Kraken recall Shane Wright from his AHL conditioning loan just in time for the mother of all grudge matches

Wright scored four goals in his five-game stint with the Kraken's AHL affiliate. In his NHL career, he has only played in seven games, tallying just one point and is yet to score the all-important first NHL goal. Perhaps we'll see that milestone tomorrow night.

The Kraken sit second in the Pacific Division with a 15-6-3 record, which has surprised many. Furthermore, the Kraken are also coming off a seven-game win streak where they have scored 35 goals throughout the streak. Offense simply hasn't been an issue, which lowers the chances that Wright cracks this lineup at any steady pace.

With that said, tomorrow, the Kraken face off against the Montreal Canadiens in a highly anticipated matchup between 1st overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky and 4th overall pick Wright. In the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Wright was projected to go 1st overall, but dropped to 4th as rumours of an attitude issue and poor interviewing skills had begun to circulate. When his name was called, Wright was seen staring down the Canadians table, making it known that they had made a mistake. Of course, he later explained that it was all one huge misunderstanding.

It's uncertain if Wright will play tomorrow, but the belief is that he is eager to lace up the skates against the team who passed on him after it was rumoured that they had previously revealed to him that they were leaning towards selecting him with the 1st overall pick before pivoting on their decision in the days leading up to the draft and selecting Slafkovsky.

Another option the Kraken have is to loan Wright to the Canadian World Junior Team, where Wright can use the tournament to showcase his abilities and get the opportunity to log heavy minutes. If the Kraken go this route, it's unclear if they would first allow him to play against the Habs on Tuesday.

You just know the kid is hungry to get in and play his first game against the Habs. Whether that happens on Tuesday or on January 9th, which is when the two teams next meet, remains to be seen.