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Ron Francis

Kraken Name Jason Botterill GM

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April 22: The Kraken confirmed Tuesday they’ve elevated Francis to president of hockey operations and named Botterill executive vice president and general manager.

April 21: It turns out that relieving head coach Dan Bylsma of his duties isn’t the only notable change coming for the Kraken today.  E.J. Hradek of the NHL Network was the first to report (Twitter link) that assistant GM Jason Botterill will be appointed as the team’s new general manager.  Meanwhile, Arthur Staple of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that current GM Ron Francis will now serve as the team’s president.

This will be Botterill’s second opportunity to serve as an NHL GM.  He spent three years running the Sabres before being let go in 2020 where he was quickly scooped up by Seattle a year before the Kraken officially joined the league.  He also spent several years working in Pittsburgh’s front office, primarily as an assistant GM so he was certainly one of the more experienced managerial options around the league.

Over his three years in Buffalo, the Sabres struggled, missing the playoffs in all three seasons.  They did, however, draft relatively well during Botterill’s tenure, landing Rasmus Dahlin first overall in 2018, Dylan Cozens seventh overall a year later, and starting goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the second round in 2017.  Other NHLers drafted by Buffalo under Botterill include Casey Mittelstadt, Jacob Bryson, and Mattias Samuelsson.

Botterill’s trade history showed that he wasn’t hesitant to make a big swing.  Among the notable trades he swung was moving Evander Kane to San Jose for Danny O’Regan and a pair of draft picks.  He also dealt Ryan O’Reilly to St. Louis for a package that included Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, and Tage Thompson, along with a pair of draft picks; while Thompson has panned out well, the rest of the trade package hasn’t performed as well.  He also acquired Jeff Skinner from Carolina before signing him to an eight-year, $72MM extension that Buffalo exercised a buyout on last summer.

With his track record from before, Botterill had come up as a speculative candidate for GM openings in recent years and if another one became available this spring, he likely would have been considered for the role with that franchise.  With this move, Seattle gets in front of that hypothetical, ensuring that the Francis-Botterill duo will remain in place, just with different roles than before.

As for Francis, he had been at the helm of the Kraken since 2019 as he was also hired before the team officially joined the NHL.  It was his second role running a team as he also had a four-year stint as GM in Carolina among his many different roles with the Hurricanes.  Knowing for being a patient manager, Francis initially brought that same approach to Seattle, opting for what looked like a slower build than Vegas had when they joined the league last decade.

But a 100-point effort in the franchise’s second season increased expectations.  A step back the following season saw the team make a coaching change before handing out two of the biggest contracts in free agency as they looked to get back to playoff contention sooner than later.  Instead, the Kraken scuffled more this season, resulting in not just a coaching overhaul but a front office one as well.

During his time with Seattle, Francis brought in leading scorer Jared McCann and top blueliner Vince Dunn through the expansion draft while drafting a pair of young centers with high first-round picks in Matthew Beniers and Shane Wright so his fingerprints will be felt on this franchise for many more years to come.  Now, it will be Botterill handling more of the day-to-day operations as the Kraken try to get back to the playoffs next season.

Kraken Notes: Francis, Mahura, Grubauer, Hayden

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While this season was certainly a disappointing one for the Kraken, there won’t be a big change coming in the front office.  Team CEO Tod Leiweke confirmed to reporters including Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times (Twitter link) that GM Ron Francis will return for his fifth season in 2025-26.  Seattle has missed the playoffs in three of its first four seasons which generally isn’t abnormal for an expansion franchise but the early success Vegas had increased expectations.  Their lone playoff year came in 2022-23 when they had 100 points but they managed just 76 this season despite handing out two of the bigger deals in free agency last summer to Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson.  The team projects to have more than $21MM in cap room this summer, per PuckPedia, so Francis could be a big spender once again.

More from Seattle:

  • Defenseman Josh Mahura is hoping to re-sign with the Kraken this summer, Shefte relays. The 26-year-old signed a one-year, $775K deal last year after being non-tendered by Florida back in June.  Mahura had a decent season in a limited role, playing in 64 games where he had nine assists while logging a little under 14 minutes a night.  It’s likely that his next contract should check in once again at or near the league minimum and it wouldn’t be surprising if Seattle looked to bring him back in a similar role for next season.
  • Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will play for Germany at the upcoming World Championship, Shefte notes in the same column. It was another rough year for 33-year-old, whose 3.49 GAA and .875 SV% were the worst marks of his career and saw him limited to just 26 games, plus seven more in the minors after clearing waivers.  He has two years left on his contract at a $5.9MM AAV, making him a speculative buyout candidate this summer.
  • The team announced (Twitter link) that center John Hayden was assigned to AHL Coachella Valley. He cleared waivers last week in advance of being returned to the Firebirds for their playoff run.  The 30-year-old had a goal and an assist in 20 games with Seattle and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Shane Wright Officially Granted Exemption, Can Play In The AHL This Season

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Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis has shared that, if Shane Wright doesn’t make the NHL roster, he will be eligible for an AHL assignment. This move was recently speculated by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

CHL players are typically ineligible to play in the AHL until they are 20 years old on or before December 31 of the given season. Shane Wright won’t turn 20 until January 5, missing that cutoff by just five days. Another way to get out of the CHL-NHL agreement is to play four full seasons in the CHL, something Wright would have achieved had the 2020-21 OHL season not been canceled.

Because of these reasons, the OHL has granted Wright an exemption, following conversations between the Kraken, the NHL, and the OHL that date back months ago. These talks focused on how returning to the CHL wouldn’t benefit the former exceptional status recipient, especially after the tangled 2022-23 season that Wright had. Wright started the year with Seattle, before suffering an injury and getting assigned to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for a conditioning stint. After eight games, Wright returned to the NHL for a single game, then left for the World Juniors, and when he came back, his OHL rights had been traded from the Kingston Frontenacs to the Windsor Spitfires – whom he spent the remainder of the season with. But after Windsor’s early postseason exit, Wright returned again to the AHL, playing in 24 playoff games with Coachella Valley.

It was a season filled with travel for Shane Wright – something Seattle will hope to avoid this year. Francis told the Seattle Times, “We’re going to come in and commit to giving Shane every chance to make our team. And if at some point we make a decision that he’s not going to make it, then we would look to assign him to Coachella Valley and I believe at that point we would be fine in doing that.”

Shane Wright recorded two points in eight NHL games last season. He’ll enter the 2023-24 campaign looking to build on those eight games and finally see through his rookie NHL season. But if that doesn’t work, this exemption gives Seattle a contingency plan.

Seattle Kraken Extend Ron Francis

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The Seattle Kraken, fresh off an exciting playoff run in just their second season, have rewarded general manager Ron Francis with a contract extension. The deal will keep him locked up through 2026-27.

Kraken co-owner Samantha Holloway released a statement:

Ron has done remarkable work over the last four years and deserves this recognition. He has built a tremendous team, putting Seattle hockey on the map. He is building for long term success and is dedicated to our city, our fans, and our community.

Francis was brought on well before the Kraken hit the ice in 2021, and has helped shape the entire Kraken organization. His guidance led the expansion draft process, hired Dave Hakstol, and created the group that was a game away from the Western Conference Finals this year.

While there have been criticisms of how he went about certain aspects of expansion, the Kraken far exceeded many expectations, and Seattle already appears to be a critical market for the NHL.

Recent acquisitions of players like Oliver Bjorkstrand, Andre Burakovsky, and Eeli Tolvanen have taken the team’s offensive performance to a new level, and young players like Matty Beniers appear to be headed for long-term success.

It’s hard to argue with that progress, and obviously, the ownership group felt the same. Francis will be in place for several years, trying to take the Kraken even further.

PHR Playoff Primer: Dallas Stars vs. Seattle Kraken

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With the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs now underway, PHR makes its first foray into playoff series analysis with our 2023 Playoff Primers. Where does each team stand in their series, and what storylines could dominate on and off the ice? We begin our second-round coverage with the Western Conference matchup between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken.

The Seattle fanbase waited a long time for a team to cheer for and the Seattle Kraken have given them something to cheer about in just their second season by knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions in seven games. The Dallas Stars on the other hand were able to dispatch of the Minnesota Wild in just six games on the back of incredible goaltending from Jake Oettinger. Their second-round matchup will mark the first time the two teams have met in the playoffs.

What a difference a season makes. A year ago, Kraken general manager Ron Francis looked as though he’d butchered the expansion draft as Seattle finished near the bottom of the NHL standings. But, fast forward one year later and the Kraken have their first 100-point season, a playoff series victory, and the opportunity for more.  For Dallas, they are just three years removed from a Stanley Cup finals appearance in which they lost in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. While the Stars do still have several of the core pieces from that 2020 team, they’ve added a lot of elite young talent to mix in with their older core pieces.

It’s hard to get excited for a series in which the two teams have never met in the playoffs before, but Dallas quietly had one of the most exciting series of the first round, and Seattle provided ample fireworks of their own. This series might not have the draw that some other series may have, but there will be plenty of star power on the ice for Dallas, while Seattle has one of the most balanced lineups in the entire NHL and can outwork almost any team.

Regular Season Performance

Dallas Stars: 51-22-9, 111 points, +43 goal differential
Seattle Kraken: 46-28-8, 100 points, +33 goal differential.

Head-To-Head

March 11, 2023: Dallas 4, Seattle 3 (OT)

March 13, 2023: Dallas 5, Seattle 2

March 21, 2023: Seattle 5, Dallas 4 (OT)

Dallas takes the season series 2-0-1

Team Storylines

One might not think these teams would have much in the way of a rivalry, however for ten days in mid-March they saw a lot of each other. The teams played three times and developed a bit of hate in that time. While a lot has happened since then, there could be carryover.

The biggest storyline in this series will be the high-end skill of the Dallas Stars against the workmanlike attitude of the Seattle Kraken. Dallas has the offense and the goaltending to make a deep run in these playoffs and have much higher expectations than the Kraken, however Seattle has shown an incredible amount of heart this season and are playing with house money at this point. Sometimes the pressure can cause a team to wilt, and sometimes no pressure at all can make a team play fast and loose. It’ll be interesting to see it play out.

The Dallas Stars play with a ton of skill and a ton of speed, led by Jason Robertson, they can put the puck in your net in several ways and can push the pace, or slow down the game if they need to grind out a win. They still possess Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and a few other players from the 2020 run to the finals that know how to get the job done in the playoffs. They have the confidence in their group and their goalie to get it done. Seattle on the other can also play with a lot of pace, they come at you in waves, line after line can contribute on the offensive end. Every line can score, but they don’t have the gamebreakers that Dallas has.

On the backend, both teams have strong blue lines that can help generate offense. Seattle has the size advantage with a couple of towering forces that can crash and bang and clear the front of the net, but Dallas may possess the strength advantage with a physically imposing lineup in which every man in the unit is over six foot. Dallas has the most elite puck mover in Miro Heiskanen, but this year’s version of Vince Dunn isn’t far off, and Seattle has a better collection of point producers and a deeper unit of six. While the Stars defense can do it all, Seattle’s defense can all do it. Coach Dave Hakstol has somehow managed to spread his defensive minutes about as evenly as you will ever see for a defensive unit. I would give the advantage to Seattle in this area as they seem to find an extra gear late in games and have a good track record of shutting the door on their opponents.

In goal, Dallas boasts one of the best goaltenders in the world in Jake Oettinger. His playoff resume is short, but it is strong. He was dominant in the first round, and should he play at that level in this series, Dallas will be tough to beat. Regular season numbers would tell us that Oettinger gives Dallas a huge advantage over Seattle in net, but in round one Seattle received elite goaltending as well. Philipp Grubauer finally gave Seattle the goaltending they thought they were getting when they signed the former Avalanche goalie to a six year $35.4MM contract in 2021. The German netminder hasn’t been able to sustain much success over his two years with the Kraken, but if he can build on his impressive stretch of play in round one, Seattle will have a punchers chance to advance.

Prediction

Anytime an elite goaltender is involved in a series it is always difficult to bet against them. Jake Oettinger has proven himself to be one of the best in the world and so far, has shown an ability to rise to the occasion when the games mean the most. If he can steal a game or two in this series, it will give Dallas a sizeable advantage and could be the difference in the series.

The other element that comes into play is experience. Dallas has a ton of players who have been here before, and while Seattle has some veterans with Stanley Cup playoff experience, it isn’t on the same level. This small detail could be the difference maker for the Stars if they can draw on that experience and find that extra push.

The prediction: Dallas win in seven games.

Pacific Notes: Wright, Ducks, Reimer

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Going into the season, Kraken GM Ron Francis had indicated that the plan was for rookie Shane Wright to spend the full year with Seattle.  However, some early struggles resulted in several healthy scratches, enough in a row to the point where it allowed him to go to AHL Coachella Valley on a conditioning stint.  In an appearance on the Got Yer’ Back podcast (video link), Francis indicated that the original plan might be changing.  Wright will play two more games with the Firebirds and then will be recalled and put into the Kraken’s lineup with a decision on what’s next for him to be made after evaluating his performance post-recall.  However, he can only play in two more games before officially burning the first year of his entry-level deal so that evaluation and decision will have to be made fairly quickly.

More from the Pacific:

  • While things haven’t gone well for the Ducks this season (they enter play tonight dead last in points), don’t expect a coaching change anytime soon. In his latest podcast (audio link), GM Pat Verbeek indicated that his intention is to evaluate the coaching staff only at the end of the season.  With the team clearly still in a rebuild, there’s no immediate need to make a change but if Dallas Eakins is hoping to stick with Anaheim beyond this season, they’ll need to play at least a little better than they have so far.
  • The Sharks could get James Reimer back this weekend, notes Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. The veteran is currently on IR with a lower-body injury, his second one from November but he’s eligible to be activated as early as Saturday.  San Jose plays both Saturday and Sunday so there’s a good chance he’ll be able to suit up for one of those.  Reimer has a 3.00 GAA and a .903 SV% in 15 starts so far this season.

Seattle Kraken Re-Sign Ryan Donato

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After not being given a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent, Ryan Donato is heading back to Seattle anyway. The Kraken have signed Donato to a one-year, $1.2MM contract. General manager Ron Francis released a statement:

Ryan elevated his game last season and we’re happy to have him return to the Kraken. He completed a career year and will hopefully eclipse that in 2022-23.

While Donato’s qualifying offer would have been less than this, it would have opened up the possibility of arbitration which would have almost certainly resulted in a higher cap hit than $1.2MM. The 26-year-old forward reached new career-highs with 16 goals and 31 points in 74 games this season, after signing a one-year, $750K deal with the team in 2021.

It’s been a rollercoaster career for Donato since turning pro in 2018. He registered three points in his first game for the Boston Bruins and looked like he might be a key member of the team in the years to come. Before the end of his first full NHL season, he would be traded to the Minnesota Wild as part of the package for Charlie Coyle, and less than two years later would be sent to the San Jose Sharks for a third-round pick.

At the end of the 2020-21 season, he was left unqualified by the Sharks after scoring just six goals, leaving him without a clear path forward. With the Kraken, he has put his career back on track and now looks to take advantage of his second contract with the expansion franchise.

The Kraken, despite only entering the league a year ago, now have more than $80MM committed for 2022-23, leaving them with just over $2.2MM in cap space. Donato will try to continue carving out ice time in a forward group that has added Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and potentially Shane Wright this summer, depending on what the team does with the latter.

Seattle Kraken Extend Max McCormick

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The Seattle Kraken have completed a bit of offseason work, signing Max McCormick to a two-year contract extension. The two-way deal carries an average annual value of $762.5K and keeps McCormick from hitting the open market this summer as an unrestricted free agent. Kraken general manager Ron Francis released the following statement:

Max is a valuable part of the leadership group in Charlotte as the Checkers begin their playoff run. He impressed us with his play in Seattle. We are excited that he is returning to our organization for the next two years.

Interestingly enough, McCormick actually returned to an old stomping ground when he joined the Kraken organization this season. Because the team did not yet have their own AHL affiliate up and running, Seattle sent players to the Charlotte Checkers, where McCormick spent most of the year. He’d already spent a season with the Checkers in 2019-200, when he scored 35 points in 56 games while also racking up 120 penalty minutes. While his penalty numbers may have dropped, McCormick was once again a solid player for Charlotte this season, scoring 13 goals and 29 points in 46 games.

Meanwhile, his NHL career is still a big scattershot. Since signing with the Ottawa Senators out of Ohio State University in 2014, McCormick has played 93 games at the highest level, but never more than 30 in a single season. He suited up ten times for Seattle this year but failed to register a single point.

With the Coachella Valley Firebirds set to start play next season as the Kraken affiliate, players like McCormick are the perfect foundation for the AHL roster. He poses little risk of claim on waivers but can serve a role as an injury replacement at the NHL level if needed. There’s even a chance that he ends up as the Firebirds’ first captain, given he wore an “A” as an alternate for the Checkers this year and Zac Dalpe–who has the “C” this year in Charlotte–is signed with the Florida Panthers.

Snapshots: Kraken, Trade Bait, Senators

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The Seattle Kraken are “open for business” in regards to being a third-party broker for trade deadline deals or even a parachute for bad contracts, according to general manager Ron Francis. Francis spoke with Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic and was quite clear that he has already told every other GM in the league that they are willing to spend cap space and money to acquire other assets.

Interestingly enough, he also explained, among other things, that the team is planning on being aggressive again in free agency this summer. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet happened to include a note in today’s 32 Thoughts column that he sees John Klingberg as a good fit for Seattle in the offseason when the veteran defenseman hits unrestricted free agency.

  • If there is a theme to the changes on Frank Seravalli’s trade targets list for Daily Faceoff, it’s young forwards. Filip Zadina, Alexandre Texier, and Kasperi Kapanen all find themselves among the additions, with various reasons for their inclusion. Zadina especially is an interesting one, as he jumps directly to No. 12 on the list of the most likely pieces dealt, despite being on a team that would traditionally be holding onto young assets. The 22-year-old simply hasn’t been successful enough at the NHL level to this point, scoring just 22 goals and 54 points in 138 career games.
  • The Ottawa Senators have opened extension talks with Nick Paul, but David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period tweets that those discussions haven’t progressed very far. The Paul situation is an odd one, given the fact that an extension with Ottawa shouldn’t be that complicated for a player with a career-high of 20 points, and will certainly conjure memories for Senators fans of the situations Mark Stone, Kyle Turris, and Erik Karlsson faced before ultimately being traded out of town.

Why The 2022 Trade Deadline Could Be A Seller’s Market

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The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is not exactly imminent. The delayed March 21 date this season is 11 weeks away and a lot can change in that amount of time. However, the end of the holiday trade freeze is the unofficial start to trade season leading up to the deadline. In the first few months of the season there have been ten trades completed, but outside of the Jack Eichel deal there have been very few moves of any substance. That may not change any time soon either.

An active trade deadline requires there to be identifiable buyers and sellers and they must be willing and able to deal. Buyers should not be an issue this season; the eight teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference may be locked in, as nearly 100 percentage points separate the eighth and ninth team in the conference standings, while the Western Conference includes 13 teams with .500+ records. Therein begins the sellers problem though. Only three teams out west look like potential sellers right now, while there could be more teams willing to sell in the east but many are in a rebuild and don’t have much to offer, while others are merely lacking impact rentals. There are also a number of fringe teams that probably should be sellers, but are close enough to a playoff berth that would mean so much to their players and fan base that they may hold out.

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek notes another wrinkle that could limit sellers: five teams are currently operating with an interim GM. The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks have hired new heads of their respective front offices in Jeff Gorton and Jim Rutherford, but neither has in turn hired his GM yet and seem unlikely to make major moves independently. This could take Gorton’s Canadiens, one of the most obvious sellers on paper, off the market. Rutherford’s Canucks hope to be in the playoff race, but he has already vowed that the team will either sell or stand pat this season and the longer it takes to hire a GM, the more likely it will be the latter. The Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks are all operating with temporary GMs, all of whom have limited experience. Chicago and Anaheim fired their most recent GMs and have internal replacements for the time being, while San Jose GM Doug Wilson is currently away from the team for medical reasons. As Duhatschek points out, the likes of Kyle Davidson, Jeff Solomon, and Joe Will are not only new to the GM position, but lack the relationships around the league to make impact moves. So while the Blackhawks look like bona fide sellers and the Sharks and possibly the Ducks could get to that point, will they actually be willing to make trades?

The Seattle Kraken also fall into a category all their own. The NHL’s newest team was just put together in its entirety this off-season. Although they struggled mightily all season and do possess a number of expiring contracts, it remains to be seen if GM Ron Francis is ready to blow it up.

On top of all of this, the rental market among potential sellers is not strong. Of the top 20 impending UFA’s in per-game scoring this season, zero are on teams with sub-.500 records and just three are on teams not currently in a playoff spot. Expand that to the top 50, and only ten players are on sub-.500 teams: Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd, and Johan Larsson for Arizona, Vinnie Hinostroza for Buffalo, Chris Wideman for Montreal, P.K. Subban for New Jersey, Tyler Ennis for Ottawa, and Calle Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell, and Mark Giordano for Seattle. Even if valuable defensemen like Ben Chiarot and Colin Miller or even a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury are considered, it’s not exactly an inspiring list for teams adding at the deadline. More importantly, it’s a short list for a potentially large group of buyers.

For those teams looking to make a meaningful trade this season, the conundrum is when to make a move. On one hand, with a small group of exciting targets it may be beneficial to make a trade early and possibly avoid the high prices of deadline bidding wars. On the other hand, the pool of sellers could also expand closer to the deadline and prices could drop if there is a flood of supply to meet the demand. Until that happens though – if it even does – there will be few moves to make early on and quite possibly right up to the deadline. Serious contenders should be prepared to pay up or sit tight this season.

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