It wasn't the selections revealed by celebrities from Seattle professional sports teams past and present, the Sonics, Storm, Sounders, Seahawks and Mariners, even the ones mispronounced to laughter by Shawn Kemp and Marshawn Lynch.
It wasn't the thousands of fans at Gas Works Park on the north shore of Lake Union, wearing all kinds of Kraken gear as if the team had been there for years, overlooking more fans in boats and kayaks in the water and the skyline in the distance.
It was the fact that the scene could have been only in Seattle, nowhere else.
The Kraken embarked on their own journey in their own way Wednesday, by necessity and by design, from the players they selected to why they selected them to how they revealed them. Seattle has its own NHL roster for the first time. Time to enjoy the ride.
"There's a lot of excitement around the city," said forward Brandon Tanev, whom the Kraken selected from the Pittsburgh Penguins. "There's a great buzz tonight here at the event, and I think we're all looking forward to getting this started and getting the ball rolling here."
RELATED: [Expansion Draft selection tracker | Analysis of Kraken roster]
The temptation is to compare the Kraken to the Vegas Golden Knights, who have had so much success since entering the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18.
In a sense, that's good.
The Kraken had the same expansion draft rules the Golden Knights did, far better than expansion teams of the past, and the Golden Knights have shown what's possible. Not only have they made the Stanley Cup Playoffs four seasons in a row, they reached the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season and the third round the past two seasons.
"You look at the success Vegas had, right?" said defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, whom the Kraken selected from the Dallas Stars and signed to a contract. "I think we can kind of follow the same mold."
But keep some things in mind:
We view the Golden Knights in hindsight. When they went through the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, they wanted to be as competitive as possible right away, of course, but most importantly to build for the long term. Owner Bill Foley's stated goal was playoffs in three years, Cup in six. No one knew how good they'd be, including them.
The Golden Knights also convinced teams to cough up extra players and draft picks to keep them from selecting unprotected players. No one expected that to happen again from the moment the NHL announced expansion to Seattle on Dec. 4, 2018. Apparently, it did not.
"I think last time GMs were more willing to overpay to protect certain assets," Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. "This time they learned from that, and they weren't willing to make the mistakes they made last time."
No trades were announced Wednesday. Asked how many the Kraken had in the drawer when the NHL roster freeze ends Thursday, Francis told reporters, "Probably a lot less than you guys think there might be."