The NHL’s latest look at Chase Reid offered a different kind of scouting report on the Seattle Kraken’s 7th overall pick from June’s draft. Yes, the team liked his speed and his shot. But the video from “The Social Media Combine” showed something else entirely: a defenseman who can handle a ridiculous set of hand-eye tests and make them look almost routine.
Reid’s day started with a race against the clock to tape his stick, and he finished in 13.43 seconds. “It doesn’t look very nice,” Chase said, “but it’ll do.”
From there, he moved to a six-for-six challenge, catching each of six tubes as they were dropped one at a time. “Six for six!”
Chase exclaimed after grabbing each one out of midair.
The next test asked him to line up four pucks in the same order as four hidden from view, with only feedback on how many were correct after each try. Reid solved it in five moves. After that came a ruler-grab challenge, with the goal of snatching a falling ruler as close to the top end as possible.
The final event was the strangest of the bunch: bouncing one plastic cup off another into the air and trying to land the second cup inside the first. Reid didn’t finish the job, but he did manage 25 straight bounces before the second cup hit the ground. That kind of touch is enough to make you wonder what else he can do.
Elsewhere in the Kraken orbit, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is moving into a new role after a long playing career. He logged 700 NHL games, including the final 40 in Seattle in 2023-24, and remains the most games played by a player born and trained in France. Now he’s been hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning as a player development specialist.
Bellemare said the job is about more than what he did on the ice. “The Lightning are not hiring me just for my skill on the ice,” he told NHL.com. “They’re hiring me for something that I’ve done, the way that I talk, and the way that I’ve enjoyed every single moment at work in the NHL that made me a resilient player.
“My mom taught me that I should enjoy every moment, right? It’s not given to you, those moments, you have to cherish them. Her education created this opportunity for me because all I’ve done is try to be a good person, and eventually that person was good enough for a franchise to come and say, ‘Hey, we would like you to go and teach some of our young players.’”
Mark Giordano is also stepping behind the bench for the first time. The Kraken’s first captain wore the “C” for the first 55 games in franchise history before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2022 trade deadline. He retired in 2024, and now he’s been hired as an assistant coach for Toronto’s AHL affiliate.
Giordano will handle the Toronto Marlies’ defense and penalty killing. He spent his first 15 seasons with the Calgary Flames, including eight as captain, and one outlet summed up the move by noting that he had long been viewed as a future coach because of his leadership and hockey IQ.
Not everyone is speaking kindly about Seattle’s roster, though. Adam Proteau of The Hockey News ranked the Kraken 4th worst on paper and wrote, “What they have now is a dog’s breakfast of mid-tier talent.”
That phrase drew a sharp response. The point, as noted, is that Seattle hasn’t done much to upgrade its lineup this summer. GM Jason Botterill re-signed right winger Bobby McMann and added a notable piece by trading for Florida Panthers right winger Mackie Samoskevich, but the criticism is that neither is a first-line answer for a team that still needs one badly.
Still, there’s a line between criticism and cheap shots, and that’s where the pushback landed. If writers want to go after teams, there are plenty of more deserving targets than the Kraken.
In Other News...
One Oilers Roster Decision Is Still Hanging Over The Summer
The summer trade market has already started to stir around the Kraken, even if Seattle has not shown any interest in moving Shane Wright cheaply. Vancouver has checked in on the young center, and the conversation has quickly run into the familiar hurdle that comes with a player the Kraken still view as part of their long-term core. With Wright under team control for years to come, Seattle has every reason to treat any serious inquiry as a premium proposition rather than a simple roster shuffle.
What makes the situation worth watching is that the Canucks are not alone in trying to sort out their own priorities, and that keeps the pressure on Seattle to hold firm. Vancouver has made clear it wants strong value in any major deal, not a salary dump, while Edmonton is still working through its own restricted free agent business and focusing on outside additions. For the Kraken, the result is a market where interest is real, but so far nobody appears eager to pay the price Seattle is asking. [Read more 🡒]