Kraken select Jake O’Brien with 8th overall pick in 2025 NHL Draft
By Charles Hamaker
Los Angeles, CA - With the first draft pick in the Jason Botterill era as Seattle Kraken general manager, the franchise selected forward Jake O’Brien eighth overall from the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). In somewhat amusing fashion, the Kraken have added another centerman to their organization after acquiring two of them via trade over the past week. It’s an interesting pick for Seattle, as they seemed like they could go defenseman with the eighth overall pick in consecutive drafts, but the Kraken instead opt to go with the best player available just as they did last year with Berkly Catton. O’Brien has elite vision and playmaking ability, things that scouts raved about over the last year as he prepared to become draft eligible, while he was consistently ranked in the 7th-12th range as the top prospect in this class. It’s the first selection that the Lambert-Botterill regime have made, and it only adds to a loaded forward group in the prospect pool.
During his second season with the Bulldogs this past year, O’Brien set career highs across the scoresheet, recording 98 points (32 goals and 66 assists) across 66 regular-season games, which is only five more than the previous season. Not only was O’Brien a contributor on the stat sheet, he also helped his team in a leadership capacity as he served as an alternate captain for the first time. Going back to his contributions on the ice, Jake finished third in goals and points and second in assists on the Bulldogs. O’Brien was the driving force behind the Brantford power play, notching nine goals on the man advantage as well as three game-winning goals. Jake notched two hat tricks during this past season with the Bulldogs, one of which came in a five-point performance (Three goals, two assists) on March 8th at Saginaw. Over the past season, he recorded 26 multi-point games, including that previously mentioned five-point outing, four four-point games and nine three-point efforts. In the OHL playoffs, he added three goals and eight assists across eleven games. Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects talked about O’Brien as a player who always has his head up, “scanning, adjusting routes, and inviting defenders to make the first move before slicing them apart with a feed.” O’Brien’s vision on the ice essentially always him to envision plays taking place before they even develop.
A 6-foot-2, 177-pound forward, O’Brien was able to make an immediate impact in his rookie OHL season (2023-24), posting 64 points (13 goals and 51 assists) across 61 games. Jake earned OHL Rookie of the Year honors and as well as spots on the CHL All-Rookie Team and OHL First All-Rookie Team. He also led all OHL rookies in both assists and points that season.
The Toronto native has represented Team Canada on two occasions. In 2023, he played for Canada Red at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. The following year, he helped Canada’s U18 team capture gold at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Jake isn’t going to be the type of center that will dominate size wise, but his instincts and feel for the game are at a level that will have him competing with players far older than him. Scouts look at his skating and shooting as things to be improved upon as he grows his game, but that able to have a strong feel for the ice around him will give him an advantage over other forwards. The Kraken like the potential that O’Brien possesses, and there’s some hockey pedigree in his family: his mother now runs her own hockey school after playing the sport at a high level and his father played Division I college hockey before logging a year in the ECHL.
With the selection of O’Brien, Seattle has picked a center in the first round in four of their last five drafts. There’s no guarantee that he will stay at center, given his playmaking ability and the other young skaters up the middle that the Kraken have throughout the organization, but it may not matter where he ends up considering the talent he has. While it’s understandable that fans are confused with how many centers the franchise has acquired in the last week or so, there is an old saying that says “You can never have too many centers” and it does appear that the Kraken are trying to stack the middle of the ice.
“We’ve tried to build our team through the center position. And as we got to watch Jake, just watching him on the ice – his creativity, his hockey sense – we think he’s going to fit in extremely well with our talented young forwards here in Seattle.”
O’Brien is expected to attend the Kraken’s fifth annual development camp, which will be held at Kraken Community Iceplex from Monday, June 30th to Friday, July 4th. The four-day camp will conclude with the third annual "Stucky Cup" 3-on-3 scrimmage named after Kraken Assistant Equipment Manager James Stucky. The official roster will be released following the current 2025 NHL Draft. Among the prospects attending this year's development camp are Berkly Catton (1st round, eighth overall in 2024), Julius Miettinen (2nd round, 40th overall in 2024), Nathan Villeneuve (2nd round, 63rd overall in 2024), Carson Rehkopf (2nd round, 50th overall in 2023) and Tyson Jugnauth (4th round, 100th overall in 2022). All sessions except for the Stucky Cup will be closed to the public.
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Check out our previous Seattle Kraken articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here.
Cover photo by Brandon Taylor/OHL
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