On a Halloween night built for masks and mayhem, the Seattle Kraken’s defensemen played like a front line and carried the home side to a 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday at Climate Pledge Arena.
Brandon Montour delivered the last word, loading up a right-circle slapshot with 34 seconds left and threading it through Sergei Bobrovsky for the winner. It was the kind of finish that capped a wild game in which Seattle got three goals from its blue line, with Josh Mahura and Ryker Evans also lighting the lamp.
Mahura finished a 2-on-1 for his second goal since the start of the 2023-24 season, while Evans buried a 35-foot rocket that found the corner. Chandler Stephenson also scored, Berkly Catton added a goal and extended his points streak to five games, and the Kraken survived a late Toronto push that included a tied game on Auston Matthews’ sharp-angle tally with 90 seconds left in regulation.
Toronto’s penalty kill entered the night ranked first in the league at 93.6 percent, but Seattle made it matter in reverse. The Kraken scored on the Leafs’ first power play, with Stephenson breaking a 2-2 second-period deadlock. Earlier, the first two Seattle minors of the night turned into goals for 2026 first overall pick Gavin McKenna, who tied the game twice and produced his first multi-goal performance.
The opening period set the tone early. Catton opened the scoring at 1:59 with a backhand finish, marking the 11th time in 13 games that Seattle has scored within the first five minutes. Then Catton went to the box for holding the stick, and McKenna answered with a perfectly placed shot to tie it.
The second period was where Seattle’s defensemen took over. Mahura’s finish on the rush gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead, then McKenna struck again on another Seattle penalty to even things at 2-2.
Stephenson’s goal restored the lead when Toronto defenseman Troy Stecher accidentally redirected his shot into his own net. Evans made it 4-2 with a shot from the left circle across his body, a sequence that led Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet TV to call Bobrovsky’s whiff “brutal.”
Toronto kept coming. Jack Roslovic cut the margin to one at 4-on-4, and Matthews later tied it for the Leafs after McKenna’s pair had kept them alive.
The winning goal came after Seattle had gone quiet offensively for most of the third period. The Kraken’s only shot before the final minute wasn’t really a shot at all - a 130-foot attempt from Evans that simply went on goal. That set the stage for Toronto to pull even, but Montour’s blast settled it.
Bobrovsky had a rough night, allowing four goals on Seattle’s first 13 shots. At the other end, Philipp Grubauer stopped 18 shots and got a little help from his left post on a Morgan Rielly drive.
Seattle also had contributions beyond the scoresheet. Cale Fleury drove Vinni Lettieri into the boards and then fought him.
Jani Nyman made his Kraken debut, while Jared McCann was at the start of a 10-week absence with a lower boy injury. Bobby McMann, playing his first game against Toronto after 200 games as a Leaf, said, “It’s a lot of fun playing guys that you know,” and then nearly made an immediate impact by stripping Darren Raddysh and driving in for a high-danger chance saved by Bobrovsky.
The game also unfolded without linesperson Dylan Blujus. Referees Cody Beach and Corey Syvret worked with lone linesperson Ryan Gibbons on icing calls.
Toronto finished with a 1-1-2 scoring split by period and Seattle with a 1-3-1 edge. The Leafs outshot the Kraken 22-17, including a 14-6 margin in the first period, while Seattle went 1-for-5 on the power play and Toronto finished 2-for-3.
The result continued a recent shift in the series. Toronto had won seven of the first eight meetings between the teams, but Seattle swept the season series last year.
The Kraken close out the month Friday in Calgary, where they’ll meet the Flames for the third time in the first 14 games of the season. Seattle opened with a 6-1 win at the Saddledome on Oct. 1 and then beat Calgary by the same score at Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 4.
In Other News...
Predators Blue Line Plans May Be Bigger Than Fans Expected
Roster shuffling around the league has started to pull Seattle into the conversation again, with Shane Wrights name surfacing as clubs weigh their own needs and the Kraken continue sorting out where their next upgrade could come from. The broader market has already been stirred by Minnesotas reported willingness to include Danila Yurov in trade packages while chasing a top center after landing Quinn Hughes, a reminder that one move can quickly reshape the asks and the available pieces.
For Seattle, the interest in Wright sits alongside other trade chatter, including Nashville defenseman Nicolas Hague being mentioned as part of the league-wide adjustments teams are exploring. Nothing has been finalized, but the fact that Wright is being discussed at all signals how active these conversations have become, with the Kraken still tied to a market that could eventually force a decision on one of their young centers. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Could Make A Young Center The Key To A Big Move
Jason Botterills offseason search appears to be aimed at one of the leagues most valuable commodities, a top-line scoring winger, and Seattle seems prepared to use some of its young center depth to get there. For a team still trying to sharpen its offensive ceiling, that is the kind of trade conversation that can reshape the roster quickly, especially when it involves a player the Kraken view as part of their future rather than a stopgap.
The wrinkle is that Seattle does not appear to be shopping from a position of weakness so much as from a place of leverage, with Torontos salary-cap squeeze adding another layer to the discussion. The Maple Leafs are limited in how they can add players with term this season, and that pressure can affect the kinds of moves they can make around the roster and even their AHL call-ups, which only adds intrigue to any potential deal between the two sides. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Face A Depth Test In A Matchup Neither Team Wanted
This is shaping up as the kind of late-season measuring stick both benches would rather avoid, with Seattle and Toronto each trying to get through a matchup that has been narrowed by injuries on both sides. The Kraken have already spent enough time adjusting without Jared McCann, Jacob Melanson and Ryan Lindgren, while the Maple Leafs are sorting through their own absences and the ripple effect that comes with them. When two teams are thin in the same week, the game often comes down less to star power than to which depth pieces can hold up under a heavier workload.
For Seattle, that makes the margins feel even tighter in a game that already carries a familiar layer of caution from recent meetings and special teams numbers. The goaltending setup adds another layer, with Philipp Grubauer expected to take the net for the Kraken against Sergei Bobrovsky for Toronto. It is the kind of matchup where a couple of defensive lapses or one timely save can tilt the whole night, and for a Seattle group trying to manage its roster health, the pressure on the supporting cast feels just as important as the headline names. [Read more 🡒]