# Lane Lambert on Week for Kraken, McCann Out, Nyman, Catton, Leafs

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 28 Oct 2026, 9:10.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/abd33b72-5d57-41c6-a96e-b4f1017c048c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Seattle Kraken Head Coach Lane Lambert joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Kraken’s last week including one win and one loss, a major injury to a key player and how he will be replaced moving forward, recent top pick Berkly Catton and his development, who Toronto is bringing to town on Wednesday, and his experiences. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Now back to Softie and Dick, brought to you by
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[0:19] Speaker 3: All right, boys and girls, we're back on a busy
[0:21] Speaker 3: Wednesday afternoon. Petros Papadakis, Kevin Harlan coming up. A lot
[0:24] Speaker 3: more to get to, including the boys back home tonight
[0:27] Speaker 3: against Toronto. Pre-game 6.30, face-off 7 o'clock from Climate Pledge
[0:32] Speaker 3: Arena with the Kraken back at home. Joining us right
[0:35] Speaker 3: now on the radio program, our weekly conversation. Always good
[0:39] Speaker 3: to get with them right before puck drop. Head coach
[0:41] Speaker 3: of the Kraken, Lane Lambert, with us right now on
[0:43] Speaker 3: the radio show. Lane, how you doing, man?
[0:48] Speaker 2: Doing well, guys. How are you guys?
[0:49] Speaker 3: We're good. Let's just get kind of an update from
[0:52] Speaker 3: you on what's been going on the last week or
[0:55] Speaker 3: so since we spoke. I think just the two games,
[0:57] Speaker 3: the win over Utah, the loss to Minnesota. Yanni Newman
[1:02] Speaker 3: comes up from Coachella. Jared McCann's out for a little bit.
[1:06] Speaker 3: Give us your take on the week that was since
[1:08] Speaker 3: we last spoke, man.
[1:11] Speaker 4: Yeah, well... You pretty much summed it up there. You know,
[1:15] Speaker 4: good win against Utah. Utah's a good hockey team. You know,
[1:20] Speaker 4: and then Minnesota. Minnesota game was, they played well. We
[1:27] Speaker 4: didn't play as well as we.
[1:29] Speaker 2: Wanted to, that's for sure.
[1:30] Speaker 4: And.
[1:33] Speaker 4: You know, there was a couple of situations, maybe the
[1:36] Speaker 4: game could have been a little bit different. We hit
[1:37] Speaker 4: a goal post, uh, you know, a couple of chances
[1:40] Speaker 4: in front that, you know, with just us and their
[1:42] Speaker 4: goalie and their goalie played well, but, uh, we have
[1:45] Speaker 4: an opportunity, you know, uh, to beat Toronto tonight and
[1:50] Speaker 4: finish this four game homestand three and one, which, uh,
[1:53] Speaker 4: you know, would be, uh, would be a pretty good
[1:56] Speaker 4: homestand for us.
[1:56] Speaker 5: No question about it. Well, Softy mentioned, uh, McCann there,
[1:59] Speaker 5: obviously a big blow. Just, uh, talk about when you
[2:01] Speaker 5: expect him back and, and how do you replace him?
[2:06] Speaker 4: Uh, yeah, no, it's, uh, that's kind of the question, right?
[2:08] Speaker 4: Is how do you replace him? You don't replace a
[2:11] Speaker 4: guy like Jared McCann, uh, you know, franchise leading, uh,
[2:14] Speaker 4: point getter, um, You know, he's right up on our
[2:18] Speaker 4: team in goals and points right now.
[2:21] Speaker 2: And a guy that, you know, we rely on on.
[2:24] Speaker 4: Power play situations, numerical advantage situations. It's not a hole
[2:31] Speaker 4: you can completely fill. I don't care what anybody says.
[2:34] Speaker 4: You know, we'll say the usual, and that's other guys are.
[2:37] Speaker 2: Going to have to step up, and they really are.
[2:40] Speaker 2: But at the end of the day.
[2:43] Speaker 2: There's certain players on certain teams in the league that.
[2:47] Speaker 4: If they go down, they're hard to replace. So you know,
[2:51] Speaker 4: it's a, it's a blow for our hockey team and
[2:53] Speaker 4: he's going to be out for a while.
[2:54] Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about Yanni a little bit, right? I mean,
[2:56] Speaker 3: he's been up here before, hasn't played yet this year,
[3:00] Speaker 3: but he's, I assume in the mix starting tonight against
[3:03] Speaker 3: Toronto and a guy that's got a, he's got a
[3:05] Speaker 3: pro ready shot coach, right? There's no doubt about that.
[3:08] Speaker 3: But what, what are you looking to see from him
[3:11] Speaker 3: before you feel really comfortable with what he brings to
[3:14] Speaker 3: your team?
[3:16] Speaker 2: Well, you know what?
[3:17] Speaker 4: I look at Yanni and, you know, I obviously talked
[3:22] Speaker 4: to Yanni over the last couple of days here, practices.
[3:25] Speaker 2: Things like that.
[3:26] Speaker 4: Yanni, for me, Yanni is a different player than he
[3:28] Speaker 4: was a year ago. You know, he's a year more mature.
[3:31] Speaker 4: You know, his English is much better than it used
[3:35] Speaker 4: to be. His understanding of, you know, what's expected and,
[3:40] Speaker 4: you know, what his job is, I guess, so to speak.
[3:44] Speaker 4: Just from a verbal standpoint, from a communication standpoint, is
[3:49] Speaker 4: much better. I want Yanni to enjoy the challenge. I
[3:53] Speaker 4: want Yanni to play the same game that he plays
[3:55] Speaker 4: in Coachella Valley. Obviously, the level is much, much different,
[4:00] Speaker 4: but I want him to play that game.
[4:02] Speaker 2: We need him to shoot the puck.
[4:04] Speaker 4: We need him to score goals like he does down
[4:07] Speaker 4: there and certainly try and replace some of those goals
[4:11] Speaker 4: that we talked about with Jared McCann. It's a year older,
[4:15] Speaker 4: Yanni Neiman, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that is.
[4:19] Speaker 2: Yanni's a great kid. He wants to do well. He's
[4:22] Speaker 2: a big body. He'll go to the net.
[4:24] Speaker 4: So there's certainly a lot of attributes there. It's just
[4:26] Speaker 4: a matter of getting that seasoning and that experience, just
[4:29] Speaker 4: like all our other young players.
[4:31] Speaker 5: Kraken head coach Lane Lambert joining us. Coach, I'm just
[4:33] Speaker 5: excited to see what Berkeley Catton can be. I mean,
[4:36] Speaker 5: he's scored, you know, got multiple points for you on
[4:39] Speaker 5: three occasions already. He scored points in the last four
[4:42] Speaker 5: games consecutively. Just talk about his development and where this
[4:45] Speaker 5: kid's upside is.
[4:48] Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we talked about Berkeley and, you know, you
[4:51] Speaker 4: guys amongst every other media personality in the city that
[4:56] Speaker 4: talked to me last year, you know, every conversation was
[5:00] Speaker 4: about Berkeley cat and Berkeley cat. And then, you know,
[5:03] Speaker 4: Berkeley is, he's a year older too. And Berkeley is
[5:09] Speaker 4: a guy who's just going to keep getting better. And
[5:13] Speaker 4: I said to him the other day, I said, you
[5:15] Speaker 4: do things that can't, you can't teach. These are these
[5:18] Speaker 4: in and eight things that, you know, he has a
[5:21] Speaker 4: sense for from an offensive standpoint. And he's just going
[5:28] Speaker 4: to keep getting better. I don't want to give anybody
[5:33] Speaker 4: a ceiling or this or that. All I know is
[5:36] Speaker 4: Berkley Catton's a very, very good and going to be
[5:39] Speaker 4: a very, very good hockey player.
[5:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let's talk about Toronto tonight. I mean, you
[5:43] Speaker 3: mentioned it. You win the night 3-1 in the four-game homestand.
[5:46] Speaker 3: Always important to protect home ice, right? You guys are
[5:49] Speaker 3: doing a pretty good job of that so far this
[5:51] Speaker 3: season at 3-2. But, you know, Austin Matthews, man, this
[5:54] Speaker 3: guy seems like he's been a Maple Leaf for about
[5:56] Speaker 3: 50 years. I had to look it up. It's only
[5:58] Speaker 3: been 11, but he's been there for a long damn
[6:00] Speaker 3: time and still very much the leader of that hockey
[6:03] Speaker 3: team that you'll see tonight, right?
[6:05] Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean, he's obviously I'm very familiar with
[6:08] Speaker 4: these guys having coached him two years ago. And if
[6:12] Speaker 4: you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs and the history
[6:15] Speaker 4: of the Toronto Maple Leafs have, I believe that he
[6:18] Speaker 4: is the fastest player in Leaf history to hit 800 points.
[6:21] Speaker 4: And he did that the other night in Calgary. So,
[6:26] Speaker 4: you know, clearly an all-star in the league, you know,
[6:31] Speaker 4: and a guy that, is a guy who can turn
[6:36] Speaker 4: the game for them. He does so many other things well, too.
[6:40] Speaker 4: He plays a 200-foot game, by the way. They've got
[6:42] Speaker 4: William Nylander, who is dynamic as well. They did not
[6:47] Speaker 4: accept missing the playoffs last year.
[6:51] Speaker 2: They went out and got rid of a bunch of guys.
[6:54] Speaker 4: They signed a bunch of older veteran players that they
[6:58] Speaker 4: think will.
[6:59] Speaker 2: Help them get back into that mix.
[7:03] Speaker 4: And they've started the season pretty well. So this is
[7:07] Speaker 4: going to be a handful for our team. Anytime you're
[7:10] Speaker 4: playing against a hockey team that, you know, has two
[7:14] Speaker 4: or three legit star players, it makes.
[7:17] Speaker 2: It, it always makes it difficult.
[7:18] Speaker 4: And obviously they have McKenna, the first pick overall under
[7:22] Speaker 4: draft as well. So we've got our work cut out
[7:25] Speaker 4: for us as we do every night. And you know,
[7:29] Speaker 4: All we're looking to do is play our game, put
[7:30] Speaker 4: our best foot forward, and see what happens.
[7:32] Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and miss the playoffs because you weren't there, clearly.
[7:35] Speaker 3: I think we can all kind of admit that. I mean,
[7:37] Speaker 3: you were the missing piece, but you mentioned having been
[7:40] Speaker 3: there just a couple years ago. Do you feel like
[7:41] Speaker 3: you have any tactical advantage? There's guys that were still
[7:45] Speaker 3: there when you were there two years ago. Does that
[7:48] Speaker 3: stuff even matter for a game like tonight?
[7:51] Speaker 2: Well, I don't know that.
[7:52] Speaker 4: I mean, you have a little bit of an advantage
[7:54] Speaker 4: on maybe some individual stuff. But honestly, their team has
[7:57] Speaker 4: changed so much over the course of a year and
[7:59] Speaker 4: a half that it's crazy. You know, but certainly and
[8:06] Speaker 4: the coach has changed and everything's.
[8:07] Speaker 2: Sort of changed there. So things are fresh.
[8:10] Speaker 4: Things are new. But we have film. We study film.
[8:16] Speaker 4: Both teams will be ready for each other.
[8:17] Speaker 5: Coach, one more quick injury question for you. What's up
[8:21] Speaker 5: with Jacob Melanson and his injury? We haven't seen him
[8:23] Speaker 5: since the first game.
[8:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he had a scare there. A sternum-type injury
[8:32] Speaker 2: in his chest and bruised. I'm not a doctor, so
[8:38] Speaker 2: I'm not going.
[8:39] Speaker 4: To start saying stuff that I don't know anything about,
[8:41] Speaker 4: but all I know is that You know, he's back.
[8:46] Speaker 4: He's started skating, you know, lightly, and we can't wait
[8:51] Speaker 4: for his return. It's just not going to be as
[8:54] Speaker 4: soon as we want.
[8:55] Speaker 2: It to be.
[8:56] Speaker 3: Gotcha.
[8:57] Speaker 2: All right, go get him tonight.
[8:58] Speaker 3: Best of luck, and we'll talk.
[8:59] Speaker 2: In a week, man. Appreciate it.
[9:00] Speaker 3: Thanks, guys. All right, Lane Lambert with us. We're going
[9:03] Speaker 3: to break. Don't forget, pregame 630, faceoff at 7. Petros
[9:06] Speaker 3: will join next on a busy Wednesday on 93.3 KJRFM.

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