Salk: The 3 Seattle Kraken players to watch this season

As the Seattle Kraken start their season, I am looking forward to watching. I don’t know whether they’re going to be any better than they were last year or not. Hopefully they can be. Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to watch some entertaining hockey.

What Seattle Kraken voice John Forslund wants to see this season

I do think that we’re going to see a more physical brand of hockey as coach Lane Lambert does a better job of introducing his system and having the right players to play it. That’s a good sign. Here are a few players that I think we absolutely need to watch this year.

No. 1 is going to be Mackie Samoskevich. He was probably the biggest addition they made in the offseason and he is a fast, offensive player. We’ll wait and see whether he can do all the other little things, but he can scoot out there and he provides a little bit more scoring wiggle than they’ve had really at any point during their time.

They need him to start to bring some of that offense sooner rather than later, which is probably the biggest thing that’s been missing. Oh, by the way, he might actually be able to score in a shootout, so that could be helpful as well.

No. 2 is, you know me, going to be Jacob Melanson, the fourth-line winger. Why? Because this guy just brings energy, he brings physicality, and when they were playing their best hockey last year, Melanson and the rest of that fourth line was a huge component of it. They got split up and never really came back together.

He got paid a little bit in the offseason, so I am anxious to see whether he continues at his enormous pace of hitting other players now that he has. He did in the preseason – I think that’s a really good sign for the regular season and that should be helpful.

Go grab that puck! 👏

Jacob Melanson has his first in the NHL! pic.twitter.com/XHdTgM3BUq

— NHL (@NHL) January 6, 2026

The third guy for me is Bobby McMann, who was added near the end of last year. He played well, but the team did not play well after he showed up. He’s a good player. He’s big, he can score, he can move, and if he’s able to get completely untracked and get the rest of his line going around him, he could be another player that allows them to exceed the expectations that admittedly for them are very low.

I don’t know whether there’s any way for them to be better than they’ve been, but if they’re gonna do it, those are three guys that I’ve been looking at.

This article is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

Seattle Kraken news and more

• Here’s the Kraken’s expanded 84-game schedule for 2026-27
• Bobby McMann confident in Kraken’s future after signing extension
• Samoskevich brings needed speed, offensive skill to Seattle Kraken

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