It has been a bumpy start for the National Hockey League career of young Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright, a player who was once projected to go first overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
On Sunday, the 18 year old Wright was finally demoted by the Kraken when they officially announced that Wright would be heading down to the American Hockey League on a 14 day conditioning stint. In the AHL, Wright will join the Coachella Valley Firebirds who are the current affiliate team of the Seattle Kraken but perhaps more importantly he will get consistent playing time.
Throughout the week there were rumblings that the Kraken would use a clause that would allow them to send Wright down to the AHL for 2 weeks, a clause that required them to scratch the young forward for 5 consecutive games. After Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol scratched Wright for his 5th straight game over the weekend, those rumblings were confirmed by the Kraken.
Wright has only appeared in 7 games all season for the Kraken and the team has been criticized for potentially mismanaging his development by not giving him a real chance to play, at any level of hockey. This latest move will now address that issue, and it may very well be that the Kraken have a plan for when Wright's conditioning stint comes to an end as well.
During Saturday night's NHL broadcast, Jeff Marek revealed an interesting timeline that could very well keep Wright busy for the foreseeable future.
"Two week conditioning stint opens up 5 games potentially for Shane Wright," said Marek during the broadcast. "He comes back to Seattle on December the 4th and then if they are gonna send him to the World Junior Hockey Championship there is one game in between the end of the conditioning stint and the World Junior camp and that game is against the Montreal Canadiens. You know Shane Wright will want to play very much against the Canadiens."
That would seem to be a perfect timeline, one with a very exciting game squeezed in, and it may very well be the plan from the Kraken moving forward.
