When they added Vegas, we knew another one to make it an even 32 teams wasn't far off. And, just like Vegas, they hit a home run with Seattle. It's such an obvious place for hockey that it's hard to believe they've never had an NHL team before. They'll have an instant rivalry with the Canucks. And now Seattle fans finally have a winter team to cheer for again after losing their beloved Sonics to Oklahoma City. (And, with the new arena, the NBA has no reason not to expand itself and bring the Sonics back.)
We already knew Seattle was getting a team. The biggest questions going into the press conference was when they would start play, how it would be constructed and what the team would be named. Two were answered. The other won't be for a while.
They put a pretty good spin on the reasons for delaying Seattle's inaugural season until 2021-22 when they initially said it would be 2020-21. This gives them time to get everything right, and three years is enough time to finish the arena and practice facility even if there are delays. All of that is true, but there's also almost certainly going to be another lockout in the summer of 2020. This way they avoid having an expansion team start play at the same time there's uncertainty over the league's labor situation.
After absolutely nailing it with the expansion to Las Vegas, the NHL wants Seattle to have the same favorable conditions that the Golden Knights had. So, they'll benefit from the exact same expansion draft setup. It should allow them quickly become competitive, although, it's probably too much to ask that they replicate Vegas' run to the Stanley Cup Final in their initial campaign. The Golden Knights won't participate in the expansion draft, but Seattle will get one player from each of the other 30 teams. And they'll probably find their own Marc-Andre Fleury or Jonathan Marchessault somewhere in that group.
As expected, they all played coy when it came to the team name. NHL Seattle registered 13 different trademarks, so you'd have to figure one of those is likely going to be it. There's some support for "Metropolitans," the name of the Seattle team that became the first American Stanley Cup champion in 1917. The NHL has a Metropolitan Division, though, so that figures to be out.
Among the names being thrown out there are Evergreens, Emeralds and Totems (my personal favorite), but Seattle likes its alliteration. Other than the Mariners, every Seattle team's name starts with S (Seahawks, Sounders, Storm, Sonics). So, if I had to guess, I'd bet Seattle's NHL entry will continue that trend. Seattle Sockeyes anyone? (That's one of the names they registered.)
Likewise, I'd be shocked if their color scheme didn't include some combination of green and/or blue. Just like the Mariners. And the Seahawks. And the Sounders. And the Storm. And the Sonics. Although, the NHL Seattle website is pretty much all black and red. Is that some sort of hint?
There were some questions about realignment, but seeing as Seattle is basically in the Pacific Ocean, there really wasn't any chance that they'd be put in another division. Which meant somebody had to move. I saw a number of pretty creative suggestions online, but shifting the Coyotes was the realignment that would make the least number of waves (read: zero).
Arizona going to the Central was what made the most sense, too. This isn't the NFL, where Dallas is in the East and Indianapolis is in the South. You've got six teams in the Pacific time zone, and separating those three teams in Western Canada was a non-starter, which leaves the Coyotes as the odd team out. It also means that they won't need to realign again should Arizona relocate to Houston. (If they go to Quebec, however, that's a different story.)
One other big question remains, at least for me. The schedule. When Vegas joined the league, the schedule actually worked out perfectly. Four division games, three conference games, two interconference games, with the Central teams playing two division opponents a fifth time to get to 82.
However, even though all of the divisions will have the same number of teams now, the math no longer works for an 82-game schedule. It does if they increase the number of games to 84, but that seems unlikely. Which means the NHL needs to come up with some sort of solution. My guess is you'll play two teams in the other division twice instead of three times. But that's something they'll have to figure out.
The addition of Seattle also gives the NHL a chance to fix the playoff system, which pretty much everyone (except for maybe Gary Bettman) agrees is flawed. With an even number of teams in each division, it'd be very simple to ditch this whole division-based seeding system with wild cards and go back to the old way. The division winners are seeded 1 and 2, the six best teams in the conference after that, regardless of division, are seeded 3-8 and the teams are reseeded each round. That way you won't have Washington and Pittsburgh playing each other in the conference semifinals as the two best teams in the league anymore.
All of that will be resolved over the next three years. That's not what today is about, though. Today is about Seattle. Just like with Las Vegas, the NHL got this one right. Seattle's already a great pro sports town. And it's gonna be a great hockey town.
No comments:
Post a Comment