Fantasy Hockey Focus: Matty Beniers is primed for a breakout

The Seattle Kraken missed the playoffs by 17 points and a big culprit was dropping from second by even-strength goals per minute in 2022-23 to 29th in 2023-24. 

That drop mirrors what happened with forward Matty Beniers as his even strength points rate was 1.23 per 60 minutes after a rate of 2.37 across the first 90 games of his career. Let’s look at his success as a rookie, why he didn’t break out in 2023-24, and what fantasy managers should expect in the future. 

We cannot dissect any Kraken skater without mentioning the team’s context. In 2022-23, they had one forward (Alex Wennberg) earn more than 17:30 per game. That made Wennberg the only Seattle attacker inside the top 100 forwards in the league by share of the team’s overall ice time. 

In 2023-24, Wennberg was the only forward over 18