One NHL team’s relentless quest for off-season media content led a player and mascot into the path of a charging brown bear.
Seattle Kraken right wing John Hayden was filming a fly-fishing scene in the Alaska wilderness as part of the team’s partnership with the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, a for-profit entity of around 10,000 indigenous shareholders aimed at protecting the land and its peoples’ way of life.
The trip is an annual ritual for the four-year-old Kraken and its mascot, which isn’t a sea monster, but a troll named ‘Buoy.’
In what Kraken partnership marketing director Melissa O’Brochta described as ‘experiential content,’ Hayden and Buoy filmed the fishing scene at Brook Falls near the Katmai National Park and Preserve – an area known for salmon and their natural predators, Alaskan brown bears.
‘Bear,’ one voice is hear saying off camera as the guide informs Hayden he needs to move down river.
‘Hey Sam, we got a bear,’ the guide is heard saying calmly. ‘We got to move down now.’
Kraken mascot, Buoy, is seen retreating from a charging brown bear in the Alaska wilderness
The charging brown bear can be seen doing a bluff charge as the film crew heads for shore
It was Buoy who wound up in the direct path of the charging bear as it barreled into the rushing water. All humans and mascots avoided any confrontational movements and quietly retreated downstream before the bear ultimately lost interest and returned to fishing.
‘I want to blame it on Buoy,’ Hayden said in the team’s social media video. ‘They were pretty interested in his whole look. We got out of it OK, but it was a close call.’
The National Park Service warns that encounters with bears can vary, but most usually involve what are known as bluff charges or aggressive charges.
Bluff charges are simply meant to scare or intimidate. Typically, the NPS explained, a bear doing a bluff charge will have its ‘head and ears up and forward.’
People witnessing a bluff charge should stand their ground and are advised against running away, which could trigger a genuine attack.
‘Our guides did a great job of being like: ‘Hey bear, we’re right here. We’re gonna move this way,’ O’Brochta told Seattle’s KOMO News.
At no point did anyone run directly away from the bear, which people are warned not to do
The location of the incident is famed for its salmon fishing, as this bear already knows
Seattle’s John Hayden with Kraken mascot, Buoy, which isn’t a seam monster, but a troll
Aggressive charges are identifiable in a number of ways. Bears might yawn or clack their teeth, according to the NPS, and in some cases they can pound their front paws on the ground.
People facing an aggressive charge from a black bear are instructed to fight back, while those facing a grizzly or brown bear are told to play dead.
Oh, and don’t bother trying to escape. As the NPS puts it: ‘You cannot outrun or out climb a bear.’
Fortunately, as Buoy noted on X: ‘no trolls or bears were hurt in the making, always respect wildlife in their natural habitat.’
The Kraken are coming off a seventh-place finish in the Pacific Division. Hayden, a 29-year-old Yale product, appeared in 20 games for Seattle, scoring once and adding an assist while racking up 31 penalty minutes.
