Lightning Round: Seattle is expected to announce the name of their team today

Yesterday the new team from Seattle posted on their twitter account a short video, announcing the date of birth of their new team. Possibly the 32nd NHL franchise will announce their name and logo.

The new franchise is scheduled to join the league in the 2021-22 season. As the Seattle’s team CEO Tod Leiweke admitted to Seattle Times back in June the team was forced to push back the team’s name announcement because it wasn’t the right time

“If you do just one (name), then you’ve left yourself hostage to any sort of challenge,” he said, adding that every name of the thousand or so suggested by fans the past two years had some sort of trademark issue that needed working through. “So we’ve had to do multiple (trade)marks, and that’s about where we are.”

According to unofficial The Seattle Times’s tournament for the best possible name for the new franchise, the Seattle Sockeys is the most popular name between their readers.

However the Seattle Kraken name has become a very popular between hockey fans on twitter which led to creating a lot of fan-made logos and concepts

Other News and Notes

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s beat writer returned with a new report from the Bolts traning camp. Before heading to Toronto on Sunday, the Lightning will have another practice today and scrimmage on Friday.

Jon Cooper said he’s very confident in the roster they’re bringing to Toronto. He also added that Steven Stamkos should be ready before the first game against the Washington Capitals on August 3. In his absence Alex Killorn took his spot on the first line with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point.

Killorn’s played with Cirelli a ton, but he’s played up with those guys [Point and Kucherov] oftentimes,” Cooper said. “He’s played with Gourdo and Maroon at times. Killer’s a pretty versatile guy. He can make plays with those guys. Kind of fits with our power play too when all those guys are on it together…When you don’t have a ton of time to figure things out, you’ve got to start getting looks and that’s what we’re doing with him.”

Kevin Shattenkirk is still very hopeful he can re-sign with the Lightning. After joining the Bolts during the summer of 2019, he has become a leader in the locker-room and recorded 34 points in 70 games, showing his best performance in several years.

A new article from Joe Smith on how the NHL is trying to make hub cities more comfortable for players [The Athletic, paid content]

The Lightning, like the rest of the NHL teams involved in the NHL’s return, have been recording and sending signature sounds and videos to the league to use during games at the two hub cities, Edmonton and Toronto. The boom of the cannon in Columbus will be available for Blue Jackets games, as will the Ric Flair “Woooo!’ chants from Carolina. The Predators plan to have celebrity anthem singers and heckle opposing goalies like Coyotes Antti Raanta with “You Suck!” chants. Don’t forget the drum lines and medieval knights from the legendary Vegas Golden Knights pregame show. Team game presentation reps have been on weekly calls every Monday the past few months with the league, which has requested content like warmup music playlists, introduction video anthems, P.A. announcer intros and more.

The Philadelphia Flyers signed forward Oskar Lindblom to a three-year extension

The New York Islanders presented renderings for their new arena which is expected to open for the 2021-22 season