Will Seattle Kraken head coach Lane Lambert become a member of the “One and Done” club?
Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke vowed this week to perform an audit on every aspect of hockey operations. That would presumably include the coaching staff.
If the audit determines that Lambert isn’t the one best suited to orchestrate the development of prospects and the growth of the roster’s effectiveness, one would think the club would be moving on.
Simmer has written about the painful but significant benefits of collapsing during the stretch drive, while one of the many byproducts of Seattle’s fade is the bad look for the bench boss.
If the hierarchy determines Lambert’s not the guy, then the franchise will see its fourth head coach in four years to start the 2026-’27 campaign.
Coaching Perception vs. Reality
Lambert has one advantage over his two predecessors, at least in terms of perception.
Dave Hakstol guided the 2022-23 Kraken to a 100-point, 46-win season. Unfortunately for “Hak”, that only seemed to emphasize and dramatize the 19-point drop and missed playoff berth the following season.
Despite being a Jack Adams finalist the year before, rewarded with a contract extension, Hakstol was shown the door after season three. The Kraken being the 8th-stingiest NHL team in allowing goals didn’t matter; when Seattle’s scoring evaporated, so did Hakstol.
A strict, defense-first system was out. In was fun, freelancing, and the “north/south” hockey of new coach “Disco” Dan Bylsma. Let the good times roll! In a sense, Byslma achieved what he was hired to do; the 2024-25 Kraken scored 30 more goals than the prior season.
What doomed Disco Dan was a start so poor, the Kraken were essentially out of the playoff chase by Christmas. Judgement on Bylsma had been cast. Despite leading the Kraken’s AHL farm club in Coachella Valley to consecutive Western Conference titles before the promotion, Byslma was booted after a single season in Seattle.
‘Everything Old Is New Again’
The Kraken decided what they needed (again) was a no-nonsense, defense-oriented coach. Enter Lane Lambert. The approach made sense, as Dave Hakstol had figured out two years earlier. A roster that struggles to score goals needs to do its damnedest to keep the other team from scoring.
Results were promising and brought pleasant surprises. At February’s Olympic break the Kraken were in 3rd place in the Pacific Division. Lambert was hailed for squeezing every ounce of talent out of his overachieving roster. In some quarters, the hard-nosed bench boss was being touted as a coach of the year candidate.
As we know now, approaching every contest over an 82-game schedule as if it’s Game 7 of a playoff series is too taxing to sustain. Strict discipline fractured; structure broke down; team defense became porous.
Worse, as losses mounted, effort appeared to wane.
Seattle careened out of the playoff hunt like a downhill 18-wheeler with brake failure. Post-Olympics, the Kraken are 6-14-2, and can start booking tee times next weekend.
Fans Of Lambert Need To Pick A Lane
Leiweke professed that Lambert has “coached his ass off this year.” Notably absent was a guarantee about Lambert’s return.
If the issue the last three seasons has been roster construction, then it really didn’t matter all that much how a coach coaches. The Kraken finished with 81 points in Hakstol’s last season, 76 points in Bylsma’s lone season. Under Lambert, this year’s Kraken have 77 points, with a max of eight standings points left to earn.
Not that different at all, just the way it was reached.
Others will maintain that Lambert was superior to his predecessors in tailoring a system that maximized the roster he was given.
In that case, has Lambert benefited enough from opinions solidified during the first half? And if he deserves flowers for any Kraken successes, doesn’t he also bear responsibility for failing to prevent the team’s swoon?
We’re four games and an audit away from finding out.
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