NHL finally welcomes the Seattle Kraken
By baggedmilk
3 years agoMore than a year and a half after the NHL announced that it had approved a Seattle expansion, the new franchise finally announced its new name and logo on Thursday. With the release, the Seattle Kraken have officially become the National Hockey League’s 32nd franchise.
Can you believe it’s already been 20 months since the NHL’s board of governors unanimously approved the league’s expansion? It seems like forever ago when we were taking swings at what the new team would be called, with everything from Sockeyes to Seals to Emeralds being listed among the 13 names that were trademarked by the franchise in anticipation of today’s announcement. Either way, it’s been a long time coming for Seattle to get a professional hockey team back after losing the Metropolitans — winners of the 1917 Stanley Cup — back in 1924.
Starting in the 2021-22 season, the Seattle Kraken will play in the Pacific Division, meaning the Oilers will have a new divisional opponent to tangle with while also saying goodbye to the Arizona Coyotes who will move over to the Central Division. This 32nd team restores the balance of having 16 franchises in the Eastern and Western conferences, and will hopefully add another rivalry to the Pacific Division considering their proximity to Vancouver. After seeing what Vegas did in the seasons following their debut, it will be interesting to see what kind of success the Kraken will have in terms of its own expansion draft and inaugural season which is slated to take place later this year.
WHAT SAY YOU?
Now that we know what the team name is going to be and what their jerseys/colours will look like, I wanted to ask what everyone thinks? Personally, I think they did a fine job on the colours, logo, and jersey, but according to social media, the first impressions have been a little more split and that’s why I wanted everyone’s take on it. No matter what they called themselves, there were always going to be folks on both sides of the fence regarding the name, colours, and logo so I was legitimately curious to find out what Oilers fans think of their new divisional opponent? Seeing as we’re going to watch a lot of games between our boys and this new Seattle squad, I figured it would be fun to spend a few minutes on a Thursday morning discussing the NHL’s new flavour.
Now that you’ve seen what franchise 32 is all about, I want to know your first impressions. What do you like? What don’t you like? Any surprises here? Looking ahead, do you think NHL GMs learned anything after some of the weird choices that were made during the last expansion draft? What say you, Nation?
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