SEATTLE — A new training camp brings new opportunities — a welcoming mindset for a team that fell short of their own expectations last year. It also brings in new faces to assist in those renewed goals.
The Seattle Kraken signed big-named free agents Chandler Stephenson from the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Brandon Montour fresh off his Stanley Cup tour this past summer with the Florida Panthers. Both have lifted Cups in their careers, and had the unique experience of helping teams do it for the first time in the franchise history.
"That was a big thing of what my family talked about was how special it was to bring the first [Stanley Cup] to an organization and see how many people were a part of it and see how much it meant to them. I know we're still fresh and new here but to experience that with another organization for the first time, you can't beat it," Montour said.
Montour said he wants to share that feeling with Seattle.
"This is obviously a big sports city and they react to obviously how well the teams are doing and when you win hockey games, it's fun, and not just for us but for the whole city," he added.
The team certainly has motivation to skate harder this offseason.
"For a lot of them, it's tough not making playoffs too and having a long time off, so it's a little different," said center Chandler Stephenson. "Guys are excited to get out there, the pace was good, definitely was a good first day."
The training camp is the first for Dan Bylsma as the head coach of this team. While he's been here before with this organization, he said his particular message was clear on day one.
"It's a message that I think they want to have, but it's the message that they got today," Bylsma said. "We're going to be skating, we're going to be up and down the sheet, we're going to be playing with pace and speed, and we're going to be uber and ultra competitive doing it."
Bylsma said last year's postseason miss left the team with both motivation and vision.
"I don't want to call it a chip on the shoulder, but I think there's a lot of motivation, a lot of energy going to turn the script and put that disappointment behind us and get us going to where we think we can go like two years ago, getting to the playoffs," Bylsma said.
There's not a lot of time to get this team up to speed. The team's first preseason game is Sunday, Sept. 22.
They'll have six tune-ups in total before the regular season starts in only 19 days.