3 Lessons The Seattle Kraken Can Learn From The 2025 Stanley Cup Finalists – Oregon Sports News

While the Seattle Kraken have been eliminated from playoff contention since the end of March, the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers continue to battle for the Stanley Cup well into June, with the Final series tied 1-1 through two games.

The NHL is famously a copycat league, and especially so when the two finalists are engaged in the first Stanley Cup rematch since the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in 2008 and 2009.

The Kraken are coming off a season in which they finished outside the playoffs by 20 points and missed the postseason for the third time in four seasons since expansion. If there is any organization that could take some pointers from the two teams with the most playoff wins since the Kraken first joined the league. Let’s dive into three of the most important lessons any organization could learn from the NHL’s current tentpole franchises.

Depth, Depth, and More Depth

Both Cup finalists have been powered by offensive contributions further down the lineup. Florida’s third line, consisting of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, and Brad Marchand, has feasted on its opposition. The trio has outscored the competition 11-2 at five-on-five (the best differential in the playoffs) and controlled 53% of all scoring chances. Their dominance has given head coach Paul Maurice the confidence even to match them against other teams’ top lines and relieve the burden on the lines centered by Aleksandar Barkov or Sam Bennett.

For the Oilers, the biggest issue has always been surrounding Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with a strong enough supporting cast. Midseason trades (Trent Frederic) and offseason signings (Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson) shored up the team’s bottom-six forward group and is a major reason the team isn’t panicking despite the season-ending injury to winger Zach Hyman who has 102 goals over his last 193 combined regular-season and playoff games (a 43-goal pace).

Coaches will throw their best defenders and matchup lines against other teams’ superstars, so having other reliable options to score is crucial in tight playoff games. Both teams had 10 players score at least 10 goals during the regular season, with the Panthers tying for the league lead by having eight players score at least 15 goals.

Star Power Can Overcome Depth

For all of the benefits of depth, few things are as important in sports as being able to call upon a game-breaking talent to cut the tension. The Oilers have two of the NHL’s best-ever talents, with McDavid and Draisaitl ranking second and fifth, respectively, in playoff points-per-game since the start of the expansion era (post-1967).

It also doesn’t hurt to have defenseman Evan Bouchard rank 19th with only Bobby Orr (ninth) ahead of him on the all-time charts. In comparison, Florida only counts a 37-year-old Marchand (90th) within the top 100.

The trend is once again present in this year’s postseason. McDavid (31 points), Draisaitl (29), and Bouchard (21) are first, second, and fourth, respectively, in scoring for the 2025 Playoffs, while the Panthers’ leading scorer is Bennett in fifth with 13 goals and 19 points. 

There exist distinct tiers even among the best postseason performers, and Edmonton’s are just a cut above what the Panthers can offer. Obtaining such talents is extremely difficult and involves a touch of good fortune, making the next lesson all the more important to retain and integrate into one’s operations.

Make Risky Trades When the Opportunity Arises

Panthers general manager Bill Zito is the benchmark by which organizations are evaluating their own executives. The former assistant in Columbus was named a finalist for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award for the fourth time in five seasons this year and has seen his Panthers’ roster reach the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive postseason.

While Barkov (2013), Lundell (2020), and Aaron Ekblad (2014) are the only homegrown draft picks on the roster, virtually the rest of Florida’s roster has been assembled through trades made by Zito.

Zito’s shrewd signings in free agency (Carter Verhaeghe and Evan Rodrigues) and prescient waiver claims (Gustav Forsling) shouldn’t be overlooked, but his big – but calculated – swings on the trade market have been the most impactful for altering the trajectory of the franchise.

Zito began the process of building the team in his image by acquiring Brandon Montour (from the Buffalo Sabres) and Sam Bennett (Calgary Flames), two underperforming assets at the time, at the 2021 NHL Trade Deadline. Montour has since signed with the Kraken, but both he and Bennett (second in playoff goals since the 2023 Playoffs) are significant parts of the Panthers’ current run of excellence.

That same offseason, he traded for 2014 second-overall pick Sam Reinhart by sending top goalie prospect Devon Levi to the Sabres. Reinhart had only mustered career highs of 25 goals and 65 points over seven NHL seasons, but has since posted four consecutive seasons of 30 goals or more, including 57 in 2023-24.

The most recent trade deadline saw Zito drizzle top-four defenseman Seth Jones and elite pest Brad Marchand on top of his defending champions, both of whom have played crucial roles down the stretch. Jones helped steady the blue line in Ekblad’s absence (due to PED use and a suspension), and Marchand is tied for seventh in playoff scoring with 17 points in 19 games, showing the rest of the league that the Panthers are not fooling around.

Yet, Zito’s most significant (and risky) trade by far involved acquiring the disgruntled Matthew Tkachuk from the Calgary Flames in the summer of 2022 for top-four defenseman Mackenzie Weegar and winger Jonathan Huberdeau, the latter of whom was coming off a 115-point season. Huberdeau had led the league in assists and finished second in points to McDavid, but Zito felt Tkachuk was a better fit for the long-term vision of the Panthers. 

Given that only three players have scored more points than Tkachuk over the past three playoffs and the Flames have failed to qualify for the postseason since the trade, it’s clear that Zito’s big swing paid off and proved many of the doubters wrong. More general managers could learn from him in terms of believing in their vision (within reason), regardless of the outside noise.

With McDavid and Draisaitl being homegrown draft picks, the Oilers have not had to make significant trades to build the foundation of their team. Yet, that doesn’t mean that Ken Holland and Stan Bowman haven’t made moves to improve the squad as Edmonton’s GMs over the past two seasons.

Veteran center Adam Henrique was acquired at the 2024 Trade Deadline, while Trent Frederic and Jake Walman were brought in at this year’s deadline. Walman, in particular, has proved to be a monumental upgrade on last season’s depth defensemen. Instead of having to rely on one or two of Cody Ceci, Vincent Desharnais, or sophomore defenseman Philip Broberg to play top-four minutes, adding Walman (and free-agent signing John Klingberg) has allowed head coach Kris Knoblauch to deploy his blue line in a more balanced manner.

Only three Oilers defenders averaged 19 minutes or more per game during the 2024 postseason, placing significant pressure on Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm throughout the 25-game run. In these playoffs, all six of Edmonton’s regular defensemen have hit that mark, with five averaging 20 minutes or more.

Having four to six competent defensemen makes it much more difficult for opposing coaches to target a weak link or pair. The bottom-six forwards can be insulated by good defenders, effectively propping up the entire roster. 

Both the Panthers and the Oilers are built upon high draft picks of their own, but their front offices have been led by two of the boldest and inspired executives in the sport. That’s something the Kraken should keep in mind as the team marches towards legitimate Cup contention.

Kraken Fit Some of the Cup Finalist Criteria

While the Kraken are clearly multiple moves away from entering the same stratosphere as either the Panthers or the Oilers, they have incorporated some of the listed lessons to some degree.

The Kraken were tied for second in the league in terms of players who scored 10 or more goals in the regular season (11), but were in the bottom half for players with 20 or more goals (four) and had no one hit 30.

That’s a textbook division of depth vs. star power, and highlights the need for Botterill and company to acquire high-end talent one way or another. The hope is clearly that one or more of Shane Wright, Berkly Catton, and Carson Rehkopf become top 30 to 50 players in the league. Working in their favor is that they will still be 21 years old or younger at the start of the 2025-26 season, and that all three have demonstrated offensive chops at their current levels.

Between Eeli Tolvanen and Kaapo Kakko, the Kraken have shown an eye for diminished assets and have helped both players get their careers back on track. Those moves are shades of Florida’s bets in the Reinhart and Bennett trades, and executing more of those deals will increase the percentage that one of those hits goes beyond a reasonable level.

With a (slightly) new regime in town, the Kraken may look to be more daring with their decisions and risk a strikeout to hit a homerun this summer. I would argue that Seattle is at least one more season away from anything truly audacious; there is nothing wrong with laying the foundation for the end of the decade. 

With a host of intriguing prospects and a ton of draft capital (10 combined first- and second-round picks over the subsequent three drafts), few teams are as well-positioned as the Kraken to leap forward. Does the front office agree, or will slow and steady continue to be the leading paradigm? 

Data courtesy of the NHL and PuckPedia.