Off season planning in Seattle

The 2025-26 season is officially over for the Seattle Grunge. As a result of many significant deals during the course of the seaosn, the lineup that finished the season was dramatically different that the one from day 1. Although the resutls disappointed the fans, management was crystal clear, that simply making the playoffs as a 'mushy middle' team could not continue and their plan was to rebuild. 

Even though the team finished with the 9th worst record there a few standouts from the past season that should be acknowledged.

Brady Tkachuk, the captain, put up carreer numbers with 42 goals and 86points - additionally he was a +3, he had 291 hits, 340 shots and 168 penalty minutes.

Aliaksei Protas, at 6ft6 and 247lbs, this friendly giant put up  carreer numbers 59 pts (26 goals and 33 assissts).

Jakub Dobes, young goalie acquired in the Oettinger trade, had an amazing rookie season (for some odd reason he's not marked as being a rookie), with 2.73GAA (11 best in the league).

Congratulations to Max Plante and Ethan Wyttenbach - these 2 prospects had fantastic seasons in the NCAA.  Plante won the Hobey Baker award, Wyttenbach led the NCAA in scoring and both were 1st team all-stars.

Now, as 16 teams prepare for the silly season, the Seattle management team will be meeting and preparing for a busy offseason. The first order of business is to prepare for the 2026 entry draft.With 10 to 12 picks (depending on certain conditiions) in the draft; including up to 4 first round picks with possibly 2 in the top 10, the club will start scrutinizing their list.Based on the final standings, Seattle's is slotted to pick 9th and 10th (Jacksonville's). Seattle does have an 8.10% chance (6th best) of winning the lottery and having the first overall selection. With the lottery draft 5 months away, management will go through numerous scenarios and including running internal mock drafts. 

In other news, the team is planning to name Shayne Gostisbehere as the teams FP for the 2026-27 season.

Good luck to all playoff bound teams.