The Seattle Kraken fired head coach Dan Bylsma on Monday after one season on the job.
In addition, Kraken general manager Ron Francis will transition to a new role as team president and assistant GM Jason Botterill will be elevated to general manager, The Athletic reported.
Bylsma, 54, spent two seasons as the coach of the Kraken’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, before being promoted to lead the NHL club in May 2024 when Dave Hakstol was let go.
“We thank Dan for his commitment and the energy he brought to our organization over the past four years at the NHL and AHL levels,” Francis said in a release. “After a thorough review of the season and our expectations for next year and beyond, we’ve made the difficult decision to move in a different direction behind the bench. Dan is a great person and a respected coach. He played an important role in the development of many of our young prospects and was a big part of our early success in Coachella Valley. We sincerely wish him and his family nothing but success moving forward.”
Bylsma was best known for taking over the Pittsburgh Penguins midway through the 2008-09 season and guiding them to the 2009 Stanley Cup.
In his lone season at the helm in Seattle, the Kraken went 35-41-6 and missed the playoffs. In parts of nine seasons with the Penguins (2008-14), Buffalo Sabres (2015-17) and Kraken, Bylsma has a 355-231-61 record as a head coach.
Francis, 62, was a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee as a player and was named the expansion Kraken’s first general manager in 2019 after spending time as an executive with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Botterill, 48, served as the general manager of the Sabres from 2017-20. He had worked in Seattle’s front office since January 2021.
–Field Level Media
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