Wright Showing Kraken A Glimpse Toward The Future With Firebirds' Finals Run

HERSHEY, Pa. - Flash back to last season, and it was anything but a normal hockey season for Shane Wright.

Following the 2022 NHL Draft, and going from the projected number one overall pick to the fourth overall selection by the Seattle Kraken, Wright didn't quite have time to process everything being thrown his way as an 18-year-old kid who had basically grown up with the hockey spotlight - and microscope - on him.

He began the 2022-23 season in NHL training camp with the Seattle Kraken, appearing in eight games before being assigned to their AHL affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds on a conditioning loan. Wright went on tally four goals in his first three AHL games with the Firebirds in late November, but after the conditioning loan concluded the Kraken opted to reassign Wright back to the OHL's Windsor Spitfires rather than burn the first year of his entry-level contract.

His time in the OHL was fragmented as well, due to the fact that Wright was named the team-captain for Canada's World Junior Championships roster. After seven points in seven games - not to mention captaining Canada to a gold medal - Wright returned to Windsor for their stretch run and postseason before re-joining the Firebirds for the AHL stretch run and postseason.

While with Coachella Valley for their postseason run last spring, Wright gained ample experience of what it takes to play at a high level in the Calder Cup Playoffs - appearing in 24 games for the Firebirds and recording nine points (two goals, seven assists) in a limited role as a third line center.

"I think there's a lot that goes into it both mentally and physically for an 18-year-old kid," Bylsma said of Wright's chaotic schedule in the 2022-23 season. "Leading up to the draft and the projection of the draft, not being number one [and being] the fourth pick - what that means for your career. Going in to [Team] Canada [for World Junior Championships], just a whole mental side of it that you're trying to have develop. And also on the physical side, and I think even last year when we got him at the end of the year, he's still dealing with all those things."

Fast forward back to this year's playoff run, and Wright sees himself centering the top line in the 2024 Calder Cup Finals rematch with the Hershey Bears. He missed the Firebirds' Western Conference Finals series due to an injury sustained in the Pacific Division FInals, but after getting back into the lineup for last Friday's Game 1 of the Finals and beginning that game as the team's fourth line center, he was bumped up to the team's top line early into the game after forward Andrew Poturalski took a big hit from Dylan McIlrath in the first period and left the game injured.

After being held off the scoresheet in Game 1, Wright was creating offensive chances with regularity whenever he was on the ice in Game 2 - setting up Marian Studenic for a goal early in the third period of that contest.

And In Game 3, Wright took his game up another notch or two - setting up both of the Firebirds first period goals before going coast-to-coast on a beautiful goal in the third period to give him nine points (three goals, six assists) in just nine AHL post-season games this spring.

It's not a matter of if, but when Wright will break through full-time with the Kraken. He certainly made a good impression in the NHL to end Seattle's season - joining the team on April 1 and scoring four goals and adding an assist for five points in five games before re-joining the Firebirds for the AHL playoffs.