Well, their run of playoff seasons came to an official end on Wednesday when the Seattle Kraken lost 5-2 to the Los Angeles Kings in Los Angeles. It was a short-lived streak, lasting just one season in 2022-23, but regardless it has to come across as a step back for the most recent expansion franchise, following a strong showing last season.
They joined a handful of other teams who’ve already been dealt their playoff fates and became the fourth team in the Pacific Division to be officially eliminated — joining the Calgary Flames, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks.
With that, we’ll have a look at where their season went wrong, if anything could have been done differently and what comes next for the Kraken and their fans.
Where the Kraken’s Season Went Wrong
Like many of the teams that were among the first eliminated this season, the Kraken had a slow start out of the gate in October. They started the season 3-5-2 in their first 10 games and couldn’t seem to win more than two games in a row until late December.
They had two losing streaks of eight games and aside from one nine-game winning streak, had a tough time stringing them together.
Related: Calgary Flames 2023-24 Obituary – Playoff Hopes Extinguished
On top of that, they are going to come up far shy of the 289 goals they scored last season with just 202 goals scored through 76 games this season. They have the third fewest goals for in the Pacific Division and the fourth fewest in the Western Conference.
The lack of offence put to waste a strong season for goaltender Joey Daccord who had three shutouts and a 2.42 goals against average en route to his best NHL season. Still, the Kraken were shutout six times which didn’t help their cause.
Kraken Needed to Change the Tides
Aside from offensive production, there wasn’t much the Kraken could’ve changed about their season. As mentioned, Daccord had a career-year in net and provided them with some NHL-level goaltending.
Outside of the goaltending, however, the Kraken will finish the season with no player having more than 70 points. Through 76 games, Jared McCann leads the way with 60 points before it drops to their all-star Oliver Bjorkstrand and his 55 points.
As for special teams, they are a middle-of-the-pack team when it comes to their powerplay efficiency (21.2 percent) and penalty kill (79.2 percent), so it wasn’t really a difference maker overall for the Kraken.
Kraken Have Offseason Work Ahead
While they do have a few restricted free agents to address in the offseason — including Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen — the team does have an offseason ahead that could put them back into contention next season.
Defensively they are sound — a top-10 team, in fact, in the NHL. In the pipeline they are just steps away from exploding. They have forwards nearly ready to go in Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton, while Ryker Evans isn’t far off joining their already impressive back end.
Finally, their scouts and front office will be salivating with the potential they have in the upcoming draft with nine picks over the seven-round draft. They have three picks in the first two rounds and could re-bolster their prospect pool once again in 2024 en route to becoming competitive again. Until then, rest in peace to the 2023-24 edition of the Seattle Kraken.