What John Forslund wants to see from Kraken in Year 2 of Lambert era

The Seattle Kraken are less than two weeks away from kicking off their sixth season in the NHL and second under head coach Lane Lambert.

Ex-Seattle Kraken assistant Jessica Campbell lands with another NHL team

The franchise hasn’t been able to build off its playoff run during the 2022-23 season, posting three straight losing seasons since. During that span, Seattle has been stuck in a purgatory of sorts where it hasn’t been good enough to reach the playoffs, nor bad enough to get a potentially franchise-altering top draft pick.

The Kraken had an up-and-down season in Lambert’s first year. They held the Western’s Conference final wild-card berth on March 3 with about 1 1/2 months left in the season but saw their postseason hopes dashed with a brutal stretch of 17 losses over their final 22 games.

There have been some changes to the Kraken’s roster since last year. The team notably lost veterans Jaden Schwartz, Eeli Tolvanen and Jamie Oleksiak in free agency. It also acquired forward Mackie Samoskevich and center Curtis Douglas, and re-signed Bobby McMann following his strong 18-game show with the team last season.

Kraken play-by-play voice John Forslund shared what he wants to see from the team in its second season under Lambert with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Thursday.

What Forslund is most looking for direction and identity.

What I want to see this season is some clarity. I want to see a direction for the team so that we don’t have a lot of questions during the season, and certainly at the end of the season, as far as a conclusion as to what it is. And I think that’s been the issue here over the last couple of seasons. It’s almost unfair to lead the fans down a path of any kind of expectation today. But what I want to see is this thing morph into a transitional period where some of these younger players that they talk about are reality and you can actually see a path to the future.

To me, that would be the best thing for the Seattle Kraken, is for them to establish that in this season. Will it lead to a playoff spot? We’ll get to that later in the year. I’m not going to go there right now, but I do want to see incremental steps that will lead to that conclusion, so the fans can say, ‘OK, I get it now. I see where this team’s going and where it’s going to get to when it finally gets there.’

Now, it’s unfortunate in year No. 6 – and this is my 42nd (NHL) training camp – that the team’s kind in that spot, but it is what it is. But I do think the page is turning here and I’m very excited to see how some of these younger players matriculate and how they kind of find their slots within the lineup. And if it’s even a player like (Matty) Beniers, what is the next step (for him)? It’s been a nice career so far. You were rookie of the year and all that, but there have been times it’s been a mixed bag.

So, let’s see how they do it, how they come together. I’m not worried about Lane because I think he did a really good job in Year 1 of putting in a foundation in terms of a system and how they want to play and get to an identity. But they do start this preseason, in my opinion, without identity, and that’s hard to establish.

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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