Joining Select(ion) Company

Kraken vice president and assistant general manager Ryan Jankowski joined the organization last August with deep success in drafting and developing amateur players. This weekend, Jankowski will be part of his first NHL Draft with the Kraken (Friday, 4 p.m., ESPN, Round 1 and Saturday, NHL Network, 8 a.m., Rounds 2 to 7). But it will be far from Jankowski’s initial opportunity to be a leader in selecting future stars and solid contributors.   

Seattle GM Jason Botterill worked with Jankowski in Buffalo for three seasons and is highly enthused about Jankowski’s connection with Robert Kron, director of amateur scouting, along with the Kraken’s expansive group of amateur scouts.  

“He’s done a great job,” said Botterill about Jankowski, who is no longer the newest Kraken assistant GM with Patrik Allvin accepting a pro-side related role earlier this month. “Ryan's specialty is his communication and his passion. Feeding off his past experiences, he brings you a different perspective, has learned different ways of doing things. That’s what gets us stronger moving forward ... It's not Ryan coming in here and changing everything. It’s about having another person out there evaluating the players, working with the amateur scouting staff. Robert’s done a great job in leading the charge there. It’s a very big staff, covering North America and Europe.”

Jankowski arrived with Seattle in time to oversee a full season of player development with the team’s prospects, highlighted by 2024 draft choices Julius Miettinen (second round) and Alexis Bernier (third round) facing each other in the hallowed juniors Memorial Cup after winning league titles.  Fellow 2024 classmate Clarke Caswell (sixth round) was a pivotal forward on NCAA Division I champion Denver, scoring big goals and being trusted on the ice late in key games. Plus, 2025 seventh rounder Loke Krantz was a steady member of Team Sweden’s World Juniors championship squad.   

 Achieving Draft Results with Multiple Clubs  

Jankowski’s and Botterill’s positive effect on the Buffalo Sabres making the playoffs this spring for the first time since 2011 is undeniable. Star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin was a first-round choice in 2018, and stellar defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was picked in the second round that summer. They’ve combined for nearly 900 NHL games. Goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was a 2017 second rounder. He has appeared in 190 regular season games and notched three victories in five starts during the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  

It should be duly noted that Buffalo gets high marks for two more 2017 draft choices, both having moved on  prior to last season: First rounder and center Casey Mittelstadt (509 NHL games) and fifth-round defenseman Jacob Bryson (304 games). 

Before his years in Buffalo, Jankowski spent four seasons as assistant general manager with the New York Islanders (2006-2010), four years as head scout/director of player personnel with Team Canada U18/U20/World Juniors teams (2013 to 2017). Most recently, he served three NHL seasons with Utah/Arizona as associate director of amateur scouting. 

The Islanders clearly landed a rising star in Jankowski, who was a scout for two seasons before his promotion to AGM. Playing a key role in amateur scouting and player development, Jankowski and the Islanders made good on multiple first-round picks and lower-round selections that transformed NYI into perennial playoff contenders and subsequent back-to-back Eastern Conference final appearances in 2020 and 2021. 

The Islanders draft list is formidable: First-rounders Kyle Okposo (2006), Josh Bailey (2008), John Tavares (2009), Nino Niederreiter (2010) and Brock Nelson (2010), who have all played in more than 1,000 NHL regular-season games (and dozens more postseason contests). Perhaps even more impressive is the haul of lower-round picks that fueled the NYI playoff teams and veterans with lengthy NHL careers nearing 1,000 games, including sixth-rounders Anders Lee (2009) and Jared Spurgeon (2008), fifth-rounder Matt Martin (2008) and fourth-rounder Casey Cizikas (2009).

‘Uncle Love’ for the Longshots 

“I've been in amateur drafting for 20-plus years,” said Jankowski Tuesday in his Kraken hockey operations office, raring to go with the No. 7 overall pick Friday and six more picks Saturday. “It’s such a passion for me to draft and develop, to get players to the level where they make the NHL. You take pride in bringing this career together for them. The fun part goes beyond the first rounders. You're excited about first rounders making the NHL. But it’s the Jacob Melansons [Kraken 2021 fifth-rounder who played 35 games for Seattle last season}. For me with the Islanders, it was players like Matt Martin and Jared Spurgeon.  

“It’s the longshots, right?” said Jankowski. “Those longshots who found their way and were able to make it to the NHL. Those are the ones you become so proud of, having a little piece of that with the scouting and player development staffs. It's not quite a fatherly love. It's more of an uncle love.” 

Fun fact: Jankowski’s nephew, Mark Jankowski, a 2012 first-round Calgary Flames draft choice, just completed his ninth NHL season with his fifth team. That franchise, Carolina, just won the Stanley Cup with fourth-liner Jankowski scoring a goal in Game 1 of the Final.    

After leaving Buffalo, Jankowski continued his draft success in his years from 2021 to 2025 with Utah/Arizona. Jankowski was integral to the team picking multiple young players now well into NHL careers. First-rounders Dylan Guenther (2021) and Logan Cooley (2022) were key members of Utah’s playoff appearance this past spring. Young defensemen JJ Moser (second round, 2021) and Emil Lilleberg (fourth round, 2021) are already approaching 200 NHL games each, both now with Tampa Bay. 

Scouting Then and Now 

Jankowski’s first scout job was with the WHL Spokane Chiefs in 1997, featuring newly named Edmonton Oilers head coach Mike Babcock behind the bench in eastern Washington. The Kraken assistant GM worked six seasons in Spokane, the last one including a role as video coach for Canada’s U20 team during international tournaments. Through Jankowski’s lens, scouting amateur hockey players has evolved with video access making a profound difference.  

“We talked a lot in Arizona and Utah about how video has made us better scouts,” said Jankowski, who was routinely attending games as an eight-year-old with his late father, Lou, a long-time and highly respected NHL scout. “Because with video you have more knowledge. You can watch more games. You can watch parts of their games. You can watch specific events such as puck retrievals or how a player creates offensive chances. You are more comfortable with understanding the player and the risks or areas for improvement. The decisions are still the same. You're still managing the risk versus the reward on a lot of the players, but it's taking a little bit of the guessing game out of it.” 

“The one thing I've learned, because of my background, is that video doesn't replace a live viewing. That's a big thing for me. We still need our live viewings because what you see in video is only a small part of how their actual game turns out for a player. You need the live viewings to see that.”