Pre-season is an exciting and wonderful time for fans of all teams. For Seattle, this marks the first look at the future of this team. We have already gotten a small taste of what Matty Beniers can bring but now we will get to see him prepping for what should be his first fulll NHL season, as well as 4th overall but should have gone 1st overall Shane Wright. Wright and Beniers already look like leaders on the ice as both have engaged in hard battles in practice while also showing off their high end skills.
Here is the lineup we should expect for tonight:
Donato-Beniers-Bjorkstrand
Burakovsky-Wennberg-Donskoi
Tanev-Geekie-Froden
McCormick-Petman-Melanson
Kenpny-Schultz
Evans-Larsson
Seppala-Rafferty
Jones
Daccord
Beniers will centre the top line alongside new addition Bjorkstrand and Ryan Donato. We won't see Wright tonight as Wennberg will take the second line duties with Burakovsky and Donskoi. For Donskoi, tonight represents a fresh start. Donskoi, a regular 15+ goal scorer managed only 2 goals last season. He obviously wants to put that season behind him and scoring tonight would be a great first step in regaining that confidence.
Tonight also marks the return of fan favorite Brandon Tanev who started out hot before injury took him out for the remainder of the season. Tanev is healthy and looks excited to get back into games while mixing it up with the opposition as well.
Fans will also get their first look at top six wingers in Bjorkstrand and Burakovsky and what they can bring onto the ice on every shift. The Bjorkstrand trade in my opinion remains the best move made in the entire off-season in terms of what was given up to acquire. Bjorkstrand has had a lack of higher end skill players to play alongside in Columbus. Beniers though young might be the most dynamic player he has ever played alongside.
The Edmonton Oilers are not bringing a very high end roster to Seattle but there are some players on that roster who need to leave their mark in order to get noticed. I wouldn't be surprised if we even saw a fight or two break out tonight.
No official word but I would guess that Jones and Daccord probably split this game 50/50.
Justin Schultz will play on the top pairing tonight and will be a player to watch. Schultz over the past couple of seasons has been more of a third pairing option but the blue line is a little thin right now for Seattle and this player might end up playing closer to top four minutes. Seeing what he can do tonight will be a good first test.
I love this time of year and I can't wait to check out each and every one of these exciting eight pre-season games. Hockey is back!!
Seattle Kraken Blogger • 
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