There's been much speculation about the NHL Seattle team name. A recent report from DetroitHockey.net listed Cougars, Emeralds, Rainiers, Sea Lions, and Sockeyes as the potential final five. Of those five, it seemed to many that Sockeyes was the most likely choice. However, reporter John Hoven today revealed that his sources are telling him the team name will be Kraken.

Hoven, of mayorsmanor.com, appeared on NHL Network Radio and said, “From everything that I’ve heard, it looks like Seattle Kraken is going to be the name. Which is quite surprising, actually, when I was given that information just a couple of days ago. I was a little bit in shock personally, just because we had been told several times previously that that was not the name that they were going for. It looked like they were leaning toward Sockeyes. And then now, I guess it’s come out that that was a name that’s been used in a book by an author. Maybe it was a fantasy novel, I’m not exactly sure, I haven’t done the research on what the book series was about. But it’s been out there I guess now for about five years or so. "

The works of Jami Davenport are nothing new to people who have been following this story. Davenport, whose real name is Pamela Bowerman, has registered the name for a line of hockey-based romance novels. Her trademark only covers a "downloadable series of fiction e-books." She said in 2018 that she was "not trying to profit off this or stop anybody from using that name." However, according to Hoven, the NHL may want to just avoid any issues altogether.

“That just then creates one of those legal issues that the NHL tends to try to shy away from, trying to secure the rights and that sort of stuff. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve been so reluctant to use names of the past teams and things like that. And the AHL, they experienced that as well, putting a team in San Diego. They had to buy the Gulls’ name, which had been through about seven different leagues and was actually owned by a local junior team in San Diego. So they had to buy the logos, and the trademarks, and the names, and all that stuff. It’s just yet another process that complicates an already complicated situation trying to get an expansion franchise off the [ground and] get it up and running.”

Hoven also said that, unsurprisingly, the colors would be red and teal. “It looks like it’s a red, and there’s like a, what I call a teal-ish color,” he said. “It’s a lighter teal-ish color, and black. Those seem to be the primary colors they’re going to be going with.” These colors can currently be found all over the NHL Seattle website.

The official announcement is expected some time in March. Hoven was quick to say, however, that while he is confident in his sources, he doesn't rule out the possibility of being wrong. “I do just want to say, in one of these situations like this, I’m always a little reluctant if there’s somebody trying to do the ultimate swerve and misleak information,” Hoven said. “I was told by a source that’s very connected to the situation that it is the Kraken. I believe that it’s the Kraken. But save your tweets if they end up doing a giant swerve on everybody and going with something completely different like the Totems, or the Seattle Swarm, or whatever one of the million other names are out there.”

NHL Seattle ownership has said said in the past that they don't like Kraken. Our sources have previously said Kraken was not in the running. However, at least according to Hoven's sources, they may have come around to the vocal supporters after their preferred name, Sockeyes, was made unavailable.