The Seattle Kraken, at least momentarily, ended their skid Saturday night with a gutsy 4–2 win over the San Jose Sharks. It’s been a grueling four‑week stretch, 10 losses in 11 games, and while the Kraken haven’t played outright poor hockey, their issues run deeper than bad luck. Injuries, a thin roster, and too many nights where the opponent simply had more have all caught up to them. Saturday didn’t fix everything, but it did give them a bit of reprieve from this brutal stretch.
Playing tight games
Regardless of what the record says, the Kraken have been competitive all season. As rough as the last several weeks have been, they’re still keeping games close and giving themselves a chance. Their last eight games have all been decided by one goal, and they’ve played 25 one‑goal games this season when you exclude empty-netters, second most in the league behind the Los Angeles Kings.
A great example came last Tuesday against the best team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. The Kraken went toe-to-toe with them and entered the third period with a one‑goal lead before Colorado flipped the game with two goals (plus an empty-netter) in the final frame. In the first 20-plus games of the season, that game almost certainly would have reached overtime and earned Seattle at least a point. But that just isn’t happening right now. In their first 23 games, the Kraken reached overtime 10 times; over their last 10, they’ve made it to the extra frame just once.
They mentioned this on the postgame show Saturday night: when Vince Dunn turned the puck over deep in the Kraken zone, leading to San Jose’s go‑ahead goal early in the third, it felt like another “here we go again” moment. But the Kraken responded less than a minute and a half later to tie it, and suddenly the energy shifted. A few minutes after that, Ryan Lindgren scored his first as a Kraken, the eventual game‑winner.
Departure of Mason Marchment
As you probably know by now, the Kraken shipped off Mason Marchment on Friday for a couple of draft picks from Columbus. There was some excitement about Marchment providing additional depth scoring, but that never materialized. Coming into the season, I thought it was reasonable to expect around 20 goals from him, roughly 0.25 per game. Instead, he managed just four goals in 29 games (0.14 per game). He also struggled defensively, leading Kraken forwards in turnovers and penalties taken.
His Kraken legacy pic.twitter.com/6YcIZiCSNI
— g (@krakenisles) December 20, 2025
Considering the drop‑off in performance, it’s actually impressive that Seattle got more in return than what they paid for him in the offseason.
More trades to come?
Given how the season has gone, a lot of fans are expecting, or demanding, a sell‑off of veteran players. As always, the team will listen to all inquiries, but there’s no rush. The trade market doesn’t really heat up until about 30 days before the deadline. If the Kraken do become sellers, and right now that seems likely, they’ll want as many teams in the mix as possible to drive up demand. Some clubs don’t yet know whether they’re buyers or sellers, and others may develop deeper needs as the deadline approaches.
The other side of the equation is prospect readiness. You don’t want to bring up players who aren’t ready for the NHL, and right now there aren’t many in Coachella Valley who are prepared for full‑time roles. Rushing them would be detrimental to their development.
Other musings
- The Kraken have the same number of standings points as they did at this time last season.
- When Seattle scored the empty‑netter against San Jose on Saturday with 1:30 left, it was their first two‑goal lead since Nov. 15, also against San Jose. They’ve held a two-plus-goal lead for just 4.4 percent of their total game time this season, the lowest rate in the NHL.
- One encouraging trend: special teams. The penalty kill hasn’t been perfect, but over the last seven games it’s operating at 80 percent after sitting at a league‑worst 64.8 percent prior. The power play has also surged, converting at 30 percent over the same stretch after sitting at 17 percent for the season.
- Seattle averages 0.65 points per game when scoring first and just 0.31 when allowing the first goal.
- In case you missed it, Brandon Montour is out four weeks. Add it to the long list of significant injuries this season. Montour is second on the team in time on ice and has often dragged the Kraken back into games. Injuries happen to everyone, but when they hit your best players, the impact is brutal.
Brandon Montour out approximately four weeks after hand surgery, per @SeattleKrakenPR.
Got injured in the below brouhaha. https://t.co/sfuIsVGNDp
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 22, 2025
- It was great to see the Torrent open the 100 level and Space Needle Lounge for Sunday’s game versus the Boston Fleet. Seattle is averaging the second‑highest attendance in the league this season.
Goal of the week
Regular readers and Sound Of Hockey listeners know how much I love this kid:
WHAT A GOAL BY OSCAR MOLGAARD. HIS 5TH OF THE SEASON AND GIVING THE BIRDS BACK THE LEAD
3-2 pic.twitter.com/xdXmUdevH1
— Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds) December 18, 2025
By the way, the Kraken are 2‑0‑0 with Molgaard in the lineup.
Player performances
Chandler Stephenson (SEA) – Riding a four‑game goal streak with five points in his last four. He also has points in eight straight.
Jagger Firkus (CVF/SEA) – Five points in two weekend games. He has 13 goals in 26 games after scoring 15 in 69 last season.
Nathan Villeneuve (SBY/SEA) – Eight points in his last four games. He has 14 multi‑point games and is on pace for 98 points in the OHL.
The week ahead
The Kraken face a dreaded back‑to‑back with games against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, starting Monday night in Anaheim. Both teams sit ahead of Seattle in the standings, but the Kraken have beaten each of them once already this season. Nothing is easy for Seattle right now, but both the Ducks and Kings look more vulnerable than their records suggest. Anaheim is 5‑5‑0 in its last 10 and has been giving up goals in bunches. The Kings are 4‑2‑4 and struggling to score. If there’s ever a good time to face these teams, this might be it.
After the holiday break, the Kraken return home to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday the 28th. The Flyers have lost four of their last five but reached overtime in four of those games, including two against Carolina.
Given how Seattle has been playing, grabbing three of six possible points this week would be solid. But if they can snag three of the four points available against Pacific Division teams, that would be a real confidence boost, and a sign that this slump might finally be ending.
And finally…
There’s plenty of other hockey to enjoy this week. The Seattle Torrent play one more home game this month when they host Marie‑Philip Poulin and the Montreal Victoire on Tuesday night at Climate Pledge. After the break, they head to Dallas for their first Takeover Tour game against the New York Sirens. Both games will air locally on Fox 13+ and YouTube (though you wouldn’t know it from the PWHL schedule page).
World Juniors also kicks off Friday. The Kraken will be represented on at least three teams (Finland, Sweden, and Czechia) and possibly a fourth if Blake Fiddler sticks with Team USA. Regardless of who you’re rooting for, the tournament is always a blast. All games will air on NHL Network, which is getting harder to find with the current streaming landscape.
This column will likely take next week off, but the hockey certainly won’t. Between the Torrent’s final home game of the month, the Takeover Tour stop in Dallas, and a World Juniors tournament loaded with Kraken prospects, there’s plenty to keep Seattle fans entertained through the holidays. It’s been a chaotic, injury‑riddled, occasionally maddening calendar year for the Kraken, and hopefully this team can turn the page with the new calendar year. Thanks for reading, for riding the waves with me, and for making this space such a fun one to write in. Enjoy the holidays — we’ll pick things back up in the new year.
Kind of a funny way to define “competitive.” The Kraken have a -21 goal differential, 2nd worst in the NHL. I mean, I guess with the parity in this league, and no truly horrific teams this year, you could say every team is “competitive”… still, tough to get excited about that. This team is in last place and has totally earned it.
Their goal differential is obviously not great thanks to two particular blowout games, and I don’t really include empty net goals for or against. One goal games are competitive.
Thanks John for another very informative weekly musings.
Have a great Christmas Holiday.
Enjoy your well deserved break!
Go Kraken!!!
Still… no other team in the league has played as few games as Seattle, and thanks to their early season run, even after this horrendous stretch, they’re a single point off NHL .500 – which would put them ninth in the West.
Obviously it’s been rough, but there’s still a lot of hockey to play
Go Kraken!!!
…and now the Kraken ARE .500 and ninth in the West by points percentage. They are five points out of a playoff spot, but have four games in hand on Wildcard No.2 Utah. Everyone’s sexy pick in the West is a solid .513.
Can you picture if the Kraken were to win both games of the back-to-back? After the Sharks game and what happened between the Seahawks and the Rams the state of California would sports-hate Seattle even more than usual.
During period 1 of the game against L.A.’s theme park-ridden ghetto: who the hell are these absolute ballers in white, and what have they done with the Kraken?
And oh, the sports-hate is thick as pea soup after that game. Kudos to the boys for taking it to those punks. Kakko, Karts, Freddy, Melanson, Rig, Garth… they showed some much-needed nastiness. I hope Karts got the helmet.
And a big round of boos to those refs. That “let the boys play” trash–and then rushing in to prevent proper fights–is why games turn into dirty, dangerous clown shows where punks jump guys from behind after the play is over. I am sick of seeing that in hockey.
Karts got the helmet.
Hell yeah. You know what would be the best possible outcome here? If the team comes out of this battle with a heightened level of brotherhood. I don’t think they have ever come out on top in a game like this before. Oh, and they just beat the first placed team in their division.
with Marchment gone, i dont think we have too many pieces to move for a big return. Ive heard talks of an extension for Schwartz but thats been on hold since his injury. eberle has trade protection and ive heard he stays in seattle in the off season i could see it going either way depending if he wants one more crack at the cup but i could also see him resigning for the same AAV for 2-3 years. that just levaves tolvinin and oleksiak. we have a lot more players with a few more years left that could be traded however I am worried if that will throw the locker room into chaos if we did.
McCann is reportedly available for a price – my guess is it’s a price most teams aren’t willing to pay but you never know if someone gets desperate.