Why Steelheads should be Seattle’s NHL Team Name

Here we are in the Final Four of the Name the Seattle NHL Team contest. This has no official bearing on what we should end up naming the team, but it’s the most complex and thought-provoking analysis on the subject. We’re doing more than polls slapped up on a website here.

There are quite a few people who spend very cold mornings in the winters months wading into the rivers of the Pacific Northwest to catch one certain fish, the Steelhead. If you’re like my brother then you’ll be in that water when it’s ten degrees going after these bad boys.

The steelhead, or metal-heads as some anglers call them, spends most of its life in the ocean waters while coming into freshwater rivers to mate and spawn. It’s a feisty fish that takes a lot of patience to catch and to reel in. They are a fish that never says die, deceptively strong, fast. Yes, they are food for other species, humans included, but they are also a predatory fish.

I asked an avid steelhead angler, Nate McKinney, why we should consider the name of the NHL team.

“Steelhead are the, in my opinion, the hardiest and most determined salmonoid species.” said Nate, “They will endure whatever it takes to achieve that end goal”

Steelheads have some history in Seattle as well. It was our Negro League Baseball team back in 1946. Even though I hate alliteration and think it’s lazy there is something to be said about the teams and alliteration in Seattle. Every team that has alliteration in their name has won a title. Sonics, Storm, Sounders, Seahawks are all champions. The Mariners? Sometime superstition is a real thing.

Steelheads over Totems is a no-brainer.

Here’s Nate and his group out fishing for Steelhead. Some good shots of how hard these fish fight.

Go to the polls, vote for Steelheads as the team name for our soon to be NHL squad.