Kraken fire head coach Dan Bylsma
The Seattle Kraken are firing head coach Dan Bylsma after just one season, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Monday.
The Seattle Kraken are firing head coach Dan Bylsma after just one season at the helm.
Bylsma guided the Kraken to a 35-41-6 record after taking over for Dave Hakstol last off-season. He was the second head coach in franchise history.
The Kraken finished with 76 points — 20 back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, Ron Francis will also become the team president as former assistant general manager Jason Botterill takes over the GM duties, per multiple reports.
Seattle was Bylsma’s third stop during his NHL head coaching career after previous stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres.
“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 statement released by the team. “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.”
During his six seasons with Pittsburgh, Bylsma helped the Penguins to the playoffs each year and won the Stanley Cup in his first year on the job in 2009. He also won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach in 2011.
The Kraken hired Bylsma to work with their AHL team as an assistant in 2021 before promoting him to head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds the following year.
For his NHL career, the 54-year-old owns a 355-231-61 record in the regular season and a 43-35 mark in the playoffs.
Bylsma becomes the third head coach to be fired since the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, joining Greg Cronin (Anaheim Ducks) and Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers).
Francis has served as Seattle’s general manager since the expansion franchise’s inception.
Botterill, meanwhile, has been the club’s assistant general manager since 2021. He was general manager of the Buffalo Sabres from 2017 to 2020 and held the title of interim GM with the Penguins for less than a month in 2014.
After a 100-point season that saw them make the playoffs in 2022-23, the Kraken have taken a step back in each of the two following years.
Francis is scheduled to speak with the media on Tuesday.
