The Seattle Kraken fired coach Dan Bylsma on Monday, ending his tenure after one season that concluded far out of playoff contention.
And that’s not the only change coming after the Kraken failed to qualify for a second consecutive year.
Seattle is expected to move longtime general manager Ron Francis into another role and promote assistant Jason Botterill to replace him, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the change had not been announced.
The Kraken regressed after Bylsma took over for Dave Hakstol, who coached them for their first four seasons of existence and got them to the playoffs in 2023. They finished 35-41-6 for 76 points — 20 back of the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference — after 81 the previous season.
“We thank Dan for his commitment and the energy he brought to our organization over the past four years at the NHL and AHL levels,” Francis said. “After a thorough review of the season and our expectations for next year and beyond, we’ve made the difficult decision to move in a different direction behind the bench. Dan is a great person and a respected coach. He played an important role in the development of many of our young prospects and was a big part of our early success in Coachella Valley. We sincerely wish him and his family nothing but success moving forward.”
Bylsma had been promoted from within after coaching the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals before losing to Hershey. He won the Stanley Cup as Pittsburgh's coach in 2009 and remained with the Penguins through 2014, winning the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2011.
This was his third head-coaching job in the NHL after an ill-fated two-year stint with the Buffalo Sabres from 2015-17. Bylsma is the third coach fired in as many days after Anaheim moved on from Greg Cronin and the New York Rangers dismissed Peter Laviolette.
Francis had been GM since the team's inception, responsible for the expansion draft and everything else in hockey operations, including hiring and firing coaches. He got a three-year contract extension in '23 after the Kraken reached the second round.
Taking over for Francis, Botterill is now in charge of finding a coach and repairing a roster that lacks elite talent. It'll be Botterill's second GM job in the league after he ran the Sabres from 2017-20.
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