) team where you’re the dominant player and when the maturity level is very different at that level.

“I think he’s just shaped into a really great young man. And I think it’s the passion he brings every single night and the fight that you maybe don’t really see in the games all the time. But the way he speaks and the way he talks in the dressing room, it’s been pretty neat to see him develop in that way and the passion he has for himself as a person and the city.”

Beniers began showing that passion for himself and his game immediately after his difficult second season. He got more serious about his training regimen and fine-tuning it to his personal needs, finding he was wearing down during the longer NHL season compared to what he was used to in college.

He also began working with a sports psychologist to help him better process the NHL challenges he faced and be in a better mindset to deal with them. The result wasn’t exactly a vanishing of the “happy-go-lucky” college kid, but more a realization there’s a time for fun and a time for seriousness in a very tough sport.

And that seriousness, he said, extends to wanting to be a winner in Seattle. To that end, he has no time for naysayers ripping the city or the team.

Beniers spoke Thursday about the fun he has attending practices and games for the Seahawks, Mariners and Washington Huskies.

“It’s a lot of fun getting to see their facilities, see how they prepare, how they train and how they practice,” he said. “Get to talk to them, get to know them a little bit more.”

After all, he noted, they’re all athletes representing Seattle in sports they love and trying to do so in the best light. And when people from elsewhere question that, as they did after the Robertson situation, he feels he’s earned enough pedigree to put his foot down in public.

“It’s good to get some traction around our city and our culture and wanting to win,” he said.

Traction he’ll try to help maintain when this short preseason ends and the real games begin.