Kraken Picks In Focus As New Draft Looms

Five years of Kraken drafting has gotten the team to where eight of 19 players playing in last month’s final home game were homegrown selections. 

And one month from now, the Kraken’s sixth Upper Deck NHL Draft takes place June 26 and 27 in Buffalo with the team hoping to further solidify. That lineup of 40% draftees for Fan Appreciation Night against the Los Angeles Kings included forwards Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, Ryan Winterton, Berkly Catton, Jacob Melanson and Oscar Fisker Molgaard along with defenseman Ryker Evans and goalie Nikke Kokko.

Now, armed with two first round selections, including a No. 7 pick that’s the best in four years and third highest in team history, they’ll look to add from a draft pool rated among the deeper ones of late. The Kraken also have a No. 25 overall pick obtained from Tampa Bay last year, only the second time in their history they’ve owned two opening round selections, but it remains to be seen whether they use it or package it in a potential trade. 

As for this year’s draft, it’s widely assumed the Toronto Maple Leafs will use the No. 1 overall selection on Penn State winger Gavin McKenna, a rare talent thought of as ready to step into an NHL lineup in an impactful way. After that, the consensus varies with Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg and major junior forward Caleb Malhotra or Viggo Bjorck from Sweden high on plenty of rankings along with a bevy of top defenders including junior prospects Chase Reid, Carson Carels and Daxon Rudolph and NCAA star Keaton Verhoeff, as well as Latvian pro Alberts Smits (EHC Red Bull München)

That’s eight names of players projected as either top-line forwards or top-pairing defenders as a ceiling and dropping to no lower than mid-tier NHL players as their floor. With the Kraken picking at No. 7, the ability to gain a high-end talent appears there for the taking, though most of those players likely won’t reach the NHL right away. The Kraken have also never drafted a defenseman with their top pick and this year’s top pool of D-men is considered above average in terms of projected top-pairing NHL talent. 

Plus, the list of comparably talented prospects stretches beyond even the top 10 available; including forwards like junior standouts Keaton Belchetz and Nikita Klepov, or Latvian Alberts Smits. So, there is no clear way of pinpointing who the teams selecting ahead of the Kraken will take and who will remain a choice for them. 

It’s taken time for the Kraken’s young talent from the franchise’s first five drafts to not only make the NHL but gain a footing there. Some draft years are better than others, with top-end players more NHL-ready. But even in strong years, not all prospects take identical pro paths and that makes it tough for teams to target immediate areas of need. 

The Kraken have targeted speed and scoring improvement for their NHL roster this off-season, but those priorities could shift by the time this summer’s draft picks make it to hockey’s top level. Picking the “best player available” is often wisest for teams given they know it’s usually a two-to-four-year wait for even top round picks to pay NHL dividends. 

First round Kraken picks Beniers, Wright and Catton bucked the common trend in making the NHL fewer than two years after being drafted. Beniers did it nine months after being taken No. 2 overall in July 2021, Wright broke camp with the Kraken four months after being chosen No. 4 overall in June 2022 and Catton also made the team last fall just 16 months after becoming a No. 8 overall selection. 

But only Beniers became a regular right away, joining the Kraken in April 2022 after completing his NCAA season with Michigan and maintaining his NHL status during a Calder Trophy season as the league’s top rookie in 2022-23. Catton watched the first five Kraken games from the pressbox last season before joining the lineup and remaining there throughout a rookie season mostly about learning.

As for Wright, he appeared in a handful of Kraken games the first two months of the 2022-23 season before being loaned to Team Canada for the World Junior Hockey Championships, doing a one-off AHL rehabilitation stint for a couple of weeks and then returning to his junior team. He then played an AHL rookie season in 2023-24 with a handful of Kraken games sprinkled in and didn’t embark on a regular NHL campaign until 2024-25 – which was 28 months after he was drafted. 

Meanwhile, second rounder Evans, a somewhat controversial pick in 2021 – many scouting lists had him pegged as a third, or fourth rounder or lower – has already played two full Kraken seasons and half of another after making the AHL fewer than two years following his draft. That differs greatly from Winterton, taken one round after Evans in 2021 and who battled shoulder injuries and spent years developing in Coachella Valley ahead of this past NHL rookie season four years post-selection. 

The different NHL paths for first rounders Beniers, Catton and Wright were rooted in the level of hockey they played ahead of the draft. Wright and Catton were major junior hockey prospects and subject to transfer rules saying players ages 18 and 19 must return to junior hockey in lieu of the AHL if they don’t stick with their NHL club after a maximum nine-game trial period. 

In Wright’s case, the Kraken felt he had little to gain staying in junior hockey at age 18 and tried to stretch his nine-game NHL trial run – with the elite level world junior tournament and AHL rehab stint thrown in – over multiple months before he returned to Ontario Hockey League play. Wright would have been forced to play junior hockey an additional season in 2023-24 had a onetime rules exception not been made after he’d barely missed the age and games played minimum AHL eligibility cutoff point. 

With Catton, who played a full junior hockey season after being drafted, the Kraken did not want him returning to the Spokane Chiefs at age 19. So, they kept him on the NHL roster last fall and then, as his play improved, hung on to him all season as opposed to their plan with Wright – who’d been one year younger than Catton at the time. 

Beniers was a somewhat easier decision as NCAA players are not subject to the same transfer agreement rules as major junior prospects. He could have played in the AHL, but the Kraken liked what they saw in a 10-game spring 2022 audition and stuck with him out of camp the ensuing fall at age 19 rather than sending him to the minor pro ranks. 

The Kraken may face a similar call this coming fall with last year’s No. 8 overall pick Jake O’Brien as with Catton and Wright. O’Brien turns 19 in a few weeks and won’t be AHL eligible next season unless the transfer rule is amended to include one or more exceptions on each NHL squad. That potential change, allowing at least one 19-year-old former first round junior pick per team to play in the AHL, is still being debated. So the Kraken, who are reluctant to have O’Brien play more junior hockey, could keep him all season as with Catton or send him down to the AHL if the rule is amended.

The speed in which this year’s coming first round pick reaches the NHL could also be determined by the level of play he’s at.  

The NCAA has players in their late teens and early 20s, which tends to offer more physical competition akin to pro hockey than junior ranks of mostly 17-to-19-year-olds. One downside for NCAA players is a schedule of only 34 regular season games whereas major junior squads play a pro-like 64-to-68. 

Players drafted out of the U.S. junior ranks, including the elite National Team Development Program, play 62 games. But those players, once drafted, often opt for an NCAA season or two ahead of the pro ranks to gain experience right away. Or they head to the AHL as they are eligible to play there, with American junior leagues not subject to the same transfer deals as Canadian major junior circuits. 

Finally, you also see European players drafted out of various junior or pro leagues overseas. Pro circuits such as the Swedish Hockey League, Liiga in Finland, or the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League, are known for tougher competition that can make the transition to North American pro hockey easier. And like U.S. junior counterparts, players from those leagues often can play in the AHL right away. 

All of that, plus the variance of which players remain on the board once the No. 7 pick rolls around, will play a part in who the Kraken wind up taking. But they should wind up with someone capable of an NHL impact that will add to prior draft picks now sticking with the Kraken roster in greater numbers. 

“It’s exciting,” Botterill said. “I think the growth of our young players, having these players. And what you’re seeing right now is not just our first-round picks who are coming into the mix, such as Shane Wright, or Matty Beniers, or Berkly Catton and eventually Jake O’Brien. It’s a situation of Jacob Melanson being a fifth-round pick. It’s Ryan Winterton, a third-round pick. We have them coming. And I think that gets people excited.”