Seattle Kraken get first goals from Berkly Catton: ‘that was … awesome’

He almost scored in his first NHL game in October, in front of his parents. How was it January and Berkly Catton still didn’t have a goal?

During his three-year, 197-game Western Hockey League career, Catton found the net 116 times for the Spokane Chiefs. His longest goal drought was nine games. He grew antsy long before this stretch tripled that one, with a much bigger audience watching and wondering.

“I thought about it all the time,” Catton said.

The franchise pinned a lot of their hopes for the future on Catton, their No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft. The Kraken brass deemed him ready at 19 and elevated him earlier than most of his peers. Five assists in 27 games was not concerning, necessarily, but unexpected.

The numbers weren’t adding up, but his teammates and coaches complimented his other work.

“He’s a well-liked teammate. He works. He’s learning. He’s growing,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I’ve said it many, many times – I love the way he wants the puck.”

In the present day, what the team needed most was goals.

There were signs of external nudging. At his general manager’s suggestion, Catton switched jersey numbers midseason, a rarity usually reserved for veterans. He went from No. 77, his camp number, to the No. 27 he’d worn throughout his career. It was available after Mason Marchment was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 19.

The coaching staff put Jared McCann, the Kraken’s all-time leading scorer, next to Catton and 22-year-old Shane Wright when the veteran returned from injury. That was partly to give Kaapo Kakko a fair shot in the top six forwards, no doubt, and because former fourth-line center Freddy Gaudreau has done good work on the second line as well.

McCann has offensive gifts to share and wisdom to impart. He went through a scoring drought of his own last season, one of many in an 11-season career.

“I’ve been through what they went through,” McCann said. “I’ve learned from it, and obviously I’ve had my ups and downs in my career. So I’m just trying to help them out more.”

“Keep your head up,” McCann told Catton as frustration mounted.

On Tuesday against the Boston Bruins, McCann got to yell “finally!” over the roar of the crowd.

Catton sent an innocent-enough, wide-angle shot toward Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman. The teenager has had a better scoring chance in at least half of his NHL games so far.

But that’s why you keep putting pucks on net. The rubber disk bounced off Swayman’s blocker and in.

A stunned Catton was mobbed by black jerseys. Later, he couldn’t recall the goal, but he remembered how happy McCann was for him.

“They’ve been nothing but great to me,” Catton said of his teammates. “Lots of the guys have gone through droughts here. Not that long, but they’ve gone through them.”

Asked often about Catton’s play, Lambert said when one goal fell, more would follow. He got the opportunity to “told-you-so” when Catton’s second goal arrived an hour and a half after his first.

“Beautiful goal, by the way,” Lambert said.

Catton brought the puck over the Bruins’ blue line, passed it off to Gaudreau and hopped through the Boston line of defense. Gaudreau placed a pass in the slot for Catton, who had a short breakaway. A second later, Catton had his first career power-play goal, another helping of joy in a delirious evening.

“A lot of weight off the shoulders, for sure,” he said. “But (I’ve) dreamed of that for a long time. So that was … awesome.”