After nearly a year of posting hypothetical mock drafts for the Seattle Kraken and then dissecting the roster piece by piece, we can finally start discussing the actual on ice product for the 32nd NHL team.

One of the most exciting things to speak about is the progress of Yanni Gourde. Gourde had gone shoulder surgery in the off-season and it was originally expected that the centre would miss at least a couple months of the season. Gourde has been viewed as the best option for the top line centre position so needless to say this would be a big blow to the team. However on Thursday, Gourde was skating with the team and while he is still a ways from participating in any contact drills, it appears that he is well ahead of schedule. While originally expected to be out until December, Gourde could be back as early as November and perhaps even sooner.

With Gourde out, it will likely fall to Alex Wennberg to step in on the top line but I also wouldn't count the younger Jared McCann out either. In practice McCann was slotted between Eberle and Schwartz on what should be considered the top line. McCann is a natural centre but a number of mock lineups saw him on the wing. With Gourde out this could be a huge opportunity for McCann to establish himself early as a top six forward.

The first session saw these lines together

Schwartz-McCann-Eberle
Donato-Geekie-Donskoi
Appleton-Kartye-Wilson
Gates-Mackay-Henman

Oleksiak-Giordano
Lauzon-Borgen
C. Fleury-Olofsson
Evans

Grubauer
Daccord

- I found it a little interesting that Giordano was paired with Oleksiak with the former playing on his off side. Seattle has an abundance of options for the left side on D but the belief was always that someone was going to have to play their off side. It's very early on but we will need to watch and see if Gio remains in this position or if others will be moved around as well.

- I liked seeing the young Morgan Geekie getting reps early on with a more offensive minded winger in Donskoi. Geekie will be another player like McCann who might get a chance to shine and an elevated spot in the lineup due to the Gourde injury.

Once the second session began, these were the lines that took to the ice.

Johansson-Wennberg-Jarnkrok
Tanev-Sheehan-Bastian
Melanson-True-Twarynski
Gourde-Lohn

Dunn-Larsson
Carrick-Soucy
H. Fleury-Cholowski

Driedger
Bibeau
Marotte

- Already it's easy to see where coach Hakstol's mind is for his forward combinations. A line like Schwartz-McCann-Eberle would be the offensive force for the team, counted on to produce the most and also likely receive the most offensive zone starts. Meanwhile a trio like Johansson-Wennberg-Jarnkrok would be the defensive conscious, given more defensive starts and counted on to shutdown the top players from their opponents.

- I like the idea of a Dunn-Larsson duo, I think Larsson is a great partner for Dunn and will allow the young player to have more room to skate and focus on the offensive side of his game while Larsson helps to settle things down.

- Sheehan, Bastian, and Tanev will all be in competition for the fourth line. Seattle has a bunch of big, physical guys in the mix here and Seattle has a good chance of being in the top 5 for hits in the NHL this season. If you're in a fantasy league and looking for guys with hits, Seattle should certainly be on your radar.

It's great to see a real roster and line combinations and there will be plenty more to cover in the next few days. On Sunday we will get our first Seattle Kraken game (sort of) when Seattle faces off against the Canucks in pre-season action.

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