I haven't loved the moves that the Seattle Kraken made this off-season. Running back essentially the same team as last year with the additions of Stephenson and Montour doesn't instill confidence to me that this is a playoff bound roster.

Right now, here is the potential depth chart for the Kraken:

McCann-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Stephenson-Burakovsky
Tolvanen-Wright-Bjorkstrand
Kartye-Gourde-Tanev

Dunn-Larsson
Oleksiak-Montour
Evans-Borgen

Daccord
Grubauer

There is young talent on this roster and depth on the wings and at centre but this team still lacks an elite player at any position. The closest I would argue they have is Jared McCann who is very productive but if he is your best player than I don't see how you go deep in the playoffs.

The saving grace for the Kraken this season could be that the Pacific Division as a whole is shaping up to be pretty weak.

THE TOP END

Go ahead and accuse me of bias but I find it hard to argue that the Edmonton Oilers aren't the top team in the Pacific Division. After a rough start to last season, the Oilers went on the have the best winning percentage in the NHL after Knoblauch came in. The Stanley Cup runners up are coming back with essentially the same roster, led by McDavid and Draisaitl, bolstered by more scoring in the likes of Skinner and Arvidsson.

The Canucks likely are the second best team in the Pacific and had a bit of an opposite season to Edmonton. The Canucks starting the season on a high, but with some statistical concerns due to high PDO and shooting percentages. In the final few months of the season those numbers started to come back down to earth but this was still a good team. The Canucks might have the best goalie tandem in the NHL with Demko and Silovs, who was phenomenal in the playoffs. They are arguably weaker than last year's team with the loss of Zadorov and Lindholm but replaced the latter with DeBrusk who should provide some solid secondary scoring. This should be a fun team to watch.

THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK

Vegas is a team that looks worse compared to last season. The issue with trying to predict the Golden Knights is two days from now the team may add Mitch Marner, Steven Stamkos, and Connor Hellebuyck and somehow be cap complaint. Vegas is an aggressively run team that always swings for the fences but right now the roster looks particularly thin on the wing. The team is hoping for adds like Holtz and Olofsson to help but right now this looks like a team destined for 3rd in the division.

The LA Kings are a weird team. A few years back it looked like the Kings were moving into a rebuild and would soon be led by the likes of Byfield and Turcotte. Instead this very much remains a 36 year old Kopitar and 34 year old Doughty's team. LA is hoping that Kuemper provides some stability in net but replacing Arvidsson with Foegele is a net loss for the team. This really feels like a team just kind of spinning their tires.


LOTTERY BOUND

The Anaheim Ducks are starting to look like a permanently rebuilding team. There is a ton of potential in their young core but they lack a strong veteran core around them and the team inexplicably has 22 million in cap space that they have not spent, with most of the prime UFA's already long gone. Short of a miracle offensive explosion from the likes of Carlsson and Gauthier, 26th overall feels like the right number for this team.

The Sharks are just beginning their rebuild in full with a shiny new toys to keep the fans distracted in Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. This team will be among the bottom dwellers again but that's to be expected.

The Calgary Flames appear to be entering a full rebuild, selling off assets like Mangiapane and Markstrom for picks and prospects. The team needs to find their own young superstar to push them back into relevancy again and the only proven way to do that is to pick high.

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The Kraken as of today would sit at the bottom of the "middle of the pack" section; at least on paper they are not better than LA or Vegas but should be better than the three teams that are still trying to be bad on purpose.

Big steps forward from the likes of Wright and Beniers could push this team into the playoff conversation but as of today I remain unconvinced that Ron Francis has done enough to push this team back into contention.

Thanks for reading

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