There’s always that one surprise NHL team. The success story we don’t see coming.

They’ve gone from missing the playoffs — usually by a sizable margin — to beginning the following season so well that it forces an inevitable question: Are they for real?

This season’s Cinderella turn has belonged to the Seattle Kraken.

Let’s face it: The Kraken’s inaugural 2021-22 season was marred by constant defeat. Seattle never crested past .500 after playing their second game, endured at least six separate streaks with four or more losses and fielded criticism about their expansion draft strategy.

Well, the Kraken are back to issue a rebuttal.

Seattle went into this season’s holiday break sitting third in the Pacific Division with a 18-10-4 record and a .625 points percentage. Around Christmas last season, Seattle was 27th in the league at 10-16-3. Clearly, times have changed. But why? And by how much?

To answer those burning inquiries and others — including how sustainable Seattle’s success is and whether it will lead to a playoff berth — we went straight to the source.

Here’s what Seattle’s players are saying, how executives and analysts view the club and what the Kraken’s underlying numbers can reveal about their impressive sophomore start.

What the players say

It didn’t take long for the Kraken to have an aha! moment.

They had just won five straight games — including three on the road — in late October and early November. All four teams Seattle played had all reached the postseason in 2021-22.

It was a stretch that showed Kraken winger Jordan Eberle how Seattle had transformed.

“I think it’s a process of finding a way of winning games with the team you have,” Eberle said. “I thought last year we had games where we had that game, we were playing that game, winning that game. It was too inconsistent. I don’t know if it was a lack of depth or whatever it may be, but we weren’t consistently doing that.”