The NHL’s newest franchise is seeing results one wouldn’t typically associate with an expansion team
Minutes before faceoff at Climate Pledge Arena and it is movie-theatre dark inside. The story of ancient Scandinavian mariners who feared a mythical, octopus-like sea monster known as the Kraken is being told on the massive screen hovering over centre ice.
Above the ice, in the owner’s suite, the team president, chief executive officer and minority owner, Tod Leiweke, lives and dies with every shift. On this day, he’s joined by friend and diehard Kraken fan Al Michaels, the famed U.S. sports broadcaster. On occasion, the suite will play host to majority owner David Bonderman, the billionaire U.S. businessman, and Bruckheimer, the Hollywood movie mogul who also has an ownership stake.
Now Tod Leiweke sits in an office on the second floor of the team’s sparkling new practice complex 10 minutes from downtown talking about the day-to-day rhythm of the job he’s taken on: after a win everyone feels great. After a loss, the challenge of building a franchise from scratch can often seem insurmountable.
The fan base has responded, too, making Kraken jerseys among the top sellers in the league. The team’s crest, with a stylized S, pays tribute to the first U.S. hockey team to hoist the Stanley Cup – the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917. The lettering emulates the traditional hand carving of historic vessels that plied the waters of Puget Sound. There is a serpent’s tentacle that winds its way through. Its red eye was the inspiration of Bonderman.
He wasn’t sure what kind of team the Kraken would have to start the season, and concedes players felt no one expected them to do much after their highly disappointing inaugural campaign. “I think we kind of relished that a little bit,” Jones says. “It’s not that we wanted to prove anything per se but maybe we have played with a bit of a chip on our shoulder as a result.”
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