Looks like disco’s out of fashion again.
The Seattle Kraken announced Monday that Coach Dan Bylsma has been fired after just one season. Per the Kraken’s press release:
“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,” said Kraken General Manager* Ron Francis “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.”
- Ron Francis won’t have the GM title for much longer. He has been promoted to team president. Kraken assistant GM and former Sabres GM Jason Botterrill will be the new General Manager.
- Assistant coach Jessica Campbell, the first full-time woman NHL assistant head coach, will be retained.
Why have the Kraken done this? And why now?
The timing is a bit odd, especially after exit interviews last week indicated fairly glowing praise for Bylsma by the players. He seemed well-liked, the vibes seemed good, and while the result wasn’t great on the ice, the Kraken looked like they were building on something.
After having zero multigoal comeback wins last year under former coach Dave Hakstol, Bylsma’s Kraken led the NHL in multigoal comeback wins, and had a historic comeback against Vancouver down 3 goals with under 5 minutes to play, only the third team in NHL history to do so.
I see no obvious answers here. This is a pretty stunning move. It’s unusual to fire a coach after one season. The Kraken aren’t cleaning house, but instead elevating Ron Francis to a higher plane of existence as team president. It might be as simple as organizational misalignment. Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast in January that he believed Francis wanted Todd McLellan, while others in the building wanted Bylsma. Now we’re a season into the books, the Kraken didn’t come close to the playoffs, and Bylsma is gone. But Jess Campbell remains on staff.
Ron Francis is having his end-of-season press conference tomorrow at Kraken Community Iceplex at 1pm, where we will hopefully get some clarity around a baffling situation.