Gavin McKenna scored two power-play goals and added an assist for his first three-point game in the NHL as the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 5-4 to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena. At 18 years and 312 days, the No. 1 overall pick became the youngest Maple Leafs player with a multi-goal game in over 80 years, a piece of team history that arrived in a loss Brandon Montour settled with 32.7 seconds left in regulation.
FINAL: Seattle Kraken 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 4. Toronto (7-6-2) has dropped two straight after winning four in a row, and its western swing closes Saturday at San Jose. Seattle (8-4-1) has won three of four on its homestand and plays at Calgary on Friday night. Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves for the Kraken, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 12 for the Maple Leafs.
How to watch: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Seattle Kraken, Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 10:00 p.m. ET at Climate Pledge Arena
TV (Canada): Sportsnet Ontario
Stream: Sportsnet+
Gavin McKenna Maple Leafs History: Youngest In Over 80 Years
The numbers the NHL recorded for McKenna’s night reach back to the 1940s. Per NHL PR, at 18 years and 312 days he became the youngest Maple Leafs player with a multi-goal game since Jack Hamilton did it on February 19, 1944, at 18 years and 262 days. He is only the third different 18-year-old in the past 80 years to score twice in a game for Toronto, following Vincent Damphousse on November 15, 1986 and Wendel Clark, who did it twice in October 1985. His three-point night set a second mark of the same vintage: McKenna became the youngest Leaf to record a three-point game since Ted Kennedy had two goals and an assist on March 5, 1944.
The night also moved him into current company. McKenna became the 11th teenager in Maple Leafs history to reach 10 career points in 15 games or fewer, and only two players have done it faster in the past 40 years: Auston Matthews, who needed six games in 2016-17, and Mitch Marner, who needed 12. His first goal of the night was the fourth of his career, making him the sixth 18-year-old to score that many for Toronto in the expansion era and the first since Luke Richardson in 1987-88. He finished Wednesday with five goals and 11 points in 15 games. This is the same rookie who, on his debut night earlier this month, told reporters: “It’s pretty hard to forget a day like this,” after his rookie lap in front of family from his hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon. Fifteen games in, the days are starting to stack up.
Two Power-Play Goals From The Same Spot
Seattle struck first, and fast. Berkly Catton opened the scoring at 1:59 of the first period, deking around Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the slot and chipping a backhander that hit the crossbar and bounced in off Bobrovsky. Toronto’s answer came from the right faceoff circle, the spot McKenna owned all night. After Catton took a holding penalty late in the period and Seattle failed to clear, Matthews fed McKenna at the right dot and he snapped it off the far post and in with 46 seconds left in the first, a power-play goal that tied it 1-1. The Kraken knew the danger coming in: Toronto entered the game with the league’s fifth-best power play at 28.9 percent, and McKenna made them pay twice with it.
The second period turned in bursts. Josh Mahura restored Seattle’s lead 16 seconds in, finishing a 2-on-1 with Ben Meyers, a goal the Kraken’s own recap noted was his first in almost exactly a year, since an overtime winner against these same Maple Leafs in Toronto last October. Sixty-three seconds later Ryker Evans took a hooking penalty, and McKenna scored again from the exact same location, one-timing a no-look Matthews pass from the slot past Grubauer’s left skate to tie it 2-2. Seattle answered inside two minutes both times it was caught: Chandler Stephenson made it 3-2 at 3:33 on a power play when his pass toward Matty Beniers deflected off Troy Stecher’s skate, and Evans pushed it to 4-2 at 10:58, snapping a Samoskevich pass off the far post from the left dot.
Roslovic And Matthews Tie It, Montour Wins It
Toronto’s third-period push was real. Jack Roslovic cut it to 4-3 at 8:02, snapping a rebound under the crossbar after Easton Cowan’s wrist shot hit Grubauer’s pad at 4-on-4. With Bobrovsky on the bench for an extra attacker, Matthews tied it 4-4 with 1:30 remaining, one-timing Darren Raddysh’s pass from the point, with McKenna drawing the other assist to complete his three-point night. For Seattle it was a familiar scare: the Kraken’s recap counted it as the third lead they gave up in the game, the sixth third-period lead they have blown this season, and the fourth time they have surrendered a multi-goal third-period lead, though they have taken points from every one of those games.
This time the escape took less than a minute. Off an offensive-zone faceoff, Jordan Eberle found Montour at the top of the right circle, and Montour’s slap shot squeezed through Bobrovsky’s pads with 32.7 seconds left for the 5-4 final. Stephenson finished with a goal and an assist for Seattle, Mackie Samoskevich had two assists, and Matthews matched McKenna’s three points with a goal and two assists of his own, his 10th goal of the season. Toronto leaves Seattle with the loss and the line in the record book: the youngest Maple Leaf to score twice in a game since 1944 plays for this team now, and he did it skating on Matthews’ line, in the building where the comeback died in the final minute.
