LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 27: Jake O’Brien poses for a portrait after being drafted by the Seattle Kraken with the eighth overall pick during the first round of the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE on June 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images
The Seattle Kraken have administered their first round of cuts, reducing their training camp by six players – all who will return to the major junior level.
Most notably, center Jake O’Brien heads back to the Ontario Hockey League (with the Brantford Bulldogs) along with teammate and defenseman Jakub Fibigr (Brampton Steelheads). Center Julius Miettinen (Everett) and defenseman Blake Fiddler (Edmonton) will head to the Western Hockey League. Defensemen Will Reynolds (Newfoundland) and Alexis Bernier (Baie-Comeau) will return to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
That leaves the Kraken with 52 players in camp, who continue the preseason schedule on Tuesday, 6pm PT at Calgary (950 KJR).
To nobody’s surprise, the swath of major junior camp cuts still leaves center and 19-year old Berkly Catton in the NHL, who went scoreless in Sunday night’s preseason opening win against the Canucks but is expected to make his Kraken regular season debut before a decision to extend him past the nine-game mark of his entry level contract, according to president of hockey operations Ron Francis in March.
Should the Kraken find a fit for Catton past those nine games, they would activate the first year of his three-year contract. Sending him back to Spokane instead for presumably his final season with the Chiefs, where he has dominated, would push his NHL contract’s start into next year.
On Sunday, Catton was featured as a center between captain Jordan Eberle and fellow prospect winger Eduard Salé while coming off his second straight 100-point season in the WHL.
O’Brien, the Kraken first round draftee this summer who told 93.3 KJR-FM in rookie camp he probably “wouldn’t make the team this year,” explained his goal behind improving muscular build for his wiry 6-foot-2- and 172-pound frame, tied to the kitchen.
“Eat a lot of protein, gain a lot of weight in the next few years,” O’Brien said.
“I like steak and chicken.”
O’Brien will look to build on a 32-goal and 98-point campaign from last season with Brantford, joined by Fibigr’s 33-point effort in 58 games from the blueline.
Miettinen won’t have to go far for this season, 25 minutes north of the Kraken practice complex in Northgate in Everett, where he’s expected to join a Silvertips team widely regarded as a favorite in the league’s Western Conference. Miettinen suffered an injury-shortened, 39-point campaign last year in just 36 games, and plays a big-bodied game with his 6-foot-3 and 207-pound frame.
Fiddler, widely regarded as the best player available heading into the second day this past June’s NHL Draft, where the Kraken swiped him in the second round, earned an assist in Sunday’s pre-season win and heads back to the Edmonton Oil Kings coming of a 10-goal and 33-point season in 64 games.
Reynolds, who turned 18 in August, will look to play a significant role on Newfoundland’s back end after 14 points in 64 games last season. Bernier, who missed camp due after undergoing summer ACL surgery, exploded for 14-goal season and league first-team All-Star honors last year while leading Drakkar defensemen with 46 points in 59 games.