Seattle Kraken defenseman Ville Ottavainen appears on in opposition to the Los Angeles Kings throughout the first interval of an NHL hockey sport Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Picture/Lindsey Wasson)
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SEATTLE — Matty Beniers hit 20 targets with 6 1/2 minutes left within the 2024-25 marketing campaign because the Seattle Kraken trudged into the offseason, doing what they did finest on the best way out.
They erased one final multigoal lead, then fell 6-5 to the Los Angeles Kings at Local weather Pledge Enviornment.
“I would have been betting, man, to say we were going to get the sixth one, tie it up and win the game in overtime or a shootout,” coach Dan Bylsma mentioned. “However type of a microcosm of our season.
“At the end, a disappointment and us not being able to be a playoff team. But a team that in the last 19 games showed a lot of fight and resiliency. Playing together, and proving and hoping we can be a good team in the future.”
Tye Kartye, Brandon Montour, Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen additionally scored for Seattle. Goaltender Joey Daccord allowed six targets on simply 24 photographs because of some lackadaisical protection from teammates whose minds have been already on summer season break.
The Kraken completed 35-41-6 for 76 factors, 5 lower than final season and 20 behind the St. Louis Blues, who clinched the second wild-card spot.
Seattle is in a three-way tie for the fourth-worst level whole within the league, which might flip right into a two-way tie if the Philadelphia Flyers earn a degree of their last sport Thursday.
Ville Ottavainen, whom the Kraken chosen within the fourth spherical of the 2021 draft, was recalled from the Coachella Valley Firebirds and made his NHL debut Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Oulu, Finland native took the customary solo lap earlier than the remainder of the group hit the ice for warmups. He picked up an help on Schwartz’s purpose and performed 14:24 with three hits instead of typical sixth defenseman Josh Mahura.
“It’s obviously brighter lights and all that, but it’s still hockey,” Ottavainen mentioned in his first NHL media scrum. The 6-foot-5 blueliner opted to take a seat all the way down to make it simpler on the digital camera operators.
“There’s guys that you look up to and see as big role models, but it’s hockey. It was nice that I felt like I could compete out there.”
Ottavainen and John Hayden are the 2 gamers in Tuesday’s Kraken lineup who could have an opportunity to expertise a postseason run this spring. They’re as a consequence of return to the Kraken’s high affiliate, the place each spent many of the season.
Ottavainen chipped in three assists throughout 18 Firebirds postseason video games final yr, whereas Hayden has been part of each deep playoff runs for the third-year American Hockey League franchise. The 30-year-old has 10 targets and 5 assists in 28 Calder Cup playoff video games.
The schedule for Coachella Valley’s best-of-three first spherical collection hasn’t been launched.
So far as the NHL playoffs, L.A. had already clinched house ice and had nothing using on Tuesday’s sport, however didn’t play prefer it.
For the fourth straight season, the Kings will face the Edmonton Oilers within the first spherical of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Chandler Stephenson was awarded the Kraken’s second penalty shot of the season 3:19 into the sport. Stephenson tore up the center towards Kings goaltender David Rittich (28 saves) with a stick in his midsection courtesy of L.A. defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. He, like teammate Tolvanen on March 4, did not convert the do-over.
Seattle dominated possession within the first 10 minutes and outshot the Kings 11-5 within the first interval, however Samuel Helenius and Alex Turcotte scored 1:09 aside to ship the Kraken into the intermission down 2-0. Turcotte’s was a power-play purpose.
Montour, Beniers and Tolvanen all scored on the facility play as effectively. A lot of the league has a sport or two left to play, however as of Tuesday afternoon the Kraken’s man benefit sat twenty sixth (17.9%) of 32 groups, down from seventeenth final season. The penalty kill is twenty first at 77.4% and moved down one spot from the prior yr.
Fourth-line ahead Mikey Eyssimont is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer season and tried to exit with a literal flourish. He tried a lacrosse transfer, nicknamed the “Michigan,” throughout the second interval however hit the put up.
“It looked like he came pretty close, actually. He’s a pretty skilled guy,” linemate Kartye mentioned. “It didn’t hurt if that one ended up in.”
Kartye did make his mark, ending an uneven sophomore season on a excessive be aware. He was a wholesome scratch extra in 2024-25 than he was the earlier marketing campaign. He appeared in 63 video games and was seeing the ice so occasionally in February that he went all the way down to Coachella Valley for a conditioning stint.
Kartye was killing a second-period penalty when he got here up the aspect and let a wrist shot fly. His sixth purpose and thirteenth level of the season made it 2-1.
Montour tied the sport at 2. The Kings scored 4 unanswered targets earlier than the third interval was three minutes previous. Schwartz went down to at least one knee to get one again, and Beniers returned from a daunting knee-on-knee collision in time to attain his personal.
Shane Wright had a shot at his personal 20-goal season however needed to accept 19 targets and the first help on Tolvanen’s with Daccord pulled and 30 seconds left within the sport.
The prospect of free Fan Appreciation Evening reward playing cards and sneakers wasn’t sufficient to maintain lots of the followers from submitting out of Local weather Pledge Enviornment because the Kings ran up the rating. These followers missed the group awards, which got here after the ultimate buzzer.
Schwartz was already the Kraken nominee for the league’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is a management and humanitarian award, and the Masterton Trophy, which celebrates perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game.
He added the Kraken’s Guyle Fielder Award, given to the participant who finest exemplifies Fielder’s “perseverance, hustle and dedication.”
The Pete Muldoon Award winner, or the group’s most precious participant, was Daccord. He additionally received the three stars of the yr award.
In his first yr as a member of the Kraken, defenseman Montour received the fan favourite award.
Ticket costs and a 3rd jersey
At a season ticket-holder occasion Tuesday, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke introduced yearly ticket costs would drop and teased a 3rd jersey design that’s set to be prepared in time for the 2025-26 season.
Most each different NHL group has a sweater aside from these for house and away video games, be it a callback to years previous or a brand new design worn at an outside sport. Leiweke mentioned the Kraken’s new look has been in improvement for a number of years.
The Kraken didn’t launch pictures or a mock-up of the brand new jersey.
“It is going to be unique,” Leiweke mentioned. “It is going to make the fans actually feel part of the show.”
Francis sticking round
Leiweke additionally confirmed that normal supervisor Ron Francis could be retained with a busy offseason forward.
The Kraken are 141-152-33 underneath Francis, their unique GM, and have made the postseason as soon as in 4 years of play.
Francis was employed in 2019. In 2023, after the lone playoff run, he agreed to a three-year contract extension by the 2026-27 season.
Rumors unfold that Francis could be let go midseason after Leiweke joined the struggling group on a street journey in January. Francis dispelled these rumors.
“When we look back and look what he’s done in Coachella Valley, the prospects that we have now in our system, our current roster, and what we’re faced with this summer — we have cap space, we have picks, our future’s bright,” Leiweke mentioned.
