Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken is a professional ice hockey expansion team that will be based in Seattle and will begin play in the 2021–22 NHL season. The team will be members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team is owned by Seattle Hockey Partners and will play their home games at the Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center.

On December 4, 2018, the NHL approved a proposal by Seattle Hockey Partners—an ownership group led by David Bonderman, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Tod Leiweke—to grant an expansion franchise to the city of Seattle. On July 23, 2020, NHL Seattle announced the team would be named the Seattle Kraken.

It will be the first professional team to play in Seattle since the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League played their last game in 1975. The team will play at a redeveloped version of Seattle's KeyArena, which had previously been optimized for basketball to suit the Seattle SuperSonics.

History of hockey in Seattle
Seattle has a long ice hockey history, dating back to the formation of the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1915. The 1917 Metropolitans were the first American-based team to win the Stanley Cup, but folded in 1924, while the Seattle Totems played in the minor Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1944 until the WHL's dissolution in 1975. On June 12, 1974, the NHL announced that a Seattle group headed by Vince Abbey of the Totems had been awarded an expansion team to begin play in the 1976–77 season along with a team in Denver. The team, which according to season ticket promotions would have kept the WHL name of Totems, never came to fruition because of the original WHL's instability (the WHL was shut down the day the potential NHL team was announced), the inability of Abbey to gather the necessary funding and meet deadlines, and the poor performances on the ice and at the box office of 1974 expansion teams the Washington Capitals and the Kansas City Scouts. Abbey later came up short in bid to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins and move the team to Seattle when they were sold in a bankruptcy auction for $4.4 million in June 1975. A second attempt at an NHL expansion team in Seattle by a local group made a bid on an expansion franchise in 1990, but it failed again over the financial terms the NHL demanded. The businessmen who wanted to operate the potential NHL team were unwilling to pay the $50 million expansion fee imposed by the NHL. In addition, the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team managed the arena and would not offer a share of suite revenues considered necessary for the NHL team's success. As a result of these factors, their bid was rejected.

Later talks about a NHL team for Seattle were derailed by KeyArena. While originally built with an acceptable ice hockey configuration that was used by the WHL Totems, the largest arena in the Seattle area was considered problematic for NHL hockey from the mid 1990s on due to 1995 renovations that were tailored to the arena's major tenant at the time, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics. Notably, the sight lines for ice hockey left much to be desired. The scoreboard was significantly off-center in the arena's ice hockey configuration, and so many lower-bowl seats were obstructed that half the lower bowl had to be curtained off for ice hockey. This was a major factor in the major junior Seattle Thunderbirds leaving for their own building in Kent in 2009. In 2012, League deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that KeyArena would be "a difficult arena for hockey" due to the large number of obstructed-view seats. All NHL exhibition games held in Seattle after the renovation were instead hosted at the Tacoma Dome 30 miles south of Seattle due to the issues KeyArena presented with its altered ice hockey configuration.

Expansion and relocation proposals often came with a new arena proposal especially after the departure of the NBA SuperSonics to Oklahoma City. From 2012 on as the NHL's interest in Seattle as a market rose, the city was positioned as a locale for expansion or a relocating team pending a viable arena. Multiple reports suggested Chicago Wolves owner and businessman Don Levin had expressed interest in building a new arena in nearby Bellevue that could host an NHL team. On February 16, 2012, a plan was announced to build a new arena in Seattle's SoDo district, just south of Safeco Field. An investment group, headed by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen, proposed the arena seeking a return of the Sonics and was interested in possibly having an NHL team as well. When Greg Jamison was unable to meet a deadline to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes on January 31, 2013, speculation began that the team would be relocated to Seattle. On June 16, 2013, it was confirmed that the Phoenix Coyotes would be moving to Seattle if an arena deal between the team and the City of Glendale was not reached. Ray Bartozek and Anthony Lanza would purchase the franchise for $220 million and immediately begin operations in Seattle for the following season. However, on July 3, 2013, the Glendale City Council narrowly voted 4–3 to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale. A 2013 study by Nate Silver concluded that Seattle had the largest number of avid ice hockey fans of any U.S. media market that did not have an NHL team.

The Puget Sound region's highest level of ice hockey participate the Canadian major junior leagues: the Seattle Thunderbirds, based  20 miles (32 km) south of Seattle in Kent, and Everett Silvertips, 25 miles (40 km) north of Seattle in Everett, both play in the current incarnation of the WHL.

Establishment of the team
On December 4, 2017, the Seattle City Council voted 7–1 to approve a memorandum of understanding between the city of Seattle and the Los Angeles-based Oak View Group, co-founded by Tim Leiweke, for renovations of KeyArena. Renovations for the arena were proposed to begin in 2018 and expected to be fully completed in 2020. The current KeyArena roof will remain in place as it is considered a landmark. The rest of the building will see a complete renovation with land being dug down and out. While the renovations are intended for acquiring an NHL franchise, acquiring a new SuperSonics basketball team were also within the design of the approval. On December 7, the NHL's board of governors agreed to consider an expansion application from Seattle, with an expansion fee set at $650 million. The Seattle ownership group is represented by David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer, who will conduct a preliminary season ticket drive to gauge interest in Seattle.

On February 13, 2018, the Oak View Group officially filed an application with the NHL for an expansion team and paid a $10 million application fee. At the time, the earliest a Seattle NHL expansion team could have begun playing was the 2020–21 season pending the arena renovation completion.

On March 1, 2018, a ticket drive began to gauge interests in season ticket deposits. Oak View reported that their initial goal of 10,000 deposits was surpassed in 12 minutes, and that they received 25,000 deposits in 75 minutes. On April 11, 2018, Tod Leiweke was named CEO of Seattle's NHL expansion team. . On June 18, 2018, Dave Tippett was named as a senior advisor. Another step towards an expansion team was taken on October 2, 2018, when the NHL Executive Committee unanimously agreed to recommend the expansion bid to a vote of the Board of Governors in December.

The NHL Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve Seattle's expansion team on December 4, 2018. Seattle will begin play in the 2021–22 season as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, which in turn will push the Arizona Coyotes out of the Pacific Division and into the Central Division to balance out the four divisions at eight teams each. An expansion draft will be held in a similar manner to a previous expansion draft held in 2017 for the Vegas Golden Knights who will be exempt from it.

Naming of Team
In March of 2018 a list of potenial names was made public: Seattle Cougars, Seattle Eagles, Seattle Emeralds, Seattle Evergreens, Seattle Firebirds, Seattle Kraken, Seattle Rainiers, Seattle Renegades, Seattle Sea Lions, Seattle Seals, Seattle Sockeyes, Seattle Totems, Seattle Whales. Previously used names that were used in the city that may have been possibilites for the team name included the Seattle Metropolitans in honor of the team which won the Stanley Cup in 1917 becoming the first American team to win the Cup, the Seattle Breakers after the orginial name of the present Seattle Thunderbirds of the major junior level Western Hockey League. Trademark issues may have played a role in these names not making the first list of names being released. Several other names previously used may have also included some that were either now considered politically incorrect (such as Seattle Eskimos or Seattle Totems) or are being used by other teams in the city or in one of the four major North American Sports leagues (such as Seattle Sea Hawks) or. Some other names were also from sponsored teams from the 1920's to 1950's (such as the Seattle Bombers).

On January 29, 2020 reports started to circulate that the team would be called the Seattle Kraken. The origins of the selection came from Seattle, Washington Mayor John Hoven stated in an interview on Sirius Satelite XM NHL Network Radio that he had heard that was to be the choice for the name after initially hearing the name would not be used.

Broadcasting
On August 7, 2020, the Kraken announced that Everett Fitzhugh would serve as the team's play-by-play announcer. Fitzhugh had previously done play-by-play for the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones, and will be the first full-time play-by-play announcer of African-American heritage in NHL history.