How Seattle's NHL team became the Kraken

When NHL Seattle first installed signage on its downtown office in 2018, employees arrived at work the next morning to a surprise.

Stuck to the door was a Post-it note with a handwritten message: "Release the Kraken."

"That may have been the first time I heard or thought of Kraken," said Heidi Dettmer, the team's vice president of marketing. "But throughout this whole process, it's been a rallying cry for fans. We heard it everywhere. It's what kept coming up over and over again."

The NHL awarded Seattle an expansion franchise in 2018, and ever since, fans have obsessed over the name, color, logo and branding -- even though the teams won't debut until the 2021-22 season. Since Seattle has had…