I've never had a place in Seattle. I've lived in Olympia and Bellingham, and just hung out in Seattle a lot. I live in Massachusetts now, and the amount of hockey culture here is 10-100x bigger. I'm almost annoyed that I can't get away from it.
Seattle doesn't freeze over (except for freak storms), and I think culturally that frozen thing is pretty important to develop hockey culture. Though a good team in Seattle I think would be very successful, for some of the reasons you mentioned.
Never lived in the Northeast ... frankly, some of the hockey people from the Northeast do annoy me, for whatever it's worth, so I can understand where you're coming from. Notably, you can never get them off of the subject of the Rangers, Flyers, Devils, or Bruins, once they get onto that subject. I'm looking at you, Stan "Rainjuhs" Fischler...
With respect, I disagree about the freezing thing. There are some brooding hockey markets that virtually never see freezing (such as San Jose) ... I think it comes down to value of entertainment both on the ice, and for the dollar. An area like San Jose succeeds because the people in and around San Jose are willing to drop dime to see an NHL team compete. I think Seattle is a similar market; a younger, more "hip", tech savvy crowd versus that of, say, Miami. Even a city like Nashville does a fine job supporting the Predators through thick and thin.
That's the main reason I think Seattle would do well. You would be hard pressed to find more 20 to 30 something millionaires anywhere else in the US. Hockey is a "cool" sport; physical, exciting, fun to watch.
