Kraken Depth Being Tested At Tough Time
The Seattle Kraken opened the season impressively with five games without a regulation loss and generating some optimism. But then came the six-city road slog and the injury avalanche.
The six-games-in-10-days, multi-time zone road trip is one of the longest and most grueling of the season for Seattle. That was always going to be a big challenge for this squad eager to prove they are a better team than last year. But to compound things with injuries is almost too much to expect any team to overcome.
Two essential veterans to the Kraken in Jared McCann and Mason Marchment missed the game against the Capitals, and it showed. McCann hasn’t played since their win in Toronto last Saturday. The team still lists him as day-to-day and he hasn’t taken the ice in warmups or in practice quite yet.
Depth matters in the NHL. It matters when your third-pairing defenseman becomes your second pairing, when your fourth-line winger is suddenly facing top competition, when travel fatigue piles on, and when you’re trying to maintain structure despite personnel churn.
The Kraken simply do not have the pure star-power to win in the NHL without a team effort. They need to win games with their depth. With their third and fourth lines being better, and deeper, than their opponents’.
Kraken fans don’t need a big explanation on why missing McCann is a big deal. He’s the young franchise’s all-time leading scorer and points-collector. He is essentially, by almost default, Mr. Kraken. The offensive attack is much worse when McCann is on the shelf. It remains to be seen when he will return.
Mason Marchment was brought in via trade from Dallas to be a more physical presence in the offensive zone and also be a power play ace. He hasn’t had enough time to totally show out his skillset in a Kraken uniform, having played just six games. But it’s been noticeable without him in the lineup. Marchment seems like a player head coach Lane Lambert likes in his scheme and it clearly showed up when we was unavailable against the Capitals.
“We inflicted pain on ourselves by turning pucks over and not making plays quickly enough, certainly earlier on in the game,” Lambert said. “And we can’t do that. We have to get better.”
Don’t forget, this team started the season behind the eight-ball already with injuries. Kappo Kakko and Ryker Evans are yet to make their 2025-2026 season debuts, and newcomer Frederick Gaudreau hasn’t played in over a week. All three were thought to be main contributors to Lane Lambert’s crew.
While facing some of the tougher teams across the continent from Seattle in Toronto, Washington, and Winnipeg on Thursday night, they are doing so while needing to play younger, more inexperienced players. 2024 first round pick Berkly Catton made his NHL debut accumulated over 18 minutes on the ice in Washington. Ben Meyers logged 10 minutes, with his NHL experience at under 100 games still.
For now, it’s just a matter of weathering the storm. Perhaps the mood will shift when Seattle returns home to the Pacific Northwest this weekend. Especially if they get Marchment and McCann back in the process.
For a team that relies much more on depth rather than elite star power, this team’s depth is already being tested during their toughest road trip. There is light at the end of the tunnel after their game in Winnipeg.
