Quote Originally Posted by Gill The Thrill View Post
I would actually like that move....Seattle has a rich hockey history pre-dating the National Hockey League. I believe the Seattle Metropolitans won the first Stanley Cup that was run by the NHL or NHA (not sure). They were part of what was the West Coast or Pacific Coast League and beat the Eastern NHL champion in 1918. Sadly the 1919 Stanley Cup was discontinued when Montreal player Joe Hall died, en route to Seattle to play for the cup, after catching the Spanish flu, an epidemic that had gripped North America during that spring, prior to the discovery of penicillin of course.

Seattle was rumoured to get a team prior to Bettman becoming commish in the late 80s and 90s, but never built a large enough arena to replace Key Arena, the basketball arena that was deemed to small for the NBA Supersonics, who eventually moved to Oklahoma city years later.
Seattle played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (the same league where Vancouver Millionaires won the city's only Stanley Cup in 1915 ). In addition to its 1917 victory and the 1919 Stanley Cup tragedy, Seattle made it to the Stanley Cup finals in 1920 but lost to the original Ottawa Senators. In other words, a Seattle team would be able to claim it has won the Stanley Cup more recently than Vancouver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Metropolitans