The Kraken are the NHL's 32nd franchise — and the league's most anticipated expansion team since Vegas. Seattle waited over a century for NHL hockey: the Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup in 1917, the first American team ever to do so, and the city never forgot. When the Kraken arrived in 2021, the release-the-Kraken hype was enormous, the deep-sea branding was perfect, and Climate Pledge Arena was a palace.
The Vegas shadow was unfair and unavoidable: the Golden Knights had reached the Final in year one, so anything less felt like failure. The Kraken's actual path was more traditional — a rough first season, then the stunning 2023 playoff run: knocking out the defending champion Avalanche in seven games, pushing Dallas to seven in round two. Seattle had its hockey moment, and it was electric.
The Kraken's identity is still forming: the maritime mythology, the Buoy mascot chaos, the fans who waited generations. Seattle is a sports city that adopts teams completely — the Sounders proved it — and the Kraken have the foundation of something special. The deep sea holds mysteries; the Kraken are still writing theirs.
The Kraken (2021-present) are the league's newest team finding their way: the 2022-23 100-point season (the second round, the Dallas loss) — the fastest expansion success ever — and the 2023-25 step backs (the 81-point seasons, the young core's growing pains) that followed. The Beniers brilliance (the 2023 Calder, the two-way center), the Wright arrival (the 2022 No. 4 pick's leap), and the 2024-25 reset (the coaching change, the veteran adds) are the present. The 2023 Colorado upset (the seven-game first-round classic) remains the franchise's signature. Climate Pledge Arena's Seattle crowd brings the league's loudest new barn: the 2023 roar, the deep-sea energy, the belief that the next leap is coming. The Pacific's middle-class wars define the winter. What the Kraken are now is a franchise building — the Beniers-Wright youth the hope, the 2023 run the proof, and the 2024-25 reset the foundation. In Seattle, the deep sea is patient, and the Kraken's next era starts with the kids.
What defines the Kraken is the potential: no Cups yet, one magical spring, and a city that waited 104 years between Stanley Cups. In Seattle, the Kraken aren't just an expansion team — they're the return of hockey history, and the best chapters are unwritten.
