Seattle Kraken general manager Jason Botterill might not have a future in meteorology.
At Wednesday’s end-of-season press conference, Botterill forecast, “The future of the Seattle Kraken is very bright.” Sitting beside Botterill at Kraken Community Iceplex, CEO Tod Leiweke said of a franchise-wide audit, “There is total transparency going on with the organization.”
For a franchise promising transparency, what the executive duo delivered was, in a word, cloudy. And in two other words, undeservedly rosy. Hardly resembling the team that spiraled out of playoff contention after the February Olympics break, winning just seven of their final 26 games.
— More Reaction: Simmer’s Take On Their ‘Hopes And Dreams’ —
(Quotes have been edited for clarity.)
Kraken General Manager Jason Botterill
“We have the pillars in place to have a lot of success. Great ownership, passionate fan base, Climate Pledge Arena, an amazing practice facility, players who are proud about being in the Pacific Northwest and a pipeline of young players.”
“I’m proud of our young players. We utilized seven players under the age of 23 after the trade deadline, and that’s great experience for them. They’re very determined individuals. What gets us excited is they’re now pushing, knocking on the door.”
“There are moments that I was very proud of. Going 10-5-2 in January, putting ourselves in a playoff spot at the Olympic break. At the trade deadline, I wanted to keep the group together and I wanted to add something to reward them getting to that point.”
“There weren’t a lot of games where I was really frustrated with the team. We knocked off Carolina, Tampa Bay and Vegas, but struggled with other teams.”
“We had strong goaltending. Joey (Daccord) started off extremely well. He’s a developing guy, and that’s exciting. Grubi (Philipp Grubauer) was one of the success stories of our organization, just his rebound. At the end of March, he gave us a spark.”
“(Coach Lane) Lambert was direct with our players. He was intense, accountable, and I think our players appreciated that. On practices, there was a clear mindset what had to happen. I thought he did a very good job.”
“I appreciate the work ethic of our assistant coaches. I thought in positive times and negative times they came up with new ideas.”
Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke
“We’ve done a lot right here. The best training facility in the NHL. Our arena’s arguably the most beautiful arena in the world. I’ve had a pretty good track record being a part of winning organizations. We have all the DNA here to be a great organization and we are going to push hard.”
“Kraken fans have made our building an incredible place to go night after night. They’ve cheered their hearts out. They’ve fallen in love with this team and they do deserve a winner.”
“The goal is not just to make the playoffs. The goal is to build a long term winning team. And as Jason said, I think the pieces are in place.”
“We have an owner (Samantha Holloway) who is deeply committed to winning. She came away from her discussions with the captains and the coaches (with) a clear vision that there’s something great to be built on here.”
“Travel and Leisure (magazine) rated the best cities to live in in the world. And we were the best city in the U.S. and ranked number three in their study of worldwide cities. We’ve got to do a better job of telling that story and promoting that to (free agent and no-trade clause) players.”
Plan The Parade Route?
Uh, were the Kraken re-admitted to this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs and win a round while we weren’t looking?
Personal transparency: the many, many above quotes were harvested to make a point (pretty well, don’t-cha think?). Leiweke and Botterill did also admit to the organization’s shortcomings. But in such tepid and dismissive ways as to place their sincerity into question.
Botterill: “We’re not where we want to be after five years.” “There was disappointment. There was frustration. Not making the playoffs was a missed opportunity.” “When (players) go through adversity, we have to find different ways of of helping them.” “Where we can have a big incremental improvement would be creating more offense.” “We have to continue to improve our special teams.”
A devil’s advocate might counter, “Of course they accentuated the positive. Throwing their own organization under the bus serves no purpose.” Fair enough. However, more was required than white gloves and party manners. Exhibit A is Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness, after his team performed its own death spiral out of the postseason.
“If I’m back, I’m changing this culture,” Bowness said. “These guys, they don’t care. Losing is not important enough to them. This is why we’re out of the playoffs. That kind of effort.”
Columbus management rewarded that harsh honesty with a contract extension.
Botterill and Leiweke could have crafted a vastly more diplomatic way than Bowness did of sharing the truth. But one way or another, the truth needed to be said. Kraken fans have to hope their off-season actions speak much louder than Wednesday’s words.
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken Bosses Are Hoping And Dreaming
Earlier Canucks:
