This Q&A compiles answers from Ron Francis’ post-season availability conducted Apr. 22
As you think about the ups and downs of this season, what stays with you as far as where the season went and where you want this team to be long term?
You look at last year (2022-23) and things seemed to go really well for us. The big difference this year is we couldn't score like we did last season. We were first in shooting percentage last year. This year, I think we're twenty-eighth. We were fourth in goals for (last year), and this year, we're twenty-ninth. So that's an area that we certainly have to look at and try to figure out why (scoring) didn’t happen.
On the flip side, there were some positives. The save percentage of goaltenders was better – we were the only team that didn't make the playoffs whose defense is in the top 10 (in terms of goals against). So defensively, we're solid. We just have to find a way to score more goals. That's a critical part we have to address here in the off-season.
This was kind of a unique season, and that's what we have to dig through. There were a lot of things that affected our chemistry as a team and as a lineup. Everybody has injuries, I'm not using that as an excuse, but last year our first major injury happened after the all-star break when Burakovsky tore his groin, before that we had guys out for one game maybe two games. This year was totally different in that regard. We lost (Brandon) Tanev in game one for the next 12 games. Some things that we don't talk about – (Jordan) Eberle ended up breaking his hand in game four, but he continued to play for the next six weeks. We lost Burakovsky after game six, and he played one game between then and December 29. Even when we had that 11-0-2 streak, we were finally starting to see signs of last year, then we lost (Vince) Dunn and (Matty) Beniers in the game in Columbus. And we had ten guys that are dealing with a virus at the time to that stretch, right? So, there's things that that we deal with internally that aren't out there. It was just one of those years, and some of those things happen.
There were times when the team and the coaches were both saying that the effort wasn't there for the full 60 minutes of time. What did you kind of make of your guys play this year in that regard? Where that might have fallen off a little bit?
I thought we were streaky and that leads to being inconsistent. I think some of the times we went into the losing streaks, it was an injury here or there, but we have to find a way to pull ourselves out of it. Some of (the inconsistency) was due to the chemistry or lack thereof, where we couldn't stay with set lines, unlike last year when we had lines running and everybody knew each other’s game. But certainly, we want to get back to the full identity we had last year - being a team that when people talk about us, they say we play fast and we play hard. That's our goal starting now, so we get on the ice in September, we're ready to roll.
How do you go about determining what the true ceiling is for this current roster, whether it is last year's ceiling or this year’s ceiling? That must aid in determining how much alteration needs to go into the roster for next season?
That's something we do every year. We did it after the first season when things didn't go so well. We went out and signed some free agents; we made the deal for (Oliver) Bjorkstrand; we picked up (Eeli) Tolvanen on waivers early in the next season.
(This year) will be no different last season. When the season ends, we have conversations with our management team talking about things we might have done differently or look to do moving forward. We have conversations with our coaching staff as to what they see and interpretations on systems and players that we can maybe tweak and do differently. We look at our team as a whole; we look at our team as individuals. We do deep dive with R&D, and I have discussions with my ownership group on what we'd like to do and where we want to go and we put a plan in place.
What makes you confident that you can find answers that, for whatever reason, the team wasn't able to find during the season?
Well, I think the thing is, we've done it before, right? We did it after year one. We found some issues, we went out in the summertime and addressed the issues and things changed in season two, and that's our goal now. We have to, as a management team and scouting staff, come together with the right ideas and try and get the things done, whether it's (signing) free agents, whether it's trades to make this team more successful next year…that's our plan to have a big offseason and try to address those issues.
When you look at what the young players were able to do this season and not even just the late callups, what is the optimism surrounding their future as they continue to develop?
It's if you look at our pipeline, it's very bright, but there's also a process to that. Matty (Beniers), I'm sure, will tell you his season didn't go as great as he hoped. But we still forget he's a young kid in the league, just turning 20-21. The players we called up at the end of the season are just 20 turning 21 and Shane (Wright) was 19 when this season started - he should be playing Junior, he's playing in the American League.
There's a lot of good pieces in the pipeline. The challenge is bringing them in, intertwining them with what we have in our lineup and helping them have success. And it’s important to remember that player development is never a linear progression. There's going to be times next year where those kids struggle. So, it's trying to help them get through those and continue to grow and get better and better as we move forward, but there's a lot of good pieces in the pipeline for sure.
It's a credit to our amateur staff and to our development staff. They work extremely hard in finding talent and then drafting them and then developing them.
This franchise is still very young. You talked about having to build this pipeline from scratch. Are you at a point now where you think, at least philosophically, that you are more comfortable potentially dipping into that pipeline or dipping into your draft capital to try to improve the big club?
I think we're certainly at that point. This will be our fourth draft. In the previous years, we should have had 21 picks, but we’ve been able to acquire and use 28. Plus, we've signed five or six free agents over that time. And we go into this draft with nine picks as well. I think there's only three teams with more than us as far as draft picks this year. So, I'm not saying we're going to trade them all, but I'm also not going to say we're going to draft them all. We certainly will look to use some of that draft capital if we can, similar to what we did in the first offseason with Bjorkstrand. If there's something that makes our team better, then we're happy to do that.
We'll look at every angle and the beauty is we have the cap space, so we will look at free agents; we’ll look at possible trades with other teams, very much similar to what we did in year one. We have the draft capital, as we talked about earlier, to throw those into deals and move things. We're not afraid to do something if the right person is there to help us be more successful. It's important for us to get back on the winning track, and the goal is to get back in the playoffs next year.
What can you share about the messages you wanted players to take away from your exit interviews and key messages you may have heard back from them?
The biggest thing when we had the run we had last year and we and beat the defending Cup champs in round one of the playoffs and take the Dallas Stars to seven, the message was “don't think this is going to be easy. Next year because it's going to be harder.” I think in some regards, they heard that, but I don't know if they necessarily believed it. We were 1-4-1 out of the gate and that’s not really what I wanted to have from our guys coming in. So the message was a little bit more stern this year in the sense that “hey, we can't have this happen again. We’ve got to be ready from day one of camp, and we have to have a much better start than we had this season.”
You’ve taken steps to keep getting better at faceoffs. Is the team on the track to getting better inside the circle?
I think we were at 45 percent two years ago, and we’re at 47.5 this year. It's better, but it's still not where I'd like to see it. We need to get up over 50 percent. If you can win the face-off, you start with possession of the puck. If you lose it, now you're chasing and you have to get it back. Ideally, we're winning more of those faceoffs and losing it. And obviously, that's another area as we looked at scoring, is somebody out there that can help us win faceoffs as well so we start with the puck more than we chase it.
Thoughts on Jared McCann’s season:
He's come a long way. He’s much more confident in his overall game. We all see the shot he has; it's really impressive. We see the speed that he has, so he's continuing to improve. He almost got thirty goals again, which is pretty impressive. We're excited that he chose to sign with us a couple of years ago and stay with us, and we still think there's more growth to his game. He's putting in the time and effort, and I'm sure he'll get there.
I think for me in an ideal world, we can find a spot on the wing for him (next season) and get somebody else in the middle. But I think it's a good fallback plan to know that if we have to go that route if we have injuries that he can step in and play well for us.
Thoughts on goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord:
(Our goaltending) was good. Obviously, it was disappointing to see ‘Grubi’ get hurt again, but Joey stepped in during that window and played fantastic. Both guys, really from January 1 through the end of the season, were really, really good for us. We feel comfortable with those two guys in our net moving forward.
Thoughts on Matty Beniers' season:
He's a quality kid. He's a character individual. He continues to work hard in practice. He continues to be the person we think he is around but the team and in the locker room. Obviously on ice, it didn't go as well for him this year…(but) I have no concerns about Matty’s game long term, and he'll be a big part of this organization for a lot of years.
Thoughts on Andre Burakovsky’s season:
The biggest thing for me with Andre is just he hasn't played a lot of games. He was our leading scorer last year when he tore his groin. Now, he’s missed over 30 games last year. He missed over 30 games this year, and as a result, he's not confident in who he is and what he can do. I think that carried over into some of his game and his ability. I'm excited that he's going to go play in the World Championships. I think that's good for him to continue to play hockey get more games under his belt. And hopefully, that helps him sort of get his timing and skill set back where next year he's ready to go and be the player he was the first half of last season for us.
Thoughts on Ryker Evans’ season:
He's a terrific kid. He continues to work hard. And I felt when he got the chance to get in the lineup, and especially for me down the stretch in some tough games, he really showed his development. There's no doubt in my mind he's in our lineup coming into camp next year. He's been that good.
Thoughts on Shane Wright:
I've always seen things in his game that we like. He's come a long way in the last year, in his development. I think he's much more confident. I think he's having fun playing the game and the stint he had up here, I'm not sure it could have gone much better other than if he got the hat trick in Anaheim. Here's a kid that's 19 years old playing in the American League that ends up with 22 goals and 47 points in 57 games. That's pretty impressive for a young kid. We see a bright future for Shane in the organization. You know, I don't think there's any reason why he couldn't make our team coming out of camp. Again, (as he continues to develop), there's going to be stretches where it's going to be a struggle, and we need to be there to support him and help him through those tough times.
Vince Dunn’s Status:
He was dealing with a neck injury (at the end of the season). He came back and eventually played a couple of games but got hit kind of again and just didn't feel comfortable. Rather than put him at risk, we continued with rehab and treatment but we fully expect him to be 100-percent for start of camp next year.
Players who will participate in World Championships:
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (FRA)
Andre Burakovsky (SWE)
Tomas Tatar (SVA)
Philipp Grubauer (GER)
Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak, Brandon Tanev (CAN)
This transcript was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
