After an eight-year hiatus, the Puck Pastor is back at DobberHockey. This time around with Dobber, I am filling in for a few weeks for Tom Collins. I doubt anyone remembers my old column, but if you did you would remember I tried to be true to the "Puck Pastor" moniker and weave some life lessons in with the fantasy hockey advice. This time around that will be a little tougher because the "Top 10" format doesn't as easily allow for sermonizing. However, that doesn't mean I won't try.

This week though, is pretty straightforward. I'm intrigued by the Seattle Kraken and I suspect you are too. Looking at the roster, you can't help but feel it is unlikely the Seattle Kraken will make the Stanley Cup final in their inaugural season like the Vegas Knights did, but for fantasy purposes that doesn't matter anyway. We don't care about who makes the actual Stanley Cup final, we care about making, and winning, our fantasy hockey final. So while the Kraken may not have the playoff success the Knights did, what we know will happen is that several players on the Kraken roster will go off in 2021-22 and have career years. Let's take a look at the top ten most intriguing players on the Kraken roster and see if we can see that career year coming.

Top Ten Most Intriguing Kraken.

10.  Jordan Eberle / Mark Giordano

Both still might have some gas in the tank, but their career years saw them averaging nearly a point per game and that isn't happening again. However, a change of scenery might result in a bump in production. Eberle especially might surprise now that he is no longer playing in the Islanders defense-minded structure.

9. Alex Wennberg

He will have a good year, but we are wondering about career years. He had 59 points in 2016-17 and has generally played with top six linemates who were as good as anyone he will skate with in Seattle. Yet his point totals keep falling, I'd be surprised if he tops 40.

8.  Jaden Schwartz

Schwartz has always enjoyed fantastic linemates and tons of power-play time. If there is a reason to think he might have a banner year on an expansion team it is because of the way he spoke about his listless performance last year. He acknowledged the passing of his father and the strain of Covid made for a poor year on the ice. He was excited to show he still has it. His floor is pretty safe, but maybe this year he hits a new ceiling?

7. Calle Jarnkrok

He probably could put up career-best numbers here but I think he finds himself in exactly the same role he had in Nashville. There are better scoring options for Seattle. If he cracks the top six, he will have a career year. I don't think he will.

6. Yanni Gourde

Now we are getting into the sure things as far as career best goes. Yes, he is going to miss the first bit of the season because of shoulder surgery but when he is healthy he will be centering one of the top two lines and could be their most potent offensive center. He could do in his first year in Seattle something like what Jonathan Marchessault or William Karlsson did in their first year in Vegas. Tempering expectations a tad is the fact that he got a decent amount of power play time in Tampa Bay on the second unit.

5. Vince Dunn

The former St. Louis power play quarterback is likely to play the same role in Seattle, and with less talented teammates, so why hope for a career year? What points to a career best is how he went on a bit of a tear at the end of last year scoring 11 of his 20 points in the final 16 games. He is coming into his own. His career best is 35 but he just might have 55 in him next season.

4. Joonas Donskoi

He spent most of his 14 and a half minutes of ice time last year with Valeri Nichushkin and Tyson Jost. His role should change from bottom-six to top-six and be counted on for offense. He will blow past his career best 37 points and maybe even flirt with 60.

3. Mason Appleton

Appleton has had by far the least power-play time of anyone on this list (except Geekie) and still managed to score 25 points. He is quick, hardworking, and GM Ron Francis clearly loves him. (Disclaimer: I actually don’t know who Ron Francis loves.) Add two minutes of ice time per game and a minute or so of power-play time and watch Appleton score a ton of apples – doubling his career best.

2. Jared McCann

He was going to have a career year no matter where he played. He almost put up career season highs last year in 43 games and he did it skating without Crosby or Malkin bouncing pucks in off his butt. Poor old McCann had to earn those points playing with Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter. The only caveat here is he did have a spot on the first PP unit, so maybe he did get a Sid the Kid boost from time to time. However, he has yet to have the opportunity he will have with the Kraken.

1. Morgan Geekie

He has scored at every level and has had no opportunity in the NHL – yet. Carolina hated to expose him to the draft. He could also be the main reason Jarnkrok stays in a checking role. He'll already be on the radar if you are in a keeper league, if you are in a deeper league, watch the waiver wire.