Seattle Kraken need way more changes beyond Ron Francis’ exit | Commentary
SEATTLE – After falling to the lowly Blackhawks for their fourth consecutive loss, a 4-2 home flop amid familiarly fading playoff hopes, defenseman Brandon Montour admitted Saturday that the Kraken came out “flat.” Minutes later, coach Lane Lambert was asked how he wraps his head around that statement, considering the stakes.
“I can’t. I can’t,” a transparently baffled Lambert repeated, hands folded, shaking his head. “A game of that magnitude, to come out flat? Clearly there’s something that has to change.”
Not something. Not singular. Plural.
A whole lot has to change.
Starting at the top.
Besides firing coaches Dave Hakstol and Dan Bylsma in back-to-back offseasons, not enough has changed for this fledgling franchise. The Kraken are about to miss the playoffs for a third consecutive season, earning obscurity in a streaking sports city. They’ve repeatedly declined to embrace a full rebuild, clinging to a core that peaked with a single playoff series win in 2023. They’ve made comparably minor moves instead, while failing to develop draft picks into genuine stars.
This time a year ago, they fired Bylsma while perplexingly promoting Ron Francis (from general manager to president of hockey operations) and Jason Botterill (from assistant GM to executive vice president and GM), hailing that half measure as “the next wave of leadership.”
Even then, I wrote: “Coach aside, can you call it the next wave of leadership when the names stay the same?”
If we didn’t know it then, we know the answer now. The Kraken and Francis parted ways Wednesday, as their playoff hopes continued to crumble. Francis’ entire role, it seems, was squashed less than a season after it was installed, with Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke saying: “Now we’re going back to the model we started with. We’re going to have a GM who makes the decisions, and that unto itself was a decision.”
That GM, Leiweke suggested, will still be Botterill. He and Lambert are likely to stay in their roles.
But it’s obvious, from the front office to the roster, more change is warranted. Since exiting the Olympic break on Feb. 25 in playoff position, the Kraken are a catastrophic 5-14-2. They’ve been outscored 27-10 in their current six-game losing streak and dropped 10 of their last 11 entering Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
For a franchise that should be desperate to return to postseason play, this has been a stretch of flat, feeble, hopeless hockey.
Hopefully, it’s a wake-up call for an organization that has snoozed through similar alarms for three straight seasons.
“His fingerprints will forever be on this organization,” Leiweke said at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday, saluting Francis’ impact. “The back room I was just in, he designed. He led the design of our training center. He helped build our brand. I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Hey, keep it classy.’ And we did. He helped design our jerseys. He stood up Coachella Valley (the organization’s AHL affiliate), something we don’t talk as much about as we should.”
In nearly seven years with Seattle, Francis’ fingerprints can be found on plenty of success stories. The facilities are elite. The branding is effective. The community engagement is commendable. The game presentation and broadcast are among the NHL’s best.
He helped build excellence everywhere except for on the ice.
This change should have happened a year ago. But this is not a singular problem with a simple solution. On Thursday, Leiweke promised more change in the months to come.
He promised “a full independent audit of hockey operations,” organized by Botterill, bringing “fresh eyes” to the franchise’s issues. He promised “a multifaceted, multiyear plan to strengthen our roster while also building out other capacities.”
He promised an annual progress report for their righteously exasperated fans. He promised an analysis of their travel routines, medical systems and treatment of players and their families. He promised “a prolific offseason.” He promised more clarity from Botterill in the weeks to come.
Good.
But if promises were playoff wins, there wouldn’t be a problem. In the last several seasons, you’ve received plenty.
“We do have pieces in place,” Leiweke said. “We believe in our kids. I read an article where we were rated seventh in our prospects. Coachella Valley is a great indicator of what’s coming, and that’s a playoff team. We have cap space, and we have an owner in Samantha Holloway that will let us spend to the cap. We have capable veterans; I just went in and saw them. We have some rising stars. We have four first-round picks in the next two years, and it looks like we’re going to get a high pick this year.
“But no one is satisfied. We have not delivered on the promise of this team.”
Leiweke insists there are pieces in place – that ownership, facilities, prospects, coaches and commitment are all accounted for. But that makes this hellacious holding pattern all the more mystifying. Why does it feel like, three years after its playoff cameo, this team is no closer to a Stanley Cup?
Even worse, what would make a Kraken fan excited for the future?
In saluting the aforementioned Kraken fans, Leiweke said: “If you see somebody in a bar with a Kraken hat on, buy them a beer. Because they gave life to this whole dream, and they came onboard when there wasn’t a name. Most people thought this was a renovation. Our fans gave life to this franchise, and they’ve been here every night, and when I agonize over winning and losing, it’s really on behalf of the fans.”
Then, better yet, don’t buy them a beer. Build them a team worth watching at a bar in May and June. Make these promises matter.