First Playoff Appearance 2022

Lore & Background

Before the 2021–22 season, the Kraken were a question mark. Seattle had been without a major-league hockey team for decades, and the expansion franchise carried the weight of a city's long patience. The regular season erased every doubt. The team played fast, scored prolifically, and climbed the standings with a ferocity that surprised even the most optimistic local fans. By March, the Kraken were competing with established powers for top seeds, and the question had shifted from 'will they make the playoffs?' to 'how high can they go?'

The first-round matchup with St. Louis became a war of attrition. The Blues, a perennial playoff team, brought experience and defensive structure. The Kraken brought youth, speed, and an almost reckless willingness to attack. The series swung back and forth, with both teams winning on the road and at home, until Game 7 arrived at Climate Pledge Arena. The atmosphere was electric—teal and gray painted every seat, the crowd noise a physical force. In the end, the Blues edged the series, but the Kraken had done something no one predicted: they had made a new city feel like a hockey town, and they had left the door wide open for next year.

The legacy of that 2022 run is less about the result and more about the statement. An expansion team, in its first year, competing with the best in the league and pushing a veteran opponent to the absolute limit. For Seattle, it was the moment the Kraken stopped being a novelty and became a team.

In Their Own Story

The arena hummed at 7:42 p.m. on a Tuesday in April. The ice was fresh, the boards still gleaming under the floodlights, and the air smelled of cold rubber and anticipation. In the Kraken locker room, sticks were taped, skates were sharpened for the third time that week, and a young center—barely twenty years old, drafted number one just a year ago—sat on the bench and stared at the puck in his palm. The crowd noise bled through the concrete walls like a tide. He could hear them, thousands of voices, a city that had waited thirty years for this. He set the puck down, laced his gloves tighter, and walked toward the tunnel. The Kraken were about to play Game 7. Nothing about this was supposed to be possible. Everything about it was.

Reader's Guide

2018 – The NHL officially approves Seattle as an expansion franchise. David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer secure ownership, and the city begins the long process of building a team from nothing.

2021 – The Kraken select Matty Beniers with the first overall pick in the NHL Draft, a signal that the franchise is building for the long term with a generational talent at its core.

2021–22 Regular Season – Under head coach Dave Karpa, the team plays fast, scores heavily, and finishes with one of the top point totals in the NHL. The surprise of the season is no longer a surprise by March; Seattle is a contender.

April 2022 – The Kraken enter the playoffs as a seven-seed in the West, earning a Wild Card berth against the St. Louis Blues. The series becomes a seven-game slugfest, with both teams trading wins and the crowd at Climate Pledge Arena growing louder with every game.

Late April 2022 – Game 7 at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken push the Blues to the brink but fall short, 4–3 in the series. The season ends, but the franchise's identity is set: fast, fearless, and unafraid to compete with anyone.

Postseason – The 2022 run becomes the franchise's defining 'what if' and the emotional baseline for every Kraken season that follows. Seattle's hockey identity is no longer a question.

Did You Know?

• The Kraken made the NHL playoffs in their very first season of play, a feat achieved by only a handful of expansion teams in league history.
• The first-round series against St. Louis went the full seven games, with the decisive Game 7 played in front of a sold-out crowd at Climate Pledge Arena.
• Matty Beniers, the Kraken's first-ever draft pick (selected number one overall in 2021), was just 19 years old during the 2022 playoff run.
• Head coach Dave Karpa's system emphasized speed and offensive volume, helping the young roster punch far above its expansion-year weight.