The Seattle Kraken's miracle run came to an end on Sunday night with a 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 7. The Stars will move on to the Western Conference Finals while the Kraken are now done for the season.

It's completely reasonable to be dissapointed that the ride is over. No one likes to lose and seeing how this Kraken team went head to head with the Dallas Stars and forced Game 7, fans are still going to be mad that they couldn't end up with that last win.

I'm not going to talk much about that Game 7 other than to say that Philip Grubauer had his best game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was a force in net all night and it took some pretty phenomenal chances for the Stars to finally beat him. I'm dissapointed that the team just couldn't seem to get anything going offensively to help support their netminders outstanding performance.

At the beginning of this season I had stated that this Kraken team needed to at bare minimum be competing for a playoff spot in the second half of the season and that we needed to see a legitimate step forward in their development. They blew those expectations out of the water. Not only did the Kraken beat the former Stanley Cup Champions, they took the Stars to Game 7 and there is no reason to suggest this team will slow down next season.

This team did all of this even though Grubauer struggled through the regular season, Andrei Burakovsky missed the entire post-season, the Shane Wright early season drama and many struggles through this long 22/23 season.

Most of the core group of players are already signed for next season. There are some big contracts to figure out; Vince Dunn being the biggest but strong role players like Geekie, Sprong, and even Borgen are priorities.

Will the Kraken lose their pending UFA's in Donskoi, Soucy, and Donato?

As of today the Kraken have over 19 million to address the roster. That is some competitive space that will allow Ron Francis to be aggressive in pursuing players to improve this roster. The forward core looks pretty set by my eyes, especially considering Shane Wright will likely be on the roster next season. Adding more depth on this blueline will be a priority, potentially a backup goalie.

All of these details are conversations for other days. For now, hold your heads high Kraken fans. This has been a phenomenal season and I can't wait to see what this team does next season and beyond.

As always, thanks for reading!

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