Kraken moving on from Ron Francis and Dan Bylsma
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - In a shocking turn of events, it’s being reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada that our Seattle Kraken are moving on from head coach Dan Bylsma after just one season at the NHL level. Ryan Clark of ESPN has also confirmed this report. Just minutes after those reports came out, it’s being reported that the Kraken are moving on from general manager Ron Francis as he will be taking on a new role, advancing to team president, while assistant general manager Jason Botterill takes over in Francis’ old role per Arthur Staple of The Athletic.
“We are going to be making some announcements coming up and we’re going to announce some things that are going to show that we’re deeply committed to winning.”
Bylsma is relieved of his duties as the head coach after just one season at the helm of the Kraken and having spent 2021-2024 with Seattle’s AHL affiliate, first splitting with the Florida Panthers and sharing the Charlotte Checkers as an affiliate before the Coachella Valley Firebirds became reality and Dan coached them to back-to-back appearances in the Calder Cup Finals. It was an intriguing choice for the Kraken to elevate Bylsma from his head coach role at the AHL level to take over the one at the NHL level, but the vision of having a coach that’s played a role in the development of some of the franchises rising stars made sense and that’s how the organization spun it. While Seattle’s roster underachieved compared to the hopes had for them this season, a solid push was made by the Kraken after the trade deadline and the consensus at exit interviews was that the core in place was good enough to return to the postseason next year with the right additions. It’s Bylsma’s shortest head coaching stint at the NHL level, beating his time in Buffalo with the Sabres by just one season after he was with the Pittsburgh Penguins for six years.
“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. 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.”
To ease some concerns regarding the coaching staff, it’s been reported that assistant coach and fan favorite Jessica Campbell is in fact being retained. So, while things are a bit hectic currently with these changes, there does seem to be one true piece of consistency here at least for the moment. Campbell has one more year on her contract with the Kraken.
The other major swap happening is that general manager Ron Francis is out of that role with the organization and moving to a different one, taking over as the teams president. Tod Leiweke is currently listed as the teams president, alongside being the part-owner and chief executive officer of the Kraken, so it’ll be interesting to see if Tod loses that title and just keeps the other two or if he’ll be doing other things. Fans can speculate freely here, whether it’s regarding our reports about a PWHL team coming to Seattle or the push by the Oakview Group to bring an NBA team back to the Emerald City. Francis, who before today held the titles of executive vice president and general manager of the Kraken, takes over that role while assistant general manager Jason Botterill will be taking over as the general manager. Seattle’s first ever general manager loses that title and will still be involved in the organization, while Botterill regains a role that he had in Buffalo with the Sabres back from 2017-2020.
To recap, Dan Bylsma is out as head coach. Ron Francis moves from general manager to team president. Jason Botterill moves from assistant general manager to general manager. Assistant coach Jessica Campbell is being retained.
This is a developing story, and will be updated as more information is gathered.
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