Brandon Montour’s Status Uncertain for Kraken Opening Night
SEATTLE — When the Seattle Kraken reconvened for practice at Kraken Community Iceplex on Saturday following two days off the ice since their final preseason game, a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, the team was mostly back to full-strength after dealing with a bevy of injuries throughout camp.
With the exception of forward Kaapo Kakko (hand) and defenseman Ryker Evans (upper body), who have already been ruled out for 4-6 weeks and 6-8 weeks, respectively, almost every other skater dealing with an injury was accounted for on Saturday.
Forwards Jared McCann (lower body) and Chandler Stephenson (undisclosed) and defenseman Vince Dunn (undisclosed) each practiced in a full capacity.
“They were, for the most part, full-go today,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said about the three returners. “So we’ll see how they fared with that. And hopefully they’ll be fine for tomorrow.”
That leaves just one player whose status remains up in the air: Brandon Montour.
The 31-year-old defenseman has missed the entirety of training camp with an ankle injury, and while he has been spotted off the ice around the facility, he has not yet resumed skating with opening night just five days away.
Lambert said Montour remains day-to-day, and that it’s “too soon to comment” on his availability for the season-opener against the Anaheim Ducks at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
“We expect him to potentially start skating a little bit, but again, he’s day-to-day, and we have to make an evaluation of that later on today,” Lambert said.
“We have no idea (if Montour will be available.)”
It’s a concerning development for the Kraken, who were previously expecting to have the right-shot back by opening night. The fact he has not started skating yet already makes a full return by Thursday seem unlikely.
As such, Seattle is forging ahead with what would likely be their three defensive pairs if Montour remains out. This is how the pairs lined up at Saturday’s practice:
Vince Dunn – Adam Larsson
Ryan Lindgren – Cale Fleury
Jamie Oleksiak – Josh Mahura
Ville Ottavainen
The bottom trio of Oleksiak, Mahura and Ottavainen rotated reps, but Oleksiak lined up with Mahura on the first run-through. Additionally, given Mahura’s incumbent status and his involvement in both the penalty kill and power play so far this preseason, he appears to be ahead in the pecking order despite lining up on his off-side over Ottavainen, who is a natural right-shot.
Meanwhile, Cale Fleury is playing in Montour’s projected spot on the right side of the second pair alongside Ryan Lindgren, who told the Emerald City Spectrum that he hasn’t heard anything about pairing up with Montour whenever he does return. However, given how the rest of the depth chart has filled out, all signs point to that being the case.
In the meantime, Lindgren told the Emerald City Spectrum that he’s enjoyed working with Fleury so far.
“He’s incredibly smart, easy guy to kind of read off of as a [defensive] partner,” Lindgren told ECS on Saturday. “I think that’s the biggest thing is, you know, it’s nice playing with a guy that makes your job easier, and he certainly does that.”
The 26-year-old Fleury has appeared in just 15 games for Seattle over the past two seasons, 14 coming last year, during which he registered one assist and a plus-one rating. After spending the majority of his career in the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Fleury has impressed his new coach enough to have another shot in the NHL, should Montour not be ready in time.
Lindgren and Fleury’s on-ice communication has stood out to Lambert so far, prompting him to keep them paired together as the team ramps up towards opening night.
“I’ve liked Fleury’s camp,” Lambert said. “I think he’s done a really good job in different situations. Sometimes you just like a young player like that to focus on one thing, but with injuries and stuff, he’s been [on the] power play, penalty kill, so he’s been able to give us a little sample size of every part of his game.”
Roster Bubble Update
An extra wrinkle from Saturday’s practice was the new look of the lineup with Stephenson and McCann’s full return. The forwards lined up in the following way:
Jared McCann – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz – Shane Wright – Eeli Tolvanen
Mason Marchment – Chandler Stephenson – Ryan Winterton
Tye Kartye – Freddy Gaudreau – Jani Nyman
Berkly Catton – Oscar Fisker Molgaard – John Hayden
The ‘fifth’ line of Catton, Molgaard and Hayden practiced wearing grey jerseys, typically reserved for extra skaters. As things stand, it appears those three are on the outside looking in when it comes to the opening night roster bubble.
#Kraken Practice Lines 10/4
McCann-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Wright-Tolvanen
Marchment-Stephenson-Winterton
Kartye-Gaudreau-Nyman
Catton-Molgaard-Hayden
Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Fleury
Oleksiak-Mahura
Ottavainen
Daccord
Grubauer
Murray— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) October 4, 2025
Winterton appears to have secured his spot after a standout performance in the final preseason game on Wednesday, where Lambert said he “made an impression” following a two-goal performance, one being short-handed. Additionally, Nyman, with four goals in the preseason, looks to retain his spot above the cut line.
I previously wrote that Catton’s three minor penalties would not be a “make-or-break” point for his roster status. Hand up, I was wrong. After the game, Lambert had commented that the 19-year-old forward is “finding his way in the league,” and while it would make sense for the Kraken to play him for up to nine games before making the decision on whether or not they want to keep him around for the full season, perhaps they don’t view him as ready just yet.
That said, there’s still a few more practices to go, and Lambert left a clear message for those still fighting for a place on Saturday.
“Just keep doing what they’ve been doing all training camp long,” Lambert said. “That’s all you can do. You can’t overthink things, and you just have to control what you control. And that’s how you perform when you go out on the ice and in the gym and everywhere.”
