They Shoot, They Score

Given the Kraken's prospects pool includes a 50-goal scorer, two 40-goal players and five more with 30-plus goals - and that's factoring just three off-seasons of draft classes - it should be no surprise Wednesday's intrasquad scrimmage to top off the team's second-annual development camp ended in an 8-7 score.

Team Blue, trailing Team White, 5-2, after the first of two 20-minute periods, rallied on the strength of five unanswered goals in the second and final period. Jani Nyman (pronounced "Nu-man"), a 2022 second-round pick from Finland, earned game-winning goal honors by lasering a wrist shot with less than five minutes remaining. Nyman's goal thrilled the jammed stands of fans at Kraken Community Iceplex, especially those at the 32 Kraken Bar & Grill end of the rink where five Team White goals were scored in the first period and six more by Team Blue in Period 2.

(Draft) Class Action

A couple of shifts after Nyman repped his 2022 draft class year, 2023 second-round pick Oscar Fisker-Molgaard tied the scrimmage at seven-all following a goal from 2023 first-rounder Eduard Sale displaying slick moves in open space as advertised. During his media availability, Kraken director of player development Jeff Tambellini referred to Sale as "Eddie" (a nickname the Denmark native confirmed in one of our many entertaining social media videos at the NHL Draft last week), so feel free to bypass whether Eduard is pronounced "Edward."

Ty Nelson, Natural Leader

The Team Blue comeback was arguably most fueled by defenseman and captain Ty Nelson, the 2022 third-round draft pick who is pretty much a leader in every hockey circle he enters. Nelson scored twice (the second on a rocket-hard one-timer from the left point inside the blue line that rippled a buzz throughout the stands). When time ran out for Team White pressuring for a tying score in the final minute with the goalie pulled, Nelson was the first to raise arms in the air and bear hug winning goaltender and invitee Victor Ostman, a Swede who put up a .918 save percentage and five shutouts at NCAA Division I Maine this past season.

Thanks for the Invites...

Ostman was not the only invitee to stand out. Brown University forward Ryan Bottrill scored an early goal by creating open space for himself and taking advantage of it. Invitee defenseman Ben Roger from Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League turned heads with offensive flash that produced a goal and an assist with a quick stat check showing two goals and 13 assists in 49 this past season. The Kraken amateur scouting staff is clearly good at finding gems among the undrafted.

Defenseman Ben Roger from the Ontario Hockey League's Kingston franchise, turned heads with a goal and assist for Team White while Brown University forward Ryan Bottrill scored for White too. Team Blue's Ben Wozney, a NCAA Bowling Green defenseman tallied a goal for Team Blue. It's worth noting Wozney is from Chandler, AZ, and Bottrill was born in Richmond, NC. The NHL mission to grow the prospect pool in so-called non-hockey markets is succeeding.

The Tye Kartye Factor

And that's before we even start talking about Tye Kartye's three goals in 10 playoff games. The undrafted Kartye was invited to a smaller camp in July 2021 before the inaugural season and came back last summer after signing an entry-level NHL contract in March 2022. Kartye, who played exactly 100 games for Coachella Valley and Seattle in 2022-23, was excused from this week's dev camp, same for fellow AHL All-Rookie Team defenseman Ryker Evans.

Other prospects noted and learned from Kartye's quick rise, including 2022 second-rounder David Goyette, who was a strong performer throughout development camp and trusted to play seven regular season games and two postseason games (including couple of clutch assists) for Coachella Valley after finishing his juniors season.

"It's good for all of us," said Goyette after the scrimmage." They're [hockey operations] showing us what it takes to get to the next level as fast as we can. They want us to progress each season and make the jump when ready. The goal is to play here someday."

Getting It Wright

Shane Wright, No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 draft, played a lot of games himself with the Kraken, Team Canada (captaining the gold-medal squad at World Juniors), two juniors teams, and the AHL Firebirds. When asked to attend this week to mentor his fellow prospects, Wright happily embraced the task ("it's cool" to work with the new draft class, he said). The hockey brain trust raved about Wright's leadership on and off the ice from Saturday through Wednesday.

Coachella Valley head coach Dan Bylsma said Wright played his best hockey in the final two rounds of the Firebirds' 26-game postseason. Any prospect watching Wright's hard-nosed play and high hockey-IQ passes on AHLTV.com and/or at the Iceplex this week can certainly learn by his example.

Team White-out in First Period

Invitee goalie Victor Ostman made several big saves on Grade-A scoring chances generated by Team White, which pretty much dominated the first 20 minutes of July hockey with goals from three 2022 picks - Barrett Hall (sixth round), Tucker Robertson (fourth round) and Jagger Firkus (early second round, No 35 overall). Jacob Melanson, 2021 fifth-rounder also scored the first of two goals.

Melanson, all 204 pounds of him, looked faster than previous camps and confirmed later he has worked on his skating per Kraken recommendations. Another item on Melanson's docket per Seattle player development group: Continue to play with physical edge but find ways to stop short of getting suspended and missing games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (aka the "Q"). By midseason, Melanson ironed out that latter wrinkle and became the aforementioned 50-goal scorer in the Kraken prospect pipeline (Firkus and fellow 2022 second-rounder David Goyette are the 40-goal guys).

Debating the Scrimmage's Best Player

Melanson put up an argument for MVP of the scrimmage, but an unofficial vote among a handful of media members on hand concurred that Nelson was First Star. Props to the Toronto native, who took the "Stuckey Cup" trophy for a skate overhead to cheering fans who looked happy to be part of the post-game celebration. The cup is named after assistant equipment manager James Stuckey, who claimed he was "roped into it."

During play, Nelson was communicating on all fronts: Before faceoffs, when heading off after a shift, leaning over to talk to teammates on the bench and pretty much hugging every Team White prospect in the traditional handshake line after doing the same with everyone on Team Blue during the post-scrimmage celebration of the "W." There is no doubt he exhorted his Blue teammates in the locker room between periods.

Nelson, who is 5-10 and 212 pounds, appears destined to be a player other NHL teams will regret passing on twice in last summer's draft. Those decisions were likely based on Nelson's height and it says here the 19-year-old's stature will sooner than later become a footnote.

Kudos for Fisker-Molgaard and Winterton

There was lots more for fans to happily glean from Wednesday's scrimmage and the now completed development camp, including raves among the Kraken hockey brain trust for second-rounder Fisker-Molgaard's skating prowess and pro-caliber play away from the puck. Tambellini was happy to note the growth in 2021 third-round pick Ryan Winterton's skill set. Winterton missed half of this past juniors season due to rehabbing a second of two shoulder injuries that prevented him from getting on the ice in the summers of 2021 and 2022.

Winterton was top performer in the prospect fitness testing on the opening day of camp, as noted by Tambellini. For his part, Winterton said it's a positive to stand out in any way compared to other prospects, but insisted what he does on the ice is most important to him. Winterton and others, such as Melanson, will be eligible to play for AHL affiliate Coachella Valley if they don't make the Kraken roster.

Any fan watching the Wednesday scrimmage at the Iceplex or via livestream quickly surmised why the Kraken is already considered to be among the top third of all NHL franchise prospect pipelines and arguably headed to top-five status with a strong 2023 draft class now added.