The Sharks' newest division rival officially has a name.
The Seattle Kraken has been awakened.
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The NHL's newest expansion team officially announced their name Thursday. The 32nd NHL franchise will join the league for the 2021-22 season, meaning the Sharks and their fans won't have to wait too long to get a glimpse of their newest rival.
So, why Kraken? Other than the fact that it automatically puts them in the upper-tier of professional sports nicknames, of course.
The Seattle ownership group looked at more than 1,200 names, per ESPN. But they settled on the Kraken, an idea that was written on a post-it note and stuck to their door in 2018 for many reasons.
"It's a very unique and unusual name in sports, because almost all sport franchises end with an 's,'" Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy, a part-owner of the team, said. "There are a lot of obvious connections to Seattle -- part because of our maritime history, part of because we have so much water around us -- but there is longtime folklore in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest of this mystical Kraken creature that lives just below the surface of the sea, which really captivated people for many years. That mystique, that intensity and that power that people have long talked about with the Kraken is what we expect our NHL team to play with."
San Jose Sharks
Plus, if you're going to start an expansion franchise you need an original name and a cool logo to get off the ground. Check both boxes for the newest inhabitant of the Pacific Division.
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Now that they have a name, the Kraken will turn their attention to the 2021 expansion draft which will take place next June.
A Kraken vs. a Shark sounds like a pretty awesome C-rate SyFy channel movie. Those battles normally are fought under the sea, so who will have the advantage on ice is anyone's guess.
But one thing is certain: Sharks vs. Kraken just became the NHL's top maritime rivalry.