SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 28: A general view outside Climate Pledge Arena before the game between the Seattle Kraken and the Montréal Canadiens on October 28, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - The Seattle Kraken released the findings of their offseason audit of hockey operations, pledging further investment into shortcomings in their player development process.
In a video released to season ticket holders on Tuesday, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke passed along some of the findings of the audit – conducted by the Sportsology Group over the last six weeks – while citing competitive reasons for not disseminating all the findings.
"I want to be careful about not revealing too many trade secrets here, because what I'm saying could be disseminated to other teams, but I will go into some of that and we can maybe talk about development," Leiweke said.
"We've prided ourselves. We believe that we have an excellent group of prospects. We have set it up in Coachella Valley to be the ultimate American Hockey League team, so that whole development piece we're pushing it."
The hiring of Pascal Vincent as a development coach this offseason, along with bringing back former Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz in a player development role are some of the moves the team has made to address shortcomings. Leiweke said there will be even more.
"We're investing in additional staff positions," Leiweke said. "Out of this will be a whole number of additions we're going to make to our development team, our player development team, fitness, conditioning, nutrition, because we don't want to be good at it, we want to be the best."
Leiweke said that – in retrospect – making the playoffs this season might have been a detriment to the long-term plan of the organization. It led them to bring in an outside group to assess where they were falling short.
"Looking back, some of these challenges might have prohibited us from going deep, and now we realize that the work we've done, there is a path for us to dream about being better than we ever would have been had we not done what we've done here," Leiweke said.
Leiweke said the hiring of Sportsology Group came from a desire to get outside eyes on the organization, and not just have connections within the hockey world take a look at the team.
"What we didn't want was an echo chamber. We didn't want to round up friends or associates in the hockey business that you've known for years," Leiweke said.
The report was favorable on the ownership group led by Samanatha Holloway and the resources they've provided, but that they want to do even more to improve the product.
"We came away inspired because there are things we’re doing well," Leiweke said."There were gaps. And, you know, the old book "Good to Great" that submits it's harder to go from good to great, than it is from not good to good, came true, and it really caused us to pause and say, 'well, this is something that's part of our DNA. This is how we were going to go build this. We're not the best? What are those gaps? What are the shortcomings, and how do we fix it?'"
As for a message to fans, Leiweke reiterated they know they haven't fulfilled their potential or met their goals for the franchise in five seasons since joining the league.
"We're not happy," Leiweke said. "We made promises, we made pledges, and we came up short. We owe our fans better, and we're deeply committed to getting this right, because all the pieces are here to build one of the great franchises in the National Hockey League.
"We believe in our fans, we believe in this market, we believe in our arena, and we actually believe in the people leading us, but they've got to do better, we've got to empower them with better direction, with more resource, with more people, and you're seeing it happen in real time. It is happening, and we have had a very, very productive two months since the end of the season."
The Source: Information in this story came from the Seattle Kraken and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
MORE KRAKEN NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE
Seattle Kraken reach agreement with Bobby McMann on six-year deal
Seattle Kraken acquire Mackie Samoskevich from Panthers for draft picks
Seattle Kraken hire Justin Schultz in player development role
Seattle Kraken hire Patrik Allvin, Pascal Vincent to front office, coaching staff
Melinda French Gates joining Seattle Kraken, One Roof S&E as minority investor
To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter.
Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.