Seattle Kraken Practice Notebook: February 17th, 2026
By Charles Hamaker
Northgate, WA - In their return to practice since the Olympic break, and after the mandated time of 2 PM local time, the Seattle Kraken were on the ice for practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex. Aside from the three NHL players away competing in the Olympics, the Kraken were back in full force, including all three players currently listed on injured reserve. This closed-to-the-public practice session included cardio to get the players back up to speed before small-area drills. Here’s a Seattle Kraken practice notebook for the team’s session on Tuesday, February 17th, 2026.
Before the main practice started, a large group of the skaters was already out on rink one (Starbucks rink), getting in some skating and cardio work with Kraken head of player strategy, Justin Rai. That included forwards Berkly Catton and Ben Meyers, two skaters on injured reserve for Seattle. Catton was in a red non-contact jersey, but participated in the entirety of practice without any clear limits, and Meyers was in a normal practice jersey. It’s been speculated that Catton suffered a concussion when he was placed on injured reserve, forcing him to miss the final three games of Seattle’s schedule before the Olympic break, but Berkly did not have a tinted visor during this practice, which is typical for those returning from concussion-like symptoms. It doesn’t mean he didn’t have one, but it is somewhat notable.
With Kaapo Kakko and Eeli Tolvanen still away from the group as Finland marches along in the Olympics, the Kraken lines for rushes remained similar, but obviously with their respective spots filled. Freddy Gaudreau bumped up to the second line to take Eeli Tolvanen’s spot alongside Berkly Catton and Chandler Stephenson, while Ben Meyers and Tye Kartye slotted back into the fourth line as Ryan Winterton bumped to the third line to join Jaden Schwartz and Shane Wright.
The defensive pairings remained the same, as Josh Mahura and Cale Fleury remain the two extras on the blueline for the Kraken. Matt Murray continues to practice fully with Seattle. While many question his availability, the general consensus is that he’s fully healthy and ready to go, but the Kraken don’t currently have a role for him. With Philipp Grubauer playing the way that he has this season, there is no doubt in a true tandem for Seattle. It appears that Murray is in a “break glass in case of emergency” situation, but fear not: he should be back on the active roster once the trade deadline passes and there’s no roster limit. Prepare for the “Matt Murray has been activated off injured reserve” tweet after the deadline.
It makes sense considering the break that they were just on, but this was a noticeably more lively practice session for the Kraken. There wasn’t anything specifically being said that was clear enough to hear from the media seating, but there was more general hooting and hollering from this Seattle team than any other practice we can remember from earlier this season. Considering what’s possible for this Kraken team through the rest of the season, it’s exciting to hear the audible joy from a team that’s been through plenty of ups and downs already.
The practice session, which ran longer than the team’s standard 30-minute limit, concluded with small-area games that emphasized decision-making and quickness for the players participating in the drills. Pucks in and around the net force players to decide quickly whether to shoot or pass, resulting in numerous tight saves and often generating creative goals. Here’s hoping things like this drill can help the Kraken put some more offense on the board in this latter part of the season.
After practice, we briefly chatted with Brandon Montour due to an incident off the ice when the team was on rink two (Smartsheet rink), which eventually turned into a discussion about which players on the team have or don’t have style. Our writer Miracle did a feature with Eeli Tolvanen about his fashion sense, which included who he thought had good fashion sense, and there was at least one player that Montour and Tolvanen agreed on in the category of “poor fashion taste.” Monty’s “bottom three” fashionable players on the Kraken were: Jordan Eberle, Shane Wright, and Jared McCann. Montour asked Cale Fleury, who sits a few lockers down, for his opinion, and Fleury agreed with that list of three. Additionally, when hearing about who Eeli Tolvanen described as some of the best dressed on the team, Monty agreed with the Fin’s list.
Practice sound: Jared McCann and Lane Lambert
Jared McCann was the player requested by the media to scrum after this practice, opening with how he spent his break. McCann went to the island of Anguilla, which is located near Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands, where he celebrated his wife, Val, for her 30th birthday and was joined by Matty Beniers and Ryan Lindgren for some golf, in addition to some snorkeling.
When asked about returning to practice and trying to get back in the groove of things, McCann did say it was a little weird trying to come back after a break like that, but did say that “everybody looked great,” including the players that were injured, who got in a skate the day before, per McCann.
Jared has been tuned into the Olympics for his teammates, “watching the Fins,” admitting that he’s tried to watch Philipp Grubauer’s games, but the “TV reception over there wasn’t great.”
McCann was asked about the position the Kraken are in, currently holding a playoff spot and the potential of making that postseason, acknowledging that the team will need to come into every game with the right mindset as if they’re already fighting for their playoff lives. Additionally, the NHL trade deadline is very close, and McCann praised the group in Seattle’s locker room when answering a question about that.
“We got a good group, a good group of leaders in here, and we’re just gonna worry about us right now.”
As per usual, after a practice session, head coach Lane Lambert met with the media in attendance for a scrum. He started off by answering a question regarding what he did over the course of the Olympic break, getting away to a home that he has in Arizona, where he attended a golf tournament (Most likely the Waste Management Phoenix Open) and watched the Seahawks win Super Bowl 60, which he called “Super exciting,” besides just “taking it easy.”
It’s always interesting to hear how those on a professional team treat time off, and Lambert said that while he did fully unplug from hockey early on into the break, his mind has been on getting back to work for the majority of the break. The emphasis was on planning for the team's stretch of practice days, as the Kraken aren’t afforded much time to get work in during the season, especially in this condensed schedule year.
“You’ve got to be mindful and cognizant of the fact that their bodies and their motors need to get warmed up here over the next couple of days, and then you just keep ramping up from there.”
Addressing the on-ice status of Berkly Catton and Ben Meyers, Lambert didn’t provide any clear update to their recovery from respective injuries, but didn’t seem to mention any sort of negative information or setback for either. Rather, the focus was on the team having four full lines and eight defensemen to practice with, with no shortage in either area during this key practice period. The only sort of information on either from Lambert was that both Catton and Meyers are “in a better place than they were before the break.”
While some aren’t so optimistic about their chances of reaching the postseason, the team seems to fully understand the opportunity (Don’t get too mad at the usage of that word) that lies ahead of them. The team had talked about what’s possible for them on that last road trip before heading to the break, and Lane Lambert was asked about it after this practice.
“We have to be ready to go, because it is exciting to be in the mix, you know. As a coaching staff, we’ve had to work to put together what we feel is the proper formula here over the next few days for practices. When you ramp things up, you know what kind of physicality comes into it. We have to do a really good job, from that standpoint, of preparing them. They have to do a really good job. Their mindset has to be, you know, not the first game is a week away, but when they come to the rink, treat practice like a game.”
What’s next?
Following today’s practice session in the afternoon on rink one (Starbucks rink), the Seattle Kraken will continue a week of practice that features three sessions that are open to the public before next Monday. Tomorrow, February 18th, as well as February 19th and 21st, are all listed as open to the public on the Kraken Community Iceplex website. The Kraken are set to practice regularly until their first two games post-Olympic break, when they have a back-to-back against the Dallas Stars on February 25th and the St. Louis Blues on February 26th, before returning to Seattle for a game against the Vancouver Canucks on February 28th.
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