Depth Over Star Power: The Kraken's Early Season Secret Sauce
It's easy to point out why teams like the Edmonton Oilers are near the top of the standings consistently. When you have skaters with the talent of Connor McDavid on your team, they can seemingly win a few games by themselves. The Kraken have no such all-world star on their roster.
It's easy to point out why teams like the Edmonton Oilers or Colorado Avalanche are near the top of the standings consistently. When you have skaters with the talent of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, or Nathan MacKinnon on your team, they can cover up a lot of deficiencies and seemingly win a few games by themselves.
We apologize if this breaking news to you, but the Seattle Kraken have no such all-world star on their roster. They have been forced to win in different ways. One night, it's Philipp Grubauer doing acrobatics to stifle an opposing offense. Another night, it's Frédérick Gaudreau cashing in on a few scoring chances to edge out the other team. Sometimes, it's a strong power play unit. It's also been a mix of veterans and youngsters getting the job done.
Seattle sits at 9-5-1, good enough for third place in the Pacific Division. They are fifth in the Western Conference. Just four points separate them and the top seed in the conference at the moment. This has been the best start in franchise history. For reference, the year Seattle made the playoffs, they were 8-5-2 at this point.
