In part 4 of our week-long examination of the Seattle Kraken, we turn to the team’s offense. Around the Davy Jones’ Locker Room roundtable are site contributors Zaiem Beg, Sky On Air, Emily Rupp, Allyson Ballard, and Glenn Dreyfuss.
Sky: They don’t really have the puck a whole lot. But the one guy who always seems to be at the top of the pile, playing a decent defensive game is Oliver Bjorkstrand. I’m a sucker for these kind of players. Bjorkstrand has been phenomenal. Even if he’s not scoring, he’s trying to do something right. Even if he’s not directly impacting the score, he’s doing something that I noticed.
Glenn: That Finnish Flash, Kaapo Kakko, has the creativity that we wish Andre Burakovsky had. In open ice, his passing is sublime. He flies all over the ice. His vision is tremendous. He plays a 200-foot game. He’s even willing to go in front of the net. I think he was an absolute steal, along with Eeli Tolvanen, the two first round reclamation projects that Ron Francis has acquired. I think he’s going to be a Kraken for a long time.
Allyson: I’ve been impressed by Kakko because he brings a bolder style of offense to a team that has always really lacked that. The kinds of shots that he’s taking aren’t kinds of shots that this team normally does. He’s crafty, creative, he takes bigger risks with the shots he takes, which is important because you need to play dynamically to find success. And then his physicality, just his frame and his ability to hold onto pucks and gain possession or keep the zone until reinforcements come off the bench.
Em: I want to shout out Jaden Schwartz. He is leading the team in goals right now. And it’s been great to see him healthy, because I feel like he hasn’t always been healthy in previous seasons. He’s stepping up right now as much as he can to fill in that gap with Jordan Eberle being injured.
Zaiem: Jaden Schwartz I’ve always felt has been underrated. He does so many little things and he just like makes the right decision, so much more often than other players do. He gets to the net front and it’s cool that he is his production is now kind of matching what I’ve always felt his effort has been.
Sky: If there was anyone who probably deserves an incomplete, but from like a positive perspective is Eberle. It really stinks that he had to leave the team for so long.
Em: When it comes to the offense, Eberle’s injury has deeply affected the rest of the team, When the season started, he was on fire. It was like, “I’ve got that C on my chest. Let’s go.” So it was upsetting to see he’s injured. Injuries can play a much larger role than we might think. It’s up to the team to be able to overcome from them, but there are certainly times where if you lose the right piece, it can be a lot harder than you might think to actually fill some of that stuff in.
Sky: Shane Wright and Matty Beniers have started to pick things up after a bit of a slow start. I’m very impressed with how they’ve improved. Helps to have a Kaapo Kakko.
Zaiem: Unlocking Matty is so important to the future of the franchise.
Em: Matty and Shane are doing a lot better, but for a long time, I was definitely getting worried about their performances, especially more so on Matty’s end, because he’s been with the team for a couple of seasons. Seeing Matty on that line with Kakko, with Schwartz, he’s starting to get his game back. That’s been great to see because the team is built around the idea of all these youngsters carrying it forward – and if they can’t, that’s like the first time this plan was just built with the wrong bricks.
Allyson: Kakko and Schwartz as a duo have really helped Beniers. I think they put him in a position where he’s relying more on instinct and on his IQ, the IQ that we know that he has, instead of always trying to make the perfect pass, always trying to make the perfect pretty play, the perfect goal. They’re getting more skill out of him having those two guys on his line.
Sky: As for who has depressed me on offense, it’s got to be Andre Burakovsky. This guy has such a good shot and he has had so little opportunity or so little will to use it. And at his cap hit, especially at his cap hit. The depth has not been as good as it has been, but I think a big part of it is that some of your middle six pieces haven’t been nearly as impactful as in previous years. Burakovsky sort of embodies that; you have all this talent and all this capacity to be an impact player. Whether because of age, because of injury history, he just can’t make it there.
Zaiem: Burakovsky’s always been someone who has not been consistent. The turnovers, you lived with it because he had such incredible offensive firepower, “Well, yeah, we can put up with this nonsense because we know that he’s going to score however many goals and create and generate all this offense.” When he’s not generating offense, he’s not doing anything. It’s just frustrating to see him out there. I don’t know why he’s not better now that he’s healthy.
Allyson: The details of Burakovsky’s game have really lacked. I see him along the boards or completing an entry into the offensive zone and he can’t hold it. He can’t act well under pressure offensively. I see plays die on his stick. And with this team and how long it takes them to start to gain offensive momentum and to build up the goals, I don’t think that’s something that they can afford.
You can’t afford* to miss the fifth and final segment of our DJLR roundtable Friday, when the panel will take on the state of the Kraken defense. (*Sorry. Overly dramatic. But it would be nice if you could fit us in.)