Pressure Building on Kraken

The Seattle Kraken are likely getting more competition to stay relevant within their local market.

Apr 14, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Seattle Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson (6) looks on with center Matty Beniers (10) and left wing Andre Burakovsky (95) during the thrid period of a hockey game against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-Imagn Images / Jeff Le-Imagn Images

The Seattle Kraken has gained a large fan base over the last three seasons as one of the NHL’s newest teams, but they know there are some external pressures to succeed. They made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2023, but they’ll need to do even better in the coming years.

Hockey and the NHL often fall behind other professional sports in North America in terms of popularity. The NFL and NBA dominate, while the NHL sits in the shadows.

The Kraken are already competing with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and MLB’s Seattle Mariners for air time in the Pacific North West, but a familiar face should soon be coming back.

According to Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the Kraken won’t be patient and are focused on building a winning team before the NBA put a team back in Seattle.

“The Kraken feel the pressure,” Friedman said. “The NBA is about to expand and everybody believes, who knows the NBA more than I do, says they’re going back to Seattle.”

The Seattle SuperSonics were a popular and pretty successful NBA franchise from 1967 to their relocation in 2008. Ever since the NBA moved the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder, Seattle fans have been starved for a basketball team.

The NHL usually has to battle the NBA for viewership because their seasons run at the same time. The Kraken feel that the return of the SuperSonics is great for the city, but will be another competitor to fight with.

“It’s another competitor in a market that’s got a lot of competitive sports teams,” Friedman said. “I think the Kraken look at it like, ‘we have to show our best.’”

The Kraken made a couple of decisive moves this offseason that they hope will build to an already decent start to their franchise. They fired head coach Dave Hakstol and replaced him with 2009 Stanley Cup champion head coach Dan Bylsma.

They signed young star Matty Beniers to a lengthy contract extension to show he is going to be the future of the franchise. They put a lot of money into Chandler Stephenson, but there is a belief he can stand up to the other big centers in the Kraken’s division.

The Kraken can’t sit around and be a patient team anymore. The Seattle Market already has a lot of mouths to feed, and a popular team is likely coming back. It’s up to the Kraken to make their mark and maintain a level of popularity within the Evergreen State.

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