Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke promises audit after front-office shake-up

SEATTLE – The Kraken ended an era Wednesday afternoon, letting go of the man who built the expansion team. In what was described as a mutual decision, Ron Francis will step down as president of hockey operations when the 2025-26 season ends next week.

Francis, 63, was named the franchise’s first general manager on July 17, 2019, two years before the Kraken began play. Last summer, assistant GM Jason Botterill was promoted to general manager while Francis moved away from day-to-day operations to some degree.

On Thursday morning in his prepared remarks, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke praised the ownership and Climate Pledge Arena, “positioned to be the future home of yet another team,” one of several casual allusions to the possible return of the NBA’s SuperSonics. He described Francis’ accomplishments as a player, and his work building up the Kraken farm system and brand.

But for the first six years of the Kraken’s existence, Francis’ job title was general manager, and the product on the ice hasn’t passed muster. Aside from one perfect storm of a regular season and playoff run, where an assortment of expansion draft pieces banded together for wall-to-wall career years and an unsustainable shooting percentage, the Kraken have struggled.

They’ve finished sixth, seventh and eighth during the non-playoff years in the eight-team Pacific Division, and are poised for another sixth- or seventh-place finish. They can be formally eliminated from the postseason Thursday night.

“Each guy in here needs to take some responsibility for what happened,” Kraken captain Jordan Eberle said. “At the end of the day, we were in a good spot before the break.”

They were in a playoff spot at all the important season benchmarks, and a run might have saved Francis’ job. But the Kraken crashed out spectacularly after the Olympic break, going 5-14-2 ahead of Thursday night’s matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights.

“It’s sometimes hard to see on the surface, as to what’s out of alignment, but something is out of alignment,” Leiweke said.

“It’s not acceptable, and we’re committed to fixing it, and we’re committed to improving every single aspect of the organization.”

Leiweke said there will be several imminent actions. He said the organization will conduct a “full, independent audit of hockey operations.” The auditor will be an individual, and Botterill has identified candidates.

He expressed hope that the audit is a “symbol to … our fans that we’re serious about this.”

He also referenced a “a multifaceted, multiyear plan to strengthen our roster,” which includes recruiting free agents to Seattle. And he mentioned greater communication with season-ticket holders and keeping fans in the loop with what is happening.

“I am very, very, very confident that we’re going to get this team to be in a good place, but it’s going to take a plan, and we’re going to set mile markers, and our fans are going to know where we are,” Leiweke said.

That made it sound like they’re going back to the drawing board. Last year, when the Kraken were clearly not going to make the playoffs again, Leiweke warned against calling their retooling a rebuild. This time, he essentially said: still no, but check back later.

“You can put any label on it that you want,” he said. “We are not satisfied, we are not happy, and our fans deserve better.

“We have not delivered on the promise of this team.”

Leiweke gave every indication Botterill and coach Lane Lambert will be staying on through a “prolific” offseason.

“I don’t want to get into that, but I think Lane has coached his ass off this year,” Leiweke said. “We owe a lot of people better. We’re going to try to provide better things for him.”

As for Botterill, going forward, “the decisions are uniquely his.”

Leiweke said he suspected the move from GM to president, which was styled as a promotion at the time, was hard for Francis.

“He actually took a step back. And I think that was an incredible discipline for him,” Leiweke said. “And I think he realized that maybe this is the right time. This is the moment of inflection. There was no acrimony, and we part friends, and I have the greatest respect for him.”

Leiweke said it was a fair assessment that Francis was “also fatigued.”

“I’m sure he’s disappointed … by what this team has been this year. I think he’s disappointed for the last three years when we haven’t made the playoffs, but he was supportive of Jason,” Leiweke said.

“But now, we’re going to go back to the model we started with. We’re going to have a GM who makes the decisions.”