On December 4, 2018 the National Hockey League Board of Governors unanimously approved Seattle’s franchise application. The team will begin play in the 2021-2022 season as the NHL’s 32nd team. There’s no doubt that the ‘Jet City’ is a perfect fit for a NHL team and it should be hugely popular. If advanced season ticket sales are any measure it should be downright insane. The NHL had set a goal for 10,000 advanced season ticket deposits as a means of measuring public interest in the proposed Seattle franchise. They met that goal in only 12 minutes. They now have 32,000 deposits for season tickets and continue to add names to a waiting list. Considering that the projected capacity of the new arena at Seattle Center (site of the former Key Arena) will be 17,500 those are phenomenal numbers.
The pro sports expansion team game has changed completely in the past few years thanks to the unprecedented first year success of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Golden Knights were given credit for a great job building the team before the first puck dropped for the inaugural game at the T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. They became the template for all future expansion teams to follow due to their unprecedented success both during the regular season and their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Vegas has demonstrated how its done but they’ve also set the bar very high. The only way that a NHL team could ‘outdo’ the Golden Knights’ first year performance is by actually winning the Stanley Cup. There’s been a lot of speculation about how the team managed to not only become competitive but come within four games of winning a championship in their first season. Part of it was a ‘perfect storm’ in the Pacific Division with all of the Knights’ potential challengers having a substandard season at the same time. That allowed Vegas to quickly gain confidence that they could compete with their divisional rivals.
More significantly, the NHL Expansion Draft process has changed and Vegas was able to pick up some legitimately talented players. When the Atlanta Flames and New York Islanders came into the league in 1972, the incumbent teams could protect what amounted to their top three lines, top six defensemen and top two goalies. The result was that the new teams had to choose from over-the hill veterans, minor leaguers and marginal NHL level players. Despite this, the Flames and the Islanders found traction very quickly and for years were considered to be among the most successful NHL franchises in history.
It’s a different world for professional hockey players today. The growth of international play at the professional level has expanded the talent pool. The advent of free agency gave the players more mobility and the expansion teams have been able to take advantage to improve very quickly. Basically, it’s a matter of economics. The franchise fee for a new NHL team is now a cool $650 million US. A team owner has no interest in scratching out a check for close to a quarter billion dollars and then be resigned to non-competitive status for several seasons.
Of course, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. For Vegas, the first significant order of business was the team name. It looks like Seattle will follow the same template. There’s been a lot of talk that ‘Metropolitans’ is a top choice of the ownership group. A report from DetroitHockeyNews.net came up with 13 potential team names based on domain registrations. A Seattle Times poll indicated that fans liked the names ‘Sockeyes’, ‘Totems’ and ‘Metropolitans’ in that order. Seattle actually has a rich hockey tradition and the name ‘Metropolitans’ has considerable historical significance. In fact, the Seattle Metropolitans were the first US based team to win the Stanley Cup….in 1917.
To come up with the official SPORTS INSIDER odds on the name of the Seattle NHL expansion team we factored in the above information and other issues like potential trademark snafus and conflicts with other current pro teams. I’d love to see the Seattle team come up with a name reflecting the city’s rich aviation tradition but there’s already a ‘Jets’ and ‘Flyers’ in the NHL. Houston could be the next city to get a NHL team and they’ve sort of got dibs on the name ‘Aeros’ from the WHA days. There’s been some interest for the Seattle Pilots but its doubtful that ownership wants to co-opt the nickname of one of the least successful teams in Major League Baseball history. I’ve seen a couple of suggestions for ‘Seattle Timber’ but that sounds too much like Portland’s MLS soccer team the ‘Portland Timbers’. Plus there’s marketing issues to consider–some names simply offer more potential in this area than others. You get the idea….
NEW SEATTLE NHL HOCKEY TEAM NAME BETTING ODDS
Seattle Metropolitans +250
Seattle Sockeyes +500
Seattle Totems +500
Seattle Emeralds +750
Seattle Rainiers +900
Seattle Kraken +900
Seattle Thunderbirds +1250
Seattle Evergreens +1250
Seattle Spruce +1500
Seattle Cascades +1500
Seattle Steelheads +2500
Seattle Firebirds +2500
Seattle Eagles +5000
Seattle Renegades +5000
Seattle Cougars +5000
Seattle Sea Lions +5000
Seattle Seals +5000
Seattle Whales +5000
Seattle Freeze +5000
Seattle Breakers +5000
Seattle Satellites +7500
Seattle Aviators +7500
Seattle Skyhawks +7500
Seattle Skylords +7500
Seattle Sushi +10000
Seattle Sasquatch +10000
Seattle Amazons +15000
Seattle Starbucks +25000
Seattle Baristas +25000
Seattle Grunge +25000
Seattle Purple Haze +50000
Seattle Stratocasters +50000
