Ryan Lindgren plans to bring his defensive-minded ways to Seattle Kraken

SEATTLE (AP) — Ryan Lindgren might come from a family of goalies, but the newest addition to the Seattle Kraken blue line knew from an early age he didn’t have much of a future in net.

His older brother, Charlie, is a goalie with the Washington Capitals. The younger Lindgren — who signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Kraken on Tuesday — figured out his talents were better suited for the blue line than between the pipes when he was a little kid.

“I think I let in probably 10 or 11 goals,” Lindgren said Wednesday afternoon via Zoom. “After the final goal, I kind of laid there on the ice and was crying. My dad had to come out, get me up. And ever since then, I never put on the pads again.”

It won’t be the younger Lindgren bolstering the goaltending depth for Seattle. That distinction belongs to veteran goalie Matt Murray, who the Kraken signed to a one-year contract through the 2025-26 season.

Instead, the defensive-minded Lindgren, 27, will be asked to aid a squad that struggled to keep pucks out of the net last year. In 2024-25, the Kraken allowed 3.20 goals against per game, which ranked 24th in the NHL.

Lindgren was never one to light the lamp all that frequently across 6-plus years with the New York Rangers, nor in his short time with the Colorado Avalanche this spring. He’s tallied 14 goals and 88 assists across 405 career NHL games. Don’t expect either figure to increase drastically during Lindgren’s tenure in Seattle.

“I’m not going to change anything about my game,” Lindgren said. “I just want to go out there and compete every night, do the best that I can and do what I can to keep the puck out of our own net. Obviously, that’s my biggest role, is being a defensive defenseman.”

When Lindgren was in New York, he frequently partnered with Adam Fox, winner of the 2021 Norris Trophy. It remains to be seen who Lindgren will partner with in Seattle, but he intends to make the most of training camp and build chemistry with the rest of the Kraken defensemen.

For as much time as Lindgren spent in the Big Apple, he received an introductory course on changing teams when joining the Colorado Avalanche in March ahead of the trade deadline.

“Yeah, I think it’s really exciting to have that new opportunity,” Lindgren said. “I played with Foxy for the majority of my NHL career, and that was a lot of fun. But, now it’s time to move on and play with someone new.”

So, too, is Lindgren ready to move forward from a bit of a down 2024-25 season. Unlike each of his first five full NHL seasons in which Lindgren logged at least a plus-16 rating, he posted a career-worst neutral rating last year.

Lindgren described his most recent campaign as a roller coaster, and that breaking his jaw in a preseason game hardly did him any favors.

“That was a long, hard process to kind of get back from that,” he said.

Now, Lindgren said he feels great physically and is looking forward to bringing his defensive prowess to the Emerald City, such as a willingness to block shots. He’ll do so under a somewhat familiar face, too, in coach Lane Lambert, who was previously at the helm for one of the Rangers’ top rivals, the New York Islanders.

“I’m really excited to play for him and talking to him yesterday, it was a really good conversation,” Lindgren said. “Just excited to get it going.”

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