The Need to Knows
- The Time: 6pm PT
- The Place: Angel of the Winds Arena, Everett, Washington
- Place to Watch/Listen: The game will be streamed on Canucks dot com!
Know Yourself…
The Kraken’s lineup for the Prospect Showcase will be the following:
…And Know Your Enemy
The Canucks meanwhile, will look like this:
Game Preview:
We’re back! Kind of!
The Kraken’s rookies, prospects and general youths are taking to the ice for the first of two showcase games that they and the Vancouver Canucks have agreed to play going into this season and next. The rest of the league is often hip-deep in local round-robin prospect tournaments like this around this time of year, but the Canucks and Kraken are really the only two teams close enough to each other to justify disrupting rookie camp for it; previous prospect showcases often had both sides headed to Alberta to join the festivities with the Flames and Oilers. Thankfully we’re not beholden to Mountain Time this year, so several of the Kraken and Firebirds’ most impressive young talents will take the ice to see what the Canucks; Vancouver and Abbotsford flavored, are made of.
It will be quite interesting as well; while this is absolutely not a preseason game and probably shouldn’t be treated as much of one, it’s a good way to see which players are playing above the level of their peers and could be on their way to the big leagues, and both sides could definitely use some good news from the pipeline. The Kraken’s continued march towards an identity they desperately covet, often in the face of what the rest of the league is doing, could use a face to sell the concept with some true high-end skill and finish. Berkly Catton and Jake O’Brien definitely fit the mold as star forwards, and guys like Oscar Fisker-Mølgaard have been quietly building strong resumes away from North American ice, there are defense prospects looking to make a big jump as well; Tyson Jugnauth had an unbelievable season in Portland for a defender last year, Ty Nelson was one of Coachella’s better point getters on the back-end, Kaden Hammell brought true leadership to the Silvertips through a heroic point-per-game WHL playoffs. It’s notable that the Kraken are very light on invites this year, because Their system is just about ready to graduate a number of players into a professional level of the game. The Firebirds will be a young and hungry team this year, and the Kraken owe it to themselves to keep the competition white-hot as we head into the preseason proper.
Meanwhile the Canucks are definitely paying close attention to the progress of Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Braeden Cootes, and Tom Willander; the star attractions of Vancouver’s prospect pool right now. Willander perhaps most of all, as the Canucks’ d-core has some serious holes that a Not-Quinn Hughes could fill. Lekkerimäki and Cootes meanwhile might have an in if the Canucks decide to get younger in the middle six, but only if they can prove themselves in preseason and here at the Showcase. Also, there will be an Elias Pettersson playing on this team. But not that Elias Pettersson, the one that plays defense. Who will also being playing with another man named Pettersson, but who’s first name is Marcus.
If there is any area that the Kraken will be deficient in, it will be guys named Pettersson, and the prospects must work hard to overcome this clear deficiency.
Otherwise? It’s just a nice, low-stakes game where the youngs play at a sweet arena in Everett. Usually one or two prospects show what a Junior fight looks like, there’s goals galore, and then we all go back to camp for the real thing in about a week’s time. Let’s have some fun with it.
LET’S GO (baby) KRAKEN, LET’S GO (baby) SQUIDS