It’s a proper training camp for Kraken center Yanni Gourde.
Gourde was recovering from offseason shoulder surgery last year, which limited his first training camp in Seattle. He didn’t shed his noncontact jersey until early October.
That made camp — a land of opportunity for newcomers, a bridge between the summer and regular season for veterans, a feeling-out process for all — a lonely time.
“You ramp it up during the summer, but camp, that’s when you take your game to the next level,” Gourde said.
Gourde, Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz and Adam Larsson traded off wearing the alternate captain’s “A” last season. The Kraken went without a captain after Mark Giordano was traded in March.
Any of them could earn the upgrade if the coaching staff opts to name a new captain. Gourde indicated that decision was above his pay grade.
“I go out there, I do my job, and that’s all I can worry about,” he said.
“We’ve got a great leadership group here, and I’m super excited to be part of it.”
Wright with the winner
Another group got a chance to scrimmage Friday. In his first NHL training camp, 18-year-old Shane Wright centered a line with Schwartz and Kole Lind and scored a sneaky, slick goal with less than a minute left to win it, 2-1, for Team White. Team Blue had just tied the score with Philipp Grubauer pulled for the extra attacker.
Wright was the fourth overall pick in this year’s NHL draft.
“He has to become comfortable doing it at this level, and that’s a transition,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We’re not going to ask him to go from zero to 60 in two days.”
Andrew Poturalski, Tye Kartye and Jagger Firkus combined to give White its first goal.
On the other side, Alexander Wennberg centered Andre Burakovsky and Joonas Donskoi. Daniel Sprong, who is in camp on a professional tryout after scoring six times in 16 games last season, came close to tying the scrimmage.
“We’ve got 14, 15 days of camp to go. It’s guys like Daniel Sprong that have an opportunity to make us make some hard decisions and make this an extremely competitive camp,” Hakstol said.
The players get Saturday off before a Sunday session and Monday’s preseason opener against the Edmonton Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena.
Fundamental focus
Donskoi gave specific insight into his offseason work.
“I wasn’t very happy with how I was skating last season, so that was kind of the main focus,” the Kraken winger said. “I think when I can do those things better, the scoring will come too.
“I feel a lot better.”
Donskoi reached 20 assists for the third time in his seven-year career, but he didn’t score the first of his two goals until February. He scored 17 goals with Colorado the previous season.