Tod Leiweke pledges Seattle Kraken will fix hockey operations after Ron Francis ouster

SEATTLE - Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke pledged Thursday that the organization will fix their hockey operations as they are set to miss the playoffs for the third straight season and parted ways with Ron Francis as president of hockey operations on Thursday.

"We have not delivered on the promise of this team," Leiweke said. "When we went away on the (Winter Olympics) break, we were sitting in a playoff spot, and now we're faced with not making the playoffs for the third year in a row, and it's not acceptable, and we're committed to fixing it, and we're committed to improving every single aspect of the organization."

Leiweke said the organization will be bringing in an independent consultant from outside the organization to do a full audit of hockey operations in the wake of another disappointing season. The Kraken are on the verge of playoff elimination after losing six straight games and 10 of their last 11. They've managed just a 5-14-2 record since the Winter Olympics break in February.

"I think your initial reaction is you're disappointed in the group," captain Jordan Eberle said. "I think the big reason as to why this stuff like this happens is the team is underperforming and we're not where we need to be. So, you know, I think each guy in here needs to take some responsibility for what happened."

Leiweke certainly took no pleasure in making the change with Francis at the head of the team's hockey operations. Francis had been with the team since its early days, helping mold the startup franchise from the ground level. He helped design the facilities for both Climate Pledge Arena and Kraken Community Iceplex, oversaw the launching of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and helped build the supporting staff that has been in place with the organization. Much of that has gone extremely well for the organization over the last seven years Francis has worked for the team.

However, the on-ice product hasn't been able to follow suit, and it led the team to make a change. 

"He did all that in a challenging time in the midst of a global pandemic," Leiweke said. "We, I, Victor (de Bonis), Rob (Lampman), but especially our ownership, are forever grateful. He was our founding GM, and he will always be held in the highest esteem. And we are forever grateful, and I truly wish him the best. The parting with him this week was not fun, but I think he's in a good place, and we are truly wishing him the best."

Now Leiweke and ownership will be tasked with creating the right way forward.

Jason Botterill will now fully lead the hockey department as general manager and vice president of hockey operations. Botterill is being tasked with finding the right consultant to oversee the audit of hockey operations, which is meant to bring an outside view and assessment to the organization.

"We're going to bring fresh eyes and just look and make sure that there's no stone unturned. We're going to develop a multi-faceted, multi-year plan to strengthen our roster, while also building out other capacities," Leiweke said.

"We're going to look at travel. We're going to look at how we take care of our players' families. We're going to look at how we take care of our players. We're looking at our medical system. There's a lot that goes into winning and building culture and a little smelling salt has been popped here. We're going to get this right."

It won't be a consulting firm handling that assessment of the team. Leiweke indicated it will be someone from the hockey world that will be tasked with the job. Ironically, if Francis wasn't the one leaving the franchise, he'd be the type of person that could be asked to do the job due to his ranging experience as a Hall of Fame player and long-time executive.

"We think there's some very intriguing people that could come in in short order, help us look and assess so that we can make sure that we are measuring twice and cutting once," Leiweke said.

Botterill has also been here for the entirety of the team's five-year existence. Though the team said he'd have full control of the personnel decisions when he was given the general manager title last year, the presence of Francis overseeing the entire operation still loomed. Those choices will not be Botterill's completely moving forward.

"It's now on him, but he's going to operate in a bit different because we're going to support him," Leiweke said. "And we have a chance to think about how that structure should best work, and how we can more support him and you'll probably see things coming out of that that may be different than they are today, but I believe he has the capacity to lead us. And all the things that I'm here representing are things that he actually has said we're going to do, and I would think my words would be very, very similar to what he will say to you in about a week here."

Ultimately, the team has to find a better path forward. Their opponent on Thursday night – the Vegas Golden Knights – have been far more successful as an expansion franchise than Seattle's has managed to be. Vegas has made the playoffs in eight of their nine seasons, made it to two Stanley Cup Finals, and won a championship in 2023. Seattle has been to the playoffs just once in five years.

The league adjusted to Vegas' entrance into the league and was better equipped to handle the expansion process when the Kraken came to be. However, the Kraken have still left plenty of meat on the bone through five seasons.

They were unable to follow up the playoff success of 2022-23, and have twice seen late-season collapses keep them out of the playoffs – assuming the team is officially elimated this season in the near future.

"Three seasons later, this team is still work in progress. It's an unfulfilled promise, and no one in the organization is satisfied," Leiweke said.

"We have a hell of a lot of work coming up here. Trips are being canceled, vacations are being put off. We have a hell of a lot of work to do,"

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