Kraken fire head coach Dan Bylsma after one season

article

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - DECEMBER 19: Head coach Dan Bylsma of the Seattle Kraken looks on against the Chicago Blackhawks during the first period at the United Center on December 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

The Seattle Kraken have fired head coach Dan Bylsma after just one season leading the team.

The move was first reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and was confirmed by FOX 13 Seattle.

The Kraken announced the move on Monday afternoon.

"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," Kraken general manager Ron Francis said in a statement. "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."

The Kraken will now be seeking a third head coach in three seasons. Dave Hakstol was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2023-24 season after three years on the bench.

Seattle finished the season with the sixth-worst record in the NHL with a 35-41-6 mark. Bylsma was promoted to the Kraken bench from AHL Coachella Valley, where he'd led the Kraken's farm team to back-to-back appearances in the AHL's Calder Cup Finals with a combined 94-32-18 record over the two seasons.

However, that success didn't manifest with his team in Seattle. The Kraken were 0-for-12 in games played on the second half of a back-to-back this season. The power play ranked 23rd in the league at 19.9 percent, and the penalty kill was 21st at 77.2 percent. The team also frequently had to play from behind due to sluggish starts that persisted throughout the season.

The team suffered greatly from the 86 games lost to injury for Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde and Vince Dunn through the middle of the season. Additionally, Philipp Grubauer's .875 save percentage was tied for the worst of any goaltender in the league that played at least 25 games, which made the team outright non-competitive in most games when Joey Daccord wasn't in net.

Players were complimentary of Bylsma and his coaching style to reporters, both from experience with him in Coachella Valley and this year with the Kraken.

"He's coached a lot. He's been around for a long time, and it's nice to have a coach that is a human being first, and not a coach first," Chandler Stephenson said last week. "I think that's something that he is really good at. Obviously, there's a fine line between those two, but I think that's a big thing, especially for a younger team tohave a coach that kind of gets it and understands that, you know, a back-to-back is hard, or certain games might not go your way, but the effort or whatever is there, that's not always, you know, we lost so we suck and back to the drawing board and all that. But yeah, it was definitely good, I think, in that sense."

More changes coming to Kraken front office

The change with Dan Bylsma on the bench isn't the only major move the Kraken are executing.

The Kraken intend to promote general manager Ron Francis to the position of team president and promote assistant general manager Jason Botterill to the role of general manager, an industry source confirmed to FOX 13 Seattle.

The plans for the front office restructuring were reported by multiple outlets on Monday afternoon.

Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke told reporters last week that Francis will continue in his role of leading the organization, though the prospect of a title change was not discussed.

"When we look back and look what he's done in Coachella Valley, the prospects that we have now in our system, our current roster, and what we're faced with this summer, we have cap space, we have picks, our future is bright," Leiweke said.

Francis has led the team since 2019 as he built the organization from the ground up through the expansion process. While the team has just one playoff appearance in four seasons, a heavy commitment to a "draft-and-develop" process has a number of top prospects on the verge of breaking into the NHL full-time.

But the lack of on-ice success is a real issue that can't be ignored either.

Leiweke said last week that they would have announcements coming in the near future that showed their commitment to winning.

"I think when you make mistakes and take shortcuts, you can set yourself up for challenges," Leiweke said. "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."

Botterill, 48, has been with the Kraken as their assistant general manager since their inaugural season. He was hired in January 2021 to serve under Francis after a three-year stint as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. He also spent a decade in the front office of the Pittsburgh Penguins, serving multiple roles, including associate general manager.

One more reported item is with regard to the future of assistant coach Jessica Campbell.

With Bylsma being fired, the status of the rest of his coaching staff obviously comes into question. Campbell, Dave Lowry and Bob Woods were Bylsma's assistants this season with Steve Briere as the goaltending coach.

According to multiple reports, Campbell is being retained by the Kraken.

Campbell became the first woman to earn a spot on an NHL bench when she was promoted from AHL Coachella Valley with Bylsma last spring.

Francis is meeting with reporters at 1 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the end of the season and the status of the assistant coaching staff will certainly be a subject that will be asked about.

The Source: The initial report of the move was reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.