Seattle's First NHL Team Never Played One Game

The NHL First Granted Seattle An Expansion Club 5 Decades Ago

If hockey had alternate universes like Marvel and DC comics, one of them would now include plans for the 50th anniversary of Seattle's NHL team.

A 1973 The Hockey News column wondered if a near-future TV broadcast would begin like this: "Good evening hockey fans, and welcome to the game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Totems..."

1. As reported by THN in October, 1972, "The Seattle Totems have applied for a National Hockey League franchise, and the club's vice president, Vincent Abbey, calls Seattle, 'the leading candidate.'"

2. The NHL Board of Governors on June 12, 1974, voted conditionally to award expansion franchises. THN reported, "Denver and Seattle will bring the NHL's team strength to 20, commencing with the 1976-77 season."

3. By February, 1975, THN described the financial condition of the California Seals as "grim," saying the franchise was "costing the NHL $10,000 a day." One solution: "The league-owned Seals could be on their way to Seattle or Denver."

4. By March, 1975, THN learned the Pittsburgh Penguins had joined the Seals as relocation targets, "if club owner Vince Abbey comes up with a $1 million letter of credit for the NHL's expansion committee." If not, Seattle was still in line for an expansion team.

5. In May, THN reported that Abbey's WHL Totems were sinking into red ink of their own. The NHL not only rejected his attempted purchase of the Penguins, Seattle's proposed NHL team was also in jeopardy.

Seattle mayor Wes Uhlman claimed, "We have been left holding the puck... The NHL through past commitments is obligated to put Seattle in the NHL."

6. Further dampening Seattle's hopes, TSN reported later in May that, "The California Seals were finally unloaded... to San Francisco hotel owner Mel Swig," who planned to keep the team in the Bay Area. (Spoiler: Swig moved the team to Cleveland in 1976.)

7. THN's June banner headline revealed Seattle's hockey hopes had dimmed further. "NHL's Expansion Plans Stalled."

Why? "The NHL lost Denver to the rival WHA," largely due to a significantly lower entry fee. (Spoiler: The Denver Spurs lasted three months, moved to Ottawa for two home games, then folded.)

8. The final glimmer of hope was that negotiations between the league and Swig's ownership group in San Francisco had broken down. THN wrote, "Seattle may enter the picture. The city would welcome the Seals if arrangements could be completed."

9. One last spoiler alert, in the form of THN's July banner headline, "NHL To Resist Changing Cities." An August headline provided confirmation: "NHL Expansion Over."

10. "Both Denver and Seattle appear to be write-offs," the THN story said. Causes of death were multiple. "The league governors want to concentrate on the existing teams and to stabilize the Pittsburgh and California franchises."

Keeping players from defecting to the WHA had ballooned NHL payrolls, and drained the pool of available talent. In their just-completed 1974-75 expansion seasons, Kansas City and Washington won 23 games - combined.

From their never-played first game in 1976, 45 years would pass before the Kraken made their debut in Seattle.

Maybe it's fortunate the region avoided pains caused by the miserable NHL economics of the 1970s. Though, the $6 million entry fee Abbey and his partners couldn't scrape together... represents less than 1% of the $650 million Kraken owners paid to join the league in 2018.