Seattle Kraken center Chandler Stephenson has been a lightning rod for criticism ever since the team signed him to a seven-year, $44 million free agent deal in 2024. Some didn’t like the term, some didn’t like the dollars, more didn’t like the player at any price or length of contract.

So, what to make of his recent offensive production? Stephenson scored an empty-netter plus an assist Saturday, as the Kraken ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win in San Jose. Stephenson has a goal in four straight games, and at least one point in eight straight.

Stephenson’s Critics

The Athletic rated Stephenson’s contract the third-worst in the entire NHL heading into this season. Writers Dom Luszczyszyn, Sean Gentille and Shayna Goldman called Stephenson, “Seattle’s poster child of ineptitude, who managed a stunning league-worst 37 percent xG (expected goal share) last year – seven percentage points worse than Seattle’s next-worst regular forward.”

The 31-year old native of Saskatoon, Sask. is a two-time Stanley Cup champion. Part of the club-stated reason for signing him was to mentor and shelter young Kraken centers Matty Beniers and Shane Wright. However, hockey analytics expert “JFresh” made this observation in November.

One of the weirder things in the league is the Kraken’s deployment of Stephenson. He faces the toughest comp in the league with a lot of d-zone starts – fair enough. But why? He’s getting totally cooked in those minutes, what is it actually accomplishing? pic.twitter.com/ove9cAhEEx

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 12, 2025

Kraken center Chandler Stephenson (9), playing some of those tough matchup minutes Saturday against Sharks wunderkind Macklin Celebrini (71). Justine Willard-Imagn Images

Stephenson’s Defenders

Alison Lukan, Kraken Hockey Network’s number-crunching analyst, gave a full-throated defense of Stephenson on the KHN TV postgame show after the victory over the Sharks.

“I love to talk about Chandler Stephenson. As someone who loves the numbers, I understand if you look at what’s out there in public, in terms of underlying numbers, people say it doesn’t add up to Chandler Stephenson being an asset on the team.

“But if you watch him, you see what he’s doing, you see why it matters. You see him skating, you see him passing, you see him now scoring, setting up scoring chances for his teammates like Ryan Lindgren, which was awesome.

“It’s great to see those points get on the (score)sheet. Again, publicly, we can’t see the measures that (the Kraken) have internally, privately, that do track entries, exits, where you are having possession (of the puck), who’s having possession. How are you passing, where are you passing, are (the passes) completed. I just love everything about his game.”

Stephenson drew the primary assist on defenseman Ryan Lindgren’s goal early in the 3rd period that proved to be the game-winner. As the KHN screengrab below shows, Stephenson held onto the puck at the San Jose blueline until three Sharks converged. That allowed open ice for his pass to Lindgren, whose shot after entering the zone deflected off Shakir Mukhamadullin and past goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

KHN Screengrab showing Stephenson’s assist Saturday.

One of Lukan’s KHN postgame partners, former NHL defenseman Brett Festerling, singled out this sequence for praise.

“A coach or players will talk about, ‘We’ve got to make a play.’ You don’t know if it’s supposed to be a chip, is it supposed to be a pass? He’s a guy I think you can watch, and tonight’s goal by Lindgren is as example of it. There’s two options there; he finds the player, he has that position, holds onto the puck.

“He seems to do that more than anybody on the team. That leads into more goals for everybody. It tilts the ice in a way that’s hard to measure.”

As a Kraken fan, are you convinced? Should you be?