For the Kraken to succeed this upcoming season, a lot of pressure is going to fall onto the established, capped blue-liners in Lazer Gato and Wesley Kirkpatrick. In order of applied TPE, Rence Sykut is capped at 350 and is a natural centre, and then there is a drop off to Lilian Flapberg, Roger Murdock, and Dalton Candors in the lower 200's to high 100's. With the 3rd best defensemen being a forward, there is a lot of pressure on Gato and Kirkpatrick to headman a strong blue line and eat big minutes as the top pairing players--while of course teaching Sykut and Murdock how to play the new positions.

At forward it's tough to think of any players who are vital outside of the entire top 6. All key members--Aumy, Kastraba, Svatos, Mograine, Betzee, and Stro--are experienced, are at cap, and have put up strong counting numbers to start the year. Instead I'd put some onus on Bjorntjanst. As the Kraken's 1st round pick he is starting on the 3rd line. It is vital for any contender to have strong top to bottom depth, and as the projected 5th overall SHL draftee (shoutout Luke) there is obvious potential and room to drive play as the season goes along. There are naturally going to be growing pains but the early returns have DOB with positive posession statistics that suggest they can push for more points as the physical growth comes along. There is immense potential for DOB to drive play and, much like the defense mentioned above, support other S74 draftees on the same line to do the same. Cup inbound btw.