The Carolina Kraken have an influx of rookies in their lineup this season, with a total of 7 new faces on the team. This includes left wings Twelve Forty-Seven Fifteen, Aleks Blixtstrom, and Cormac Ponaire, as well as right wing Harald Malmquist, center, Daud Ramza, left defenseman Gino Lombardo, and right defenseman Granny PanPan. With so many rookies in the lineup this year, Carolina's fate in the standings may be determined by how well the rookies can develop and contribute. With this in mind, we'll see how well each of these players are faring in the Kraken's first 9 games.


We'll start by looking at the line of Aleks Blixtstrom, Twelve Forty-Seven Fifteen, and Daud Ramza. Within this line, Blixtstrom has a goal and an assist, Forty-Seven Fifteen has an assist, and Daud Ramza has a goal and two assists. These are fairly lackluster offensive numbers, but it can be expected that rookies are going to have slow starts offensively. Despite the offensive issues, the line has been very strong defensively. Each of these players has a plus/minus rating of +2. which is higher than anybody else on the team, with only two other players having a positive plus/minus. All 3 also have only one goal against per 60, while the next best member of the team in that category is Finn Von Murphenstein with 2.7 GA/60. If these players can maintain these strong defensive results while they wait for the offense to start coming, they could all prove to be important members of the Kraken 

Next is left defenseman Gino Lombardo, who has one goal in 9 games. Lombardo has been mostly strong defensively with a defensive game rating of 72, which is strong especially for a rookie. He also has fought twice so far, and is toward the top of the league in penalty minutes. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to debate, but it is certainly a fun thing. Lombardo has been a very defensive defenseman so far, with a 72 defensive game rating and a 50 offensive game rating. Lombardo has had a respectable start to the season, and could have a career as a successful shutdown defenseman if he continues with these stats

I'll group right wing Harald Malmquist and left wing Cormac Ponaire together, because they are having similar struggles in the early going of this season. They are both getting very limited ice time, with Malmquist averaging 7:01 minutes a game and Ponaire averaging 7:16, and this is most likely because so far they have had rough defensive numbers. Ponaire is a team-worst -7, with Malmquist right behind him at -6. Malmquist has an ugly 6.9 GA/60, but Ponaire is at an even worse 7.7 GA/60. Malmquist has one assist, while Ponaire is still waiting for his first point, and only has two shots on goal so far through 9 games. It's important to cut these players some slack as they have just entered the league and are going through the growing pains, but will need to shore up their defense throughout the season. These players can definitely still turn things around and have prosperous careers, even with the rough start.

We'll finish off with right defenseman Granny PanPan, who has one assist in 9 games so far. Its been a rough start for PanPan too, who is a -5 and is averaging 3.6 GA/60. A surprising development with PanPan is him being tied for 2nd on the team in hits with 19, which is towards the top of the league. Other defensive stats are lacking however, with only 8 blocked shots and a 38.9% corsi rating. PanPan does only have 2 giveaways so far, which is tied for the 2nd least on the team. With the 5th worst offensive rating on the team, it's been a struggle on both sides of the ice for PanPan, but there's reason for optimism as the defensive issues will most likely be at least partly fixed by the end of the season.

At 3-6-0, the Carolina Kraken are off to a rough start to the season, and they will be hoping for steps forward from their young pieces to help right the ship and get back up in the standings. There is plenty of hope in the organization though, as all of these rookies show promise and some are already making positive impacts on the team

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