Inner Workings of Kraken Draft Room

The sanctum that is the Kraken draft room is open for business a good half-hour before commissioner Gary Bettman declares the official start of the 2025 NHL Draft on June 28. Everyone is in good spirits, and the work of ranking some 300 prospects is done. Seattle’s roster of amateur scouts is positioned on the two longer legs of a U-shaped table with team president Ron Francis, GM Jason Botterill, assistant GM and VP Ricky Olczyk, assistant GM Alexandra Mandrycky and director of amateur scouting Robert Kron stationed at the head of the table. Three giant TV screens show the draft broadcast plus a running list of the scouting staff’s in-house rankings with the proverbial best players available in the order decided at major meetings in January and May.

Botterill, mic’d up for the remote check-ins from ESPN at the Los Angeles NHL Draft site, is squarely in the middle of things and running point on the choices or potential transactions. Francis and Olczyk are to his right, and Kron is next to him on the left with Mandrycky on hand, plus the director of research and development, Namita Nandakumar, who is positioned at an upper corner of the U-table. Her laptop screen of proprietary draft analytics data will be at the ready all this Friday night for Round 1 and running hot for Rounds 2 to 7 Saturday morning starting at 9 a.m.

It is a good sign of collaboration that crossover scout Jeff Crisp is working side by side with Nandakumar over nearly 10 hours of active drafting. They exchange views seriously with a few laughs mixed in. Crisp never misses an opportune time for a light-hearted moment.

That laptop bearing Nandakumar’s year-long work, including input from analytics colleagues and the scouting staff, was sourced regularly in this draft room right through Botterill asking Nandakumar and Mandrycky if the proposed seventh-round trade of sending the Kraken’s No. 198^th pick to Columbus for the 205th and 218^th selections was an even trade. Like the pro football draft, NHL front offices put a value on every single pick in the draft (each hockey franchise might assign values a shade or two differently). The answer was yes, and Botterill okayed the deal. More in a bit about how those two picks worked out for the Kraken, and especially two Swedish junior players and the three Sweden-based scouts who recommended selecting those teenage Swedes.

Early First-Round Picks Unfold as Expected

No one in the draft room (usually the spacious player's lounge at Kraken Community Iceplex) is surprised about the top three selections by the New York Islanders (Olczyk admires top pick Matthew Schaefer’s emotions about his late mother and that many fellow prospects hugged him on his way to the stage), San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks. Botterill does a fair amount of pacing as he awaits each franchise’s picks ahead of Seattle. He’s also conferring with Francis and Kron. Before Nashville picks Sault Ste. Marie forward Brady Martin, Botterill predicts the Martin selection.

While each scout is staring down personal laptops, some jotting notes, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto is on hand as an invited guest. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke is thrilled to see this important business unfold inside the training center, and investor/vice chairman of the executive committee David Wright has joined as well.

As Nandakumar calls the league to make it official that forward Jake O’Brien is the newest Kraken first-round draft choice, Botterill informs the room of the pick while Mandrycky asks scout Chris MacDonald to say a few words. The veteran scout is excited and a big believer who has been following O’Brien from his first game for the Brantford (ON) Bulldogs as a 16-year-old. That initial year, the Kraken first-rounder notched 13 goals and 51 assists for 64 points in 61 games. This past season, the numbers zoomed to 32 goals and 66 assists for 98 points in 66 games as a 17-year-old. O’Brien just turned 18 in mid-June.

A short while later, Kron is similarly enthused: “We just picked an extremely intelligent player with a high hockey IQ. He was there for us exactly where we thought he would be.”

Botterill then made some GM rounds, first in the Kraken dressing room, fulfilling the broadcast request to be interviewed and then conducting his first post-pick conversation with the Kraken-swagged O’Brien camera too (“Jake, you look awesome in blue!”). Then the GM made his way to a packed 32 Bar and Grill watch party at Kraken Community Iceplex to praise O’Brien’s work ethic plus a skill set and on-ice IQ that allows the 2025 first-rounder to play fast by being in the right spot at the right time (“he will be a Kraken fan favorite down the road,” said Botterill to a cheering group of fans). Back in the draft room, MacDonald and his colleagues continue to watch the first round. Scouts are fans, too, but you know they are simultaneously gauging who might slip through to Saturday morning’s second round with Seattle at No. 38 overall.

Moving (Satur)Day: Two Trades Land Coveted D-man, Later Pair of Swedes

Make no mistake, the Kraken scouts and executives were aware that Team USA and Western Hockey League defenseman Blake Fiddler was not picked during the first round. That’s even though a number of respected mock drafts figured the 6-foot-5, 220-pound defenseman would be picked in the final third of Round 1. Before the second round started, Botterill informed his scouts of his plan to move up for a D-man if the right deal materialized and the right player was available.

To that end, the draft room is quiet and in work mode by half an hour before Saturday’s 9 a.m. start. Botterill is working the phones, receiving and proposing his own deals in what turns out to be an effort to move up. One team is not interested, and another claims a better offer is available. Nandakumar has her head down, poring over what’s on her laptop screen. Botterill asks if sending picks No. 38 and 57 (the latter acquired in a trade with Toronto) to Philadelphia in exchange for Nos. 36 and 68 are fair values. Mandrycky nods, and the deal is agreed with Philly GM Danny Briere (“We got a deal,” said Botterill). What was a tense yet hopeful room of scouts as Botterill pursued the move-up to pick Fiddler suddenly and palpably loosens up. Deep exhales mix with nods and smiles.

Fiddler’s father, Vernon, played 877 NHL games for Nashville (where Blake was born), Dallas (where Blake played for the junior Stars) and New Jersey. Soon after the pick was announced, Fiddler was on a Zoom call admitting to reporters the first round was stressful (not being picked), but “it’s an unbelievable feeling to be picked by Seattle, a team that seems like they wanted me.” Unlike the first-rounders, Botterill had a private welcome-to-Seattle phone call with Fiddler and the subsequent draft choices [Postscript: After a stellar development camp, fans can be sure the smooth-skating, already NHL-sized defenseman is most definitely wanted and welcome].

The Philly trade affords Seattle the third-round 68^th pick to snare another young defenseman high on the Kraken draft board, Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League defender Will Reynolds. With the pick, it’s Nova Scotia-based scout Trevor Steinburg’s turn to share in the kudos. He was the first to see Reynolds in person and got to know the player and family quite well.

“I like Will’s projection,” said Steinburg. “He’s a big kid and a very good skater, great inside edges, and he's good at going back for pucks. He plays with his head up. I think he can be an incredible shutdown player. He’s very coachable. You can give him a script, and he can play it out.”

Steinburg paused, then joked that “sometimes I wish Will would play more, quote, ball hockey, end quote, because I think he's got a little bit more skill in him.” Funny thing, three days later, Reynolds was in the Kraken locker room after his first on-ice development camp workout, laughing about the ball hockey remark. Then the 17-year-old 6-foot-2, 188-pound defenseman, who is the third youngest in the entire 2025 NHL draft class, grinned widely, earnestly adding, “You know, I agree with him!”

Botterill, Nandakumar, Kraken Swedish Scouts Finnish Strong

With no pick in the fourth round, scouts huddle to discuss and advocate for who would be the best players for the remaining two picks (fifth round, seventh round). Botterill and Mandrycky kept the scouts in the loop about strategies for the two upcoming rounds. After selecting Russian junior defenseman Maxim Agafonov (only the second Russian draft choice for Seattle in five summers) during the fifth round, there was some campaigning among the scouts about who would be the best prospect to add in the seventh round. Sweden-based director of European scouting Axel Alavaara and fellow Swedish scouts Pelle Eklund and Marcus Fingal were unanimous in endorsing 6-foot-1, 192-pound defenseman Karl Annborn (pronounced “ON-born”) from the Swedish junior league.

When Columbus called about acquiring the 198^th pick by giving Seattle the 206^th and 218^th selections, there were direct conversations about whether Annborn would still be available at No. 206, plus who might be the 218^th pick. Alavaara surmised the trade presented good value (Nandakumar and Mandrycky had noted the same). Botterill decided to make the deal and stoke the day’s intrigue just a bit longer. The Swedish scouts were all smiles and no doubt relieved when Annborn was still available at No. 206, and, bonus, the Kraken selected another Swedish junior, 6-foot-2, 192-pound power forward-type Loke Krantz at No. 218. Both players looked strong in the development camp, and Annborn even scored the game-winning goal in the scrimmage finale.

After the Krantz pick was phoned into the league, Botterill and Kron walked the U-shaped table to shake hands with every scout, thank each for the hard work and congratulate the colleague on a fruitful draft haul. From there, Botterill and Kron headed down the corridor to meet with the media in the usual space outside the Kraken locker room.

“To start the day off with getting a defenseman like Blake [Fiddler], his size and skating ability, that was exciting,” said Botterill. “We drafted a lot of forwards [in the previous four drafts] ... we didn’t force it, and we drafted more defensemen. We’re really happy with the players we added.”

You could say the same about the scouting staff down the hall in the draft room.

Additional reporting by Kraken colleague Alison Lukan