Are The Seattle Kraken For Real? 5 Takeaways From Their Surprising October Start

Welcome to the first of what will be a regular column reviewing each recently completed month of play for the 2026-27 Seattle Kraken season. The Kraken closed out the month of October with a 6-2 loss against the Calgary Flames last Friday, dropping the team’s record to 8-5-1 (17 points) on the year. Seattle remains in the third and final automatic playoff spot in the Pacific Division and is on pace to finish with 101 points this season.

The Kraken’s .607 points percentage (PTS%) through 14 games is the second-highest in franchise history behind only that of the 2022-23 team, still the only Kraken outfit to qualify for the postseason. With that, let’s dive into the positives and negatives that have defined the 2026-27 campaign thus far.

Observation #1: Kraken Playing Faster

The most obvious difference between this season and last is that the Kraken are playing faster with and without the puck, as shown by the league’s burst numbers.

According to the NHL’s EDGE tracking service definition “bursts measure the number of times skaters sustained a speed above a given threshold”, which the NHL has set at a minimum of 18 miles per hour (mph). The Kraken rank fourth in total skating bursts clocking in at or above 22 mph and 13th in bursts at or above 18 mph. Last season, the Kraken were 29th and 23rd in each category, respectively.

Forwards Bobby McMann and Berkly Catton account for six of the Kraken’s 10 highest record skating speed bursts this season, injecting a previously sluggish attack with pace and intensity. 

Despite the stylistic change, the Kraken’s underlying offensive creation numbers have only slightly improved at five-on-five. They’re no longer the league’s worst team at generating scoring chances or high-danger opportunities, but they remain firmly entrenched in the league’s bottom third.

Observation #2: Kraken Offense Running Hot

The biggest discrepancy is the actual goals column: the Kraken are scoring nearly a goal more per hour at five-on-five than last season (3.33 vs 2.25). How much of that is due to playing quicker remains to be seen, but Seattle also boasts the league’s second-highest shooting percentage (SH%) in all situations, and that number is likely due for a regression.

Only seven skaters averaged 0.2 goals per game last season, including trade deadline acquisition McMann, who tallied 10 goals in 18 games after coming over from the Toronto Maple Leafs. This season, 10 Kraken skaters have crossed that threshold, including the now-traded Shane Wright, a fourth-overall pick in 2022 who never hit his potential in Seattle. 21-year-old Matthew Wood is the return from the Nashville Predators, with 18 goals in 91 career games to his name.

In 2025-26, the Kraken had nine skaters producing at a points-per-game rate of 0.5 or higher. In 2026-27, that number jumped to 12, with the offseason addition of Mackie Samoskevich (10 points in 13 games) and the internal promotion of Berkly Catton (11 in 14), giving Seattle more offensive talent to spread across the lineup.

Observation #3: Kraken Goaltending Bending Under Heavy Workload

Kraken netminders Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer have struggled this season, with both ranking outside the top 30 of qualified goaltenders (minimum five games played) by save percentage (SV%).

Even accounting for the quality of chances conceded with expected goals, both goalies are negative in goals saved above expected (GSAx) by every publicly available statistical model.

While the team needs more from its tandem, making a collective $10.9 million against the cap this season (sixth among team goalie expenditure), the Kraken’s defensive structure hasn’t exactly helped stop the bleeding. Here’s how the team ranks defensively at five-on-five per 60 minutes.

Very few goalies can keep up with that kind of volume, and the Kraken aren’t relieving the pressure by at least keeping the puck in the offensive zone. Here are their overall shares of shot attempts, expected goals, chances, and high-danger chances at five-on-five.

While the uptick in wins and goals is great for the fanbase, the long-term outlook is not promising. The team is riding an unsustainable finishing streak that isn’t being buffered by possession time, accounting for 55% of five-on-five goals while only boasting an expected goals share of 42%, one of the largest discrepancies in the league.

These numbers match basement-dwelling teams like the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, and Vancouver Canucks, which are on pace for 63 points or fewer over an expanded 84-game schedule.

A weak Pacific Division could help the bottom from falling out completely, but the team’s strong start appears to be more of a mirage than a legitimate indicator of future success. 

Observation #4: Kraken Penalty Kill Continues to Struggle 

The Kraken finished with the second-worst penalty kill last season at 72.2%, so the bar wasn’t set very high for improvement in 2026-27. Yet, the penalty kill comes in at an even ghastlier 64.1% after the first month of play, second-last in the NHL ahead of only the Los Angeles Kings at 61.5%.

The worst full-season penalty kill since the NHL officially began tracking the statistic in the 1977-78 season was, coincidentally enough, the 1979-80 Kings at 68.2%, so the team finds itself in some particularly poor company to start the season.

Could it just be a case of early-season sample size throwing the numbers out of whack? Perhaps, but the Kraken also sit in the bottom five in shots, shot attempts, expected goals, and scoring chances conceded per-60. At the same time, shorthanded according to Natural Stat Trick, so one can’t really argue bad luck is the sole culprit. It might be time to take a look at changing the personnel, on and off the ice, before it sinks their season.

On the bright side, the power play is chugging along at a respectable 22.9% (about league average), but it’s not enough to steer the Kraken out of their special-teams skid.

Observation #5: Kraken Playoff Prognosis Improving After Strong October

Outlets such as The Athletic and HockeyStats currently give the Kraken around 20% odds of reaching the postseason. The team’s strong start has improved their prognosis, but the small sample size (less than a quarter of the schedule) has yet to turn the tide in how models evaluate the Kraken’s strength.

The increase is also partially owed to the Kraken facing one of the league’s easiest remaining schedules, including six games against teams ranked 22nd or lower in the NHL by PTS%. The Kraken will also play seven games against their rivals in the Pacific from November 1st to November 28th, including back-to-back games against the division-leading Edmonton Oilers to close out the month.

The upcoming schedule could solidify Seattle’s playoff standing and turn the division on its head. However, the Oilers are already building up a nice gap on second, and Connor McDavid looks unstoppable at the moment.

That’s a wrap on the October edition of the Kraken monthly review. How do you think the team has fared?

Data courtesy of Hockey Stats, MoneyPuck, Natural Stat Trick, and the NHL.