The Seattle Kraken are looking to bounce back from their 2025-26 campaign. Seattle was unable to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again this year. Matty Beniers and his teammates put in a valiant effort. In the end, it simply wasn't enough.
The Kraken have made the playoffs once in their history. That run during the 2023 postseason has been something of a specter hanging over this organization. Seattle has been trying to catch up to its former self so much that it feels like making the playoffs is the end goal over anything else.
Seattle has tried its best to make a splash move for a while. During the season, there was an attempted trade for Artemi Panarin. This summer, the Kraken agreed to a trade with the Dallas Stars for Jason Robertson. Robertson turned down the opportunity to play for the Kraken, however.
Seattle has failed to make its big splash move, but they think they can still contend in the West. With this in mind, here are some important questions that must be answered this season.
How will Jason Robertson whiff affect Kraken?
The Kraken thought they had landed Jason Robertson through trade before the NHL Draft. The Kraken would have sent the seventh overall pick to the Stars. And they would have paid Robertson $15 million a season on a seven-year contract.
Robertson would have been the best player on this team. A legitimate scorer with the ability to put up 100 points a season for Seattle. This trade could have transformed this team into playoff contenders in the West.
Unfortunately, Robertson declined the big payday. He didn't want to go to Seattle. Now, the players left behind have to figure out what to do.
Will they use Robertson's refusal to join the Kraken as fuel for the coming season? Can the players on the roster step up in a big way? It will be interesting to see how this develops over the course of the season.
Can Matty Beniers truly breakout?
Article Continues BelowThe Kraken are relying on a lot of internal growth for the season ahead. This starts with center Matty Beniers. Beniers, who was recently named an alternate captain, has been one of the more promising players for Seattle. However, he has yet to put it all together in the NHL.
Beniers certainly started strong. He won the Calder Trophy when he debuted in 2022-23, earning the honors as the best rookie that season. But that has served as the pinnacle of his career to this point.
There is certainly a better player in there somewhere. Beniers hasn't been a bad player, to be fair. At the same time, it feels as if he has something more to give.
Can he find that next level this season? Can Beniers become the franchise centerpiece he was viewed as not long ago? It would be a tremendous development for Seattle if he can.
Will penalty kill improve in 2026-27?
The Kraken are not the best special teams club in the NHL. Last season, this especially rang true when it came to the penalty kill. Seattle had the second-worst penalty kill in the league in 2025-26. Only the Vancouver Canucks had a worse penalty kill last year.
The Kraken cannot allow this to happen again in 2026-27. Seattle was able to get away with it, to some extent, because they didn't take many penalties in 2025-26. If they want to succeed this year, though, they need to be better when down a man.
Can the Kraken continue their disciplined ways? If they do take penalties, can they kill them off and return to even strength unscathed? If they can't, this team could be in for a rough 2026-27 campaign.