from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,

On the team-improvement front, general manager Ron Francis signed offensive-minded defenseman Justin Schultz and imported the new forwards partly to help Grubauer out. The thinking is that the longer the Kraken maintain offensive possession, the less time teams will have to test Grubauer.

Schultz also balances out a blue-line corps that skewed toward left-handed point shots and slower-moving, defense-first types.

The Kraken can roll out three balanced defensive pairings with nobody forced to play on their opposite-shooting side.

It looks great on paper. But paper isn’t where the Kraken play games. Though they could potentially compete with Vegas, Los Angeles and Vancouver for standings positioning beneath Pacific Division favorites Calgary and Edmonton, they can’t take several weeks to get going.

“The ‘compete level’ has been high,” Gourde said of training camp. “The intensity is high. It’s been super fun. And the new faces, the new additions have been working very hard.”

And that must continue beyond a winning preseason for the summertime fixes to flip results in the Kraken’s favor.

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