How do the Seattle Kraken compare to other NHL expansion franchises?
Things haven’t exactly been great for the NHL’s latest expansion franchise. Through their first 18 games, they’ve posted a meagre 5-12-1 record that has placed them at the bottom of the Pacific Division.
They’ve struggled out of the gate and while lots of their underlying numbers look great, Seattle hasn’t been able to put many games together.
And there’s one place that this falls onto: the goaltending. Seattle’s team save percentage in all situations so far this year is league-low .858 sv% — a long way away from the 31st ranked Montreal Canadiens, who have a still brutal .889 sv%.
The Kraken took a risk by rolling with Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger and it hasn’t been paying off. As we all know, goaltenders are voodoo and this is a prime example.
Grubauer was one of the better goalies in the league last year with the Colorado Avalance placing third in Vezina voting with the eighth-best save percentage in the league. Driedger, meanwhile, posted the fifth-best save percentage in the league in what was a breakout campaign for the journeyman.
Despite that, Seattle has some good numbers behind its play. They rank atop the league in Corsi against per hour allowing just 48.12 shot attempts per 60. While their goals against per hour rate is 3.77, a league-low, their expected goals against per hour number of 2.54 ranked eighth in the league.
Their offensive numbers have been about league average. They generate the 20th most shot attempts per hour with 54.39, while their 2.88 goals for per hour.
The Kraken are far from what the Vegas Golden Knights were in their first year.
In 2018, Vegas took the NHL by storm posting a wildly impressive 51-24-7 record-winning top spot in the Pacific Division. They made it all the way to the Stanley Cup, before falling in five games to the Washington Capitals.
Through 18 games, Vegas posted a 11-6-1 record and already looked at every part of a team that was going to make some noise and boy, did they ever.
But the truth is, expansion teams are more like the Seattle Kraken than the Vegas Golden Knights. That Vegas club was something special, a massive outlier if you’d say.
So today we’re going to take a look at nine other teams that have joined the NHL since the early 1990’s and see how they fared.
1991-92
The 91-92 season saw just one expansion team: the San Jose Sharks.
Oh, the San Jose Sharks. They had a tough year as the NHL’s 22nd franchise. By the end of the year, Pat Falloon and Brian Mullen led the way offensively, but goaltending was a big issue for the club. They had five goalies play games and they posted a team save percentage of .879 by the end of the year.
San Jose struggled in its first 18 games even more than the Kraken have. The Sharks won three out of their first 18 games and got outscored 93 to 48. By the end of the year, they posted a league-worst 17-58-5.
1992-93
The following year, two teams joined the NHL: the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning and boy, did they stink.
Ottawa, however, was the worst of the two. They won their first game, but then went winless in their next 17, starting 1-16-1 while getting outscored 96-38. By the end of the year, they finished a league-worst 10-70-4. Defenseman Norm Maciver was their leading scorer putting up 63 points in 80 games.
Tampa Bay faired ever-so-slightly better. By the end of the season, they were only the third-worst team in the league behind San Jose and the aforementioned Senators with a 23-54-7 record. Their first 18 games, however, were solid. They posted an 8-8-2 record outscoring their opponents 68-59. Brian Bradley led the club in scoring.
1993-94
The early expansion of the ’90s continued as the league welcomed the Florida Panthers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. These two teams were not like the others.
In Florida, the Panthers had a decent start to the year, posting a 7-8-3 record, being outscored 55-52 and kept at a similar pace all year. They finished their first campaign with a 33-34-17 record and allowed the fourth-least goals against. Scott Mellanby led the way scoring 60 points in 80 games as the team got .919 goaltending.
The Mighty Ducks, meanwhile, looked good too, but struggled mightily early. They fell to a 4-12-2 record in their first 18 games scoring 46 goals and allowing 67. By years end, Terry Yake led the team in scoring as the Mighty Ducks posted a 33-46-5 record.
1998-99
Expansion was put on the NHL’s backburner for a number of years until the Nashville Predators joined the league kicking off another trio of years where clubs joined.
They finished, however, as the fourth-worst team in the league. Nashville finished the year with a 28-47-3 record with Cliff Ronning leading the team in scoring. Nashville was sub-.500 to start the year posting a 7-10-1 record in their first 18 games.
1999-2000
More expansion came when the Atlanta Thrashers joined the league in 1999-2000 and… well…
Atlanta was bad. The Thrashers posted a league-worst 14-57-7 record and were led in scoring by Andrew Brunette, who posted 50 points in 81 games. 18 games in, the Thrashers struggled mightily, posting a 4-12-2 record while getting outscored 68-40.
2000-2001
The last of the teams to join the NHL pre-Vegas were the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild. And to be honest, they weren’t awful despite finishing in the bottom-10 in the league.
Columbus posted a 28-39-9-6 record with Geoff Sanderson leading the way offensively with 56 points in 68 games. In their first 18? They posted a 6-11-1 record.
Minnesota, meanwhile, posted a 25-39-15-5 record with Scott Pellerin leading the way offensively with 39 points in 58 games. In their first 18 games, they posted a 4-11-3 record.
So what can we take away?
There’s lots of season left for the Seattle Kraken. While Vegas is the only team since the ’90s to even make the playoffs in their first season.
Despite a slow start to their season, the Kraken still have lots going for them. They’ve done a good job producing offense, but have been the unluckiest team in the league when it comes to their goaltending. There’s reason to believe it can rebound as both Grubauer and Driedger are solid NHL goalies.
Jaden Schwartz, Jordan Eberle, Jared McCann, Alexander Wennberg, Brandon Tanev and Yanni Gourde all have more than 10 points.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens the rest of the way for the NHL’s 32nd franchise.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.