Say hello to the Seattle Kraken. The new expansion franchise and 32nd NHL team has officially announced its name after months of anticipation. The team will go with a blue and teal color scheme as they prepare to join the league for the 2021-22 season. They will play at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where a full reconstruction of the old KeyArena is taking place.
After the success of the Vegas Golden Knights, it quickly became apparent that the league would be looking for another strong ownership group to bring the 32nd franchise into play. When high-profile financial backers like David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer partnered with sports executive Tod Leiweke, that group was an obvious choice. Seattle as a market had been explored in the past and when the arena work was started it was obvious that an NHL team would follow.
The Kraken are expected to join the Pacific Division for the 2021-22 season, with the Arizona Coyotes switching to the Central at that time. There is an obvious geographical rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks that will likely be pushed by the league, but it’s hard to know just how well Seattle will navigate the expansion process.
The Golden Knights were one of the greatest expansion stories in sports history, making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. That’s thanks to the exceptional roster they built through savvy expansion draft maneuvers, something that may not be quite as easy for Seattle to accomplish.
Teams will have plenty of time to prepare their rosters for the draft—which will have the same rules, although Vegas will not take part—in order to not hand over the same kind of leverage to the Kraken. That said, with the flat salary cap there may be even more cash-strapped teams looking for help, something that Seattle GM Ron Francis could take advantage of.
According to Leiweke in today’s press conference, Seattle has already received over 10,000 season-ticket deposits and has more than 40,000 people on the waiting list.
ew gross
Should’ve been the Seattle Autonomous Zone! For real though, love the name and logo!
Epic
I’m definitely surprised it’s kraken. When I thought it would be kraken.
They’ve already alienated a lot of lifers in the Seattle hockey community. Pretty much every person I played with and their families hated the Kraken name.
Better to get their first big mistake out of the way early I guess.
So people who are in the heart of a hockey community would be alienated by a team name? Seems they weren’t really lifers then because you’d think the moment would supersede the name.
Sweet name.
Great name. You have to appeal to the younger generations coming up and have something that kids and their parents will want to wear and purchase…not sure the ‘sockeye’ salmon is something a lot of people would put on their shirt, bumper, etc.
Also better than the ‘mighty ducks’ of lore
Well said. Though with a name like Kraken, I feel like they could of done something better than the shoulder patch logo they created for their crest. Not very bumper sticker worthy compared to a Thunderbird, Seahawk, Mariner, or even those god awful Silvertips logos.
I like the name personally – I think most of the dislike is coming from older fans who see the name as a millenial type thing. Agreed with Pawtucket – as an expansion team, you want to appeal to the younger audience anyway – most older fans are not going to stop cheering for the team they have their whole lives to this point; and it’s hardly the worst team name in the league.
And really, none of the other team names that were being thrown around struck me as being any better anyway.
what about “Kraken” says millennial? you think the average millenial even knows what the Kraken is?
Because “release the Kraken” is something that’s been popularized recently from movies, memes and things. I realize the actual term is ancient.
Hold on DarkSide. You just used a capital letter in your comment. Twice. Is something amiss?
God forbid the grammar and conventions police not hound me at all times. ill just talk in caps all the time now. would that be better.
Off topic but fun personal fact about me: reasons like this is why I hand write in all caps.
Spelling test in 6th grade spelled “Indian” wrong because I didn’t capitalize the I dropped me down from a B- to a C+.
You must have missed the original Clash of the Titans flick with Harry Hamlin in the lead role about 40 years ago. Was better than the remake. :)
Hey agreed, that version of the film is awesome. While I wasn’t quite alive when that came out, I don’t think it had the overall culture influence the newer one did because of the internet. Maybe I’m wrong though, didn’t experience that myself, as I said.
Oh believe me, “Release the Kraken” was a popular phrase even way back when. :)
Yeah, the ‘other’ Captain Morgan.
Horrible
Is Kraken plural? If so, what would a singular be, Kracki?
no it’s singular and there can only be one so I suppose the team captain will be the Kraken, and there rest will be called the Kraken’s little helpers I suppose?
Actually, it’s both.
Terrible name and even worse choice of colors. Isn’t that pretty much the Canucks colors?
Can we call their fans Krak Heads?
So long as they never chant Let’s Get Kraken, I say they can call themselves whatever they like.
Seattle Ernie McCracken’s
Tim ‘Dr. Hook’ McCracken
Didn’t I tell you to call me Big Ern
Dont mind the name and the concept. Although “release the Kraken” will lose its appeal after a while, and then what?
Dont like the logo or shoulder patch much at all. The colours are pretty meh, as well.
The anchor reminds me of Popeye. And its kind of the opposite of speed.
Vegas really nailed it with the double meaning in the name, and the logo. Seattle, not so.
Way to go, Seattle. First face-plant into the boards and you don’t even have good ice yet.
link in the article appears to be dead now.
Looks like they deleted the original announcement. Should be fixed now, thanks.
Welcome to the Krak-Den Krak-Heads!!! GO KRAKEN!!!
Until now, the Toronto Raptors were the gold standard in taking a non-sensical but trendy name that seems silly and dated within a year or two…
Dinosaurs are dated? Really? Just checked and you’re correct: I guess they haven’t been relevant for a long time now.
But if they can win a championship, it doesn’t really matter what you call the team because the franchise value will be happy enough to make the owners proud.
As far as nonsensical names, it is hard to find a team that doesn’t have a nonsensical name. They are especially dumb sounding to the most cynical among us, but again the name really doesn’t matter that much compared to the quality of the “product”.
So, Gavin/Zach/Brian/Holger/TC – will there be *official* objections when some here use the previously-mentioned slam of AzzKraken against the new team? Being unusually serious here. As you guys well know, there are a number of us on PHR that more than dislike this name. And this isn’t sour grapes over “my” name choice not being chosen, either. Most of the other suggestions were infinitely better, but when they let Amazon get the naming rights to the new barn, this was inevitable. Please let us know where the official PHR stance is. Thanks.
Hopefully they set up a poll on the name choice.
Wait, you “more than dislike this name” and you are wondering if this entitles you to what, exactly? To nickname the team AzzKraken in your posts?
I am fascinated by how upset you could be over a matter that nobody reading this site has even an ounce of power over. But you will feel better if you are allowed to write AzzKraken here? I vote that you should. But I don’t want that power going to your head where you make a real Azz of yourself.
@neo – It isn’t just me that merely “dislikes” the name. It doesn’t “entitle” us to anything, other than showing our displeasure (to put it mildly) at the franchise. But, if you haven’t noticed, other teams’ names get hammered by those who don’t like them. I’m not against that in the least, but as has been stated by the maintainers of PHR, there is supposed to be a line that can’t be crossed, but it hasn’t been clearly stated. It may need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. And, so you know, Seattle is the one making an Azz of itself to the NHL world. BTW, I wasn’t the one who originally coined that, but I’ll borrow it from time to time.
Release the Krakken
Terrible name! Sounds horrible.
No surprise! Been rumored for….Months!
The name is fine but the logo and jerseys are horrible.
Purple didn’t like the Seahawk name another mythological best. It has held up pretty good. The colors were boring this was the original colors silver and blue no imagination.
Mariners was a dumb name colors were bland. The old school stuff is pretty popular now. That and the Sunday home unis which I have heard Moe than one visiting fan claim ones of the best units in the league.
Both teams tweaked colors and logos to improve them. I like the name and I like the fact that they kept blue in it to tie in with other Seattle teams. The ones that hate it I bet it grows on you. I have been a Red Wing and Canuck fan my whole life or most of it. Don’t remember when Vancouver started. We would watch Sunday Night Hockey every week. We got three channels and a Canadian station. I don’t agree that the older guys will still root for the same team. I will still root for Detroit but not at the expense of the Krakens. I will not root for Vancouver they will be a natural rival. Most people will switch to a home team and in s few years the logo and colors will subtlety change.
And dropping the ceremonial first puck will be Raz from CHAZ…