The Seattle Kraken have opened the 2026-27 NHL season with plenty of zip, and now the road trip is entering a stretch that should tell a lot about where they’re headed next. Seattle has already banked wins in its first three games away from home and now gets the Tampa Bay Lightning as the second-to-last stop before heading back to Climate Pledge Arena.
One reason the Kraken have looked so lively early is the steady rise of their younger players. Berkly Catton has been one of the forward group’s early bright spots, and in just his second full-time NHL season he’s already locked into the roster.
On the back end, Ville Ottavinen has given Seattle a useful lift from the blue line. He first appeared in an NHL game in Seattle’s final contest of the 2025-26 season on April 15, then made his season debut in the home opener on Oct.
- He sat out against the Vegas Golden Knights, but has been in the lineup for every game on the road trip.
Ottavinen has made the most of that run. He posted a plus-2 in each of his first two games this season, putting him at plus-4 to open the year, and then picked up his first NHL goal against the Philadelphia Flyers. That marker came in just his fifth NHL game and added another layer to what has been a strong start for the young defenseman.
Seattle’s latest game also showed both the upside and the danger in this team’s start. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the Kraken jumped out first against Philadelphia when Bobby McMann scored on the power play in the opening period, and Ottavinen followed with a goal in the second. But the Flyers pushed back in the third, scoring twice only 1:13 apart to knot things up.
The Kraken settled in from there and dragged the game into overtime, even getting a 3-on-3 edge when Philadelphia was called for too many men on the ice. Still, nobody finished it off in extra time, and the game moved to a shootout. Seattle handled that part, with Matty Beniers and McMann scoring to secure the win.
It was a strong result, but the late wobble was hard to ignore. Seattle has started well, yet those third-period lapses are the kind that can flip a good trip into a frustrating one.
Against Tampa Bay, the Kraken will need the same early punch - and a much cleaner finish. If they build a lead, they can’t let it slip away.
In Other News...
Kraken Fans May Hate The Price Of This Rangers Trade Idea
A speculative trade pitch has put the Kraken back into an uncomfortable conversation around roster value, timing and the kind of price a team pays when it tries to solve a problem before the market does. The framework is simple enough: the Rangers are being viewed as a club searching for help in goal, while Seattle is the team with the kind of pieces that could make that sort of idea possible.
For Kraken fans, the unsettling part is not just that Alexis Lafreniere would be the name coming back in the discussion, but that a deal like this would come with real future cost for a team already balancing immediate needs against long-term planning. It is still only a hypothetical, and the appeal depends heavily on the Rangers circumstances in net, but the suggestion alone shows how quickly a contenders desperation can turn into a steep asking price. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Depth Line Is Making Seattle's Identity Hard To Ignore
Freddy Gaudreaus goal in Seattles 5-3 win over the Capitals was more than a scoring play, it was a snapshot of the Krakens preferred identity taking shape in real time. The depth line of Gaudreau, Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton kept leaning on Washington with speed and pressure, turning a routine shift into a problem the Capitals never fully solved. It fit neatly with the way coach Lane Lambert and several players have described the clubs approach, where pace and persistence are supposed to create offense as much as talent does.
What made the sequence stand out was how quickly Seattle turned a loose moment into a decisive one, with the line staying on the attack until the puck ended up in a dangerous spot. The Kraken have talked all season about wanting to look difficult to play against, and this was the kind of shift that made that message hard to ignore. In a game with plenty of offense, it was the grind and support from a depth trio that helped show why Seattle believes its style can travel. [Read more 🡒]