The NHL just keeps growing.
Posted on December 10 2018
SEATTLE CALLING
The NHL just keeps growing.
On December 4, 2018, the NHL officially welcomed it’s 32nd NHL franchise to the fold, even though the team won’t begin play until the 2021-2022 season. Seattle is another cog in the NHL’s recent expansion machine, and with major renovations coming to the city’s arena, and more than 20,000 season ticket deposits, the city is ready.
Putting another team in the Pacific Northwest is going to create a natural rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks, a team that is under three hours away from Seattle’s new team, and will also be cause for realignment. The Arizona Coyotes, who currently play in the Pacific Division, will move to the Central Division, making way for Seattle to begin their rivalry with Vancouver, along with Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim, Calgary, and Edmonton. With Arizona moving to the Central, each division will now have an even eight teams each.
Seattle’s team name, logo, and colours, are still to be decided, but could be done by the summer of 2019. Names such as the Sockeyes, Totems, Kraken, Eagles, Cougars, Whales, and Sea Lions, are all being considered, many of which have been trademarked by the Seattle ownership group already. Chances are that the team colours will include green, considering the city’s other teams all include some sort of green: The NFL’s Seahawks, MLS’s Sounders, MLB’s Mariners, and the WHL’s Thunderbirds.
The really interesting piece for this team will be it’s players, and staff. The current staff already include former NHL executives Todd and Tim Leiweke, along with an ownership group that boasts David Bonderman and Hollywood legend Jerry Bruckheimer. Former Dallas Stars, and Arizona Coyotes coach Dave Tippet has been hired by Seattle as a Senior Advisor, essentially offering advice, and advisement, on all things hockey related to the Seattle group. Tippett will be the one sharing information on practice rinks, exercise rooms, locker room set up, travel schedule, etc. having been so intricately involved in the NHL for 11 seasons as a player, and 14 as a head coach. While the team will still have to hire for roles such as Head Coach, General Manager, and many others, Tippett has stated that he would like to stay on in some sort of management role; perhaps as President of Hockey Operations.
Whoever becomes the General Manager for the new Seattle team will have the same expansion rules to work with as George McPhee did when he became the first GM for the Vegas Golden Knights. Teams will be asked for a protected list of players that will look one of two ways: either seven forwards, three defencemen and one goalie, or eight total skaters and one goalie. Players with No Movement Clauses must be on the protected list, and first and second year pros will be exempt from the list, but cannot be picked by Seattle. However, Vegas will be exempt from this expansion draft, even though they will have been in the league for four seasons before the draft.
It’s wildly believed that Seattle will have a harder time making deals with teams than Vegas did. Many NHL teams made trades with Vegas, offering up a player or draft picks, in order for Vegas not to pick a certain player that the team left unprotected, or for Vegas to pick a certain player. For example, the Minnesota Wild left defenceman Matt Dumba unprotected, and offered to trade Vegas Alex Tuch if they picked someone else. So, Vegas selected Erik Haula, and received Alex Tuch from the Minnesota Wild as well. After seeing Vegas’s success last season, it’s believed that most teams will simply lose one player, instead of two, or some extra draft picks.
Whatever the team will be called, and whatever players end up on this Seattle team, the city’s fans will be excited when that team finally hits the ice. Whether they are the Sockeyes dressed in green, or the Totems dressed in blue, or any other combination of names and colours, when Seattle hits the ice in October of 2021, you can bet it will be in front of a sold out crowd, eager to see professional hockey back in their city.