what's the reason why we're thinking we won't have vince next season?? you mentioned the idea in your tags a few times today and i'm curious (and afraid)
Sorry for taking a few days to get to this, anon, but I wanted to take my time and give you a real answer. And I know @captainplant just answered a similar ask, but I think my thoughts are different enough that it’s still worth posting this. Maybe? Anyway, thank you for your patience 😅
Let me preface this by saying I watch the kraken with two perspectives running in my head at all times: the fandom perspective, and the sports bro perspective. From my fandom perspective, I love the team and the players and my blorbos most of all, and I want them to stay here forever and never leave or get traded or retire. From my sports bro perspective, the kraken are my team and I want them to win, and I want the whole org from top to bottom, front office to coaching to players to farm, to be aligned in achieving that (and I want them to make sometimes hard personnel decisions to work toward that goal).
This is a sports bro answer.
At a high level, the “retirement” of Ron Francis signals that this org is (hopefully) finally being realistic about the flaws in the team composition, and will take the most reasonable steps to address those flaws in as short a timeframe as possible.
IMO, that means committing to the retool, specifically by selling assets we can afford to sell that will net us the best return. Vince is, imo, one of those assets.
But honestly, the writing has been on the wall that Vince will not be here long term since the Monty signing.
Going back through kraken history… s1 was a huge flop, and was hugely embarrassing after the high expectations set by Vegas. We sucked, badly. However, there were a few bright spots: the emergence of Jared McCann as a bonafide top six forward, Matty Beniers’ first 9 games in the NHL, and the magic of larsdunn driven by Adam Larsson’s already solid defensive backstopping and the rise of Vince Dunn as a true offensive defenseman and reliable partner for Lars.
In s2 we made the playoffs, and that was largely driven by the above bright spots, some insane goaltending by Martin Jones (was he good? questionable, but he was good enough to win when we needed it), and a 4th line that massively overperformed for their minutes.
In s3, we weren’t quite as dominant as in s2, but we most likely would’ve made the playoffs if not for the injury to Vince Dunn by Martin P*spisil of the Fl*mes. Losing him completely derailed the season, we lost a bunch to end the year, and we missed the playoffs. There were, of course, other factors too (like the fourth line being much worse than the season prior), but I think the front office went into that summer thinking we were close to being a consistent playoff team, but we couldn’t be so dependent on Vince, because what if he got hurt again? We were just a piece or two a way from being contenders, we just needed to bridge that gap.
So, they fired Hakstol and brought in Dan Bylsma, and they signed Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour (both cup winning veterans) to help set the culture and be those missing pieces to get us to the playoffs. The Montour hiring was, imo, specifically to fix the problem of “the team can’t win without Vince Dunn.” He’s another strong offensive defenseman, though stylistically he’s very different from Vince. And if one Vince makes us good, surely two will make us contenders!
The issue for Vince specifically was that Monty’s contract was for 7 years, while Vince was already a year into his four year deal he signed after s2. While Vince is younger, his next contract comes up after he’s on the wrong side of the defenseman age curve, and the team wouldn’t need two aging offensive defensemen. Unless we were like, real contenders making it to the finals or winning or whatever, it would be pretty insane to keep them both at that point. So I and others assumed there was basically a ticking clock, that unless Vince really outperformed Monty significantly and made moving him unthinkable, that his current contract would be his last with the team.
And basically, everything we’ve seen since then from how the team has deployed Vince and Monty, and the emergence of Ryker Evans as a serviceable offensive defenseman (though one with a lower ceiling than previously hoped) means we really don’t need to keep both of them. Vince’s minutes have gone down compared to Monty, his metrics by some measures are worse, he isn’t signed for as long. Vince will be the easier one to move, and should be reasonably valuable in terms of the return he can get us.
With us firing Francis (okay he’s stepping down but we all know what this is), we’re saying the team as it exists currently isn’t working, so there has to be some level of personnel change to make us more viable. Knowing that change is gonna happen, I just can’t see how we could justify not moving him.
The final nail in the coffin for me in believing we’ll move him was the game we split up larsdunn. We moved Vince down to the third pair with Cale Fleury, and played Lars with Ryker. We basically showed Vince was expendable and that Evans-Larsson was fine as a pair and that they’ll be good enough next season.
Idk I’d love to be wrong and for us to keep Vince, he’s been my favorite guy since my first kraken preseason game before s1, but I’m bracing myself. I think we’ll know more with exit interviews and with the results of the audit. Regardless, I’ll still watch the kraken, and I’ll still watch Vince wherever he ends up.
can you tell me about the asterisk name thing? is that a luck thing? should we all be doing that?
Yes!! Tumblr search is broken as hell, so it’s good practice to censor opposing teams and players names so our posts don’t show up in their tags. Just a way we help keep hockeyblr nice for all the different teams
The Cryptid Cup is the unofficial name for games played between the Kraken and the Devils, since our two teams are the only two in the league named for cryptids.
As far as I remember the name was used as early as s1, but the trophy itself wasn’t made until after s2. This is the first time we’ve won since the introduction of the cup (and the first time we’ve beaten them in regulation)!
(this definitely posted from my main but hi!! defend-the-deep here)
joey reposted a video from bardown about the save on his instagram and tagged dunner with 🥰 !! also his photo dump from the game has a pic of him with his glove over dunner's head :') something something a goalie and their d-men
Oughhhh I’m so unwell about this. A goalie and his dman indeed!
A goalie and his subby dman who hardly ever blocks shots but blocked 3 or 4 right at the end from close range to help secure the win… a dman who blushes so pink and goes so soft and pliable when his goalie cradles his head with his glove…….
I should probably be locked away for not being able to have any Normal™ thoughts while watching a simple post-game interview, but have you seen Vince in the post-game sound in the mariner's jersey with nothing under it...? it was giving very "I'm nude and someone's at the door! Let me hastily put on my husband's baseball jersey" vincess pls
NO I AM DEAD
WHATS HE LOOK LIKE THAT FOR?? Shirt unbuttoned, hair a mess, collarbones out, lips pink and pouty, curls tousled, GOD
You know someone (ADAM) just had him whining and bouncing on it and had to throw something on him to go do media
It's really fun to see that the Kraken and their partners are taking turns in hosting different holidays. I follow Lauren on Instagram and it seems that the Stephenson's hosted the Thanksgiving party, then Larsson's for the early Christmas party, Matty and his partner for Christmas Eve which was so cute because he had games laid out for the kids too and Berks was playing around with them, and the latest early Year End party was hosted by Vince and his partner at his house.
I don't know how it works with other teams, if this is a common thing where players take turns, but I find it so cute. Everyone outside the organization bubble makes it seem like the Kraken is still this team that's a horrible puzzle where the pieces don't fit together or won't gel together because none of them wants to be here but I think this team is tight-knit; it's not as noticeable as other teams because the players and their partners are not very social media active.
Anon, thank you so much for sending this! It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about this season, but you articulated it so beautifully here.
This is not a team of extroverts.
This is not a team of guys who share every moment on social media.
As an outsider, it can be difficult to observe what’s actually going on with respect to interpersonal dynamics. And when things are going poorly (like they were through that long losing stretch of 1-9-1) it can be really easy to either attribute it to a bad room, or to theorize that it’s poisoning the room.
But I think you’re right in that this team is a lot more tightly-knit than a lot of people see. The way they’re all chipping in together for group socialization, taking turns hosting; the way they’re literally taking each other in, like Stevie with Berk and Eeli with Kaapo; the way they’re so primed to uplift each other and celebrate each others achievements; man this team loves each other deeply, and it’s so so lovely to see hints of it.
