Kraken Teammate Jaden Schwartz Has Been Where Shane Wright Wants To Be

The featured photo above is worth a second look.

Jaden Schwartz (#17 at right) congratulates Shane Wright (#51 at left), after Wright scored during an April Seattle Kraken game against the San Jose Sharks.

But there's more to it than that.

Wright had a successful late-season audition with the Kraken, four goals in five games. He was then returned to AHL Coachella Valley, so as not to burn a year of his entry-level contract. Wright is now playing in the Calder Cup Final against the Hershey Bears, before rejoining the Kraken full-time this fall.

Schwartz, a 730-game NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner with St. Louis in 2019, knows a rookie - even a rookie picked 4th overall like Wright - will experience many a speed bump on the road to The Show.

Schwartz has been there; he was a 1st round selection of the Blues back in 2010. He knows that in the past two years, Wright has shuffled from the OHL to the World Juniors to the AHL, and along the way had three separate cups of coffee in Seattle.

So this wasn't just your normal goal celebration at the Shark Tank last spring. It was confirmation that Wright's perseverance had paid off.

Schwartz talks about his 20-year-old teammate in this Kraken Reaction.