Friday, Sept. 20 saw the Seattle Kraken take to the ice for Day 2 of their 2024 training camp drills. New exercises, interesting defensive pairings, and more words from head coach Dan Bylsma about what he hopes to accomplish this upcoming season. Let’s dive into what the day was like.
Joey Daccord and Niklas Kokko Get Screened
Goaltenders Joey Daccord and Niklas Kokko were screened on Friday at the Kraken Community Iceplex. Not in the sense that security had to double-verify their identities or anything of the sort. Nay, they were both on the ice a bit earlier as part of Group 2 and partook in the drills during which each was screened against shots on target.
This is, arguably, one of the most important shots a netminder can practice for. That in of itself is a bit ironic given that it can be next to impossible to predict which new angle the deviated puck will take. That is, after all, the purpose of attempting a tip-in; the goalie has a lower chance of stopping it. As such, a tip-in – or deflection – is considered a high-danger shot.
In 2023-24, Daccord sported a 0.739 save percentage (SV%) against high-danger shots, as per MoneyPuck. Out of all the keepers who played in at least 40 matches, the 28-year-old ranked 14th out of 34. That doesn’t sound terrific, but consider that players like Juuse Saros, Sergei Bobrovsky, Linus Ullmark, and Jacob Markstrom were ahead of him. These are some of the best in the business.
In an interesting move at one point during the session, just as shooters ripped shots from the top of the face-off circle, a screener would be tugged along the crease by another skater pulling a rope. The idea, presumably, is to ensure a “perfect” screen. There were no obstructions, and the screener himself did not have to worry about how quickly or slowly to enter the goalie’s field of vision. It looked a bit strange but seemed to do the trick.
Although the odds of young Finn Kokko playing in the NHL are slim – barring unforeseen problems – it was important for the 20-year-old to practice with the NHLers and get acclimatized to that environment. Teammate Daccord was impressed with what he saw in Kokko:
“The biggest thing for me, when I look at goalies, is their presence in the net. You can tell when someone gets in the net right away whether they have that presence. And I think he has that.”
Brandon Montour’s Good Day
In our Day 1 recap we highlighted new Kraken Chandler Stephenson’s first strides with his Seattle brothers in arms. Another summer signing that had pundits typing away at their keyboards was defenseman Brandon Montour. He was the target of many of the same criticisms: too old to sign for so many campaigns for so much money (30 years of age, seven seasons, $7.142 million annual average).
But a lot of what we wrote in our Day 1 report can be copied and pasted here. Assuming he still has a decent amount of juice left in those legs, this is a defender who has played in back-to-back Stanley Cup Final series with the Florida Panthers and won the most recent of the two. Even though the Panthers did not attain the same postseason success three seasons ago (2021-22), they entered the playoffs as the Presidents’ Trophy winners with Montour on the back end.
Related: Racapping the Seattle Kraken’s Day 1 of 2024 Training Camp
Well, speaking of juice in legs, seeing him blast away at the skating ladder drills was impressive, to say the least. He blew by his competition. His shots were as powerful as rockets in other drills (with passes served by, you guessed it, Stephenson), and reports from Davy Jones’ Locker Room indicate that Montour was definitely feeling himself, even celebrating after scoring on young Kokko.
Again, these are only September practice sessions, but it’s nice knowing that after all the critiquing the club received for giving Montour and Stephenson big contracts, each has looked quite good through two days.
Kraken Defensive Pairings
On the topic of Montour, the defensive pairing was worth noting. The former Panther was placed alongside Jamie Oleksiak. When everyone was healthy last season, Oleksiak was more of a second-pair blue liner, not a first.
Does this mean that Bylsma and his staff are considering Montour as a fit for the second pair on a regular basis? It’s too early to tell, but one assumes the coaches want to see what happens when different players are forced to play together. The Montour acquisition felt as though a pairing with top defender Vince Dunn was inevitable, and that still might happen, but the Torontonian Oleksiak was no slouch last season. He had a minus-2 rating in 82 games on a team that had many players with a far worse number. Dunn has played with Adam Larsson so far at camp.
A third pairing that might have an impact on what the Kraken do in 2024-25 was Ryker Evans and William Borgen. Borgen, 27, is just coming into his own in the NHL. The 2022-23 campaign was the first during which he was a true regular, playing in all 82 of Seattle’s contests. He is something of an iron man, having replicated the feat last season. For his part, Evans became a familiar face to see on the ice when the Kraken needed reinforcements once Dunn missed significant time with injuries.
Welcome to the NHL, Berkly Catton
No one actually expects Seattle’s 2024 first-round draft selection Berkly Catton to be a force in the NHL this season. His 2024-25 will be spent mostly if not exclusively in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Spokane Chiefs. That said, it is nice to see him make it out of last week’s rookie camp unscathed and be an active participant at camp with the big boys.
As big boys want to do, they welcome young bucks in special ways. Playing in the same group as Dunn, at one point the veteran defender reportedly made quick work of the rookie, bouncing him off the puck. The 18-year-old’s body said hello to the ice and slid into the boards. Fear not, it was all part of the training camp grind. Catton quickly got up and rejoined his mates.
Enjoy the NHL, kiddo.
Dan Bylsma’s Message of Intent
As was the case at the conclusion of Day 1, the head coach shared some time with the media. It’s always a dubious proposition, knowing how much stock one should put into what a new coach says at training camp. It’s early days, no games have been played, and no losing streaks have been suffered. As such, there is always a bit of PR stunt work with his end-of-day interviews, especially at this time of year. Is a coach, especially a new one, going to intentionally say anything that rocks the boat? No.
Even so, Bylsma continues to be a fairly straight shooter, no pun intended. He wants his players to not only work hard but be smart about it as well:
“We don’t want to be (just) a hard-working team, we want to be an intentional, smart, hard-working team and that gets installed in practice with detail of what we do and how we do the drills and why we’re doing them and hopefully that is a message they clearly get.”
With Day 2 of training camp in the books, the Kraken are beginning to find their stride, if just barely. The players return to the ice on Saturday for Day 3 and have the luxury of staying home all weekend. They open the preseason on Sunday evening at home to the Calgary Flames.
