Kraken won’t go far without a superstar player

The Seattle Kraken are still in their infancy as a franchise, but it appears they’ve come to the realization every NHL team has to have from time to time: sometimes, the path you’re on just isn’t working, and you have to start over. On Wednesday, Seattle and executive Ron Francis mutually agreed to part ways. Francis has been with the team since its inception, acting as their first general manager and then becoming their President of Hockey Operations last offseason. Whether Francis’ departure is related to the team’s underwhelming on-ice performance, it signals the end of one era and the beginning of the next in Kraken hockey.

One thing Seattle’s new management team can learn from its predecessor is that there’s no replacement for elite talent. The Kraken have yet to boast a true star-level player, and it’s been a limiting factor for them through five seasons. Unfortunately for Seattle, there doesn’t seem to be an ascending star within their organization, either, so they’ll have to exercise some patience to get the superstar player they crave.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the need for the Kraken to find their franchise-leading superstar.

Carter Hutton: This is a team where, and you talked about it with their fanbase, they don’t have a superstar. I’m breaking down the numbers here, and I’ve said this before on the show, Jordan Eberle right now is their leading scorer with 53 points. Jordan Eberle on a good hockey team, where’s he playing, on your third line? He’s not really a guy that’s going to generate a lot of offense. He’s first on your team. Matty Beniers is who he is. Obviously Bobby McMann’s been great coming over, but he’s 106th in the NHL in points.

You look at Connor McDavid right now, Connor McDavid just peaked at 133 points, so 80 more points than the leading scorer on the Seattle Kraken. So now you’re talking about comparisons and I’m trying to compete with this. So there alone, where are those extra points coming from. You can win by committee, and I think Lane Lambert has done a very good job of getting this team to play a very structured team game. But at the end of the day, how do you compete? And now you’re talking about trying to win a best-of-seven series. I think it’s just very hard for this team to get anywhere without a superstar.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…