Time For Kraken To Make The Tough Decision

Kraken Management

“When he came off the elevator, I didn’t know whether to shake his hand or get his autograph.”

That was Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Kraken’s ownership group, describing the first time he met Ron Francis in the initial days of the expansion franchise. The recollection came during his introduction of Francis at a press conference in May of 2023, announcing that the then GM had signed a three-year contract extension.

The announcement followed almost immediately on the heels of the club’s lone playoff appearance.

Joyous knee jerk reaction? Only in hindsight.

At the time, Francis had just a year remaining on his original deal and the Kraken had reached game-7 of the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in just its second season.

As it turns out, that campaign was a mirage and the handling of the roster since then has been anything but stellar.

Francis was kicked upstairs in the spring of 2025 after a second consecutive disappointing season. In about a week we’ll be upping that unfortunate number to three.

Those were kind words from Leiweke, but the “jock sniffing” approach to executive management is never a good idea. Francis is a hockey legend, an extremely nice gentleman, but his management track record speaks for itself.

It’s not great.

Over seven seasons in Carolina between 2011 and 2018, as the director of hockey operations and then the general manager, his team failed to make the playoffs for the duration.

He wasn’t exactly “Trader Ron”. As for trade deadline deals, over seven years, there were only three mildly significant. In 2015 he unloaded veteran defenseman and pending unrestricted free agent (UFA) Andrej Sekera to the LA Kings for a conditional 1st-round pick and a minor leaguer.

The Kings were looking to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. They didn’t, and Sekera signed with the Oilers that summer. With the 21st-overall pick the Hurricanes took winger Julien Gauthier, who’s presently skating in the American Hockey League with 181 NHL games under his belt.

In 2017 Francis unloaded two UFA’s; D-man Ron Hainsey went to the Penguins and won a Cup, for a 2nd-rounder and a minor leaguer, and winger Viktor Stalberg went to the Senators for a 3rd-rounder. Stalberg moved back to Europe the next season and stayed.

There was nothing else of significance in seven years, and always as a seller or neutral, never as a buyer in contention.

Kraken Moves

Before the 2023 playoffs kicked in, a fluke in some regards, which I’ve described on more than one occasion, I asked Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn if he’d like to see the club add to the roster before the deadline. He was pleasantly surprised that someone had asked that question and looked up at me and earnestly said yes.

Seattle stood pat. It was safer to stick with the existing chemistry. Since then there have been almost no opportunities to upgrade as a buyer.

New general manager Jason Botterill plucked forward Bobby McMann from the Maple Leafs this early March for a fourth-round draft pick, a move that’s paid off for the both the club and the red hot player. Not enough in the playoff chase unfortunately, for a roster that seriously lacks any offensive punch, and will be a meaningless maneuver if they don’t sign the pending UFA.

At the same time, Botterill made the unfathomable decision to keep four pending unrestricted free agents at the trade deadline, three of them 30-somethings, rather than move them with leverage to a playoff participant and/or Cup contender for future assets.

For a Kraken club in early March that had very shaky, at best, playoff aspirations, moving at least three of those players was a no-brainer.

The decision to keep them, to whatever degree, will set the franchise back.

Here’s the caveat. How much of that irrational decision came from an ownership group desperate to make the playoffs; an ownership group potentially clueless as to how you have to suck it up sometimes, by moving “popular” players when the time comes to move them.

Build assets and collect trade chips for a more realistic playoff shot in the not-so-distant and distant future.

And where was Francis to step in and shout “NO!” That’s the job of the President of Hockey Operations when a bad decision is about to force the hockey ship into the rocks.

If holding on to the UFA’s was his decision; well then, end of discussion.

Other than money out of the owners’ pocketbooks, there’s technically one reason why Francis shouldn’t get the boot with a season left on his contract. They could keep him around for appearances. A legend remains at the helm.

Then again, moving on from him would be a serious signal to the fan base that the Kraken hierarchy means business and that they’re very unhappy with the results.

Even Wayne Gretzky, the legend of on-ice legends, finally got the boot after four years as a lousy NHL head coach. Success in a jersey never guarantees success in a suit.

What will it be? Sac up and show the courage to make a move that needs to be made, or stick with the sniff?

Earlier Kraken:

— Kraken Crushed By Mammoth Special Teams, 6-2

Earlier Canucks:

— Canucks PR Bullshit? Don’t Blame Ullrich