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Seattle Kraken NHL Entry Draft Recap

Date: July 25, 2021

By: Dylan Camp

Seattle general manager Ron Francis shows who the first draft choice in Kraken history is, Matty Beniers.

NHL.com

Just a few days after the Kraken selected their lineup for this upcoming season, they began to build their roster of the future in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. The draft went as you would expect for a brand-new franchise in need of a diverse and young talent pool. In their seven picks, they selected four forwards, two defensemen, and a goalie. 

Their first ever NHL draft pick was No. 2 overall in this year’s draft, and the Kraken selected the young American center Matty Beniers from the University of Michigan. Over the past two seasons with the U.S. National Development Program (USDP) and Michigan, Beniers has been nearly a point-per-game player. He has put up 65 points in 68 games with those two teams over the past two seasons, tallying 28 goals and 37 assists. Beniers will very likely return to the powerhouse Michigan program whose roster for next season consists of four of the top five draft picks from this weekend. Although the Kraken won’t see Beniers right away, soon enough this center will be making his way to the Pacific Northwest.

Two other names that drew my interest in the Kraken draft selections were their second-round pick in Ryker Evans and their final pick, Justin Janicke. Evans is a young defenseman who can greatly contribute in the attacking zone. Last season in the Western Hockey League, Evans had over an assist-per-game and tallied a couple of goals on the season as well. Some considered Evans to be a reach in the second round, but this offensive defenseman could be a great asset for the Kraken in the future.

Janicke is a much longer-term play, but he comes from the USDP that has been putting out high first-round picks and future stars over the past several years. He is already pretty big at six feet tall and 180 pounds at just 18 years old. Janicke has a year in the United States Hockey League followed by what will likely be a year or two at Notre Dame before the Kraken sign him. But he is already a very productive player with plenty of time to develop before seeing NHL ice and may just be a great late-round steal for Seattle.

The Kraken front office had a busy week and things are not slowing down. Teams had to submit qualifying offers to restricted free agents on Monday and the NHL free agency period begins on Wednesday. The Kraken never made any big expansion or entry draft day trades that many fans anticipated, but maybe general manager Ron Francis will finally make a big splash when free agency begins.

Dylan Camp be reached at dylan.camp@student.shu.edu.

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