Meet the Toronto Maple Leafs Newest Competitor: the Seattle Kraken

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 23: A general view of Climate Change Arena as it undergoes construction to prepare for the 2021 NHL season on July 23, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. The NHL revealed today the name for Seattle's new hockey team, the Seattle Kraken. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 23: A general view of Climate Change Arena as it undergoes construction to prepare for the 2021 NHL season on July 23, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. The NHL revealed today the name for Seattle's new hockey team, the Seattle Kraken. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs have another competitor for the Stanley Cup as Seattle has officially been named the Kraken.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs sake, let’s hope the Seattle Kraken don’t pull a Vegas Golden Knights and make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season too, because that’ll be very embarrassing for long-time Leafs fans.

Ever since Seattle was announced as the 32nd franchise in the NHL, the nickname “Kraken” was always looked at as the front-runner.

As a sports franchise, you need an intimidating name and an even better logo, so the story of the Kraken made sense.

The NHL’s Newest Team

The tales of the Kraken are over 300 years old, where this enormous octopus looking creature would torment ships in the ocean.

The new Seattle Kraken team hopes to do the same thing this fictitious creature did in the ocean, but on the ice.

Although the Kraken name makes sense, it doesn’t have a ring to it like other NHL franchises. Maybe it’s because we’ve only known this name officially for a few hours, but any team that doesn’t end their nickname with an “s” always sounds weird at first.

There are only nine other big four franchises that don’t end with an “s” and if you look into it, they all sounded a little weird at first.

Regardless of the name, the jerseys are amazing in my opinion.

This color-scheme is completely unique to the NHL and the logo itself is amazing.

The Seattle “S” is awesome and I can see myself buying a lot of merchandise once they get a full release online.

Not only is the main Seattle logo awesome, but the ability to work the space needle into the anchor is a nice touch, just like Frank Seravalli mentioned above.

Since the NHL has been delayed this season, the Seattle franchise was almost forgotten, but before we know it, they’ll actually be playing hockey.

When the NHL begins its 2021-22 season, the Seattle Kraken will play it’s inaugural season and it’s almost certain they’ll be doing it with a current Toronto Maple Leafs player.

That player is yet to be determined but with draft rules being similar to the Vegas Golden Knights draft, the Leafs may have to give up a very good player.

The team was lucky in the previous draft as they had a number of players on Entry Level Contracts so they didn’t have to give up their future superstars, but by next off-season, they’ll be in a much different spot.

It’s great to see the Seattle Kraken be announced and the awesome jerseys that came with it, but let’s hope the Leafs win a Stanley Cup before they do.