SoundCheck - A Seattle Hockey Blog

At December's NHL Board of Governors meetings, commissioner Gary Bettman authorized an ownership group to conduct a season-ticket drive in Seattle. The drive could start as early as February. The average ticket price for lower bowl would probably be about 150 with a 10% commitment of the value of the season ticket package.The money would be refunded if Seattle didn't get a team Vegas was able to get a team based on interest shown in their Season Ticket Sales.

According to Detroit Hockey "38 domains representing 13 different possible names were registered under the name of Christina Song.  Ms. Song, according to her LinkedIn profile, is General Counsel at Oak View Group, who won the bid to redevelop Seattle’s Key Arena on December 4.  The domains were registered via an email address for a lawyer at Gibson Dunn.  That firm assisted Oak View Group in the Key Arena bid process". Here are my thoughts Seattle Cougars - I'm not a fan of this one. The cougars are the Mascot of Washington State University, who are in Pullman. Being a University of Washington fan, I am less than thrilled by this possibility. Seattle Eagles -  Not a fan of this one either. First there is already the NFL team which is by that name. Seattle Sockeyes - I like the alliteration, but do you want to name your team after salmon when your closest rivals are represented by killer whales? Seattle Seals - Same as above. Seattle Sea Lions - A...

Seattle getting an NHL franchise isn't a done deal yet. We also don't know if the league would give the team the same benefits Vegas had. But it's never too early to start speculating who we think could be in front office. So, without much further ado - here are 10 people who could lead a future 32nd team in Seattle!! Dean Lombardi The list has to start here. Lombardi took over the Los Angeles Kings and created a system of drafting well, and building from within. He surrounded himself with people who were competent at their jobs using a mixture of "fancy stats" and "hockey sense" which ushered the Los Angeles Kings into their most successful era. He drafted Drew Doughty, Tanner Pearson, Brayden Schenn and managed to groom Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick into Stanley Cup winning players. Did I mention he did what Wayne Gretzky couldn't do, and bring a Stanley Cup to LA? Los Angeles is a city in which you have to keep peoples attent...

Since the Key Arena  has been funded it seems that Seattle getting a NHL team is a forgone conclusion. So the question I ask is, what should the team be called? Here are some ideas that I have brainstormed: Seattle Freeze This team comes from a famous trend in Seattle in which it is  especially difficult to make new friends (particularly for transplants from other cities) in the city of Seattle, Washington. Most Seattle people have heard of it, and the freeze idea plays nicely into the ice aspect of hockey. Seattle Rain Dodgers The Rain dodgers were apparently the name of the Washington Huskies before they decided that they didn't think Rain would do good to bring new students to the University of Washington. This was also before they decided that calling their women's sports teams the "Husky Women" was a bad idea. It's interesting because it calls back to the cities sports past, and refers to what Seattle is well known for (rain). Seattle Echo I have be...