Cale Fleury is sitting on a real opening with the Kraken this season.
Unless Seattle brings in another defenseman, Fleury looks lined up for regular NHL work on the third pair. The right-handed shot gives the Kraken a cleaner balance on the blue line, especially alongside Josh Mahura, the other defenseman in the mix who is on a contract worth a little more than the NHL minimum.
Last season, Fleury and Mahura each played 23 games. But Fleury brought a different edge when he was in the lineup. At just an inch taller and ten pounds heavier than Mahura, he finished with almost twice as many hits and blocked 34 shots to Mahura’s 24.
He also showed a little more bite. Fleury dropped the gloves for the first time in his NHL career in the second game of the season against forward Nikita Grebenkin of the Flyers in Philadelphia. Grenbenkin picked up the instigator penalty.
And there was a rare offensive moment, too. Fleury scored his second NHL goal and his only one in 59 career games with the Kraken on January 2nd against the floundering Vancouver Canucks and Thatcher Demko. Seattle went on to win 4-3 in a shoot-out on the road.
The goal was only the second of Fleury’s NHL career. The first came during his rookie season with the Montreal Canadiens in 2019-’20, on November 16th, 2019 against the New Jersey Devils and Mackenzie Blackwood in a 4-3 overtime loss at home.
A 3rd-round pick by Montreal in 2017 out of the Western Hockey League, Fleury also has a familiar connection to Mahura. He played 51 games with him and the Regina Pats after being acquired in a trade with the Kootenay Ice in 2017-’18.
Now he’s reached exactly 100 NHL games, with two goals and four assists. At 27, he’s still young enough to stand out in a Seattle defense group that is getting older and needs production while it’s still in its prime.
Vince Dunn, the top guy on the back end, turns 30 and will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Brandon Montour, 32, has five years left on his Seattle deal.
Adam Larsson, 33, has three years remaining. Jamie Oleksiak, the “big rig”, turns 34 in December and is already gone after signing with the Canucks in free agency this summer.
That leaves Fleury with a chance to make his mark in a contract year. He enters the second season of a two-year deal with UFA status looming, and the path is there for him to claim it.
In Other News...
National Media Is Hammering The Kraken Where It Hurts Most
National opinion on the Kraken has turned sharply skeptical, and the criticism is landing on the parts of the organization that were supposed to signal a brighter future. Scott Wheeler took aim at two of Seattles first-round picks, calling center Shane Wright vanilla and Eduard Sale low-compete, while Adam Proteau went after the broader picture by labeling the club a dogs breakfast. Matt Larkin added to the chorus by arguing the roster has been built around middle-tier pieces instead of a true difference-maker.
The harsher read is not just about the standings, but about whether Seattles approach has actually moved the franchise forward at all. Proteau also placed Lane Lambert near the bottom of his head-coach rankings, and the common thread in all three evaluations is a team that still looks stuck between trying to contend and trying to develop. For a club that has spent years searching for a clearer identity, that is the kind of outside verdict that tends to linger. [Read more 🡒]