SEATTLE — The muskie is affectionately referred to as “the fish of 10,000 casts.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service attributes that moniker to “their power, size, and difficulty of being caught due to their elusive nature.” On Monday, Jake O’Brien said something similar, three days after the Kraken selected the 18-year-old center with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft.

A Toronto native and alternate captain for the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League, O’Brien fell in love with fishing alongside friends on camping trips. He spends weekends with those same friends at a family cottage, chasing muskies while the casts multiply.

“It’s tough to catch. But when you catch one it’s pretty electric,” O’Brien said.

In the NHL, the same could be said about superstar centers.

Which is why, it seems, the Kraken have spent four of their five first-round picks on centers — selecting Matty Beniers second overall in 2021, Shane Wright fourth in 2022, Berkly Catton eighth in 2024 and O’Brien eighth Friday. And while the franchise incrementally improves via trades and free agency acquisitions, don’t forget the following:

For the Kraken to become perennial contenders, their homegrown prospects have to hit.

The ability to develop standout centers is more important, long term, than anything the team did (or didn’t do) Tuesday. In the opening hours of NHL free agency, Seattle announced the signings of defenseman Ryan Lindgren (four years, $4.5 million average annual value) and goaltender Matt Murray (one year, $1 million). The team also traded for Dallas winger Mason Marchment and Minnesota center Frederick “Freddy” Gaudreau last month, and shipped Andre Burakovsky to Chicago.

Those moves are not nothing. Lindgren is a proven penalty-killer and shot-blocker who will infuse physicality. Marchment (22 goals in each of his past two seasons) and Gaudreau (18 goals and 19 assists in 2024-25) are positive depth additions. Murray (147-87-24 record, 2.80 goals-against average, .910 save percentage) will provide Philipp Grubauer competition for backup goaltender duties behind Joey Daccord.

But Lindgren, Marchment, Gaudreau and Murray are not franchise-altering additions, either.

For a team that has A) missed the playoffs, and B) fired its coach in consecutive seasons, the continual draft casts must yield a major catch.

For now it’s unclear if either Beniers or Wright qualifies. The franchise’s first draft pick, Beniers is just 22, but it’s fair to worry if we’ve seen his ceiling. The former No. 2 overall pick compiled 57 points (24 goals, 33 assists) and took home the Calder Trophy in 2022-23 but has yet to approach that production in two seasons since.

Wright, 21, impressed in his first full season in Seattle — tallying 19 goals and 25 assists in 79 games. But can the Burlington, Ontario, native become a legitimate No. 1 center?

Headlining the Kraken’s development camp, which began Monday, was Catton — who could crack the NHL roster at just 19. The Spokane Chiefs’ captain tallied nearly two points per game last season (38 goals and 71 assists in 57 games), then exceeded that pace (42 points in 20 games) in the playoffs. O’Brien (the OHL rookie of the year in 2023-24) is an intriguing prospect as well.

In the short term, the Kraken’s center options include veteran Chandler Stephenson, Beniers, Wright, Gaudreau and Catton. Fourth-line center Michael Eyssimont signed a two-year deal with the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

You look at a week like this week, with a lot of young kids (at the development camp) that we're really excited about moving forward here, and we're trying to find the balance of making sure they're protected enough and that they're in opportunities to have success,” new Kraken general manager Jason Botterill said of the decision to let Eyssimont walk. “We want to make sure some of our young kids can have a spot in the lineup."

But will any dominate for the next decade? Will any provide comparable production to the NHL’s best centers — Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Toronto’s Auston Matthews, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, etc.?

Will one, some or none lift this franchise from underachiever to perennial playoff team?

When he was introduced in April, Botterill was asked another way.

“If the player’s not presently in the pipeline, and it doesn’t appear that he is, where, priority-wise, is finding a true No. 1 center for you?”

“We’ll continually look for star players,” he said. “We’ll continue to look to develop them within our system. We have another high draft choice this year. We’ll look at trade possibilities. We have draft capital from that standpoint. But in the meantime, until that star player arrives, we’ll continue to try to improve our team from an incremental standpoint.”

Lindgren, Marchment, Gaudreau and Murray count as incremental improvements. But given the lack of impact free agents, Seattle had little opportunity to make a larger splash.

"We felt good that we made some moves before (free agency opened),” Botterill said Tuesday. “It just reinforces, I think, the belief of how important it is to develop your own players.

Amen.

So the Kraken will continue to cast lines and draft centers such as O’Brien, who said the largest muskie he’s caught measured 46 inches long.

“A trophy size would be like 50 (inches), but on my lake there’s not too many of ‘em,” he said.

A trophy fish, like a franchise center, is elusive. Kraken fans can relate.

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