Kraken Will Do ‘What You have To’ To Stay Competitive

EDMONTON, Alberta – Kraken alternate captain Matty Beniers moved slowly around the postgame locker room in Calgary, ice pack on his leg, not looking nearly his reputed happy-go-lucky self after a massive opening night win.

To be fair, he hadn’t looked that way in the hotel elevator pregame either. So, it might not be totally accurate to blame his serious postgame stare on the sting of having blocked a dangerous Zayne Parekh shot with a two-goal lead ahead of playing the final 47 minutes at top speed. Athletes talk about being “in the zone” and Beniers had certainly looked the game-ready part both before stepping on the ice with two good legs and after the 6-1 rout with one bruised limb.

He was certainly in some kind of zone immediately before taking that penalty kill bullet for his team. Asked what went through his mind when committing to the play, Beniers, who earlier had blocked a Yan Kuznetsov slapper, replied: “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s just what you have to do.”

And that’s more or less the story of what the Kraken hope most to accomplish this fledgling 2026-27 season. Beniers, still only 23, is the leader of an emerging young core of Kraken prospects still developing their sense of what it takes to win hockey games at the NHL level.

And that will be an ongoing process all season, regardless of how the Kraken do Saturday night here against a longtime Edmonton Oilers nemesis at Rogers Place Arena. No season is perfect and the Kraken won’t have every game go as well as it did in Calgary. The team’s goal is staying competitive as long as possible, taking a step further in terms of overall development and hoping to be rewarded for it.

To hear some folks talk, unless you’re part of a select group of a half-dozen or so anointed “elite” teams, the rest of the NHL might as well not have even shown for their season openers let alone the remaining 83 games. There are even some who actively root for their favorite teams to “tank” and lose as many games as possible in order to secure a top draft pick.

Forget for a moment, the reality of a lottery ball system where even the three worst NHL teams could fall anywhere from Nos. 3-5. How many seasons do you sacrifice hoping to pick at No. 1 or No. 2 in what may not even be a great draft year?

There’s also the fact the Kraken took the ice Thursday night with a pair of former No. 2 overall picks from the last seven years – Beniers and Kaapo Kakko – another No. 4 overall in Shane Wright who easily could have gone No. 1 and a No. 8 pick in Berkly Catton who some also thought could have gone higher.

And all of those players happened to have played very well in the opening win against Calgary. All picked up points, with multiples for Beniers and Kakko. Two of the Kraken’s top regarded prospects-in-waiting are also No. 7 and No. 8 overall choices Chase Reid and Jake O’Brien.

So, the Kraken aren’t lacking in top picks from relatively recent drafts. But once you make the NHL, no one much cares about your draft pedigree. It’s what you learn from there that ultimately determines your NHL legacy. And more importantly, your team’s legacy.

And it’s tougher to develop a winning legacy when there is no winning to be found. Or, if we lower that bar a bit, when there is no competitive environment.

Beniers played in a very competitive environment his rookie season at age 20, when the Kraken racked up 100 points and came a victory away from the Westen Conference Final. Earlier on Thursday, after his team’s morning skate, he’d reflected on what such environments mean for young players.

“It’s super important to be in the hunt the whole year and give yourself a chance to make the playoffs,” Beniers said. “The most fun hockey I’ve played was in the playoffs and so I want to get back there.”

Sure, some teams have piled up a string of losing seasons, picked some elite prospects in great draft classes and eventually emerged as champions after years of trying. Just as many teams have circled the drain for up to a decade or two without their picks amounting to anything that lifts the team beyond mediocrity.

There are varying ways other than losing endlessly to win a Stanley Cup championship, as the 2019 St. Louis Blues featuring Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn once showed us.

In the Kraken’s case, sure, they’d like to get to a point where they can make multiple playoff appearances in a row. But it’s also their professional responsibility to bring out the best in the young players already drafted, some at very high positions.

So, they’ve chosen not to surround them entirely with other young players still learning the ropes. Instead, they’ve given them past Cup winners such as Dunn, Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson to help keep games competitive. Same with the franchise’s two all-time scoring leaders in Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle. Adam Larsson has played in a Cup final as well.

Dunn, Stephenson, Eberle and 33-year-old Freddy Gaudreau scored the first four Kraken goals of Thursday’s opener to put things out of reach. The younger players, such as Beniers, Kakko, Catton, Wright and Ryan Winterton, also got in on some offensive points, but more importantly, did little things correctly throughout the game that generated and protected an early Kraken lead.

It wasn’t just Beniers blocking shots. The Kraken blocked 20 of them to Calgary’s 8.

“We’ve got a lot of committed guys,” Beniers said.  “Our D-men are always blocking shots, our wingers always blocking shots and getting in front of pucks. And that sucks, but you’ve got to do it. And you know, the boys love it. So, that's fun.”

So is winning. And so is playing games that matter when spring looms. The Kraken, to a man, were deeply excited about what lay ahead when they emerged in a playoff position after the Winter Olympic break.

And they learned, again to a man, that they had some ways to go to finish the job. It’s something Beniers says they all want, veteran and younger.

“I know every guy in here does and I think the young guys got a taste of what it’s like not to make it,” Beniers said. “So now, they know how that feels and how we want to change that.”

Nobody on the Kraken is promising a playoff berth. Especially not head coach Lane Lambert, who knows about the fickle nature of playoff appearances having coached on some very good postseason squads.

What Lambert wants – what he demands – is a competitive team that, win or lose, did what it took to prevail. It got the Kraken through three quarters of last season in a highly competitive environment. Now, with youngest players Catton, Winterton and Wright getting a taste, we’ll see how far they’re ready to go.

“We’re talking about being hard to play against,” Lambert said. “Being committed.”

That commitment sometimes means taking a blast to your shins to keep a puck from getting through. Or skating back hard from the offensive zone to break up an opponent’s play at your own blue line. Or battling at the net front to create your team’s first two goals of the season.

And coming away with, bruises and all, the sense you gave what it took.

“I liked our physicality first and foremost,” Beniers said of Thursday’s win. “I thought we were physical. I thought we were in their face. We didn’t give them a lot of time and space. I think that was a big difference from last year. Us trying to get up and take away people’s time and space and make them beat us.”

Time will tell whether that improvement stands. But the Kraken plan to keep showing up the remaining 83 games to give it a try.