(dpa). Philip Grubauer left the ice early. In the last minute, the Seattle Kraken attempted to force another player on the field to equalize against the Vegas Golden Knights and the national goalkeeper bypassed the road. But even this common ice hockey move didn’t help: Team Kraken lost Wednesday night 3:

4 against Vegas – thus not only the beginning of the NHL season, but also the beginning of the first season in its history. Because Kraken with 29-year-old Rosenheimer is the 32nd team in the National Hockey League.

In their motivation, the Seattle Kraken is no different from any of the other 31 teams in the NHL – all of them revolve around success, victory and action. However, the league’s youngest team is an exceptional part of the bigger picture. Because in the birthplace of Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon, the group of investors around movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer is trying to make this new start different from the norm in American sports. More ecological, more diverse, more modern. Many working women have to make this claim, according to the information they make up the majority of CEOs. According to US media reports, there are more minority members of the American community in Kraken offices than in other NHL teams.

Then there is the Arena, which they proudly and somewhat arrogantly proclaim on their homepage as the most sustainable and responsible hall in the world. Claim and Promise: No single-use plastics from 2024, economical use of water collected when it rains and used for ice in the hall, offsetting carbon emissions generated. And soon they want to have the world’s first certified, climate-neutral sports facility.

None of this is cheap: The renovation of Seattle Center Square, now called Climate Pledges Square, cost more than $1 billion. But the interest among the people of the city is enormous, the first 10,000 applications for a season ticket were received within twelve minutes, on the first day there were 32,000 – almost twice as many places. And all in March 2018: three and a half years before the first game.

Grubauer was still with the Washington Capitals at the time, won the Stanley Cup a few months later and then went to the Colorado Avalanche in the summer. He has developed so well that last season he was officially one of the top three goalkeepers in the NHL – and the avalanche also protected him or prevented him from moving to Kraken – depending on your viewpoint.

If a new team enters the league in the NHL, it will not happen through promotion, but through money. The association licenses property collections and in cities it hopes to grow for itself — Seattle does.

In order for the new team to be competitive from the start, they can get a professional from each of the other teams in the league. The competition, in turn, is allowed to protect nine of its players from this access. The avalanche did just that in Grubauer. But, to Bayern’s surprise, they did not offer him a new contract. You had the opportunity, you had the time – it didn’t work out,” Grobauer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The move from title candidate like avalanche to newcomer may seem like a step backwards, but it makes sense for Grubauer. Not for salary reasons. He felt wanted in Seattle, and the six-year contract was a vote of confidence. “It means a lot. The team wants you. Not just for a year or two and then, if you don’t succeed, until you go.” “They’ve been linked to you for six years.” Not many teams do this because the NHL has a salary cap. As a veteran, he can also help shape the new team’s culture.