How Jared McCann’s move to fourth line shows how Kraken will use their depth

WASHINGTON — Not many teams would take their leading scorer, a guy with 81 goals in 2½ seasons, and stick him on the fourth line.

That’s exactly what the Kraken have done with Jared McCann the last two contests, taking the added step Thursday of starting him at center against the Capitals on a fourth line between Tye Kartye and Andre Burakovsky. The addition of Burakovsky on the fourth line — primarily considered a checking and defensive-minded role — wasn’t overly shocking given he’s coming off long-term injuries, but adding McCann there Tuesday night against Buffalo did indeed raise eyebrows. 

“I mean, we’ve been winning,” McCann said after Thursday’s morning skate at Capital One Arena. “I feel like we had a good stretch there where I was playing with [Alex] Wennberg and Turbo [Brandon Tanev], and we were playing against the other team’s top line a lot. It’s playing more of a shutdown role, and it’s good. It’s working.”

And the Kraken kept on winning Thursday night, 4-1, recording their eighth victory in a row to tie a franchise mark set last January. McCann set up the opening goal, carrying the puck over Washington’s blue line and dropping it for Kartye to snap home.

“I feel like we’re playing fast when we’re playing together,” Kartye said postgame. “And that’s what we’ve got to do. When we break out fast like that on the transition, good things are going to happen.”

The Kraken have leaned on McCann’s defensive abilities before, primarily as a penalty killer. But lately, as he mentioned, that’s shifted further to even-strength situations. As a result, he’s had to adapt his approach.

“Quite a bit, obviously,” McCann said. “The NHL is a skilled league, and you always have to be paying attention out there. There are some guys who make plays and some guys who just try to make the simple play and get the puck in deep.

“The guys who make those nice plays — you don’t want to be on the receiving end of those. So, you try to play with a more defensive mindset.”

Despite leading the team with 14 goals coming off 40 last season, McCann hasn’t scored at all during his team’s eight-game win streak and his assist on Kartye’s goal was just his third that stretch. That’s likely a result of McCann adapting his play more defensively, but, as he mentioned, it seems to be working out for the team. 

The Kraken last season relied on an NHL record-high shooting percentage at even strength to carry them offensively and saw since-departed Daniel Sprong, Morgan Geekie and Ryan Donato score a league-high 44 goals in that otherwise defensive-minded fourth-line role.

But the shooting percentage — often a product of some luck — has regressed as expected and goals haven’t gone in as often this season. That and a flurry of injuries since November, prompted the Kraken to take steps to reduce the goals they allow in hopes of winning more games. 

Heading into Thursday night’s game here, they’d scored only 2.75 goals per game compared to 3.52 last season. But they’d also allowed only 2.83 compared to 3.07 last season, a big difference maker in building their record to 17-14-9. 

And that goals allowed number has been plummeting the past five weeks. 

They’ve allowed just nine goals during the eight-game win streak — an average of 1.14 per game. And they’d allowed just 1.94 goals over each of their last 16 outings dating back to Dec. 2.  

Much of that has to do with Joey Daccord becoming the team’s No. 1 goalie. But it’s also a product of the players in front of him tightening things up.

It helps that the Kraken traded for Tomas Tatar, then got Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz back from injury. Now, they suddenly have an abundance of offensive depth in players that might not be considered elite but are also capable of producing 20-goal seasons or close to it. 

So now, rather than just talk about his team’s depth being a strength, coach Dave Hakstol has gone all-in on the concept. He’s seemingly eschewed labels and roles in quite the socialist version of forward lines. In this brave new world, everybody is considered roughly equal, given similar ice time and expected to share two-way duties and responsibilities more evenly.  

“It kind of messes with the other team a little bit,” McCann said. “I feel like they’re going, ‘OK, now we’ve got four second lines we’ve got to deal with.’ So, it adds a level of depth to our team, which is great.”

Hakstol said that this was coming once the offensive reinforcements arrived and that he’d need a buy-in from players.

“Obviously, we’re asking different guys to play in different spots,” Hakstol said. “And that creates different rules for them. But ultimately, we’re working to build four lines. Our minutes have been really balanced. We’re in the middle of a long road trip here, so we’re not controlling the matchups. Guys have got to be ready to go out and play both sides of the puck against whoever the other team decides to match up against us.”

McCann played center occasionally his previous stop with Pittsburgh, on their second line at one point with Sidney Crosby hurt. Hakstol tinkered with McCann at center early in the Kraken’s first season, but he was kept on the wing when goals began going in for him in bunches.

“When he has the puck in the middle of the rink, obviously he has the ability to have a little bit more time and space,” Hakstol said after Thursday’s morning skate. “And use his speed and some of his playmaking ability from and through the middle of the rink.”

McCann’s veteran poise also makes him an easier choice at center than rookie Kartye, who is still learning the NHL game. 

“It is a lot to ask a young player to do something like that, especially in the NHL,” McCann said. “Usually, a team’s fourth line guys are older and more experienced.”

Among things McCann planned to focus on: “Don’t go to the wall — just try to stay in the middle of the ice,” he said, laughing. “Give guys an option and try to create some offensive zone time. I can use my speed up the middle of the ice and try to pull guys out of position.”