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The Seattle Kraken held their locker clean-out press conferences, and Shane Wright discussed what he feels he needs to do to take the next step.
The 2024-25 campaign was a breakout season for the 21-year-old, scoring 19 goals and 44 points in 79 games. The season began slowly for him, but after a three-game healthy scratch stint, the pieces of the puzzle were put together, and he unlocked some of his offensive game.
Despite that, there's still room for improvement. Throughout the season, watching Wright and looking at stats would indicate that he had opportunities to be a better play driver, but often settled for allowing his wingers to do so.
"A big one for me is just handling the puck, transporting the puck through the neutral zone, and just having the puck on my stick a little more," said Wright. "Playing with that confidence, playing with that little bit of swagger, and just holding onto it a little more. Not trying to defer to everyone else or not trying to give it up as fast, take it for myself and be a little more selfish with the puck."
The Burlington, ON., native finished the season with just 91 shots, scoring on 20.9% of those opportunities. While it's never necessarily a bad thing to have a high shooting percentage, it can be a sign that a player is too often deferring to shoot or they aren't getting in dangerous shooting scenarios enough.
"It definitely gives me a lot of confidence," Wright said when asked about his shot finding the back of the net so frequently at the NHL level. "It shows that I need to shoot the puck a little bit more; shooting percentage was a little bit too high; I got to put a few more pucks on net, but it definitely gives me a bit more confidence. I can score goals, I can get pucks past goalies at this level and I just need to get a few more opportunities on net."
If Wright can apply what he was adamant about improving, it wouldn't be shocking to see him obliterate his goal and point totals next year.
Wright shut down any thoughts about specific goal or point tallies heading into next season, but after falling just short of 20 goals and 50 points, a player with the competitive nature that Wright possesses would feel like he needs to hit those numbers. Wright could strive for greater goals, but hitting those benchmarks seems to be a good start.
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Kraken's Shane Wright Dealing With Mini Slump; Could Be A Valuable LessonSeattle Kraken forward Shane Wright has hit a bit of a wall recently, going five consecutive games without a point, but it could be used as a valuable lesson. Continue reading...
