The Seattle Kraken are here in the NHL prospect pool overview series.
Tony Ferrari digs into the Kraken’s strengths and weaknesses, latest draft class, positional depth chart, next player in line for an NHL opportunity and more. A player who no longer holds rookie eligibility in the NHL is considered graduated and no longer a prospect for these exercises, with few exceptions.
Initial Thoughts
The Seattle Kraken are a young franchise, but they’ve quickly built up a very solid prospect pool, with a focus on center depth and players who play a strong transition game. Some players don’t fit that bill perfectly, but they seem to have a type.
Berkly Catton is among the more interesting players in the pipeline, looking like a player that could be a potential game breaker with his speed and evasiveness combined with his elite playmaking touch. Catton has surpassed the 100-point mark in each of the last two seasons, scoring at a 1.8 point per game clip over that time. He is in the awkward position of being just too young for the AHL, being a January 2006 birthday, while also having proven everything he could have at the WHL level. The NHL is an option, but that would be a big jump. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him stick out of training camp and eventually be sent back to junior before the World Junior Championship, where he could lead Team Canada.
Leaping into pro hockey this season will be Carson Rehkopf, a winger who plays a tactical game and gets into shooting positions with ease. Whether he is attacking off the rush or hunting down pockets of space away from the puck, Rehkopf might be the most natural finisher in the Seattle pipeline. He’s grown into much more than a triggerman over the last couple of years though, developing a passing game that utilizes delays and quick cuts to change angles and open lanes. Rehkopf could be a player who makes an instant impact in the AHL and finds himself in NHL games by season’s end.
The development of Clarke Caswell over the last few years has been interesting. He’s a strong transition forward who can weave his way up ice with speed, generating lateral quickness from crossovers. He also possesses some of the most impressive play connecting ability in the pipeline, consistently looking to make quick decisions or smart little bumper passes. He can make plays from all over the zone, going low-to-high or finding a late man in the zone for a scoring chance. Caswell is a very smart player all over the ice, and…