A shakeup could be coming to the Seattle Kraken front office.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli revealed the possibility in a CHED-AM Edmonton interview. “I wonder if at some point (general manager) Ron Francis gets ‘promoted’ to the president’s role. Does (assistant GM) Jason Botterill get elevated? I don’t think that part has sorted itself out. Speaking to people close to the Kraken organization, they wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen.”
The implication of Seravalli putting quotation marks around the word “promotion” is that Kraken ownership may provide Francis a soft landing spot, while turning the keys of day-to-day roster construction to a new executive.
Botterill is also a candidate to fill the Oilers GM opening, though the front-runner is OHL London Knights owner & GM Mark Hunter. Edmonton Journal columnist Dave Staples adds, “I hadn’t been keen on Botterill due to his time as Buffalo Sabres GM from 2017 to 2020. Buffalo has been out of the playoffs 13 straight years and didn’t do well in Botterill’s three seasons at the helm.”
On the other hand, Botterill is an Edmonton native, and Staples points out, “Botterill was a main player for years in an excellent management team in Pittsburgh. He’s highly-qualified. It will be no surprise at all if he gets the Edmonton job.”
So the Kraken may have a new organizational structure, could have its own assistant GM opening – or, as so often happens with even well-sourced rumors, things remain just as they are.