Lane Lambert ecstatic to take reins as new head coach of Seattle Kraken

SEATTLE - When the Seattle Kraken called to offer Lane Lambert the job as the team's new head coach, he was ecstatic.

"My wife and I high-fived, and they may have heard it through the phone," Lambert said on Monday as he was introduced as the third coach in franchise history.

"When I came in here (for the interview), I knew within about the first three minutes that I had conversations that I wanted to be here. The organization is first-class all the way. The facilities, everything on down, I could see that right away, and I knew I wanted to be here. And then we started talking about the players and the team, and I was all in."

Lambert takes over from Dan Bylsma, who spent just one season as Seattle's head coach. Lambert will be tasked with getting the Kraken back into the playoffs after two disappointing seasons in a row. Last year, the Kraken struggled heavily with their defensive performance, which is one reason the team elected to make a change on the bench. 

"It was a situation where both Ron (Francis) and myself had to get to know Lane a little bit," general manager Jason Botterill said. "It wasn't as if we had previous relationships with him. When you put a list together of all the possible candidates, you're trying to look at different things. We talked about leadership. We talked about someone focused on working with our young players, but also having a presence to handle our veteran players. And as we started going through things with Lane, we realized, 'wow, we're talking a lot of the same vision.'

"Lane's track record as a really good defensive coach, PK coach, is certainly there. And when we started getting into the details of it, we certainly saw that. But then there was that thought process of, 'why are we so strong defensively? Why are we aggressive?' It's to get the puck and to attack, to get to the neutral zone, to get into the offensive zone, from that standpoint."

Lambert spent last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant coach, where he led a significant improvement in the team’s defensive performance. Toronto allowed the 12th most goals of any team in the NHL in 2023-24, and improved 12 spots into a tie for eighth in goals allowed last season. Additionally, the New York Islanders also had the fifth-best goals allowed mark in the NHL in Lambert’s only full season as head coach.

"The non-negotiables are we have to play the right way. That is the formula," Lambert said. "… Everyone has to be on the same page and and when they are, you will have success. You know, everybody's responsible for a job. Everybody has a role. Everybody knows what that role is, and there aren't any gray areas. So my job is to provide an environment for our players to be prepared to have success, and to make sure that they are ready to go and understand exactly what their job is.

"You set a standard and you don't deflect from that standard, you don't deviate from that standard, It's an every day thing. You do the same things every day, repetition. You know, if something isn't right, you take care of it. You have to nip it. That is the key to the accountability. You can't turn a blind eye and let something slide."

Lambert knows his strength is on the defensive side of the game, but that doesn't mean offense is an afterthought. The intent behind his systems is to have the defensive play fuel the offensive end of the ice.

"I'm proud of the defensive abilities that my teams have had, but in saying that, defense is about getting the puck back," Lambert said. "If you don't have the puck, you know, you're in trouble, so the faster you can get the puck back, the more structure in to get the puck back, and then it turns into a transition game and transition is so important in this league. So yes, we'll be strong defensively, we'll be strong structurally, but we will also create offense and we'll play fast. We'll be aggressive, We'll be at the net in the offensive zone. We'll shoot pucks."

Lambert spent parts of two seasons as head coach of the Islanders. Lambert went 61-46-20 in 127 games coached with the Islanders and led them to the playoffs in the 2022-23 season with a first-round exit. Lambert was replaced midway through the 2023-24 season by Patrick Roy as Islanders head coach.

"You go through an experience like that, and you know, you get let go and you have a lot of time to reflect and, you know, if you don't have an ego, you can certainly say, 'gee, I'd do this a little bit differently, or I'd do that a little bit differently, or I'd do this about the same,'" he said. "I mean, from my standpoint, our defensive structure, the identity that we have, the identity that we played with, you know, I'm proud of that. You know, there's certain little things that I will look at and look into changing, but at the end of the day, you know, I'm proud of what happened in New York."

The Kraken announced that assistant coach Dave Lowry and goaltending coach Steve Briere would not be retained on Friday. Jessica Campbell will remain as part of the coaching staff, and Bob Woods remains under contract as well.

"First of all, Jess will be back. You know, I've had some good conversations with her. She's been integral in the development of some of our young players. So she'll be back," Lambert said. "We are going through the process of evaluating, and we're in a position right now to find the best people to add to the staff and put them in a position to have success."

Lambert will have a few familiar faces on the roster in Seattle. Jordan Eberle played for Lambert with the Islanders, and Chandler Stephenson, André Burakovsky, and Philipp Grubauer all played for Lambert when he was an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals.

"These guys have played for me before. They know exactly what to expect," Lambert said. "I'm pretty straightforward, you know, I'm fair, but I'm demanding, and they know exactly what they're going to get. They're aware of the detail that we will play with and they're excited about it. And in talking to the other guys that I haven't coached, that seems to be the theme here is everybody's excited. We can't wait for September."

Lambert will also be tasked with getting the most out of the new young prospects set to join the team moving forward and blending them with the existing veterans.

"It's not Lane's job just to develop a junior player and put them in the National Hockey League. It's our job, the staff, to give Lane players who are ready to play National Hockey League games," Botterill said.

"It became very evident that Lane presented the attributes that we're looking for. The combination of having a presence and knowledge to work with our veteran players, yet also be dedicated to interact with our young players for our organization to take the next step."

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