The newest NHL team officially has a name. Meet the Seattle Kraken
Seattle’s new hockey team got a name this week, and it’s a nod to what haunts the city’s mysterious, murky waters.
Meet the Seattle Kraken, the newest National Hockey League team and Seattle’s first professional hockey team since 1924. They’re named for the mythic creatures thought to haunt Puget Sound, team officials said at Thursday’s announcement.
Team CEO and President Tod Leiweke debuted the team name and logo in the middle of the construction site where the team’s arena will soon stand. Surrounded by construction workers, Leiweke pledged to bring the Stanley Cup back to Seattle when the team takes the ice.
Heidi Dettmer, the team’s vice president of marketing, said that, like the mythic kraken, “hockey has always been here [in Seattle,] a sleeping giant ready to be awoken.”
The team’s logo is a blue S, with a tentacle snaking through it and a glaring red eye to subtly nod to its namesake. The “S” hearkens back to Seattle’s original professional hockey team, the Seattle Metropolitans, who won the Stanley Cup in 1917 — the first American team to do so.
The team will play at Climate Pledge Arena for the 2021-2022 season. It’s the NHL’s 32nd franchise and first expansion team since the Vegas Golden Knights joined in 2017. It is one of four teams with names that don’t end in “S.”
The new flag will be flown from Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, Leiweke said, and the team even debuted some merchandise.
All of the proceeds will benefit a local nonprofit for homeless youth, he said.
