For the healthy scratches, the ones who have been watching the Kraken from the sidelines, defenseman Will Borgen’s season can serve as something of a motivational tale. Things have just been a lot better this fall and winter, for both the group and the individual.
Borgen had appeared in all 32 games for the Kraken, 18-10-4 heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Calgary Flames. Last year he was the odd man out on a team carrying more than the necessary six defensemen. He stayed with Seattle and saw occasional game action until around this time — late December.
“I probably did six months of training before I played another game,” Borgen said. “Last year stunk, the beginning of the year. But that’s part of it.”
The Moorhead, Minn., native bounced between the Buffalo Sabres and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Rochester Americans, after finishing his collegiate career at St. Cloud State in 2018. Borgen, 26, saw just 10 Sabres games during the shortened 2020-21 NHL season, then was taken by the Kraken in the expansion draft.
“I got to the level I wanted to get to. I wanted to get up [to the NHL], but then I just wanted to play,” he said.
Borgen said he was rusty when the Kraken called on him. That could have fooled coach Dave Hakstol.
“I was impressed with how well he came out of the stretch early last year. The first two months of the season he played very little,” Hakstol said. “He continued to work. When he had the opportunity to get into the lineup … he’s really grown the consistency and the confidence in his game.”
Borgen and his defensive partner, Carson Soucy, have rarely been apart this season and have played more than 400 minutes together in their time with the Kraken. They’re the de facto 5-6, or last, defensive pairing. But they’re out playing steady minutes in most situations. Borgen is averaging 15:33 per game.
Among MoneyPuck’s defensive pairings that have shared more than 300 minutes of ice time, Soucy and Borgen were 24th in the league Wednesday with 2.23 expected goals-against per 60 minutes at even strength, behind Seattle’s top pairing of Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson.
Part of the job is mopping up. If no one notices them at the end of a game, that’s just fine.
“A quiet night for us is a great night for us,” Borgen said.
“I think we play pretty similarly. We just try to shut down guys and get the puck to the forwards as fast as we can.”
Another perk of full-time roles on a much-improved Kraken team is solid numbers on offense. Each defenseman has scored twice and Borgen has 10 assists to Soucy’s eight. Both were on two-game point streaks heading into Wednesday night’s divisional matchup.
According to the team, Borgen has already eclipsed his 40 blocked shots from last season and led the team with 84 hits. His blocked shots were good for third on the Kraken.
He’s gotten a chance to show what he can do. Professionally, it’s been a good few months.
“Everybody’s happy coming to the rink,” Borgen said. “Last year, we weren’t even close to as good as we are now. The mood has definitely changed this year.”
Hakstol said Borgen spent “an awful lot of time” working with assistant coach Jay Leach while waiting for his chance last season. At the time it was a bummer. With the benefit of hindsight, it might wind up being a time of growth and development.
“His skating ability, his physicality, his ability to defend against good players and be on the ice against other teams’ top lines — albeit maybe not every shift, but to take some of those minutes — is really important for our team,” Hakstol said.
“I think last year definitely helped,” Borgen said.