The wait is nearly over.
With just 23 days remaining until the Seattle Kraken open training camp, the long NHL offseason is finally giving way to something resembling hockey. And for fans eager to see Kraken players back on the ice, the wait is even shorter than that.
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Seattle’s rookie camp opens Sept. 11 before the organization heads north to Abbotsford, British Columbia, for a rookie prospect showcase against the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 12 and 13. It will offer an early look at several young players hoping to make an impression before the main roster arrives.
The real competition begins Sept. 17, when the Kraken officially open training camp and begin sorting through the roster ahead of the 2026-27 season. While the team’s top-end talent is largely established, there could be legitimate competition for jobs in the bottom six — battles that may ultimately reveal how Seattle intends to play this season.
The Kraken will have only four preseason games to make those decisions.
Seattle opens its exhibition schedule at home against Vancouver on Sept. 19 before traveling to Calgary to face the Flames the following night. The two teams meet again in Seattle on Sept. 24, and the Kraken close the preseason in Vancouver on Sept. 26.
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And perhaps no player will have more to gain from those four games than Shane Wright.
At one point this summer, it appeared Wright’s time in Seattle was coming to an end. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported that Wright’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, had held positive conversations with Kraken general manager Jason Botterill and that Seattle had agreed to move the 22-year-old center to a team in need of a young center.
But with training camp approaching, Wright is still a member of the Kraken.
That changes the dynamic considerably.
The former No. 4 overall pick is coming off the most disappointing full season of his NHL career, recording just 27 points in 74 games after posting a career-high 44 points the year before. For a player who was once viewed as a potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, the production simply hasn’t come close to matching the expectations that followed him into the league.
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It may be harsh to use the word “bust,” especially considering Wright is still only 22 years old. But at this point, there is no denying that his development hasn’t gone the way either he or the Kraken envisioned.
Wright has 78 points in 169 NHL games across four seasons. More concerning, his trade value appears to have cratered. If Seattle truly spent the offseason trying to move him and couldn’t find a deal it liked, the message is clear: Wright isn’t going to rebuild his value with his name or draft pedigree anymore.
He’s going to have to earn it back on the ice.
That makes training camp particularly important. Wright can arrive with something to prove and begin showing that last season was an anomaly, or he can allow the doubts surrounding his future to grow even louder.
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The Kraken will have only four preseason games to make their final decisions, but for Wright, those games could mean much more than simply preparing for opening night. They could represent his first opportunity to show Seattle — and the rest of the league — that there is still far more to his game than the player who managed 27 points last season.
Then comes the real thing.
The NHL’s expanded 84-game schedule begins Oct. 1, giving Kraken fans two additional regular-season games — and, more importantly, bringing an end to an offseason that has felt considerably longer than it actually was.
But before opening night arrives, there will be plenty to watch. Rookie camp, training camp and a compressed preseason schedule will provide the first clues about which players are ready to take the next step, who could be fighting for roster spots and what this version of the Kraken might look like when the games begin to count.
For Wright, though, the message may be even simpler.
The trade never happened. The opportunity is still there.
Now it’s up to him to do something about it.
