Ron Francis, President Of Hockey Ops, Leaving NHL’s Seattle Kraken

Seattle Kraken President of Hockey Operations Ron Francis (L) speaks tat a press conference announcing the promotion of Jason Botterill (R) to general manager on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Christopher Mast/NHLI via Getty Images)

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If Sundays have become the day for coaching changes late in the 2025-26 season and Mondays are about dismissing general managers, the Seattle Kraken have taken a shot at claiming Wednesday for changes at the team president level.

On Apr. 8, the team announced that president of hockey operations Ron Francis will be leaving the organization at the end of this year.

Francis, now 63, has been a key leader in Seattle since the early days after the NHL’s 32nd franchise was officially awarded in December of 2018. A decorated player with two Stanley Cups and multiple individual awards, Francis was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. After spending more than a decade working his way up the executive ranks with the Carolina Hurricanes after his playing career ended, he signed on as the first GM of what was still known as NHL Seattle in July 0f 2019. Francis had a hand in everything from the team branding to the build-out of Climate Pledge Arena and the team’s practice facility, the Kraken Community Iceplex, as well as the roster and coaching staff.

Last summer, he was elevated to the role of president of hockey operations while his former assistant GM, Jason Botterill, took over as general manager and executive vice president of hockey operations. Botterill has also been with the team since its inception.

According to Wednesday’s team statement, 49-year-old Botterill will now lead Seattle’s hockey operations. Francis will not be replaced.

Following in the expansion shadow of the Vegas Golden Knights was never going to be an easy path for the Kraken. The Golden Knights were a smash hit out of the box in 2017. They reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, missed the playoffs just once in their first five seasons and won it all in Year 6.

That season, 2022-23, was Seattle’s second, and marked the team’s only playoff appearance to date. The Kraken may have thrown an assist in the direction of their expansion cousins by taking out the defending championship Colorado Avalanche in a Game 7 overtime upset in Round 1, then pushing the dangerous Dallas Stars to seven games before falling in Round 2.

From there, the Golden Knights were able to take out the Stars in six games in the Western Conference Final, then defeat the Florida Panthers in five to take the Cup.

The Kraken were unable to build on that playoff momentum. They’re now on their third coach in three years after Dave Hakstol was replaced by Dan Bylsma for the 2024-25 season, then Bylsma was replaced by Lane Lambert just one year later.

Lambert got off to a good start this season. At U.S. Thanksgiving, the Kraken were one point out of first place in the Pacific Division with a record of 11-6-6. At the Olympic break in February, they remained in third place in the division with a record of 27-20-9.

At the trade deadline, Botterill appeared to fill a team need for scoring effectively when he acquired winger Bobby McMann from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a fourth-round draft pick and a conditional second. But even though McMann has been Seattle’s top scorer since his acquisition, with eight goals in 13 games, the team has floundered.

Seattle’s record of 3-11-2 from the Mar. 6 deadline to the Apr. 8 announcement on Francis’s future is the worst in the league at just a .250 points percentage, and the Kraken are now nine points out of a wild-card spot, poised to miss the playoffs for a third-straight season.

The Kraken had hoped to be further along by now, especially because a major force in their market could change the landscape going forward.

Sports fans in the region were burned badly by the departure of the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics in 2008 but their long-held hope that they’d be considered for an NBA expansion franchise got real in March, when the board of governors officially authorized the exploration of new franchises in both Seattle and Las Vegas.

If the NBA does return to Seattle, the Kraken will no longer be the shiny new toy. They deliver a first-class game experience at Climate Pledge Arena but at some point, they’re going to need to start delivering more on-ice excitement, and more wins, if they want to hold fans’ attention in what is already a very saturated sports market.

The Kraken have five games remaining in their 2025-26 season. They’ll play the first three at home, starting with the Golden Knights arriving on Thursday with a 4-0 record since installing John Tortorella behind their bench on Mar. 29. Seattle’s final two games of the year will be played on the road, in Vegas on Apr. 15 and at Ball Arena in Denver on Apr. 16.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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