TORONTO — Ron Francis was relaxed and cheerful last week as he cradled a coffee at a hotel restaurant, settling in for a 20-minute interview with .
Maybe it’s because our chat came the morning after an 8-2 Seattle Kraken win over the host Montreal Canadiens. But big picture, I think it did indicate a comfort level the Kraken general manager has in his team’s ability to bounce back this season after an aggressive offseason.
And even bigger picture, with Francis entering Year 1 of a three-year extension, I also think the Hockey Hall of Fame player is in a good place no matter where this thing goes.
He’s 61, he’s made a lot of money as a player and he’s only doing this for one obvious reason: one more Stanley Cup.
It’s what drives all of these Hockey Hall of Fame players turned NHL execs: Francis, Steve Yzerman, Rob Blake, Cam Neely, Brendan Shanahan, Joe Sakic, Luc Robitaille. They don’t need to work, but they are fueled — wired? — by the desire to win. It’s in their DNA.
There’s a constant stress that baselines the NHL GM job, and Francis dutifully peeked at his buzzing phone a few times during our interview. But one gets the feeling that after all the heavy lifting that came with building a team from scratch, the hope now is this team is settling in and is on the right track.
After reaching the second round of the playoffs and coming one win shy of the Western Conference final in Year 2 of the Kraken’s existence, coach Dave Hakstol fell victim to expectations in Year 3, fired April 29 with two years left on his contract. Which if you know Francis, was not an easy decision by any measure. He’s a patient and loyal guy.
“Last year, we just didn’t seem to have the same fire, the same passion in our game,” Francis said. “We just never got rolling. We just felt it was time to make a change and shake it up a little bit. That’s why we went ahead and did what we did. But I mean, Dave is a good coach and a terrific person and it’s never easy when you make those decisions. He did a good job for us in the years he was there, but I just felt it was time to make a change.”
It speaks to the fact that while the Kraken have patiently protected draft picks and loaded the pipeline piece by piece, there’s also an urgency to be competitive. They got a taste of it in Year 2 and want to be there again. They are trying to find that balance between protecting that long-term vision and winning now.
“Absolutely,” Francis said. “We’ve got an obligation to our season-ticket holders, to our ownership, to put a team on the ice that will compete for a playoff spot. Part 2 of the plan is making sure we’re drafting and developing well so that when those kids are ready, they can step in and then we’re competitive for a long period of time, not just a one-and-done.”
The elephant in the room, as unfair as it is, is that the Kraken will always be compared to their older expansion cousins in the Vegas Golden Knights, who came out of the box Cup-hunting.
George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon fooled everyone with a master class of leverage trades ahead of their expansion draft. Licking their wounds, NHL front offices were ready for the Kraken on the second wave.
So it’s been a different experience. Longer-term goals have been more accentuated with the Kraken, but as stated above by Francis, they also want to be a playoff team.
And you can see the urgency in action, not just with the coaching decision but also with splurging July 1 on free agents Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson.
So where are they now, a month into the season?
“I don’t think we’re hitting on all cylinders yet,” Francis said. “I feel like we’re still trying to find our way a bit, we’ve got a new coaching staff. We’ve got new players, added both from free agency and younger players stepping in. We’re still trying to figure out the line combinations and what works. I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of in sprints: a really good period here, a good period-and-a-half there.
“But we think we’ve got a good team. We think we’ve got a deep team. It’s a matter of getting it all to click.”
What does a Kraken team look like when it finds its stride? Two seasons ago, the Kraken led the NHL in five-on-five goals. It was very much a sum-of-their-parts offense, with 13 different players putting up 13 goals or more. The collective approach is still the idea.
“We’ve got a lot of really good players, but we don’t have that so-called superstar,” Francis said. “So we have to do it by committee. It’s going to take four lines. It’s going to take six D. It’s going to take both goaltenders. When we’re clicking, we’re getting production from all four lines. We’re playing with pace and speed and energy. That’s when we are at our best.”
That reality is also reflected in the team’s payroll.
“If you look at our contracts, for the most part we’re $5.5 million or below,” Francis said. “There’s a lot of guys in that same range, which kind of goes with the makeup of our team.”
Injured blueliner Vince Dunn is the highest-paid player on the team at a $7.35 million average annual value. The Kraken agreed to two more salaries in that range to lure Montour (seven years, $7.142 million AAV) in free agency and extend 21-year-old building-block center Matty Beniers (seven years, $7.142 million AAV).
They are the opposite of a top-heavy team, to be sure, which allows a coach to truly dole out minutes in a meritocracy. Enter Dan Bylsma, a Cup champion in Pittsburgh in 2009 and former Jack Adams Award winner, elevated this summer from his role as AHL head coach where he led the Kraken’s affiliate to back-to-back Calder Cup final appearances.
“It’s a funny story — back in the day when I was (GM) in Carolina, I interviewed Dan at the time and I got the indication he wasn’t really interested in our job at that point,” smiled Francis, thinking back.
But the two of them eventually hooked up when Bylsma agreed to be an assistant coach in the AHL three years ago when the Kraken still shared a farm team with Florida in Charlotte.
“Dan went in as an assistant coach under Geordie Kinnear,” Francis said. “Here’s a guy that’s won a Stanley Cup and been very successful in the NHL, going in as an AHL assistant coach and accepting that role. That told me a lot more about where he was at, at that point.”
It told Francis something about Bylsma’s character, which was filed away.
“We then gave him the (head coach) opportunity in (AHL) Coachella Valley,” Francis said. “The thing I liked best is that he seemed to relate well to the veteran players and he also did a good job with our young players, bringing them along and developing them. So he earned the opportunity to have this chance. It’s been exciting and a fresh start. I don’t think we are where he wants us to be at yet, but we’re moving forward game by game.”
Also coming up from the AHL coaching staff was Jessica Campbell, becoming the first full-time female assistant coach to work behind an NHL bench in the regular season. It should surprise absolutely no one the Kraken were the team to do it. They’ve come out of the gates as an organization trying to open doors, including assistant GM Alexandra Mandrycky, a Day 1er with the Kraken.
“If you look at our entire operations, both hockey and business, I think we’re about 44 percent female on our staff,” Francis said. “We’re 23 percent BIPOC individuals on our staff.
“We try to hire the people that are best suited for the job. Whether that’s an assistant GM role (Mandrycky), whether that’s an R-and-D role (Namita Nandakumar and Fiona McKenna), whether that’s a player development role (Katelyn Parker), we have a female masseuse (Annelle Carson), or whether it’s an assistant coach.”
Francis said Campbell has stepped into her role comfortably.
“There’s a lot of pressure on her, but she handles it well,” he said. “She has a strong background in skating and skill development, which I think helps with the players. She doesn’t go in there expecting their respect. She goes in there trying to earn it. She works hard at what she does.”
Part of Campbell’s job is bringing a player like Shane Wright along in his development.
Being a Greater Toronto Hockey League prodigy can mean too much exposure too quickly. Wright went from being a can’t-miss No. 1 projected pick to falling to No. 4, the anguish on his face in those moments plain to see, to having to further develop in the AHL last season before making the Kraken this season.
Tough sledding. But he’s only 20. And Francis believes in Wright big-time and has his back.
“I don’t get … There’s a lot of hate on socials for this kid. He is the nicest young man you would ever meet,” Francis said. “When we interviewed with him in his draft year, we heard the stories out of (OHL) Kingston where they would get off a road trip, everybody would leave the bus and they’re looking for Shane and he’s cleaning the bus. So when the bus driver takes the bus back to the bus depot, he doesn’t have to spend an extra 15 minutes cleaning it, he can go home to his family.”
Francis felt compelled to share that story.
“He’s a good kid,” he said. “This hasn’t been easy for him, what happened at the draft. I remember telling him on the stage that night what actually happened to him will end up being great for him in the long run. Been there, done that.”
Francis was supposed to go No. 5 to the Washington Capitals in the 1981 draft, but the Capitals made a trade to move up to No. 3 to draft Bobby Carpenter. Francis went fourth, to the Hartford Whalers. There may have been disappointment in the moment, thinking the Caps were going to take him and then it not happening. But the Whalers turned out to be just fine for Francis.
It’s a story Francis relayed to Wright early on.
“It hasn’t been easy for him, but from Day 1 we’ve tried to explain to him and his agent and his family as to what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” Francis said. “And there hasn’t been one second of pushback from him. He’s bought in. … He’s continued to get better and better.
“The bottom line: we’re extremely pleased with Shane and who he is and how he plays. And we see more and more upside to his game. So it’s us being patient with him, working with him and turning off all the outside noise.”
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