Kraken draft Silvertips’ Julius Miettinen in second round

LAS VEGAS — The Seattle Kraken are demonstrating that they have their eyes trained firmly on the junior team located a short 30-mile drive to their north.

For the second straight year Seattle was the first team to select a member of the Everett Silvertips in the NHL draft, taking center Julius Miettinen in the second round Saturday.

In last year’s draft the Kraken also picked the first Everett player, taking defenseman Kaden Hammell in the fifth round.

This time Seattle went for offense, picking the big Finn 40th overall. Miettinen credited his time in Everett for helping elevate his game to where he was selected in the second round.

“Culturally, (the Silvertips) helped me a lot at the start,” Miettinen said Saturday after being selected. “I don’t know if any other teams could do that for me. They’re just awesome. They helped me with everything, gave me time.”

Miettinen was one of three Everett players selected Saturday. Defenseman Tarin Smith was picked in the third round, 79th overall, by the Anaheim Ducks, while defenseman Eric Jamieson was taken in the sixth round, 177th overall, by his hometown Calgary Flames. Both Miettinen and Smith attended the draft in person.

Miettinen, who measures 6-foot-3 and 207 pounds, had 31 goals and 36 assists in 66 games last season for the Tips as a 17-year-old rookie.

“I saw him in Everett,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said Saturday about Miettinen. “I was impressed with his size, he thinks the game very well. … You get a kid that can find his way to the front of the net, that’s never a bad thing.”

Smith, a 6-foot-1, 176-pound native of Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan, had eight goals and 36 assists in 67 games last season, also as a 17-year-old rookie. He joins the organization that drafted former Everett defenseman Olen Zellweger in the second round of the 2021 draft.

“Obviously this is something you dream of since you’re a little kid,” Smith told the media after being drafted. “That feeling that kind of runs through your body once you hear your name called is pretty cool.

“I think deep down I kind of knew I had it in me, so it’s pretty cool to get recognized for what I knew I had throughout the year.”

Jamieson, a Calgary native who measures 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds, had 10 goals and 22 assists in 66 games last season as an 18-year-old. He was passed over last year in his first year of NHL draft eligibility.

NHL teams have two years to sign players drafted out of the WHL. All three of Miettinen, Smith and Jamieson are expected to play for Everett in the upcoming season.