The NHL is back and with it comes the hopes and dreams of 32 franchises and their fans that they could lift Lord Stanley’s Cup come 2027.

For some teams, that dream seems more far-fetched than others. 

Enter the Seattle Kraken. 

The Kraken enter year two of the Lane Lambert Era looking for just their second playoff appearance in six years — fellow recent expansion team Vegas has reached the playoffs every year except for one and have three finals appearances in 10 seasons. 

The 2022-23 season saw Kraken’s lone playoff showing; They defeated Colorado in the first round before falling to Dallas in seven games in the following round. 

To get back to the postseason, Seattle first needs to manage a lengthened regular season of 84 games, up from the 82 of years past. Pair that with a shortened preseason and there isn’t a lot of time for coaches to institute a new system. 

“You have to be careful with how much you ‘cram’ in,” Lambert said. “You have to realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. The nice thing about the shortened training camp is that this is not year one for us as a coaching staff and for the players. So, there is a lot of things that remain consistent.” 

The roster remains semi-consistent. The Kraken saw a trio of key departures in Jamie Oleksiak, Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen, but not much otherwise. Whether that is good or bad remains unknown, but the optimism for a playoff appearance after losing three key players and only adding one — Maki Samoskevich in a trade from Florida — leaves a lot to be desired. 

Seattle did draft a promising defenseman in Chase Reid with the No. 7 pick in June.  

There also has to be a bit of optimism from Kraken fans after the offseason passed and the team did not add another bad contract like in seasons past with Phillip Grubauer (6-years, $35.4 million), Andre Burakovsky (5-years, $27.5 million) and Chandler Stephenson (7-years, $43.75 million). 

Not that Seattle didn’t try to make a splash. The Kraken had a deal to acquire Jason Robertson from Dallas, but the deal fell through as Robertson wouldn’t sign a long-term extension with Seattle. 

Speaking of trades, Shane Wright still remains on the roster despite a falling out between the forward and front office staff that ended with the team saying they plan to trade him during the offseason. Wright noted a few weeks ago that he has put that in the past for the time being. 

“Whatever outside noise, I am not really caring about that, not really focused on that. I’m here and committed to the team,” Wright said.  

So as the NHL season begins Thursday for the Kraken, it looks as though another season of mediocrity is in store for the killer squids. 

But hey, that’s why they play the games, right? 

Sports reporter Jon Allen can be reached at 406-758-4426 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.