Kraken the Ice in Seattle

Kraken the Ice in Seattle

By Kent McDill

From 1915 to 1924, the Seattle Metropolitans played hockey in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and that team won the 1917 Stanley Cup, which was then a tournament held between professional and amateur hockey clubs. When the PCHA disbanded in 1925, the Metropolitans franchise passed away. For the next 95 years, Seattle remained an on-again, off-again minor league hockey city. Then came the Seattle Kraken, which joined the National Hockey League in 2021. And from that was born the Kraken Skating Academy.

Along comes Chad Goodwin

For four years prior to the creation of the Kraken Skating Academy, former cruise ship ice show captain and choreographer Chad Goodwin was serving as the skating director for a skating academy created by the Las Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. When the Kraken Skating Academy was created, Goodwin accepted a similar position and is now the skating director in Seattle, which is a bit closer to his childhood home of Calgary.

It would be incorrect to think that people in Seattle did not ice skate prior to the birth of the Seattle Kraken. The people of the Pacific

Northwest take their recreation seriously. However, the enthusiasm around the new NHL team, with the inspired team name, created a newfound love of the sport, as well as a previously untapped desire among many youngsters to experience ice skating for the first time.

Kraken Community Iceplex Facebook

A practice facility was constructed for the new NHL team. With three sheets of ice, the Kraken Community Iceplex is the practice facility for the Kraken, and it also hosts the Skating Academy, which became a new home for Seattle-area children and adults to introduce or reintroduce themselves to the thrill of ice skating.

“There were quite a few longstanding figure skating clubs in the area, and some high-level competitive skaters were produced,” Goodwin said. “But with the NHL and the Kraken, they built the only rink facility within the Seattle city limits, and things have kind of blown up ever since.”

Since opening its doors in September of 2021, the Kraken Skating Academy has welcomed more than 1,500 people into their Learn to Skate program, including adults. More than 150 skaters have taken freestyle classes, and Goodwin has hired 27 full and part-time coaches to handle the crush of new skaters.

Kraken Community Iceplex Facebook

“Everybody is so excited to step on the ice and try it, to get involved in classes,” Goodwin said. “We are creating as many classes as we can to allow kids and adults to get involved. Even with restrictions from COVID, we are making room for everybody, because everybody wants to try it out.”

The Kraken Skating Academy is aligned with the One Roof Foundation which offers financial assistance to families in need in order to give underprivileged children the opportunity to get on the ice. As a result, many additional children are in the Learn to Skate or hockey programs at the KSA.

Learning to appreciate PSA ratings

Before moving to Las Vegas to begin the Golden Knights Skating Academy, Goodwin got his start as a skating director at an ice rink in Whitefish, Mont. It was the only year-round ice rink in the entire Big Sky state.

“I had to change the mental aspect of Montanans,” Goodwin said. “I had to convince people that figure skating and ice hockey do not need to be just in the winter. I spent time raising money to get year-round skating going up there.”

From there it was on to Las Vegas, where he realized he needed to know more about what he was doing, and he needed help in finding out what he needed to know. That’s when Goodwin started working toward PSA ratings.

“I am a certified free skate and certified program director rated coach, and I am still working on my ratings to become a masterrated coach and program director,” Goodwin said. “I am a big believer in the ratings and continuing education. I consider it an opportunity for our coaches to take part in the ratings and the education with the PSA.”

Kraken Community Iceplex Facebook

Goodwin’s next step to getting a higher rating as program director is to create a business plan for a skating club from top to bottom.

“I will sit down with the rating examiners and drill up on questions on what I know and why I would do this or that,” he said.

In the four years since he began working toward accreditations, Goodwin said one of the benefits beyond education is the community of skating coaches of which he is now a member.

“It has been nice getting to know a lot of people from the PSA who are involved in the rating exams,” he said. “It’s not only talking to them about the ratings, but when I have questions, there are people I can network with to gain information.

“Every place you go is run differently,” he said. “What works in Vegas might not work in Seattle. It’s always helpful to be able to call people.”

The challenge of advocating

Goodwin talks about PSA ratings to all the coaches he works with, but says he sometimes faces resistance in getting coaches involved.

“That is a bit of a challenge,” he said. “When it is a recommendation, people have their opinions about that. Here (in Seattle), I have already explained to the coaches that I think it is important to continue your education and get your ratings. I have had coaches who have started to get their Basic Accreditation, and I have had some get hockey certificates. It gives us something else to talk about at the rink.”

Kraken Community Iceplex Facebook

Goodwin said it is more likely that the full-time coaches will pursue their ratings. “They see that it is such a benefit to their career,” he added.

A growth industry

The arrival of the Kraken Community Iceplex and the Kraken Skating Academy awoke a sleeping giant of interest in figure skating and hockey in the largest city in the Pacific Northwest (that was a Kraken reference, by the way).

It is Goodwin’s job to determine just how to handle the massive influx of new and established skaters in the facility.

“We are developing a program from the ground up,” Goodwin said. “We have gone from opening the doors to a new facility, creating a massive feeder program from Learn to Skate, to developing the next steps of figure skating and taking the Kraken Skating Academy to the next level in recreational and competitive figure skating.

“It has been very fast, with a lot of skaters involved, but it has not grown too fast,” he said. “When I was in Montana, we would go through a whole year and then look at how we are running it and make changes. Here, every seven weeks, we are starting a new session. The kids are so new to the sport. We have 24 30-minute Learn to Skate classes a week right now, including our adult classes.”

Oh, and there is COVID to worry about.

“When I was doing ice shows, we would have something called a reblock,” Goodwin said. “Our skating classes now are reblocked. Every day, my coaches are doing a reblock, moving classes to accommodate new health guidelines. You have to be adaptable, not just to make it work but to make it fun. All of my coaches have been through a lot the last five months to get this place open.”