Kraken Place Ryan Lindgren On IR

The Seattle Kraken will be without defenseman Ryan Lindgren for some time after he left Tuesday night’s contest with an upper-body injury. Seattle announced they have placed Lindgren on injured reserve and has given Lindgren a recovery timeline of approximately four to six weeks.

It’s a tough blow for a Kraken team that has gotten off to a quality start, albeit in four games. Lindgren had been skating on Seattle’s third defensive pairing alongside Cale Fleury when he sustained the injury. He has gone scoreless through the Kraken’s first four contests but has managed a +3 rating while averaging 12:45 of ice time per game (16:41 ATOI before the game in which he was injured).

Lindgren sustained the injury on Tuesday night against the Vegas Golden Knights just seconds into the contest. The nine-year veteran turned his back while pinching on the blue line and was hit from behind by Golden Knights forward Marc Gatcomb. Gatcomb was given a minor penalty for boarding.

Regardless of how he sustained the injury, the Kraken won’t have Lindgren in the lineup until early November. He remained relatively healthy in his first season with Seattle last year, finishing with two goals and nine points in 76 games with a -2 rating, averaging 18:20 of ice time per game.

As always, there is a bittersweet reality to players going down with an injury. Now that Lindgren is coming out of the lineup, someone must step in. Typically, the Kraken deploy defensemen on their forehand, though they may make an exception here.

If they want to keep the defensive corps on their forehands, Josh Mahura, a left-handed shot, will replace Lindgren for the foreseeable future. Mahura has served as a depth defender for the Kraken since the 2024-25 campaign.

Still, Seattle could give a consistent opportunity to a younger defenseman who surprisingly made the team’s opening-night roster out of training camp, even though he is right-handed. Ville Ottavainen, 24, has already played one game for the Kraken this season, and didn’t look out of place. Seattle may determine that giving Ottavainen more opportunities outweighs the need for balanced handedness and see if he can succeed in a larger role.