After much hemming and hawing and retrospection, both from the Kraken and from our team here at Sound Of Hockey, we’re ready to put the 2025-26 team’s late-season downfall behind us and begin looking ahead at how Seattle can avoid such a collapse in the future.
The organization has promised a “prolific” offseason, so what will that look like? What are some of the biggest priorities the team needs to address?
In this introductory post, we’ll take a first look at some of the major questions facing the Kraken this summer before digging into each of these topics more in the coming months. Let’s dive in.
Audit underway
The Kraken raised eyebrows in the wake of their season when CEO Tod Leiweke mentioned in his “Ron Francis is leaving” presser that Seattle would bring in some sort of third party to conduct an audit of the team’s departments and processes. We learned more details about this process last week, with the team now having hired an organization called Sportsology, a New York-based outfit led by former Chelsea Football Club executive Mike Forde.
I do think this whole thing has gotten blown out of proportion—when Leiweke mentioned this, I don’t believe he expected various media outlets to emphasize it—but since it’s something people have been talking about, it’s good to see progress being made on this front. It does feel like many pieces of business will be put on hold until the audit is completed, so time is of the essence to get this done.
We were told that Sportsology will be looking at all areas of hockey operations, including organizational structure, roster construction, decision-making processes, and a whole host of other areas.
So, some good should come of this and lead to the meaningful change that the team has pledged, but I’m not convinced we’ll hear that much about the outcomes of the audit.
UFA decisions
Speaking of meaningful change, I’m most interested to see what adjustments general manager Jason Botterill can bring to the roster this offseason after a relatively quiet summer in 2025. At face value, there’s still no obvious quick fix to what ails the Kraken.
There are four key players whose contracts are expiring, so Botterill and the rest of the front office will first need to decide which of Bobby McMann, Eeli Tolvanen, Jaden Schwartz, and Jamie Oleksiak they want back next season and beyond… and whether those players want to return.
I would think the team wants to bring back McMann, who burst onto the Kraken scene with 10 goals in 18 games after being acquired at the NHL Trade Deadline from Toronto, and Eeli Tolvanen, who still has youth on his side and has shown the ability to play all roles.
But neither player is a no-doubter to be back in Seattle. McMann played himself into a hot commodity on a free-agent market that does not offer much scoring. He obviously fit well in Seattle and had lots of personal success here, but he also got a front-row seat to an embarrassing end-of-season spiral out of a playoff spot and into the draft lottery. How much will it cost the Kraken to bring him back, if he’s open to returning?
Tolvanen, meanwhile, did not have a good second half of the season and even found himself in healthy scratch territory at times late in the campaign. Still, coach Lane Lambert showed early on that he really liked Tolvanen and was comfortable using him in every situation. If the price is right, I’d bring Tolvanen back.
As for Schwartz and Oleksiak, I do feel it’s right to move on from these players. Both have been strong for the team at times during their respective five-year runs, but the Kraken need to start filtering out some of the Day 1 veterans who have been core to the organization’s very limited success. That’s not blaming these individual players, who are both still effective; it’s simply a desire to get some fresh faces onto the roster.
NHL Draft
It goes without saying that the Kraken will—of course—participate in the NHL Draft on June 26 and 27, where they will select seventh overall thanks to another disappointing bounce in the lottery. They do have a second first-round pick, No. 25 overall, acquired in the trade that sent Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Tampa Bay Lightning last year.
In all, the Kraken have eight picks. Based on their position, it is highly unlikely they will select a player who can help them immediately next season.
Find current talent
With several veterans likely on their way out, the Kraken will have some big holes in their lineup. Remember, a significant chunk of the roster was already occupied by young players this past season, with guys like Berkly Catton, Ryan Winterton, Jacob Melanson, and Oscar Fisker Mølgaard all playing significant roles for various stretches of the season. And let’s not forget that Matty Beniers and Shane Wright could still fall into the “young” category.
So, do they want to replace those departing vets with even more young players coming up from Coachella Valley? There aren’t obvious superstars waiting in the wings, so assuming the Kraken aren’t looking for a full-on tank next season, the answer to that question is almost certainly not.
Players will need to be brought in from outside the organization to improve this lineup, so where will they come from?
As mentioned, the free-agent market is thin. Sure, there could be a fit or two with players like Alex Tuch, who had 33 regular-season goals in Buffalo and had a strong first round of the playoffs but lost his scoring touch in the second round and ended up with four goals and three assists in 12 games. But beyond Tuch—who I’m not even sure will want to leave his hometown team after a magical season—there aren’t many intriguing players set to become available.
I’ve said for several years now that if the Kraken want to take real steps forward, they are going to have to make some big-time trades. That almost surely means moving out young players who are valued by the front office and the fanbase, and perhaps even some veterans with a year left on their deals. Players like Jared McCann and Vince Dunn feel like obvious candidates for trades, considering their contractual situations—both are set to expire after the 2026-27 season—and the fact that they would fetch quality players in return.
Even if Botterill can land a big fish via trade, somebody like Robert Thomas from St. Louis or Jason Robertson from Dallas, it still may not be enough to get this team back into the playoffs. Remember, there are multiple key players leaving the organization, so even if Seattle reels in a top-end offensive player—and that feels like a long shot—one move will not be enough to make this team a contender.
Plus, there will be more holes to fill beyond that one player, and acquiring multiple significant upgrades in one offseason—something this front office has struggled to do—is a huge ask.
The idea of a “prolific” offseason sounds all well and good, but the reality is that landing true upgrades is going to be a massive challenge. Will this front office be willing to part with important current players and/or some of its prospects and draft picks? Will Botterill be able to find trade partners for players whose tenures in their current cities have run their course?
These are the biggest questions facing the Kraken this offseason. Again, we will revisit each of these topics more in depth in future articles, so keep it tuned to Sound Of Hockey all offseason long.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
With the Canadiens advancing to the Conference Final and the Senators being moved to No.32 with the Dadonov trade penalty the Tampa Bay pick is actually 25th.
It will be interesting what they do. I hear a few things from you… upgrades will be difficult and most likely not going to help much but also that they will have to move out young players. This sounds like a franchise that’s in a lot of trouble and should accept the spot it’s in rather than grasp at straws that are most likely going to keep us right where we are.
Put the playoffs as a secondary goal and focus on building a team that could actually make some noise in the playoffs. Don’t trade away young players unless you are getting a premium and don’t trade them for some 30+ year old player who can only help us for a few seasons.
Nino has it right. Do the job properly for once. Now’s the time. Accept where this team is, think longterm rather than “let’s try to make the playoffs next season”, and begin to build a proper foundation for future success. The approach we have seen so far from management has failed. It’s been five years and the team barely has a shadow of the spine that would open a genuine multi-year “window of contention”.
Accepting reality is fundamental. Slipping the playoffs with a bad hodgepodge team like last season’s, had they made it, is nothing more than celebrating a participation trophy. It is lightyears away from true contention.
“…begin to build a proper foundation for future success.”
Honest question, what does this look like, realistically? I think generalities are easy, but I feel like if you want to prescribe policy you have to willing to be more than an academic. I know you to be an astute observer l, witt, and willing to be specific.
Right now, going forward, what does “begin to build a proper foundation for future success” look like.
I ask because I’m honestly torn between sell everything over 25 and suck or develop everything under 25 and continue to strive for the playoffs.
I think your take below dug into this a bit but I’m curious what you’d like to see this offseason. Who? Who do you resign? Who do you trade? Who do you play? Do you make changes behind the bench or in the front office? I’m honestly curious what this would look like. It’s also worth noting… just like the top of the Division, there’s going to be competition for the bottom of the Division next season.
How many current Firebirds SHOULD make the team next year out of camp and how many do you think will make the roster? Any of the OFM, Jani, Firkus crowd, or even the Melanson/ Winterton do you think get more then 12minutes a game on a bottom 6 roll?
Probably two max current Firebirds make the team (I would not include Melanson or Winterton as Firebirds).
Players need to earn ice time by showing they can hang on top lines. Ice time is an obsession fans have that isn’t really a thing they should care about.
Wints is the closest to having an up lineup role but I don’t think he’s ever going to be more than a bottom of the lineup player. This is still a win coming from a third round pick, the vast majority of whom never play meaningful games in the NHL.
I’d expect OFM and one more from CV. Depending on how he does and how the team does with talent acquisition, I could also see O’Brien playing meaningful minutes
A great topic of for the POD or an article might be a wishlist for what the SoH guys would like prospects to focus on this off season.
I would love to see some of the other young guys do what Tyson Jugnauth did last year and spend the summer in Seattle with the team. He is a guy who deserves a serious look in the fall, and seems likely to get it if they shop Dunn. He has looked great for the Firebirds and he set an example for hard work that we should show gets rewarded.
Play kids. If that results in a tank, so be it. The middle of the road ‘not good enough, not bad enough’ routine hasn’t workec. Even if playing kids results in lottoville, they will at least have gotten a year of experience/development.
We’ve literally been a top 10 pick for 4 l/6 of our drafts. We’ve also been playing the kids per the article. The people that scream tank seem to be unaware of what that actually gets you… it gets you exactly what we’ve got.
Buffalo, Montreal, Anaheim, Utah and even San Jose who were BETTER than the Kraken this season, despite being very deep in a rebuild, proves you wrong. Their kids lead the way. The Kraken are led by mediocre vets. That’s what gets you year in and year out of boring Kraken hockey.
I think you are being dense on purpose. The point is not that “they play kids” the point is that their kids are GOOD, and those teams spent enough time being bad to ensure they got enough good kids to make a difference. The Kraken don’t have enough good kids yet, that’s the point. They have kids sure, most of whom we don’t yet know what they are. But it is also clear that the kids we have are being groomed as two way grinders and the majority of them project as bottom six. In this context the bottom six is basically irrelevant, it’s the lack of a strong top 6/top 4 that is the Kraken’s issue.
What gets you to where the Kraken is, is bad management and aiming for the playoffs with crap teams year in year out. The Kraken’s plan of fixing the first line through UFA has failed and will continue to fail bc why would a top player come to Seattle when there are more attractive options?
Montreal, Anaheim and San Jose understood that the fix is to get top talent through the draft. The Kraken can try the mediocre UFA approach until the cows come home and nothing will change. They will be the Arizona Coyotes or Columbus Blue Jackets, albeit with very deep pockets, for decades. That is what we’ve got. Woo.
It’s funny watching you write all that and think you’re right. In fact Buffalo and Anaheim show the dangers of a rebuild as does Chicago which you conveniently left out. The only difference between those teams and us is they won the lottery in the right years.
San Jose has been bad about as long as we have and Anaheim only barely a bit more.
The point is you ca. be bad as we have for 4 out of 5 years now (and we got a second when we entered the league so basically 5/6) and not win the draft lottery. The tank for XXX plan just doesn’t work. The lottery literally actively you there. The only thing that matters is getting lucky in the right year. Otherwise you have to develop and wait.
You state that those other teams understood that getting talent through the draft is important. The irony here is you hates Francis and that’s EXACTLY what he was doing. Shane ended up struggling and #8 picks take time to develop.
Sorry wittmont, the facts just don’t back you up here but stay mad if that’s what fuels you.
You did prove my point though, so well done there!
Dangers of a rebuild? Buffalo, Montreal, Anaheim and Utah all MADE the playoffs this year. San Jose will soon enough, possibly already next year. The Kraken failed at their stated goal of making the playoffs. Why is that if the Kraken’s approach is superior? Why was the Kraken crap this season?
The only difference is not that they won the lottery only. The difference is that the mentioned teams had the aim of building up their teams with a young core strong enough to meaningfully compete and adapted their approach to doing so. They all have *several* young core players leading the way. The Kraken does not. The Kraken in contrast have been pushing for the playoffs with bad teams led by aging and middling vets. The result is evident. Complete failure and no momentum going forward.
I think there are good arguments for both sides here. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad management as much as luck – good or bad – that is the delta of success or failure. Detroit also went down the tank path with a proven GM and it just hasn’t worked.
I’d also question the idea that Montreal is built by top of draft tanking. Sure, Slafkovsky is a good player but he’s a winger and I wouldn’t say he’s “elite”. As No.1s go, he’s not ideal. He not an otherwise unobtainable asset. Demidov (No.5) has been great… on their second line. Reinbacher (No.5) is a nice prospect but appeared in just two games this season. Those are the Canadiens only top tens.
Caufield (No.15) is clearly a special player, and Guhle (No.16) is a nice piece on the second pair, but those are the only other top twenties on the entire roster.
I do think the Gaudreau and Lindgren signings are worth second guessing and Stephenson has been beaten to death. I also think, however, the struggles of Wright have put a real crimp in their plans. If they had their druthers, I think the “kids would be leading the way”.
For what its worth, the No.1 centers on Buffalo and Montreal (Thompson and Suzuki) didn’t score thirty goals until their age 24 season. Beniers turns 24 next season and Wright a season-and-a-half later.
I think there’s more than one way to build a team and there are successes and failures on both sides. There’s also no quick way to do it. I also think luck has as much to do with it as management. Right now it feels to me like Vancouver and Pittsburgh are both at the beginning of rebuilds and they’re signaling different paths. It’s shaping up to be a nice “case study” with those two.
Wittmont is correct and Koist is wrong. The results speak for themselves. The fact that the organization requires an audit of themselves just shows how clueless Leiweke and Botterill are. Any leader should be accountable for and knowledgeable of everything in their organization at all times. The fact that Botterill has been around more than five years and does not know what is going on would be a fireable offense in any other business. So why has he not been terminated yet?
Instead, the Kraken are going to run it back with clueless Botterill and no-imagination coach Lambert and expect a different result. It will be obvious they will finish somewhere from 4th to 8th from bottom in 2026-27. At that point, we can only hope the owner wakes up and cleans house, starting over in the seventh season, hoping to salvage STHs. For those basketball fans in the city, it should cause you great concern that these same owners may be responsible for the new iteration of the Sonics.
I think you make a fair point that some kraken fans don’t want to hear. Winning the draft lottery is all about luck and as of right now I feel like it’s not on our side. It could potentially be a good decade of losing before we win the draft lottery. Or we end up like Vancouver and never win it.
Personally, I think that could be a disaster for a new franchise in a city where hockey is still growing. We’ve only been around for 5 years, while the other teams mentioned, have been around for over 30 years and have fully established hockey in their cities. Or in the Habs case, over a century. Because of that, they were able to afford to tank and rebuild without hurting their franchises.
Since we’re still a growing hockey city, i feel like a decade of tanking could hurt the growth of it in this city, and the kraken will become more irrelevant then they are now. Casual sports fans, children, and new hockey fans don’t care about tanking and the draft lottery. They just want to watch their team win. If they see their team constantly lose home games badly, they are gonna assume this team sucks and take their money somewhere else. Probably to a Sonics game when they return. The Sonics coming back will definitely be a dominate player in the winter sports market here, especially if they win home games. If that happens, my fear is that the owners might look at the kraken and decide to give up and move the team to another city by the end of the decade and only focus on the Sonics. That should be something that should keep die hard hockey fans in Seattle up at night. Hopefully I’m wrong and just being paranoid.
I get this team isn’t a playoff contender as of now and we need stronger players to make us a strong team. We have good prospects that give me hope, and some vets that still play good and can help the kids grow(Sorry I’m not gonna be one of those ax every vet over 25 types in the fanbase). However, we still need at least a couple superstar players going forward especially with tough competition in the pacific division coming. San Jose , who landed yet another high draft pick is gonna probably be number 1 now ln the pacific for a good decade. Hopefully the front office realizes this and make the right choices this summer.
Buffalo has been bad for over a decade and is the poster child, along with Arizona of how tanking doesn’t work. I even pointed out Chicago which you conveniently chose to ignore for the second time. Literally the only difference between the Kraken and Sharks and Ducks is not getting generational talent in the two drafts we drafted high (which also happened to be bad drafts).
You also falsely assume I think the Kraken approach is superior. Seems to be a common theme of the tank crowd that decision trees are binary.
Francis entire playbook as much as you’d don’t want to admit was Draft and Develop. The team has said this MULTIPLE times. Sticking your fingers in your ears doesn’t change that.
You keep harping on the vets but literally in every year but one we’ve been selling at the deadline and getting draft picks.
Take a step back and listen instead of just constantly yelling.
I think it’s quite disingenuous to say the Kraken have tried to fix the top line through the UFA
market. They have yet to sign a true top liner and have generally stayed away from those players for the entirety of their existence. Reports linking them to Panarin recently, and Kyrou over the summer were the only things even close to what could be considered in this vein and Kyrou was a trade target.
The case could be made the Krakens lack of success can be largely attributed to their lack of activity on this front.
Utah is the most dire of cautionary tales, not a tanking success story. Why? Because the team is no longer the Arizona Coyotes. Arizona did all the tanking and lost their team for it.
They didn’t always tank they were just bad for many years trying to compete not much different then Seattle. The would have lost their team many years ago if the NHL let them move, it actually had absolutely nothing to do with their tanking. Tanking to rebuild was actually the only thing they did right in phoenix.
So, apparently does playing old mediocre vets.
Sonics Sonics Sonics
I hear so many concerns about how they will draw fans to them rather than the Kraken. I doubt, nor care less about it ever happening. True Hockey fans prefer the NHL over the NBA!! I am old enough to remember the original 1967 expansion Sonic franchise, was a longtime diehard fan too…Today’s NBA sucks for a variety of reasons.
Go Kraken!!!
I don’t doubting this is a real concern, but it really looks like Holloway is going to own both. Isn’t this a bit like KFC taking business away from Taco Bell? They’re both owned by Yum! Brands. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but I’m also pretty sure their interests and strategies are more complicated as well.
Its a concern in the media and there are no doubt companies with corporate seats that will swap over to the NBA but in my experience, those fair weather seat holders have already largely left.
@ Koist
1. Buffalo fans had much more fun this season than that Kraken’s did, that’s for sure. They have an actual team and some fun and exciting talent.
2. Chicago will get there soon. They have an extremely young team with lots of players below 22. They will no doubt be better than the Kraken soon, within the next few seasons, just like San Jose already are, led by their kids. And once they are better, they will stay better for a long, long time.
3. Does it bother you that Botterill was right there in the dysfunctional years of the Buffalo Sabres? It is obvious that that franchise made a lot of mistakes due to bad ownership/management. If anything the Kraken does not look much better right now.
4. Francis did not really “build through the draft”. Not only did he hang on to many of the vets too long, but he also brought in middling UFAs that block the path of the kids. The Krakens’ fear of being bad is what made them not only bad, but boring and uninspiring (certainly under Lambert). And I don’t blame Francis alone, I think he acted on instructions from ownership that wanted “to compete for the playoffs” while paying lip service to “building through the draft”. The end result of that contradiction is the fiasco the club is in right now. Otherwise, they would not have fired Francis and been forced to do an “Audit” of where things have gone wrong.
5. It’s better to be bad and have a future based on a core of young exciting developing talent (Chicago, San Jose, previously Buffalo, Utah, Montreal), than to be bad, boring and have little top talent in the pipeline. That’s the bottom line. The Kraken does not have a true first line and never had one. The kids they have now may or may not develop into top line player level, but the way things look right now that is unlikely or at best several years into the future.
O’Brien was overshadowed by Caleb Malhotra in this year’s OHL playoffs e.g. I like O’Brien as a prospect, but he is years away from being genuine NHL top line quality, if he ever gets there. Until the Kraken has real talent, competently coached, they will continue to be irrelevant. Miettinen also looks very promising, but he is one of many, many Kraken prospects that profile as depth players at the NHL level. Hopefully he can be at least an Eriksson Ek down the line.
Wittmont please pick a lane.
Have the Kraken 1) Signed UFA’s that have blocked their young talent from getting NHL minutes
OR
Do the Kraken 2) Have little talent in the pipeline?
This is where these conversations fall apart and make it difficult for me to comprehend if people are arguing in good faith or just want to be mad about something online (as is the norm with Pro-Sports fans). If the Kraken don’t have NHL-ready talent, or they aren’t currently good enough to play top line minutes or be put in certain situations (i.e. defensive zone face-offs) then it’s obvious that their UFA signings aren’t blocking anyone from anything, it’s just allowing time for the prospects to develop and see who pans out. Matty is the obvious case in point – he gets minutes in every situation, and nobody questions why because he’s just that good. I think the chatter about Shane is where people get this impression that UFA’s are blocking the way of younger players (flames heavily fanned by the ECH guys), but the reality is Shane just hasn’t shown he’s good enough yet.
Chandler was a pipeline blocker mostly because of the contract term. Francis was very focused on filling out the lineup with plugs this is a big reason why he’s gone and we have seen the results, I’m sorry it’s a weak argument to suggest that we’ve done things right.
Google who is the most boring irrelevant team in the entire nhl and see what you come up with….. I agree with you to a point in that we would maybe not be as good if we were giving our young players more minutes and relying on them more buy honesty what is the downside to that? What we get a better draft pick and give our pipeline meaningful experience? Obviously the path RF took was clearly wrong and his obsession with excessive depth has gotten us nowhere.
I was going to reply but you did a much better job.
I’ll also add that he completely failed to address the point I was making while simultaneously trying to reframe arguments.
I lean toward just mad as opposed to arguing in bad faith but there is a hit of that going on here too.
I do have this to say slightly unrelated. I’m very happy to see that there are no passive defensive teams that did anything in the playoffs. It’s dead yesterday hockey that clearly has no place in today’s NHL. I hope the kraken recognize this before they drive everyone out of the arena.