A pair of tournaments in the next 30 days will involve Seattle Kraken players & prospects.
2024 Rookie Faceoff
Although the “Rookie Faceoff” has been held in its current form since 2018, there’s two very good reasons the Kraken haven’t participated prior to this season. First, their inaugural season wasn’t until 2021; second, they didn’t have enough rookies their first three years to field a squad.
With four NHL Drafts under their belts, Seattle will now join six other U.S.-based Western teams at the L.A. Kings practice facility on Sept. 13-16. Other participants are the Kings, Utah Hockey Club, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, and Vegas Golden Knights.
From KSL Sports: “Rookie Camp is essentially a continuation of Development Camp and provides NHL teams the opportunity to further evaluate their young prospects and recent draft picks.” The Rookie Faceoff can include players who have turned pro, but not college players, since fall semester will already have started. Kraken 2024 1st round pick Berkly Catton should be there, as well as 2024 overall 1st rounder Macklin Celebrini of the Sharks.
The Kraken games at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, CA:
- Saturday, Sept. 14: Seattle vs. Colorado, 3 p.m. PT
- Sunday, Sept. 15: Vegas vs. Seattle, 1 p.m. PT
According to NHL.com, “Each game of the tournament will be streamed live online for fans in each market.” That would make Seattle games available at the Kraken website.
2026 Winter Olympics Qualifying Tournaments
Three slots remain for the 12-team 2026 Winter Olympics hockey tournament. As the host country, Italy automatically qualifies. So do the top eight teams from the IIHF rankings: Canada, Finland, Russia, United States, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.
12 national teams have advanced to the final round of qualifying, which will be held between Aug. 29-Sept. 1. The winner of each four-team tournament will earn a spot for the ’26 Winter Games. Here’s the location and teams involved in each of the tourneys.
- Aalborg, Denmark: Denmark, Norway, Great Britain, Japan
- Riga, Latvia: Latvia, France, Slovakia, Ukraine
- Bratislava, Slovakia: Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Austria, Hungary
Team Denmark will have the services of 2023-24 NHL All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand. The 29-year-old Kraken winger scored 20 goals and 59 points last season. The tourney site of Aalborg is less than a two-hour drive north from Bjorkstrand’s hometown of Herning.
Also listed on Team Denmark’s roster is 2023 2nd round Seattle draft pick Oscar Fisker-Molgaard. At only 19 years old, Fisker-Molgaard got good reviews skating in a Swedish men’s league. He signed a three-year entry level contract in June. And his hometown of Frederikshavn, at the very tippy-top of Denmark, is less than an hour away from the tourney rink.
Near as I can tell, three former Kraken could also be vying to help their teams into the Olympic field. Alexander True, who played three seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds and eight games for the Kraken in 2021-22, will represent Denmark. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a Kraken in 2023-24 and still looking for a new NHL home, is expected to skate for France as he did at the World Championships. Marian Studenic, who played most of last season at AHL Coachella Valley – except for a two-game callup to Seattle – could earn a spot on Team Slovakia. Studenic has signed to play in Sweden next season.