Down on the Farm: Kraken prospect Eduard Sale’s “tryout” in Coachella Valley is going well

Welcome back to Down on the Farm, your weekly Seattle Kraken prospects update. Every Friday during the season we’ll check in to give you information on every Kraken-affiliated player below the NHL level, including a deep dive on one player. This week we take a closer look at the curious development path of Kraken prospect Eduard Sale and then dive into information and statistics from the week that was and the season to date. Let’s get to it.

Featured Kraken prospect: Eduard Šalé

Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL) | 19 years old | 2 games played | 1 goal | 2 assists | 1.5 PPG

The Kraken drafted Eduard Sale 20th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft to some mixed reviews. Draft analysts credited his pure offensive skill, his historic production in the Czech junior league in his draft-minus-one season, and his international tournament play, but many also saw a player whose engagement waned as he played in the top-level Czech professional league. The hope coming out of the draft was that a jump to Canadian junior hockey for the 2023-24 season would allow him to recapture his confidence and offensive prowess.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan for Sale in the OHL. He never really found his footing in Barrie, struggling with the transition to North America. He was traded to the Kitchener Rangers midseason, and things didn’t improve much until the postseason when he seemed to force the issue a bit more and up his engagement. But the sample size was so small, it was hard to be sure there was a tangible improvement.

“It’s more physical… the game is faster [in North America],” Sale told the media during training camp. “For a couple of games [the North American style] was not my game. But after a couple games I [felt] better and better.”

Over the summer, Sale looked at home back in international play (see the video above), racking up a handful of shots and shot assists every game I watched. It gave me some optimism we may finally see a marked improvement from Sale this season.

Sale had an up-and-down training camp and preseason from my vantage. He recorded a goal in his second exhibition game against Edmonton, and coach Dan Bylmsa sounded generally complimentary of Sale’s game play after the first contest against Vancouver, indicating that it earned Sale a second game look. For my part, I saw some things to be encouraged about, but…