Just three days away from their season opener, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken were busy finalizing their roster Saturday, and that meant more good news for desert hockey fans as multiple familiar Firebirds faces will be rejoining the team.
The Kraken announced Saturday that defenseman Ryker Evans and center Shane Wright have been reassigned to the Firebirds. Also, goalie Chris Driedger, forward John Hayden and Cale Fleury were placed on waivers for the purpose of being reassigned to the Firebirds. During the waiver process, another team can swoop in and take one of those players but they would have to take over that player’s contract and keep them on their NHL team, so it’s unlikely to happen.
Saturday’s announcement followed a Thursday player movement update that saw Firebird favorites Cameron Hughes, Kole Lind, Max McCormick, Andrew Poturalski, Jimmy Schuldt and Gustav Olofsson all returning to the Coachella Valley.
Answering the Coachella Valley Firebirds most urgent question: Who’s going to play goalie?
So for Firebirds fans crunching the numbers, that means that only Tye Kartye and goalie Joey Daccord from the 2022-23 Firebird family will be staying with the Kraken to start the season.
The Firebirds are scheduled to play a preseason game at 3 p.m. Sunday against the Henderson Silver Knights at Acrisure Arena, and then open the 2023-24 season on Friday at home against the Bakersfield Condors.
The Kraken open their season Tuesday against the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley Firebirds: Ryker Evans, Shane Wright rejoin team
