A PGP Guide to: The Seattle Kraken

A PGP Guide to: The Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken are one of the NHL's newest franchises, which means they don't have a hundred years of generational trauma yet, so give them time. Seattle officially entered the NHL in 2021, immediately gave itself one of the best aesthetics in professional sports, made the playoffs in year 2, eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champions in its first ever playoff series and then spent the next three seasons trying to figure out how to get back there.

The Kraken are still in the weird phase that every new franchise eventually reaches where they're no longer the new team, but they also haven't existed long enough to have decades of history, retired legends and inherited hatred. What they do have is one of hockey's coolest cities, a legitimately gorgeous arena, an extremely committed fanbase, a sea troll mascot, players throwing stuffed salmon into the stands after wins and a young core led by Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and Berkly Catton.

The Basics

Team: Seattle Kraken

Conference: Western Conference

Division: Pacific Division

Home Arena: Climate Pledge Arena

Location: Seattle, Washington

Franchise Founded: 2021

Team Colors: Deep Sea Blue, Ice Blue, Boundless Blue, Shadow Blue & Red Alert

Stanley Cups: 0

Biggest Rivals: Vancouver Canucks, Vegas Golden Knights, Anaheim Ducks

Seattle was officially approved as the NHL's 32nd franchise in 2018, after the league's Board of Governors unanimously approved an expansion team with a $650 million expansion fee. The franchise began play three years later in 2021–22!

The Origin Story

The Kraken are not Seattle's first major professional hockey team. More than a century before anyone released the Kraken, the city had the Seattle Metropolitans. The Metropolitans played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and, in 1917, defeated the Montreal Canadiens to become the first United States-based team to win the Stanley Cup. That does not mean the Kraken inherited the Metropolitans' Stanley Cup!! They're completely separate franchises in completely different leagues from completely different eras.

However, the Kraken intentionally acknowledge that history. The primary logo is an S in tribute to the Metropolitans, wrapped with the tentacle of the mythical Kraken and a red eye hidden inside. Seattle hockey history is old, but the Kraken themselves are babies.

On March 1, 2018, the organization began accepting season ticket deposits. Fans responded in enormous numbers, helping demonstrate that there was absolutely a market for NHL hockey in Seattle. By December, the NHL made it official that Seattle would become franchise number 32! For almost two years, the team didn't have a name. There was endless speculation – Sockeyes, Totems, Metropolitans, Evergreens, Steelheads and approximately every other Pacific Northwest-related noun you can imagine. On July 23, 2020, they finally announced Seattle Kraken. The name came from the legendary sea creature of Scandinavian folklore, which was usually described as a gigantic monster capable of dragging entire ships beneath the ocean.

The History You Need to Know

Before Seattle could actually play hockey, it had to acquire an entire roster through the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. The Kraken were allowed to select one available player from almost every existing NHL team under the league's expansion rules. Some of the most important selections included Jordan Eberle from the Islanders, Mark Giordano from Calgary, Yanni Gourde from Tampa Bay, Adam Larsson from Edmonton, Jared McCann via Toronto, and Vince Dunn from St. Louis. Mark Giordano, the longtime Flames captain, was named the first captain in Kraken history before the inaugural season began.

This was only four years after Vegas had built an expansion roster and immediately reached the Stanley Cup Final, so naturally people wondered if Seattle could do the same thing. Seattle played the first regular-season game in franchise history in 2021 against the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas went up 3-0, Seattle came all the way back to tie it, and then Vegas scored again and won. Welcome to the NHL! Seattle eventually finished its inaugural season with 60 points, 30th overall in the NHL.

Then Seattle pulled one of the biggest second-year improvements in recent NHL history. The Kraken went from 60 points to 100 points and suddenly they were going to the playoffs! There wasn't one 100-point superstar carrying the roster. Seattle had scoring throughout the lineup. Jared McCann scored 40 goals, Matty Beniers emerged as one of the best rookies in hockey, Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jaden Schwartz and others contributed. The defense moved the puck. Philipp Grubauer started playing some of his best hockey when the postseason arrived. Somehow, in only its second season, Seattle had built a genuinely dangerous playoff team.

Seattle's first playoff opponent was the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. The Kraken won Game 1 in Colorado and the series got nasty. During Game 4, Avalanche star Cale Makar hit Jared McCann after the puck had gone out of play. McCann was injured and missed the remainder of the series, while Makar received a one-game suspension for interference. Until today, Makar gets booed every time he touches the puck in Seattle and it has become one of the franchise's first organically created hatred traditions. Game 7 was in Colorado and Seattle won 2-1. The Kraken had just eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champions in the first playoff series in franchise history!

The Kraken faced the Dallas Stars in Round 2 and once again, they refused to make anything easy. Seattle won Game 1 in overtime, and Dallas responded. The teams kept trading games until the series reached another Game 7. Seattle entered Game 7 with the opportunity to reach the Western Conference Final in Year 2 of its existence. Dallas won 2-1. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored with only 18 seconds remaining to make the ending interesting, but Seattle couldn't find the tying goal.

The 2022–23 season also produced the first major individual award in franchise history. Matty Beniers won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. Beniers finished his rookie season with 24 goals and 57 points in 80 games, leading all rookies in points and tying for the rookie lead in goals. He was Seattle's first ever amateur draft selection and two years later, he was already the first Kraken player to win an NHL award.

Seattle hosted the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners, on January 1, 2024. The entire thing leaned aggressively into Pacific Northwest aesthetics with old-school uniforms, fish-market references, boats, rainy Seattle energy, Joey Daccord wearing vintage looking brown pads. I think those pads gave him powers because Daccord decided nobody was scoring. Seattle beat Vegas 3-0, and Daccord recorded the first shutout in Winter Classic history. There were 47,313 fans inside the ballpark chanting JOEY! JOEY! JOEY! One of the coolest moments the franchise has had so far.

Unfortunately, Seattle's 2023 playoff run did not immediately become the beginning of annual contention. They missed the playoffs in 2023–24, in 2024–25, and in 2025–26. The organization also started turning over its leadership. Original general manager Ron Francis eventually moved from GM into a hockey operations president role while Jason Botterill took over as general manager. Francis then stepped down entirely following the 2025–26 season, ending his run as the executive who constructed the original Kraken organization.

The coaching staff changed too. Seattle is now on its third head coach, Lane Lambert, who took over before the 2025–26 season and enters 2026–27 for his second year behind the bench.

The Faces of Kraken History So Far

This section obviously looks a little different than Montreal or Detroit because Seattle has existed for approximately ten minutes, but there are already a few players you need to know.

Jordan Eberle

Seattle selected Eberle from the New York Islanders in the 2021 Expansion Draft, and he has been here basically from the beginning. He scored the franchise's first hat trick, scored Seattle's first home playoff overtime winner and became the second captain in Kraken history in 2024. Eberle actually led Seattle in scoring during 2025–26 with 55 points and 26 goals, then signed a two-year extension keeping him under contract through 2027–28.

Jared McCann

McCann has become one of the most important players in franchise history. Seattle acquired him during the expansion process and he immediately became one of its most consistent scorers. His 40 goals in 2022–23 remain the Kraken single-season franchise record, and by 2025 he had already become the first player to reach 100 goals and 100 assists with Seattle. Entering 2026–27, McCann remains Seattle's all-time leading scorer despite dealing with significant lower-body injuries last season. He still managed 20 goals in an injury-shortened 2025–26.

Matty Beniers

Seattle selected Beniers second overall in 2021, making him the first amateur draft pick in Kraken history. He became the first Seattle draft pick to reach the NHL, then he became the franchise's first Calder Trophy winner! Beniers hasn't developed into a massive point producing superstar in quite the way people initially imagined after his rookie season, but he has become a reliable two-way center and increasingly important leader.

Yanni Gourde

Gourde arrived from Tampa Bay with two Stanley Cup rings and immediately became one of Seattle's most beloved players. He wasn't the team's biggest star nor its leading scorer, he just played every shift as if somebody had personally insulted him. Gourde was physical, annoying, defensively responsible, clutch and basically built for playoff hockey. He became one of the emotional faces of that 2023 run and is exactly the kind of original Kraken player people will still be talking about when this franchise is 30 years old.

Joey Daccord

Daccord began Seattle's existence lower on the goaltending depth chart and gradually turned himself into a legitimate NHL starter, and then came the 2024 Winter Classic. His shutout had 47,000 people screaming his name. Seattle eventually rewarded him with a five-year extension worth $5 million annually, beginning in 2025–26.

Vince Dunn

Dunn was selected from St. Louis in the expansion draft after already winning a Stanley Cup with the Blues. He then became one of Seattle's most important offensive defensemen and scored the first Kraken goal ever at Climate Pledge Arena. Dunn remains part of Seattle's top defensive group and was officially added to the alternate-captain group entering 2026–27.

The Current Era

Seattle enters 2026–27 not as a rebuilding team, but not as a contender either. They're somewhere in the middle trying to figure out whether the young players they've drafted can turn a pretty solid roster into something more. The Kraken finished 34-37-11 in 2025–26, sixth in the Pacific Division, and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

The frustrating part is that for a while, they actually looked like they were going to make it. Seattle was in a playoff position entering the 2026 Olympic break, then everything collapsed. They struggled badly after NHL play resumed and ultimately finished the season outside the postseason again. The biggest issue was offense. Seattle averaged only 2.73 goals per game, 28th in the NHL. Their penalty kill also finished 31st. Jason Botterill spent the offseason trying to add speed and scoring while giving the young core more responsibility.

The biggest move actually began at the trade deadline. Seattle acquired Bobby McMann from Toronto and he immediately scored 10 goals in 18 games with Seattle. McMann signed a six year, $34.5 million contract in June. Seattle then made a significantly more aggressive move, acquiring Mackie Samoskevich from the Florida Panthers for a 2026 first-round pick and a conditional 2027 second-round pick. Samoskevich had 32 points in 77 games for Florida in 2025–26 and was part of the Panthers' 2025 Stanley Cup team. Seattle signed him to a three-year deal worth $3.85 million annually. They also used the 7th pick in the 2026 Draft on defenseman Chase Reid, the first defenseman Seattle has ever selected in the first round.

Meanwhile, several original era players moved on. Jaden Schwartz signed with Colorado, Jamie Oleksiak signed with Vancouver, and Eeli Tolvanen entered free agency. The roster is slowly becoming less expansion Kraken and more the team Seattle actually drafted and developed.

The Players You Need to Know

Jordan Eberle

the captain & resident hockey father

We already covered him historically, but he's still extremely relevant. Eberle led Seattle with 26 goals and 55 points last season and remains captain entering 2026–27. He's the veteran leader holding everything together while half the roster slowly becomes children drafted by Seattle.

Matty Beniers

the original franchise kid

Beniers is now entering his fifth NHL season, which seems impossible considering he's still only 23. He remains one of Seattle's most important centers, plays a strong two-way game and is increasingly taking on leadership responsibilities. The next step? More offense. Seattle needs Beniers to move from really useful player back toward the level of offensive production everyone imagined after his Calder-winning rookie season.

Shane Wright

the former can't-miss prospect who still has something to prove

You may remember the extremely awkward 2022 NHL Draft. Wright entered the year as the presumed 1st pick, but Montreal took Juraj Slafkovský, New Jersey took Simon Nemec, Arizona took Logan Cooley, and Seattle got Wright at No. 4. His development has taken longer than expected, but Seattle has been patient rather than throwing him straight into a starring role. Wright recorded 27 points in 74 games in 2025–26, down from 44 the previous year, so this season is pretty important.

Berkly Catton

the kid with the offensive upside

Catton was selected eighth overall in 2024 after putting up ridiculous numbers in junior hockey with the Spokane Chiefs. He made Seattle full-time last season at only 19 and finished his rookie year with 17 points in 66 games. He enters 2026–27 bigger, stronger and back at his natural center position, and the organization clearly expects more offense this time around. This is one of the players to watch most closely.

Kaapo Kakko

the former 2nd pick who found a new home

The Rangers selected Kakko second overall in 2019, but things never really clicked in New York. Seattle acquired him in December 2024 for Will Borgen, and suddenly Kakko looked significantly more comfortable. He recorded 40 points in 65 games in 2025–26, the best points-per-game rate of his NHL career. 

Jared McCann

the franchise's actual goal scorer

McCann remains Seattle's most proven shooting threat. He's healthy again entering 2026–27 after lower-body issues wrecked large parts of last season, which is extremely important because Seattle desperately needs more goals. If Seattle's offense takes a step forward, McCann probably has something to do with it.

Bobby McMann

the deadline pickup Seattle immediately married

McMann joined Seattle in March, scored 10 goals in 18 games, so Seattle gave him six years. He's big, fast and shoots constantly, which is exactly what a team that finished 28th in offense needed. His 29 goals overall in 2025–26 were a career high.

Mackie Samoskevich

the new speedy one

Seattle paid real assets for Samoskevich because they believe there's more offense there than Florida was able to give him the opportunity to show. He brings speed, shooting ability and some championship experience despite being only 23. He and Matty Beniers were teammates at the University of Michigan, and now they're reunited in Seattle!

Joey Daccord

the goalie everyone screamed for at the Winter Classic

Daccord remains part of Seattle's tandem with Philipp Grubauer. He has already produced one of the most recognizable moments in franchise history, and Seattle has committed to him long term. The Kraken don't necessarily need Vezina level goaltending, but because this isn't currently an elite offensive team, they absolutely need Daccord and Grubauer to give them chances to win low-scoring games.

Vince Dunn

the offensive blue-line menace

Dunn is still one of the best puck moving players on the roster and one of Seattle's primary powerplay quarterbacks. He scored 11 goals last season and now wears an A. Seattle's offense often looks significantly more dangerous when the puck is on his stick.

Brandon Montour

the other offensive blue-line menace

Montour joined Seattle in 2024 after winning the Stanley Cup with Florida. He plays fast, jumps into the offense constantly and gives Seattle another defenseman capable of functioning almost like an extra forward. He also scored 11 goals in 2025–26 and joins Dunn as a new alternate captain this season.

The Rivalries

Seattle doesn't have enough history yet to have a Montreal/Boston-level blood feud, obviously, but a few relationships are already developing.

Vancouver Canucks

This is the rivalry that makes geographic sense above everything else. Seattle and Vancouver are separated by only a few hours. This rivalry is more than hockey, it’s the Pacific Northwest vs Pacific Northwest, United States vs Canada. They share the Pacific Division, their fanbases can actually invade each other's buildings, and Vancouver was the opponent for Seattle's first ever regular season home game. The funny part is that Vancouver completely owned the matchup early. Seattle didn't defeat the Canucks until the teams' seventh meeting in January 2023. By the end of 2025–26, Seattle had gone 7-1-2 over its previous 10 games against Vancouver. The Kraken themselves openly refer to it as their Pacific Northwest rivalry. This is the rivalry most likely to become Seattle's defining one over time, especially if they can eventually be good simultaneously. (Please, hockey gods!!)

Colorado Avalanche

Seattle and Colorado aren't natural geographic enemies, this actually stems from the 2023 playoffs! The defending Stanley Cup champions versus a second year franchise that went to seven games! Makar's hit on McCann, Makar getting suspended, Seattle fans booing him forever afterward, Philipp Grubauer facing his former team, and then Seattle walking into Denver and eliminating the defending champions in Game 7… it was a whirlwind. Seattle fans still boo Makar (as they should!)

Vegas Golden Knights

Expansion sibling rivalry...except the older sibling immediately became successful. Vegas entered the NHL in 2017 and Seattle followed four years later, so naturally, they are constantly compared. Unfortunately for Seattle, Vegas made that comparison more annoying than it needed to be by reaching the Stanley Cup Final in Year 1 and winning the Stanley Cup in Year 6. Seattle did not, but there has already been one massive Kraken moment against them: the 2024 Winter Classic. Seattle beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights 3-0 in front of more than 47,000 people, with Joey Daccord recording the first Winter Classic shutout ever. It's not pure hatred yet, but the potential is definitely there.

The Fanbase

Seattle fans essentially got to invent traditions from scratch and they have done a surprisingly good job!

One of the biggest traditions is called Yeet the Fish! After Kraken home wins, the game's stars throw stuffed salmon into the crowd. Seattle players literally sign fish and launch them into the stands. The tradition was inspired partly by the famous fish throwing at Pike Place Market and developed with input from the Bristol Bay Native Corporation to properly acknowledge the cultural and economic importance of salmon in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Naturally, this became YEET THE FISH.

Their goal horn is an actual Washington State Ferry horn. Specifically, the horn came from the retired ferry MV Hyak. The team later even obtained an engine order telegraph from the same ferry for its in-arena entertainment.

My favorite part, though, is their goal song.  When Seattle scores, you're going to hear a modified version of “Lithium” by Nirvana. The crowd responds with LET'S GO KRAKEN! Using Nirvana as the basis of your goal song when you're a Seattle team is almost painfully obvious and I love it so much that I don’t even care.

Before the third period, massive flags move through Climate Pledge Arena as part of Seattle's “Hoist the Colors” tradition. It was developed in collaboration with Seattle-based electronic duo ODESZA!

Now, I don't usually discuss the mascots in these team guides, but Buoy is necessary to discuss. Seattle had the opportunity to create an enormous terrifying sea monster, instead Buoy is a troll. Specifically, he's a six-foot-tall blue sea troll inspired by Seattle's famous Fremont Troll sculpture. He apparently lives beneath Climate Pledge Arena, he has blue hair, an anchor earring, a suspiciously unhinged facial expression, and according to official Kraken lore, his favorite meal involves Shark, Duck and Maple Leaf. People were confused when he was introduced, then people became obsessed with him, and that is what I like to call the Gritty pipeline.

The Retired Numbers

Seattle doesn't have a traditional player number retired yet, but there is one number with special meaning!

32.

The Kraken are the 32nd NHL franchise, and roughly 32,000 fans placed season ticket deposits during the original expansion drive. At the first home game in franchise history, Seattle honored those fans by retiring number 32. The first number honored in the rafters belongs to the people who helped bring the team into existence!

The Team Identity

Seattle's identity is still evolving. The 2022–23 team didn't have Nathan MacKinnon or Connor McDavid, it just rolled four lines at you until somebody scored and that worked surprisingly well. The current version is trying to combine that same depth identity with an actual homegrown young core like Beniers, Wright, Catton, Winterton, Evans, and eventually Reid, O'Brien and more. Seattle isn't really rebuilding because it has veterans like Eberle, McCann, McMann, Dunn, Montour, Larsson and Daccord who are expected to help them win now, but it also isn't going all in because the most important long term players haven't reached their primes yet. This is a bridge era.

Why You Should Watch Them

We genuinely don’t know what this version of Seattle is yet. Matty Beniers is 23, Shane Wright is 22, Berkly Catton is 20, Kaapo Kakko is only 25, Mackie Samoskevich is 23, and Chase Reid is 18. There's enough established NHL talent around them that Seattle doesn't have to spend the next three seasons purposely losing while everyone develops, but there's also enough uncertainty that basically anything could happen.

The 2025–26 Kraken showed they could stay in the playoff race, but they also showed they could completely collapse out of it. The offense needs to improve. Wright needs a bounce-back year and Catton needs to take a step. Beniers needs to produce more, but McCann needs to stay healthy. Samoskevich needs to justify the price Seattle paid for him and Daccord and Grubauer need to keep the puck out. 

The Kraken are still young enough that every major moment becomes franchise history. The first draft pick, the first Calder winner, first playoff series, first Game 7, first Winter Classic, first true homegrown star. Eventually it’ll become the first captain drafted by Seattle, the first division title, the first conference final, maybe the first Stanley Cup Final, maybe the first Cup. We don't know who will be responsible for those moments yet, but I think that’s what makes this team so endearing. You’re early to the show, so, release the Kraken.