I just got back from the store and picked up a brand new red pen, which means it’s time for another edition of the Seattle Kraken Report Cards! This edition will focus on the three goaltenders who saw the ice during the past season. The expectations were high, but one player did not meet them. One player had injuries throughout the year, and since has suffered another. The last player is someone I believe could be a decent backup, or even a first baseman. But he needs to show consistency in order for him to succeed.
Seattle Kraken (The Hockey Writers)Before we start, let’s break down our grading system. It’s your basic A-F system where an A is excellent, and a C- means they have a lot to work on. Minimum qualifications for inclusion are usually having played 10 games and finished the season with the Kraken, but I’ll make an exception this time around. I’m ready to put my new purchase to good use, and get the grading underway.
Philipp GrubauerPhilipp Grubauer was high after his 2020-21 season as a Colorado Avalanche player. He went 30-9-1 over 40 games with a 1.95 goals against average, a.922 save rate (SV%) and seven shutouts. He was even a Vezina Trophy winner. He left Colorado to play in the deep. With 55 games, he was the player who played the most consecutive seasons in his entire career. He struggled to a record of 18-31-5 with a 3.16 GAA, and.889SV%.
Philipp Grubauer, Seattle Kraken goaltender (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)To be totally fair, those stats aren’t entirely his fault as the team in front of him struggled immensely to both score and stop goals. The Kraken’s 213 goals were 28th in the NHL, while their 284 goals-against were ninth-most…ouch. That’s a minus-71 goal differential. Special teams didn’t help much either, as their power play was 29th and penalty kill 31st. He might’ve benefitted from less action, but backup Chris Driedger had injury issues and third goalie Joey Daccord wasn’t given much of a chance; he struggled when he did see the crease. Either way, Grubauer didn’t perform up to snuff.
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Grubauer should forget about this season and start next year fresh. The Kraken have been infused with excitement ahead of this upcoming season after drafting Shane Wright, signing André Burakovsky, and trading for Oliver Bjorkstrand. If these moves lead to a boost in goal support, it will assist him in getting back to form.
Player Grade: Chris DriedgerDriedger’s season was difficult. He had many injuries and struggled between the pipes. He was injured several times and only played 27 games. His 27 NHL games were a career high, but his performance was not as good as it might have been due to his two-years of success with the Florida Panthers. He was 21-8-4 with a 2.07 GAA, and.931SV% in those two years.
Chris Driedger, Seattle Kraken goaltender. (Amy Irvin/The Hockey Writers.) This past season, Chris Driedger went 9-14-1 with an 2.96 GAA. He also had a.899 SV%. That win-loss ratio wasn’t bad relative to Grubauer’s, and the team’s struggles as a whole definitely impacted that. It’s tough to fully blame him for the season he had between his injuries and the team playing poorly in front of him. To make matters even worse heading into this upcoming season, he’s been further sidelined due to an ACL injury, thus he will miss the start of the 2022-23 season.
Related: Kraken’s 2021-22 Season in Review: Behind the Metrics
Driedger has one thing that I notice when looking at his career statistics, and it’s something that I highly value; resiliency. He’s had several stints in the ECHL and the AHL en route to sticking with the Panthers and then the Kraken. He’s 28 years old and has ground his way to where he is now. It’ll be interesting to see both where the team is at, and how he performs when he returns to the lineup and makes his season debut.
Player Grade: B-Joey DaccordIf you’ve been following along with the monthly Kraken Prospect Reports, or THW’s “What’s Kraken” (shoutout to my co-host, THW’s Adam Kierszenblat), you’d know I’m pretty high on Daccord being the current future of Kraken goaltending. I won’t delve too much into his AHL season, but he finished the year strong and even earned “Goaltender of the Month” honors after his performance in March. Although his AHL performance was not replicated in his five games with Kraken, it was a good example of what he did with them.
It was Daccord’s third appearance on the NHL roster. This season also saw him play in his second most games. My biggest gripe was that he didn’t have a lot of consistency. When he did become the team’s backup, head coach Dave Hakstol would seldom throw him in the crease. When he finished the year with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, that’s when he finally established some consistency as he was in one place and actually seeing the ice.
Related: Meet the New Kraken Goaltender Martin Jones
The Kraken’s goaltending situation is interesting right now. Martin Jones was signed by the Kraken in free agency. He will take over backup duties until Driedger returns. As Kierszenblat wrote, it’s a risky signing. If he is healthy, however, it could allow Daccord to stay with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and lead them forward through the season. That could drastically help the near 26-year-old’s development coming off an AHL season where he played his AHL career-high in games, including a seven-game playoff run. Although I was excited about his AHL season, my player grade will reflect his NHL performance.
Player Grade: D+A Like most teams, goaltending performance is heavily affected by the team in front. This trio hopes to benefit from the team’s new additions that should pay dividends in the immediate future. I’m not saying the Kraken are going to the Stanley Cup Final, but they should be at least slightly improved from their inaugural season. If that’s the case, their goalies will benefit as well.
Sean Raggio lives for hockey. He will be covering the Seattle Kraken, and is a co-host of “What’s Kraken” for THW. Sean was a student journalist at Quinnipiac University, and gained writing experience for TV, radio and print. You can reach Sean on Twitter if you have any comments or questions. The link is at the bottom, as in this article.
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