3 things the Seattle Kraken need for a deep playoff run

The Seattle Kraken were a very bad team in 2021-22. It was their first year in the league, and they were terrible, like expansion teams should be (looking at you, Vegas Golden Knights). Seattle finished in last place in the Pacific Division with 60 standings points.

Coming into year number two, people didn’t think they’d be much better, but why should they have? It is a team with some really good players, but climbing out of being a 60-point team is usually really hard.

The problem is that it wasn’t hard for the Seattle Kraken in 2022-23. Hockey fans, perhaps including some Kraken fans, spent a lot of the first half waiting to see when they’d finally fall off. By New Year’s Eve, however, it became pretty clear that they weren’t going to.

They really haven’t pushed for the Pacific Division title as much in the second half, but they have still been a really good team and there are a lot of reasons why.

The Seattle Kraken have a very bright future ahead of them if they are smart.

Well, on Thursday, they clinched a postseason berth for the first time in franchise history with a win over the Arizona Coyotes. That is obviously a very special moment in their franchise’s history. Now, you can’t help but wonder if they are capable of making a run in the postseason.

Making a run doesn’t even mean winning the Stanley Cup or even the Western Conference. A really good run for them would be a round victory or two. If they are going to pull something like that off this spring, these three things need to happen:

2. Goaltending

Goaltending will be a key for the Seattle Kraken during the 2023 NHL playoffs.

The Seattle Kraken are a surprise team this year, and their goaltending has played a big part in it. Philipp Grubauer was not very good with them last year in the first year of his big contract that he earned. He also started this year injured, so it didn’t seem logical that their goaltending would hold up.

Since then, he has returned and both he and Martin Jones have been good enough to win games with the Kraken. Neither of their save percentages is above .900, but they both have goals-against averages under 3.

To be honest, this might be one of the best duos in the league in terms of winning hockey games in any way they can. Both of them have come in and stopped pucks just enough when called upon, which is all you have to do when you’re a goalie on a very good team.

The playoffs get harder for everybody, and that includes the goaltenders. It is on Grubauer and Jones to play well and help this team advance. If one of them gets hot at the right time, and the forwards can score some goals, you never know what could happen.

Throughout the years, we’ve seen lots of hot goalies carry teams pretty deep into the postseason. If they want to beat someone like the Vegas Golden Knights or Edmonton Oilers, they are going to need one of these two standing on their head.

Whoever head coach Dave Hakstol goes with, the fans are just going to have to trust. They both deserve it at this point, but there is only one net. If they don’t elevate their game, the Kraken has no chance.

3. Vince Dunn leads the defense

Vince Dunn and the defense need to step up big for the Seattle Kraken this year.

All season long, Vince Dunn has had one of the most underrated seasons for a defenseman ever. On Thursday night, in the win over the Arizona Coyotes, Vince Dunn scored an unassisted goal for his 14th of the season. That is a very nice number for a defenseman.

This team defends and scores by committee, but there is no doubt that Vince Dunn plays a big role in everything. In addition to those 14 goals, the man has 50 assists which leads the team by a fair amount. Those 64 points from the blue line are not bad at all. He is second on the team in that department.

The next closest defenseman on the team is Adam Larsson who has about half the points that Dunn has. It is pretty clear that Dunn runs the show but he needs help from everyone on defense once the playoffs begin. In all three zones, it will become a true team effort if they want to win.

There are a lot of players on this team that have won big in their careers, and Vince Dunn is one of them. Now that he is in his age 26 season, he has career highs in everything and can use that past Stanley Cup-winning experience to take him a long way.

There are going to be a lot of people that doubt the Kraken. They believe in themselves, but they do need all of these things and then some to go right in order to make a run. A lot of folks will be rooting for them.