The Kraken’s future skated into view Friday at Kraken Community Iceplex, where 2026 rookie camp opened with a familiar mix of promise and urgency.
A dozen forwards, nine defensemen and two goalies hit the ice, and the headliners were easy to spot: 2025 first-round pick Jake O’Brien, who piled up 93 points in 53 games for the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs; Coachella Valley Firebirds forward Jagger Firkus, coming off 21 goals and 35 assists; high-energy defenseman Ty Nelson; and Julius Miettinen, the 2026 WHL playoffs MVP.
Miettinen, a center drafted in 2024 out of Helsinki, said he feels like he’s already made one leap and is now chasing another.
“I think I took some big steps last year,” he said after scoring 35 goals in the regular season and adding 14 more in the playoffs to help the Everett Silvertips reach the Memorial Cup final. “Now it’s time to take the next step.”
Asked what the Kraken want him to sharpen, Miettinen pointed to the details.
“It’s just the small details. I’m a pretty versatile player.
I can play PK, power play. I think they just want to see me do all the little things well - win draws, be physical (at 6-foot-3, 207 pounds), win battles.”
The camp didn’t stay in Seattle for long. The rookies were quickly off to Abbotsford, BC, for the “Prospect Showcase,” where they’ll play two games this weekend against Vancouver Canucks rookies at Rogers Forum, home of Vancouver’s AHL affiliate.
Saturday’s game starts at 4 pm, and Sunday’s begins at 1 pm. According to Kraken PR, “Forward Jake O’Brien and defenseman Lukas Dragicevic will not play in the Prospect Showcase due to precautionary reasons. Additionally, forward Justin Janicke has been added to the roster.”
The coaching staffs for both sides will come from their AHL affiliates, and Firebirds coach Derek Laxdal said the new NHL schedule has made this kind of weekend more meaningful.
“With only four exhibition games in the National Hockey League, these two games become real important for these players.
“Obviously, they want to make a good impression, be evaluated, transition into training camp, get their foot in the door, and get into an exhibition game.”
Laxdal also pointed to Mattias Janmark as the kind of player who can use a strong prospects showing to change everything. Laxdal coached Janmark in a similar tournament for the Dallas Stars, and the forward made the most of it.
“Janmark had a great tournament. He springboarded himself right into the main training camp, and made the NHL team.
That’s the possibility for these young players. Your job is to push somebody out.”
Worth noting: Janmark scored on his first shot in the NHL. To date, the Swedish forward has played 680 NHL games over the last decade, and has a year remaining on his contract with the Edmonton Oilers.
On the other side, new Abbotsford Canucks coach Ryan Papaioannou said the message to his group has centered on intensity and competitiveness.
“We talked to them about energy and an overriding theme of competitiveness,” Papaioannou said about the weekend set. “If you don’t know where to go on a forecheck… overriding theme.
You forget where you’re going on a trap… overriding theme. We just kept going back to competitiveness.”
In Other News...
Kraken Camp Opens With One Young Name Fans Will Watch Closely
Seattles fall hockey ramp-up gets going Friday at Kraken Community IcePlex, where rookie camp opens the door on a new cycle of evaluation and first impressions. The session will stretch across 15 days and include work with prospects and NHL roster players, with most of the on-ice work open to the public and a crowd of young forwards, defensemen and goalies looking to make a case.
One name fans will be watching especially closely is Jake OBrien, the Krakens 2025 first-round draft pick, who is slated to take part in both rookie camp and the main training camp. There will also be prospect games in Abbotsford against Vancouver mixed into the schedule, giving Seattle a longer look at where some of its newest talent stands before the regular season opens Sept. 29 and the first game arrives Oct. 1 against the Flames. [Read more 🡒]
Former Stars Forward Lands In A Spot Dallas Fans Should Notice
Kole Lind is getting another shot to show he belongs in an NHL camp, this time on a professional tryout with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 2026. The unrestricted free agent forward has spent most of his pro career in the AHL, but he still brings some name recognition for fans in Dallas, where he once played for the Texas Stars after being drafted by Vancouver in 2017 and later found his way into NHL games with the Canucks and Kraken.
For Seattle, Lind is one of those depth forwards whose path through the league has been easy to lose track of, even if his brief time in the organization was enough to leave a footprint. A PTO does not guarantee much beyond a chance, but it does give him an opening to keep pushing for a bigger role, and it puts him back on a familiar fringe of NHL conversation as another training camp approaches. [Read more 🡒]