The best part about Kraken 2025 first-rounder Jake O’Brien’s fast start in juniors is not his gaudy points total, being named Ontario Hockey League October Player of the Month nor his Brantford Bulldogs having yet to lose in regulation at 13-0-3. What’s even better is that last summer’s No. 8 overall pick proactively reached out to Seattle’s player development staff hoping to improve on faceoffs in all zones and at all times on the ice.
“We had a full staff video call with Jake a couple weeks ago,” said Cory Murphy, Kraken director of player development. “It was solely to go over faceoffs. He expressed he was looking for some help at the dot. Frans Nielsen [Europe-based player development consultant] has been working with our centers since he came on board [in 2022]. Plus, we included Zac [Dalpe, who joined the Kraken as a player development consultant this summer]. Frans made a living and played nearly 1,000 NHL games on details like winning faceoffs. Zac has a lot of experience in the faceoff circle [in the NHL and AHL]. Jake is in good hands with them.
The two former centermen worked with player development colleague Katelyn Parker to develop a presentation, complete with video samples, to deep dive into with O’Brien. Parker was a star forward for NCAA Colgate and served as coach at Brown and UConn plus worked as a scout for USA Hockey. The trio had already started the work during training camp, thinking it would mutually benefit the many young centers among Kraken prospects. They finalized it when O’Brien reached out.
“Zac kind of took the lead on non-negotiables as a center taking faceoffs,” said Murphy, adding that Dalpe will be working one-on-one on faceoffs with O’Brien next week in Brantford. “We are building a foundation for him. We gave him a couple of pointers and maybe another option that might work. Frans and Zach and Katelyn all did a really great job putting the presentation together.”
For his part, O’Brien was appreciative and impressed. He said he learned a lot watching veteran Kraken center Chandler Stephenson taking faceoffs in an NHL game, which reinforced the aforementioned non-negotiables.
“It went really well and helped a lot,” said O’Brien, who just turned 18 in June. “It helped a lot. The big thing was me getting down lower and becoming stronger down low, getting right in there to almost push the other center and be competitive on every faceoff.”
“We wanted to show Jake just how athletic ‘Stevie’ is in the draw,” said Murphy. “It gives him an idea of how to keep building his game because faceoffs are a huge part of playing center. Jake identified that, good on him. He called to say, ‘I’d like some help.’ He wants to be a very well-rounded player.”
League-Leading, Head-Turning Stats
Along with the faceoff tutorial, Seattle’s hockey operations group is thrilled about O’Brien’s season to date. He was named OHL Player of the Month for a torrid October in which he amassed seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points in 12 games. He didn’t slow down with the calendar change to November. Last Saturday, he tallied a goal and an assist in a 7-0 victory then notched four assists and earned No. 1 Star of the Game honors in a 6-2 Sunday win that was closer than the final score indicates. Murphy noted O’Brien showed the way to work past the tight-checking Sunday matchup with Flint (MI) during which Brantford didn’t open the scoring until late second period.
