"Who Are The Seattle Kraken?"

Great minds ponder great questions, such as "How high is 'up?'" and "Do fish get thirsty?" and "Why do we cook bacon and bake cookies?"

And this season, great hockey minds are pondering, "Who are the Seattle Kraken?" On his podcast , Jeff Marek and guest Greg Wyshynski took a stab at answering.

Greg Wyshynski: "If you had asked me what the Seattle Kraken were a month ago, I would have said, 'A team counting its lottery odds.' Now, they're right back in it. If they get in as a wild card team, it's hard to say how you approach the future after that, because that's two playoff qualifications in a row."

Jeff Marek: "They really confuse me. You see a lot of different versions of teams throughout a year. I don't know which Seattle Kraken is the real version. At times they've looked like a traditional expansion team. Then when they went on that rip not too long ago, they looked like a 'Vegas' style expansion team."

GW: "The numbers tell you they should be a better offensive team and a worse defensive team. Part of the reason they seem so 'Jekyll and Hyde' is that they regress to what they should be, and other times they're above what they're expected to do."

JM: "Which is the real Matt Beniers? The one we saw last year with the Calder Trophy? Or the one we see struggling, seeing minutes reduced, seeing assignments reduced, going all the way down from the penthouse to the first floor?"

JM: "They're loaded with prospects. The future does look bright for the Seattle Kraken. They've really drafted well. Do they do something different? As wild as making a trade for Tomas Hertl? And maybe you don't re-sign Alex Wennberg."

Well, that cleared up absolutely nothing. Then again, maybe this is one of those unanswerable questions which the Hockey Gods pose to drive us insane.

Marek is absolutely right, though, that the biggest complicating factor in figuring out the Kraken is last season's unexpected success. "You've done it once. Now your fans expect it every single year."