The Seattle Kraken have finally been eliminated from the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs after a heartbreaking 2–1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday night.
The upstart Kraken made it all the way to Game 7 of the second round after being widely expected to remain near the NHL’s basement in their second year as a franchise.
Now, all the attention will turn to what comes next in the Pacific Northwest. Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk took a look at the Seattle situation on Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s talk about big picture with this Seattle Kraken team, Frank. This is a team where no player makes more than $6 million against the cap. They relied on their depth, they relied on surprising a lot of teams this year. Is this a group that is building towards something, that is building towards being a perennial playoff team, or was this a flash in the pan for the NHL’s 32nd franchise?
Frank Seravalli: It’s amazing to think that this team was one win away from the Final Four and potentially setting up a matchup between the two most recent expansion teams. I think, proof that you can win as an expansion franchise, if the Golden Knights didn’t prove that already with their trip to the Stanley Cup Final back in 2018. But, when you look at this Kraken team, and you hit on some of the facets: the depth that they had, they contributions that they got.
I think the big wish that I have for the Kraken as they build now […] is that they don’t change course. I have a lot of confidence in Ron Francis that he won’t be doing that, but you shouldn’t be going out now and signing big-ticket free agents, which this year probably isn’t that much of a threat with the free agent class that we have. I don’t think they need a ton of change in order to remain competitive, I’m not saying that they’re going to be winning rounds every year, but they’re certainly going to be in the mix.
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