February 26, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Seattle Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans (41) takes a shot during the third period against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Image With less than a week left until the NHL’s trade deadline, the Seattle Kraken are in a quandary.
The Kraken entered the weekend in the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference, but considering their first two games after the Olympic break, they could still be sold until Friday, March 6 at 3 PM ET.
The Kraken are scheduled to host Vancouver, the team with the worst overall record in the NHL, on Saturday night. Seattle lost 4-1 at Dallas on Wednesday and 5-1 at St. Louis on Thursday, the second-lowest margin of victory in the league.
“It was another game where we were sleepy,” Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour said. “You come out of the break, you have to show excitement and be ready for an important game. Obviously we wasted two games here.”
The Kraken fell behind 4-0 against the Stars and allowed four goals after Kaapo Kakko equalized against the Blues.
“Opportunities against that are my concern, there are too many opportunities,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “This game comes down to individual play. We weren’t good enough in that area in both of those games.”
The players said Lambert told the team he was worried about the “overpass.”
“The whole team wanted one more pass.” said Kakko, who won a bronze medal with Finland at the Winter Olympics, recording three goals and two assists in six events. “I think that happened the whole game.”
Captain Jordan Eberle leads the Kraken with 20 goals and 38 points. Jared McCann, who had been on the injured list twice, was hot (31 points in 34 games).
This will be the third of four meetings between the Canucks and Kraken this season. They split their first two games and took them to penalty shootouts. Vancouver won 3-2 at Seattle on December 29th, and the Kraken won 4-3 at Vancouver on January 2nd.
The Canucks, who have played much better on the road (12-16-2) than at home (6-17-5), blew a one-goal lead in visiting Winnipeg after coming off the Olympic break with a 3-2 overtime loss Wednesday.
Drew O’Connor scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season, Evander Kane also scored and Nikita Tolopilo made 25 saves for the Canucks, who have lost four straight and are 2-14-4 in their last 20 games.
The Canucks have four players back from injuries after the Olympic break. Defenseman Zeev Buium returned after missing five games with a facial fracture, while center Marco Rossi (18 games, lower body injury), wingers Brock Boeser (5 games, concussion protocol) and Nils Hoglander (4 games, lower body) also played.
Veteran defenseman Tyler Myers was scratched late by the Canucks for “roster management purposes.” That’s another way of saying he’s on the trading block.
“I knew it could happen (Tuesday) night and I was told we had to take him out after the morning skate,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said. “This is a time when these kinds of things happen and you’re ready for it and it’s just the way it is. The trade deadline is coming up. We all know what can happen, so it’s our job to adjust.”
–Field level media
