Shane Wright making a Kraken debut of any kind isn’t what most hockey observers expected before July’s NHL entry draft.
But there was the consensus No. 1 overall pick from the bulk of the past two years out on the Climate Pledge Arena ice Tuesday night, taking a regular shift at even strength and on the power play. Though Wright wasn’t a scoring factor in a 3-0 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames, the centerman who famously slid to the Kraken at No. 4 overall certainly has brought additional preseason optimism to a club that’s looking quite different already.
For one thing, the Kraken have yet to be scored on in winning their second preseason affair in as many nights, helped once again by standout penalty killing. Goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Magnus Hellberg split the shutout duties in this one while second-period goals by Daniel Sprong and Jaden Schwartz both stood up.
Andrew Porturalski finished off the scoring on an empty-net goal in the final minute with Calgary’s goalie pulled for an extra attacker.
Schwartz wound up with the night’s prettiest goal, the second short-handed tally by the Kraken in their two games. He broke in 2-on-1 with Jared McCann and the resulting tic-tac-toe passing play ended with Schwartz tapping a puck into an empty net with three minutes to go in the middle frame.
It wasn’t surprising to see veteran left wing Schwartz paired on a line centered by Wright and with Jordan Eberle flanked to the right. Unlike fellow center Matty Beniers, another Kraken rookie who got 10 games under his belt last spring before playing Monday night, this was the first time Wright had skated with an NHL uniform on.
He had a uneventful opening shift in which a pass he attempted was broken up. But he seemed to gain confidence with ensuing shifts, getting his first shot off just before the five-minute mark and then almost scoring on a power play snapper from 20 feet out later on in the opening frame.
Eberle nearly converted the rebound for what would have been a Wright assist on the play.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said earlier in the day he wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Wright or anyone else getting their first preseason games under them. That included Schwartz, seeing his first action since missing the final 18 games of last season with an undisclosed upper body injury.
Schwartz previously had missed more than two months with a hand injury requiring surgery. So, this return meant a bit more than just another preseason game spent working out the rust and keeping an eye on the youngster to his right.
For the longest time, it seemed as if neither team would score a regulation goal despite ample power-play chances for both teams. But then Sprong finally broke the ice at the 12:30 mark of the second on a one-timer from the right circle off a Vince Dunn pass.
Dunn had done a nice job of carrying the puck in behind the Calgary net before centering it back out to Sprong for his powerful slap shot.
And then, about four minutes later, the Kraken penalty killers took over yet again as they had in Monday’s opener. The Flames had six power-play chances but couldn’t convert, including on the short-handed rush by Schwartz and McCann that gave the Kraken all the insurance they’d need.