Ron Francis’ tenure as Kraken GM was average at best

The Seattle Kraken have restructured their front office in a move that will see Ron Francis elevate to president of hockey operations and Jason Botterill assume the general manager’s chair.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli recapped Francis’ tenure as GM and forecasted what the future could hold for the Kraken.

Tyler Yaremchuk: There was a coaching change in Seattle. You had alluded to this, and today they made official what you had reported in that Francis is being elevated and Botterill will take over as GM. Considering how average that franchise has been, does that not feel a little bit like failing upward for Francis?

Frank Seravalli: I think that’s a very polite way to put it. I don’t know how to size up his tenure as GM. I think it was very average. I think it was very mid. There is a clear aggression that Francis lacks as a GM that spans multiple franchises. The way that he ran Carolina was the same kind of milquetoast way that he has run Seattle. He had different options to pick in the expansion draft. He could have gotten some better players and decided against that due to age or injury status. They then made the playoffs in Year 2 kind of out of the clear blue sky, on the back of most of the team having career seasons, and then fell off a cliff again in the last two seasons since then. They have gained very little traction in the NHL in terms of acquiring difference makers. They are squarely in no man’s land. They are too good to be a lottery team and not nearly close enough to the playoffs to be a team that achieves any kind of meaningful success. I think the Kraken are in a really difficult spot moving forward, and I’m curious to see what Botterill will do next in his second crack as a GM to help try to change the direction of this team. To your point, what kind of fingerprints will Francis still have on it being Botterill’s boss? Is that helpful or hurtful?

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: