Jason Botterill was named executive vice president and general manager of the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
He replaces Ron Francis, the team's first GM, who was named president of hockey operations.
Botterill said improving the roster is the top priority.
“We have to continue improving and add to our skill level in all areas. It’s not as if we’re one player away right now from a Stanley Cup championship," Botterill said. "We have to become a perennial playoff team first and then find our way. But to me, it’s going to come from two fronts; it’s the young players pushing up into our organization and wanting to be a part of things.
“We have a lot of different types of players that are coming up in our organization, so we’re not just dependent on one player. But it’s going to be exciting from trying to find more skill at the NHL level… but also finding the next level of younger players. We will leave roster opportunities open for competition from our young players, because I think that’s going to be a great chance for us to really improve as a team.”
Francis, 62, who hired by the Kraken on July 18, 2019, a little more than eight months after the NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the expansion application for Seattle on Dec. 4, 2018, and helped construct the team that began play in the 2021-22 season, said building the roster is on Botterill now.
“If we’re asking Jason to step into the GM chair and manage all those responsibilities, then he has to have final say in decisions," Francis said. "We will have discussions, I will give him my opinion. I know we won’t be in 100 percent agreement all the time.”
The annnouncement comes one day after Dan Bylsma was fired as coach.
“When we were watching the games, I didn’t like the way we were playing. I thought our team could use more structure, more details in our approach, and at the end of the day, we didn’t get the results we were expecting this year," Francis said. “This is not an easy decision to make, but this organization is about trying to take some risks and do things, and we just felt that at this point we needed to make a change."
Botterill did say that assistant coach Jessica Campbell, who last season became the first woman to be behind an NHL bench, will be back next season.
“We’ve been happy with our assistant coaches, what they’ve brought to the table," Botterill said. "Jess Campbell will certainly be back with our group here moving forward. From that standpoint, we like what she’s done with our young players.”
Botterill, 48, has been with Seattle since he was hired as an assistant GM on Jan. 5, 2021.
"I think what makes this a smooth transition is I've worked for the Kraken already, I know how we do things here and the people who make it happen," Botterill said. "So it's not like a case where I'm somebody new coming in and have to learn how everything works. I already know our players, our prospects, our staff and we can just get down to work right away without us missing a beat."
He previously was GM of the Buffalo Sabres from 2017-20. During that span the Sabres went 88-115-30 and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs each season. He was fired by Buffalo on July 16, 2020.
Botterill also worked in the Pittsburgh Penguins front office when they won Stanley Cup championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
In their first four NHL seasons, the Kraken have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs once, in 2023, when they defeated the Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the Western Conference First Round before losing to the Dallas Stars in seven games in the second round.
This season the Kraken (35-41-6) finished 20 points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card from the West.
Prior to joining the Kraken, Francis, a forward who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007, had worked in the Carolina Hurricanes front office, including five seasons as general manager, a term that ended when he was fired March 7, 2018.
Francis felt this move would strengthen the Kraken front office.
"In the League today, there are a lot more demands in the GM chair," he said. "And teams that I've talked to about this, in their experience it is a stronger model with two guys working together and trying to get things right."
Bylsma, who replaced Dave Hakstol, the Kraken's first-ever coach, on May 28, 2024, won the Stanley Cup as coach of the Penguins in 2009. It was his first season as a coach in NHL since 2016-17 with the Sabres. He is 355-231-61 in 647 NHL games with the Kraken, Penguins and Sabres.
The 54-year-old had spent the previous two seasons before this one as coach of Coachella Valley, Seattle's American Hockey League affiliate. In each season, Coachella Valley reached the Calder Cup Finals.
“There’s going to be a lot of attributes that certainly come into ... I think finding someone who’s a leader down there in the locker room; somebody that has a strong voice and is certainly good at communication but also good at utilizing the resources that this organization has," Botterill said about the coaching search.
Bylsma was the eighth NHL coach fired this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues, Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks, Dec. 5), Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings, Dec. 26), John Tortorella (Philadelphia Flyers, March 27), Greg Cronin (Anaheim Ducks, April 19) and Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers, April 19).
