2022-23 Second Season

Lore & Background

The Kraken entered 2022–23 with the weight of a city's long hockey hunger still fresh in memory. The first season had been a proving ground—learning the pace, the travel, the physicality of the NHL. By the second year, the expectation had shifted. Seattle fans, many of whom had watched other teams' expansion stories unfold, wanted to see their team compete, not just participate. The Pacific Division, home to powerhouse Vancouver and the grinding Edmonton and Calgary clubs, offered no easy path, and the Kraken knew they had to earn every point.

The season's defining narrative was the arrival of Matty Beniers into his second year as the young center around whom the team was being built. Paired with the steady, two-way leadership of John Hayden and the veteran edge of Mattias Ekholm, the Kraken's identity was taking shape: speed, structure, and an unapologetic Seattle grit. The mid-season trade for Brad Marchand from Boston was the season's seismic event—a player of Marchand's pedigree and intensity landing in the Pacific Northwest sent a clear message that the organization intended to be dangerous, not just competitive. The locker-room energy shifted almost overnight, and the team's late-season surge reflected a group that had found its rhythm.

The first-round playoff elimination stung, but in the broader arc of the franchise's history, 2022–23 is remembered as the season the Kraken stopped being an experiment and started being a team. The foundation laid in those 82 games—the chemistry, the identity, the belief that Seattle could be a hockey city—became the bedrock for everything that followed.

In Their Own Story

The arena hummed before the puck drop, that particular low-frequency vibration of a sold-out crowd in Climate Pledge Arena settling into its seats. On the ice, the Zamboni had just finished its final pass, leaving the surface a mirror of teal and white. John Hayden stood at the blue line, stick dragging a thin line in the fresh ice, watching the warm-up laps. Across the rink, Beniers was doing his quiet, methodical stretch, the way he always did—no theatrics, just the patient work of a kid who'd been handed the franchise and intended to make it look easy.

The first period was a scrum, the kind of early-season chaos that felt like the previous year bleeding through. But by the second, something clicked. A forecheck, a quick pass, a shot that rang off the crossbar and the crowd roared as if it had gone in. Marchand, still adjusting to the Pacific time zone after his trade, skated by the bench with that familiar scowl, and someone in the front row yelled his name. He didn't look up. He didn't need to. The ice under his skates was new, the city was new, but the hunger was the same.

The final horn would come later, and the series would end in defeat. But in that second period, in the roar of a Seattle crowd that had waited fifty years for this, the Kraken were no longer a question mark. They were a team. And the ice remembered every blade that had carved it.

Reader's Guide

The 2022–23 season opened with the Kraken carrying the momentum and the scrutiny of a second-year expansion club. The Pacific Division schedule was a gauntlet—Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Los Angeles—each series a test of whether Seattle's first-year lessons had stuck.

The early months were marked by the continued development of Matty Beniers, now in his second season as the franchise's centerpiece. John Hayden's captaincy gave the group a steady emotional anchor, and Mattias Ekholm's two-way play anchored the back end. The team's identity—fast, structured, physically committed—was still being refined, and the bench showed the growing pains of a young roster learning to sustain an 82-game grind.

The trade deadline in February 2023 changed the trajectory. Brad Marchand's arrival from Boston injected a veteran edge and a competitive fire that the locker room had been missing. The late-season push reflected a team that had found its confidence, and the Kraken secured a playoff berth, confirming they were no longer a one-season curiosity.

The first-round playoff exit was a setback, but in the long view of the franchise's history, 2022–23 is the season the Kraken stopped asking for a grace period and started demanding respect. The foundation was set. The city had its team. The next chapter would be about building on it.

Did You Know?

• Brad Marchand, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with Boston, was acquired by the Kraken at the 2022–23 trade deadline, instantly elevating the team's competitive profile.
• Matty Beniers, selected first overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, entered his second season as the young center around whom the Kraken's future was being built.
• Climate Pledge Arena, the Kraken's home, is one of the newest venues in the NHL and was designed with sustainability as a central architectural principle.
• The 2022–23 season was the Kraken's second in the NHL, following their inaugural 2021–22 campaign, and marked the first time the team was expected to compete for a playoff spot rather than simply participate.