The Seattle Kraken’s first season still echoes in a few corners of the franchise, and now one of those voices is resurfacing in a new place.
When the Kraken visit the Blue Jackets in Columbus on December 17th, some Seattle players could hear a familiar public address announcer at Nationwide Arena. Josh Hunter, who handled the PA duties for the first half of Seattle’s expansion season, has just been hired by Columbus.
Hunter was the voice behind the microphone for the Kraken’s first regular-season home game on Oct. 24, 2021, when Seattle dropped a 4-2 decision to the Vancouver Canucks. According to his LinkedIn, he made it only halfway through that inaugural season before his financial situation, which required him to commute from Colorado to Seattle rather than immediately moving to the Pacific Northwest, led to the Kraken bringing in a different announcer who was locally based, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
That “locally based” replacement was Chet Buchanan, whose name has become familiar to Seattle fans. Buchanan lives in both Seattle and Las Vegas, and until leaving the gig this past February, he even did his Vegas radio show from his Puget Sound home.
Buchanan’s reputation in Las Vegas goes well beyond hockey. He has raised more than $60 million over a quarter-century by hosting annual Christmas toy drives, and when he had to miss Kraken home games last December, Hunter stepped in.
Buchanan had originally applied for the job Hunter landed. As the Las Vegas Sun put it, “Buchanan happened to be in Seattle,” when the team asked if he was still interested in the position. His first game in the role, on Jan. 1, 2022, also came against Vancouver.
“For the first 10 games or so,” Chet told the Sun, “I was, in hockey parlance, gripping the stick. I was tense.” By now, though, that nervousness is long gone, and Kraken fans know the voice well.
He also does PA work in Vegas for NASCAR and the WNBA Aces.
“When a kid reaches out (to me),” Buchanan told Fox5 Vegas, “saying, ‘Here’s my imitation of Chet Buchanan doing a goal call,’ and they’re not messing with you, that’s huge, because I was that kid.”
In Other News...
Adam Larsson Has Become The Kraken Constant Fans Needed
Adam Larsson has quietly become one of the few true constants in Kraken history, the sort of defenseman whose value shows up as much in presence and reliability as it does in the box score. Seattle marked his latest milestone with a pregame ceremony on April 2, recognizing him for reaching 1,000 NHL games, a number that speaks to both longevity and the steady way he has fit into the franchise since its beginning.
For a team still building its identity, Larssons career has given Seattle something rare: continuity. He has been there in nearly every regular-season game the Kraken have played, and the one he missed came for a family reason, underscoring how central he has become on and off the ice. Larsson said the moment prompted him to reflect positively on his career, and with his passion for hockey still intact, the bigger question is how long this particular anchor can keep holding the line. [Read more 🡒]
Jared McCann Still Defines The Kraken As A Bigger Decision Looms
Jared McCann remained one of the most important names on the Kraken roster even as the season unraveled around him. Seattle came out of the gate well, then endured two major downswings on the way to a 34-37-11 finish, and McCann was still productive when he was available, giving the club a steady offensive presence in a year that never really found its footing.
The bigger question now is what comes next for a player who has become so central to the teams identity. McCann is moving through the final year of his contract, and the Kraken are facing the kind of decision that tends to shape a franchises short-term direction: whether to keep building around a veteran scorer who has mattered a great deal, or start weighing the long view before the situation changes again after next season. [Read more 🡒]