The NHL Draft finished up on Saturday, and it seems like, if nothing else, the Kraken had a very productive couple of days adding new players to the organization. Given how long the broadcast was, the Kraken even benefited from plenty of time to think about and then re-think about all their selections; ending with a pretty heavily skewed selection of players, but otherwise a perfectly solid group of players!
So let’s take a quick look at who they drafted and try to put them in a broader context within the org and what they were trying to do.
Who did they draft again?
- Playmaking phenom Jake O’Brien – F
- No nonsense and shift takeover machine Blake Fiddler – D
- Youngest gun with great wheels Will Reynolds – D
- Russian-born blueliner wiser beyond his years Maxim Agafonov – D
- Sensible Puck mover Karl Annborn – D
- Solid, hard working forward Loke Krantz – F
Crossing T’s and Dotting I’s with O’Brien
The first thought a lot of fans probably had when O’Brien was picked was more than likely “another one?”, and it’s not for no reason; Seattle has taken a center with just about every first round pick they’ve ever had, and this one was no different.
While the team has managed to put some decent skill into their center pool, the high-end stuff still awaits joining the team, and there’s continued belief that they may not actually find their way into the league via the Center position. Berkly Catton, Jagger Firkus, and even Shane Wright’s skillsets are just as good for a winger they are for a center, and while they’re still paying certain members of the team to be there, chances to take a faceoff are getting slim unless they absolutely overwhelm the competition within the team…which now includes O’Brien. If some of these young kids transition to wing full time, then the depth at Center may start to dry up a little faster than anticipated, and an all around playmaking monster like O’Brien makes sure that particular well stays nice and deep.
If anything; it ensures that the guys who’ve already begun their ascent towards being mainline Kraken have a potential linemate that can find them space on the ice in a league that’s going to be determined to completely eliminate it.
An almost all-defender draft
It’s been a hot minute since there’s been a draft almost entirely focused on replenishing one particular part of a team’s depth, but Seattle made 6 picks and 4 of them were blueliners; all but Reynolds being right-handers.
It felt like a bit of organizational housekeeping after a number of young defenders got signed to their ELCs with hopes of joining the Firebirds (or the Kraken, if they’re lucky), and a clear understanding that the position as it stands today in Deep Blue needs a serious upgrade or two; not just in terms of talent but in terms of a meaningful injection of youth; while also hoarding a number of RHD; an enormously valuable position, not just for their own needs, but potentially as chips down the road.
Best part of it all? Just about everyone liked the players Jason Botterill picked! Fiddler may not be a flashy defender, but he has a style that just works (plus they already have guys like Tyson Jugnauth and Lukas Dragicevic for that kind of thing on the backend) and the size to enforce it at will. Reynolds may be a bit raw, but the Athletic’s Scott Wheeler; saw him as a player who had earned a second look thanks to a strong 2nd half of the season, and Agafonov seemed to have quite a few admirers from his work in the MHL this season.
Nearly everybody who gave the draft a grade seemed to like the way the Kraken handled it: Scott Wheeler of the Athletic just kind of finished his recap of it with just such a statement, DailyFaceoff seemed to like the Kraken’s ability to acknowledge talent when they saw it, and in general it seems like most of the prognosticators enjoyed that the Kraken were able to address this particular need while still finding skill, which likely kept them getting A’s and A-minuses from just about everybody who covers this sort of thing full-time.
The NHL and the “Size Difference” tag on Ao3
No matter how many computers and simulations are run, the NHL can never quite get away from the fact that NHL GMs, Scouts, Coaches, and fans are, and I’m being a little mean here; macrophiles. Absolutely obsessed with size. Thankfully for all four parties, this was a draft seemingly tailor-made to get you some large lads who’ve actually learned some decent hockey (a very welcome development of the 2020’s prospect), and Seattle definitely didn’t disappoint in that department.
The Kraken’s smallest player in this draft was Karl Annborn; and even he was over 6-foot. The rest? 6’2, 6’3, Fiddler topping it out at 6’5, there were definitely no concerns on whether or not they’d be able to survive an NHL hit on account of most of the players being NHL-sized already.
While I can definitely get behind the idea of switching it up a little; a lot of the high skill players the Kraken have chosen in recent years are good, if a bit undersized, it’s important to remember that this was a draft where everybody got their big guys. And if they weren’t big? They played big. Size is nice…but you gotta apply it well to make it matter.
Thankfully, if there’s one thing the Kraken seemed to ensure was true; it was that. Fiddler himself seems to be more than comfortable using his dimensions as a cudgel, as well as Will Reynolds when he’s on his horse. O’Brien himself seems to benefit from seeing the ice at his height, though that may just be razor-honed instincts for passing. If the Kraken were gonna draft big? They made sure to draft big and good at making that apply to hockey.
Still a lot of work to do
While this draft, at least in my opinion, was a good breath of fresh air that will hopefully produce at least a couple of strong NHLers down the road…all of that’s just step one of The Work of this offseason.
Free agency begins in a very short amount of time, and already Jason Botterill and Ron Francis, however you wanna cut up responsibility for this team nowadays, are gonna need to make a splash to keep up; there’s consistent rumor that the Vegas Golden Knights are just gonna get that much better thanks to a potential sign-and-trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs for Mitch Marner. Edmonton is going to do whatever it takes to keep Connor McDavid in Alberta. LA needs to prove it’s not Maple Leafs west. The draft shores up areas of the depth that can be slowly iterated upon and improved as each player gains a year of experience, but that’s hardly a tonic when you’re playing McDraisaitl four times a year for division points in a division whose competition looks to be heating up considerably.
The Kraken can’t exactly wait out the careers of all-stars in the hopes of catching the rest of the division with their pants down. They gotta get better, and commit to it; even if it’s just in an acquisition or two.
Now that the future is at the very least addressed, there’s the now that needs addressing. The Kraken have three RFAs they need to come up with a solution on, and free agency staring them down the barrel. They got Marchment and Gaudreau, which is a good start…but they need more.
Time to really get to work here, Jason. Show us what you got.
Also, one final thing…
I think done with the decentralized draft. As a general concept.
Round 1 of the NHL Draft felt like a combination of all the NHL’s very worst instincts when it comes to selling itself; a disgraceful amount of time looking at Gary Bettman try to work a crowd, far too many celebrity cameos strictly down in a tier that they shouldn’t be at, multi-million dollar sports teams that apparently are using HughesNet to connect to a major arena in Los Angeles, the bizarre SHODAN encounter room they brought them in to in order for the GMs to gas their prospects up which badly exposed both the executives and players as being a little out of their depth being on camera that long, commentators trying to drag any old interesting tidbit out of the players and their families either by embarrassing themselves or walking straight up to the line of good taste and taking a step over it, and the crushing, interminable length of it all.
I was fine with Day 2; I expected my day to be taken up by the draft having to go through all those rounds, I can handle that. A four hour first round? That’s is just too much.
Even good drafts have their limits if you’ve got nearly 10 hours of thinking about who you’re gonna pick next.
Either way, Good draft, bad execution of broadcast, free agency will truly test GM-JB, let’s get weird this July.