The fourth annual Stucky Cup wrapped up Kraken development camp Thursday morning, and Team Blue walked away with the bragging rights after a scrappy, fast-moving scrimmage between Seattle’s top prospects.
The event split the campers into white and blue squads, with 2025 first-round pick Jake O’Brien lining up for Team White and 2026 first-rounder Chase Reid skating for Team Blue. The setup was simple: two 20-minute halves, 4-on-4 play, and, if needed, a 1-on-1 tiebreaker before a shootout. None of that extra drama was required.
Team Blue struck first when William Tomko opened the scoring. Team White answered quickly, as Ola Palme tied it up, and that was all either side could manage in the opening half. The teams headed to the intermission deadlocked 1-1, with shots on goal nearly even.
The second half belonged to Team Blue. Will Reynolds scored what turned out to be the winner, though the goal was credited to Zaccharya Wisdom, and Zeb Forsfjall added insurance soon after. Team White made one last push by pulling goaltender Lawton Zacher, but Tomko cashed in on the empty net to seal it.
Not every impact showed up on the scoresheet, though. Hawke Huff, Clarke Caswell, Ollie Josephson and Nathan Villeneuve all stood out with the kind of speed and aggression that kept popping up every time they jumped over the boards. Defenseman Rylan Singh also drew notice for his agility and edge control.
For Seattle, the takeaway was hard to miss: this is a lively, competitive group, and the pipeline is loaded with talent.
In Other News...
Kraken Are Turning Development Camp Into A Real Roster Strategy
Development camp has become more than a summer tune-up for the Kraken. General manager Jason Botterill sees it as part of the sales pitch, a chance to get prospects comfortable with Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, Ballard and even U-Dub while they get their work in on the ice. The idea is straightforward enough: if the organization wants to keep building through young players, it has to make the city and the setup feel like a place they can see themselves staying.
That approach fits the way Seattle is trying to shape its roster right now. Botterill has made it clear the focus is on the clubs 23-and-under group rather than chasing a big free-agent splash, and the recent addition of Mackie Samoskevich is part of that thinking. It also leaves the Kraken leaning on trades as the most likely path to upgrade the team, which makes these summer touchpoints feel less like routine camp work and more like the start of the next round of roster decisions. [Read more 🡒]
Ron Francis Just Reopened A Painful Kraken Debate
Ron Francis is back in Pittsburgh in a front-office role, and the move has nudged open an old Seattle conversation along with it. Hired June 19 as a senior advisor to Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, Francis has already been involved in draft decisions and development camp, while also looking back on the work he did building the Kraken from the ground up after leaving Carolina for the expansion project.
For Seattle, Francis remains tied to the franchises earliest identity: the arena, the locker room, the practice facility and even the Palm Springs minor-league rink all came together under his watch. The broader record of that launch still hangs over the organization, too, with the teams early rise, lone playoff trip and subsequent misses serving as a reminder of how quickly an expansion story can turn from promising to unfinished. [Read more 🡒]