The Toronto Maple Leafs host the Seattle Kraken in an early-season Saturday night showdown.
The pregame narrative: The action between Toronto and Seattle’s baseball teams has been intense. I’m not sure that same competitiveness will show on the ice tonight, but the Maple Leafs will try to extend their winning streak to three, while the Kraken aim to avoid a three-game losing streak.
Check out my Kraken vs. Maple Leafs picks, featuring prop bets on John Tavares and Jared McCann.
Kraken vs. Maple Leafs picks
Best Bet: Tavares to not score 1+ points (+115)
Betting on players not to score points isn’t fun, but I’m not looking for fun. I’m looking to cash a wager.
Tavares’ numbers aren’t bad to start the season. The Maple Leafs centre has five points in five games.
The only problem is that he has only produced when the squad has exploded offensively.
Toronto has scored more than three goals in two of its five outings thus far. Tavares has five points in those games.
Conversely, the veteran forward has zero points in the three games where the Maple Leafs have scored three or fewer.
I’m not betting on an above-average performance from Toronto in this contest.
Joey Daccord gets the start for Seattle, and he’s been one of the most underrated netminders in the league for a little while now.
I’ll gladly fade Tavares at this price on Saturday.
Key stat: Tavares is pointless in three of his last four games.
Maple Leafs predictions
Under 6 goals (-110): Let’s dive in further on Daccord.
I wasn’t kidding when I said he’s been one of the most underrated goalies of the past few seasons.
Here are the save percentage leaders since the 2023-24 season among goalies with 100-plus games played:
- 1st: Connor Hellebuyck – .922
- T-2nd: Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin, Daccord – .911
Firstly, how good has Hellebuyck been? Secondly, bet you didn’t know Daccord has been that good.
He has stopped a larger percentage of shots than superstar goaltenders Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jake Oettinger and Juuse Saros.
Daccord has held opponents to one goal in two of his three starts this year. Expect similar results and a low-scoring contest.
McCann over 2.5 shots (-118): This is a nice number to back McCann at.
The winger is Seattle’s best offensive threat, which says more about the Kraken’s offence than it does about McCann.
Still, being the featured guy on an offence puts you in plenty of shoot-first situations.
McCann has been firing the puck plenty to begin the campaign. He has topped this total in all four contests, registering 14 shots through four games (3.5 per outing).
The Maple Leafs are a pretty neutral matchup, ranking 16th in shots against per game (28.0).
Kraken vs. Maple Leafs picks made at 10:21 a.m. ET 10/18/2025.
Stevie’s an avid NFL, NHL, and tennis bettor who has no problem talking himself into the underdog. His previous stops include Yahoo! Sports Canada and Toronto Metropolitan University, where he received a degree in Sport Media.