It was a tough year for the Kraken this season as they were among the worst teams in the Western Conference. As a result, they have made a coaching change as the team announced that they have dismissed head coach Dan Bylsma after just one year with them. No replacement will be named right away and a full coaching search will take place.
This decision means that Seattle will have three head coaches in as many years. Last spring, Dave Hakstol was let go after serving as the bench boss for the first three seasons in franchise history. Two of those resulted in missed playoff appearances but in between those was an impressive 2022-23 season that saw them record 100 points and make it to the second round of the postseason before losing in seven games to Dallas.
After seeing their point total drop by 19 last season, now-former GM Ron Francis opted to make a change, promoting Bylsma who had been serving as head coach of their AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley, a team that made the championship final in each of his first two seasons behind the bench. The hope was that he’d be able to turn things around and get them back into playoff contention.
However, that didn’t happen. While they went from being one of the worst offensive teams in the league the year before to one that finished in the middle of the pack this season, the Kraken also saw their defensive play and goaltending take steps back, offsetting the offensive improvement. In the end, they actually had five fewer points than in 2023-24 while finishing seventh in the Pacific Division and clearly, Francis has decided to shake things up again.
This was Bylsma’s third stint running an NHL bench but his first in quite a while. He spent six years behind the bench with Pittsburgh, winning a Stanley Cup in his first one back in 2009. But after the Penguins failed to make it past the second round in four of the next five years, he was let go in 2014. However, it didn’t take long for him to land another chance as the Sabres hired him in 2015. That tenure was much shorter, however, as he was fired after just two seasons with them after a pair of sub-.500 seasons. Now, this latest opportunity was even shorter, lasting just one year and it’s fair to wonder if he’ll get a fourth shot at running an NHL team or if his ceiling moving forward might be best suited as an assistant coach, a role he has held previously with the Red Wings and Islanders.
Francis was particularly active in free agency last summer, handing out two of the biggest contracts to defenseman Brandon Montour (seven years, $50MM) and center Chandler Stephenson (seven years, $43.75MM). With more than $21MM in cap space to work with this summer, per PuckPedia, and only a pair of impact RFAs to try to re-sign (Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans), new GM Jason Botterill will be well-positioned to be a big shopper in free agency. But before then, they’ll be shopping around for a new bench boss. Seattle joins the Ducks and Rangers as teams who have recently let go of their head coaches and will be conducting a full search for a replacement while other teams will evaluate the interim coaches they finished the season with against other options available.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported that Bylsma was being let go.
Photo courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.