A milestone night at Climate Pledge Arena gave the Seattle Kraken a rare bright spot in a season that otherwise faded fast. On April 2, the team celebrated defenseman Adam Larsson after he reached 1,000 NHL games, marking the occasion with a pregame ceremony and a haul that included a portrait, wine, a Rolex watch, airline tickets, and a silver stick.
Larsson’s actual 1,000th game came earlier, on the road against the Florida Panthers on Mar. 24. After the season ended, the 33-year-old blueliner looked back on the moment with a mix of gratitude and disbelief.
“It was an awesome night for me and my family. It’s fun to see all the people back from Sweden making their way here and being a part of it.
I didn’t really think I would get to that point in my career, but here I am. Seattle did a great job for me and my family with the ceremony.
So something I will be forever thankful for.”
The Skelleftea, Sweden native is now in his 15th NHL season, and if he finishes the final three years of his current $21 million contract, he’ll have spent half his life playing in the league. Larsson debuted at 18 with New Jersey in 2011, and he still sounds like a player who hasn’t lost his appetite for the grind.
“I still love the sport and I still love this life. It’s something I don’t take for granted.”
What makes Larsson’s run in Seattle even more striking is the number attached to it: 409. In the Kraken’s five-year history, the club has played 410 regular season games, and Larsson has been in the lineup for all but one.
The lone miss also says plenty about him. He sat out Seattle’s 3-1 win over Anaheim on April 5, 2024, because he was away for the birth of his daughter.
And for all the regular-season durability, the playoff sample has been much smaller than the resume suggests. Across his time with the Devils, Oilers and Kraken, Larsson has had just 38 playoff games to his name.
After 2026 playoff hopes disappeared, he summed up the reality of the league this way: “It’s a tough business and it’s a day to day business. It’s not a week here and a week there.
It starts in September.”
With his 16th NHL September coming up, Larsson is already looking at the game differently than he once might have. Even with the wins and losses piled up, he said the past five years in Seattle have stood out for a different reason.
“My last five years in Seattle have probably been the most fun I’ve had going to the rink on a daily basis.”
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Jared McCann Still Defines The Kraken As A Bigger Decision Looms
Jared McCann remained one of the most important names on the Kraken roster even as the season unraveled around him. Seattle came out of the gate well, then endured two major downswings on the way to a 34-37-11 finish, and McCann was still productive when he was available, giving the club a steady offensive presence in a year that never really found its footing.
The bigger question now is what comes next for a player who has become so central to the teams identity. McCann is moving through the final year of his contract, and the Kraken are facing the kind of decision that tends to shape a franchises short-term direction: whether to keep building around a veteran scorer who has mattered a great deal, or start weighing the long view before the situation changes again after next season. [Read more 🡒]