The Kraken begin their 2026-’27 season on Thursday night in Calgary against the Flames, and that matchup comes with a few details worth watching right away.
Seattle’s preseason results against Calgary looked good on paper - a 4-2 win on September 20 and a come-from-behind 4-3 shootout victory four nights later - but those games don’t tell much of a story. The first was played largely by Kraken skaters who are now in the American Hockey League, and the second featured Calgary players who are now with the Wranglers in that same league. The more relevant sample is what happened in the regular season, where the Kraken have won their last two games against the Flames and are 6-2-2 over the last 10 meetings.
This will also be Seattle’s first road opener since 2023.
There are a couple of notable numbers hanging over this game, too. Vince Dunn has a chance to do something no defenseman in NHL history has ever done: score his team’s first goal of the season in three straight campaigns.
He opened Seattle’s scoring last season on October 8, 2024, when he struck 27 seconds into the second period against the St. Louis Blues in a game the Kraken eventually lost 3-2.
The year before, he scored at 2:21 of the first period in a 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Matty Beniers is another player with a milestone within reach. He is four points shy of 200 for his career and has the second-most points of any player from the 2021 NHL Draft. Wyatt Johnson of the Dallas Stars, taken 23rd overall, has 263 NHL points.
For all the storyline clutter, the opener may still come down to the same old formula: special teams and goaltending. Seattle’s power play will need to match or outpace what the team might surrender on the penalty kill.
The Kraken will be without newly acquired forward Mackie Samoskevich, who will miss the opener and begin the season on injured reserve with an upper-body ailment. He was injured on September 24 against the Flames.
Joey Daccord and Dustin Wolf are expected to start in goal for Seattle and Calgary, respectively.
In Other News...
Kraken Youth Movement Still Feels Halfway There
Jason Botterill spent the summer hinting at a younger look up front, one that could have given the Kraken a noticeably different feel on opening night. The idea was simple enough: lean into the players who are still early in their careers and let the roster grow with them, even as the club kept working through the rest of its offseason plans.
The reality, at least right now, looks a little less complete. Seattle still has promising young pieces in the mix, but the group is thinner than the early vision suggested, and the team also came away without the top restricted free agent it had hoped to land. With prospects in Coachella Valley still part of the conversation, the youth movement feels real enough to matter, but unfinished enough to keep the Kraken watching the edges of the roster all season long. [Read more 🡒]
Shane Wright Suddenly Sits At The Center Of A Kraken Test
A new layer of intrigue has been added around Shane Wright as the offseason market keeps shifting, with the young center suddenly drawing attention from a division rival looking to shore up its middle. Wright, 22, remains one of the more interesting development projects in the Kraken system, and Seattle has spent real time and resources on his growth, which is part of why he still feels more like a piece to build around than a name to shop.
Still, the fact that another club is circling says something about how the market is taking shape, especially with Edmonton also looking at Montreals Kirby Dach as it explores options. From Seattles side, moving Wright would run against the grain of how the organization has treated him so far, and the question now is less about whether he has value than whether that value could ever push the Kraken into a bigger conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Still Have One Costly Problem They Cant Afford This Season
The preseason score line against Vancouver was close enough to suggest the Kraken were hanging around at even strength, but the special teams picture told a different story. Seattle was beaten 4-3 after giving up too much on the penalty kill, a concern that has lingered through camp as the team tries to settle into a new look under Lane Lambert.
Lambert said the group is still working new players into those shorthanded roles after roster turnover up front, and the shortened training camp has only made that process harder. With veteran preseason appearances limited, the Kraken have not had as many chances as they would like to build chemistry and clean up the details in a phase of the game that can swing results quickly. [Read more 🡒]